Wildlife to see in Norway in August
3 spectacles at their peak in Norway in August, and 6 more still going on. Wild animals only: no zoos, no wildlife parks, no hunting. Open Norway in August in the interactive calendar for listening times on the day you pick.
At their peak in August
Lemming years and the owl irruptionLemmings squeaking and chattering from every tussock and running across the trail, long-tailed skuas mewing, snowy owl barks and short-eared owl wing-claps, rough-legged buzzard mewing, arctic fox yips at a den; in a crash year, silence.
Sperm whales of the Bleik canyon, AndenesWith a hydrophone: sperm whale click trains and creaks from 1,000 m down (the operators locate whales acoustically), occasional codas; above water, the explosive blow every 10–15 s at the surface and the tail-fluke dive; fulmars and gannets around the boat.
Musk ox on DovrefjellIn the rut, bulls' guttural roars and the crack of two 400 kg skulls colliding at 50 km/h, which carries across the plateau; otherwise snorts and grazing, golden plover and dotterel whistles, wind on the tundra.
Also going on in August
Hornøya and Gjesværstappan: Arctic seabird cliffsA guillemot wall at arm's length: massed growling and trumpeting, kittiwake screaming, puffin grunts, Brünnich's guillemots' lower calls; Arctic surf; at Gjesværstappan the gannet colony's grating and the constant wing-noise of puffins by the hundred thousand.
Svalbard: Arctic summer cliffs, walrus and ternsLittle auk colonies — a shrill, laughing chorus from scree slopes by the hundred thousand; Brünnich's guillemot walls (Alkefjellet) with birds pouring off 100 m dolerite cliffs; arctic terns in a screaming defensive cloud in Adventdalen; walrus grunts and snorts on a haul-out; calving glaciers.
Autumn migration at Lista, Jomfruland and UtsiraