Jänis attacks!

Last week we made a service visit to KAIRA. There were four LBA aerials still down from the blizzard of 2014 and these needed fixing. However, on arrival at the site, we noted that there were some other LBA aerials down.

What?!

We hadn't noticed this in the data, so it must have been recent. And inspection of the field indicated that the nylon lines had been cut on multiple LBA aerials, which is what had caused them to fall.

A cut LBA line. (Photo: D. McKay-Bukowski)

Field of woe. (Photo: D. McKay-Bukowski)

We believe that the cause of this is a jänis (Wikipedia). These creatures like to gnaw on things and it looks like the LBA array was the target. Knowing our luck, it was probably the cute jänis we saw a while back.


What's worse, on the second day, we found yet more LBA aerials down. The jänis had struck again! (This led to much silliness on twitter.)

In total, some 10 LBAs were downed over two days (26-27 Aug 2014). More repair work for us then.

KAIRA Lemmings

Lemmings are very common in the Kilpisjärvi area, and they have featured on this blog before. But when we went for a service trip to KAIRA in late June, we took a simple panorama with an iPhone, and then transformed it into a circular, so-called "little planet" panorama – and we were quite surprised by what we found!

Click on the image for higher resolution; you can just make out the KAIRA site in the 4 o'clock and 8 o'clock sectors!

With this image we wish all of you a very good weekend!

Photo and processing: Thomas Ulich (on MiVyoo you'll find the original panorama and details on how it was done).

A bit of a swim... the other side of the story

You could barely make this up.

In a bizarre twist to Sunday's "a bit of a swim" story, there was another river story going on just downstream.

At what would have been more-or-less the same time, SGO director Esa Turunen was fishing in the Kitinen river and caught a very large hauki (a type of aggressive river fish common in the waters up here).

Hauki and Esa (Photo: E. Turunen)

But what is "hauki" in English? Well, I guess we could go and ask the fish...

So, fish... what is your English name?

Don't tell him, pike! 

Sorry, couldn't resist that one.

Baby mountain hares

We've a few mountain hares about the site, but recently there have been some leverets (= baby hares) at the KAIRA site.

Mountain leveret near the storage container (Photo: D. McKay-Bukowski)

Mountain leveret under the High-Band Antenna array (Photo: J. Keskitalo)

The Finnish word for mountain hare is jänis.  This is also a slang word for someone who is a bit shy and reserved. The Latin scientific name of the mountain hare is Lepus timidus . So as you might imagine, these are not particularly bold creatures and we are lucky to get photographs of them.

Wild west

This is what the wild west looks like in Lapland...

Elk skull in the snow at Lampivaara (Photo: D. McKay-Bukowski)

Well, it is actually just a photograph for Friday. Have a good weekend everyone!

Wildflowers at UK608

This weekend I made a visit to the LOFAR station in the United Kingdom (UK608, Chilbolton) in order to work on various station calibration things for both KAIRA and LOFAR generally. While there, I went out to the field itself to see the antennas. Being at the height of the British summer (which lasts for 3-4 days on average), there were plenty of wild flowers in bloom, including some near and on the array itself.

Wild poppies near the LBA aerials. In the background is the 25m dish (Photo: D. McKay-Bukowski)

More wildflowers near the aerials. Does anyone know what they are? (Photo: D. McKay-Bukowski)

Reindeer near KAIRA

Even though it is late in the year, we are still getting reindeer near the site. These ones visited the other day (but did not manage to get in!)

Reindeer on the entrance road to KAIRA. (Photo: D. McKay-Bukowski)

The reindeer problem

At KAIRA, we have a reindeer fence to keep the larger animals from getting in amongst the aerials. Apart from the RF-implications and possible damage to our experiments, we also want to prevent the animals from being hurt, should they get caught in any wires or frames. And we know that they do like visiting, given half a chance!

As we have reported before, a fence has been placed around the entire area. It is a wire mesh, some 2 metres high.

A small section of the reindeer fence. (Photo: A. Jutila)

At the site entrance, there is an even larger gate. Although we haven't featured this since the foundations went in, we can assure you that it is in place and working.

And stay out! A mother and calf are thwarted by the main gate. (Photo: A. Jutila)

So, given all this anti-reindeer security, we remain perplexed as to how the creatures continue to get into the KAIRA area.

Cute is no excuse... you are still on the LBA field! (Photo: A. Jutila)

And it is not just the little ones. Even large reindeer are getting in as well. Given the number of times we have checked the gate, perimeter and all, the only logical conclusion that we can draw is that they are flying in.

But flying reindeer? Really?

Summer reindeer

Just a nice photograph today. This reindeer was photographed near Retkeilykeskus.

Reindeer near the accommodation in Kilpisjärvi. Photograph by Joona Keskitalo.

Reindeer fence

We continue our series of web log posts about work completed at the end of last year. Although we've been really busy over the winter, we've almost caught up with all the news ready for the next stage of the build this season.

Of course, one of the distinctive features of the KAIRA site is the beautiful wildlife. However, we do need to protect our sensitive experiment from the animals that roams these northern wilds.

As mentioned last year, there was a reindeer fence that was installed around the full site perimeter. The following photograph (by Arttu Jutila) shows the site layout, with a faint yellow line marking the proposed route of the so-called reindeer fence.

As we mentioned the posts for this were installed last summer and the wire spooled out from post to post to secure the area. Here is the wire deployment rig.


Finally, some gate lines were added along the route to permit access. Here is the main entrance during construction last autumn.



As you can see, the snow had started to set in back then. Of course throughout the winter it has been totally covered in snow. Note also the reflective markers. The fence itself is also marked to make it distinct in critical areas. As we also mentioned in a previous post, there are also snow poles around the area to mark difficult or dangerous terrain that may be hidden under the snow and ice.

Azure hawker

Azure hawker

There are only three or four species of dragonfly in the area. This is one of the biggest at 60-65 mm.


Photo and text: Stuart Keenan

Bluethroat

Bluethroat

One of the most beautiful birds in the area, common in the birchwoods. Recent research has shown the Kilpisjärvi area to be the best place so far found for these birds with up to 50 breeding pairs per square kilometer.

Photo and text: Stuart Keenan

Thistles

Thistles

Photo: Stuart Keenan

Lichen forest

The lichens pictured here belong to the genus "cladonia" which contains a number of species important to reindeer as a primary food source .They are found in more open tundra like habitats and are extremely cold tolerant.

Cadonia lichen

Photo and text: Stuart Keenan

Hooded crow

This ex hoodie has been killed and eaten by a Perigrine Falcon usually they only leave the wings attached to the breastbone. This is the first time I've found prey remains with the legs as well.

Hooded crow remains.

Photo and text: Stuart Keenan

Lemmings

Lemmings are arctic rodents similar to voles. In Kilpisjärvi they were very plentiful this year. Our nature enthusiast Stuart managed to get quite a few very nice photographs of these creatures during his stay. Today we post the best of them.

There are many species of Lemming found around the arctic, this one is the Norweigian Lemming and this year it was very common. The population of Lemmings vary in a cycle during which they increase in number until the habitat can no longer support so many and they are forced to migrate en masse to find food. In some years the population reaches plague proportions when the ground is literally crawling with them. During these plague years large numbers of them die crossing rivers, lakes and other obstacles, which led to the myth of 'mass suicide' this myth was further enhanced by a so called wildlife documentary made in 1958 by Walt Disney in which hundreds of lemmings were captured and taken to the top of a cliff in Canada, they were then forced to run on to a revolving turntable which hurled them off the cliff thus creating the myth.

Cute lemming. Copyright Stuart Keenan.

I discovered they are not always so cute though and some would squeek loudly as I past and actually challenge me if I moved closer.

Angry lemming. Copyright Stuart Keenan.

It goes without saying that this year, there also seem to be quite a lot of young well fed owls. On my way back to Sodankylä I counted at least 15 young owls beside the road, preying for voles and lemmings that were brave enough to attempt crossing a road -- a common sight this year as well.

Calm lemming. Copyright Stuart Keenan.

At first I thought the reason for the aggressive behaviour of some lemmings might be because they were females with young nearby, but one of the biologists told me that breeding lemmings tend to be pretty quiet and its more likely to be individuals on the move, perhaps when they are on the move they are more vulnerable to predators and therefore more defensive.

Agitated lemming. Copyright Stuart Keenan.

Very agitated lemming. Copyright Stuart Keenan.

Photos and text: Stuart Keenan.

Reindeer, Part Two

Silhouette of a reindeer hiding under the HBA tiles.  

A while back, we had a post about Reindeer at the KAIRA site. This time we will post some more pictures of these animals which have found shelter under our HBA field.

At any given moment during our cabling work, there were at least two reindeer under our antenna. They arrived on the day that we accidentally brought in some salted gritting sand to fill in one of the cable trenches. At first, they were a bit shy, but on the second week they were already feeling very much at home. 

So far there haven't been any problems with the reindeer. They have been very relaxed, and have grown to be very used to the kind people who obviously are building them a huge reindeer shelter. Little do they know that we have already put up most of the fence posts for our reindeer fence, which will hopefully be in place by the time mating season starts. This is when the reindeer get more aggressive, and might pose more risk to our radar receiver. At SGO, we have previously had problems with reindeer that think various antennas are competing male reindeer with fancy antlers that just call out for a duel. Already now there is a small risk of one of these guys getting their antlers tangles up in some of the cables, even though they are fairly well protected by the cable trays and ducts. 

Reindeer breastfeeding. 

Another one hiding under the tiles.

Yet another one hiding under the tiles.

Photo credits: Mikko Orispää.

Nightly visitors

I had been told there was a pair of hawk owls breeding somewhere near the KAIRA site, then Derek and Juha saw them one night when they were on site late, so I went along the next night to try to see them and managed to get a few photos.

On a couple of nights we had spotted several young northern hawk owls flying around the site. There was even a photograph of one of them earlier. The young birds were just learning to fly and did all kinds of silly crash landings and such while they where checking us out.

Stuart managed to get some very nice pictures on one of the nights. In Finnish these birds are called "hiiripöllö", which means mouse owl.

On his last day, Stuart even built a nesting box for the owls. Their presence will hopefully keep the small rodents from chewing on our cables.

Hawk owl sitting on top of the 3D cameras.

After warching two adults and one young flying around from perch to
perch for a while I decided to try to attract the bird on the cameras
a bit closer by making mouse noises, it worked and it came closer
to investigate.

Making the mouse noises worked well for the owls but backfired on
me the next day. At lunchbreak I went into the forest to look for the
nest site and was away a bit longer than I should have been when I
heard a strange owl in the distance, so I headed straight for it. When I
emerged from the trees I was back at the KAIRA site where I found
Derek making owl calls, the theory being mouse calls attracted
the owls for Stuart so maybe owl calls will attract Stuart back to
work. It worked like a charm and I was back at work before I knew
I had been fooled. Well done Derek

Photos: Stuart Keenan

Stuart Keenan

Stuart Keenan (pictured below) was helping us to build the KAIRA array this summer for four weeks. He has helped out with many of the international LOFAR stations too. He is also an avid nature enthusiast -- he even helped out some biologists at the Kilpisjärvi Biological station to find merlin nesting sites. During this month, we will be posting some of the nature photographs that he took during his stay in Kilpisjärvi. We will also his descriptions of the photos.

Stuart Keenan on top of Pikku-Malla with the KAIRA site seen on the background. 

For the last two years I have worked on the Installation of LOFAR stations across Europe, and this year I had the chance to join the team at Kilpisjärvi for the installation of the KAIRA / LOFAR station in north west Finland. I was exited about this for two reasons, first I love working on LOFAR and having a small part to play in this fantastic project, and second I had never been to the arctic before, so being a bit of a wildlife freak I had a chance see some species new to me. During my stay I was out at weekends, evenings and lunch breaks with my camera trying to photograph nature around the KAIRA site. Over the coming weeks you can see some of what I found. Hope you like it.

This is one four young merlins, reared in an old hooded crow's nest about 200 m from the KAIRA site.

Young merlin.

Young merlin.

Photos and text: Stuart Keenan.

Frog

This little frog was spotted on the LBA field at the beginning of the month, at about the time we were doing the LBA field survey.


It is amazing that these creatures survive the long Arctic winter, but one of the scientists at the Biological Research Station explained that they hibernate in the mud at the bottom of the lakes. Although the lake surfaces freeze to a thickness of over a metre, the lake bottom remains liquid thus permitting fish, frogs and other creatures to endure the harsh winter.

Photo: D. McKay-Bukowski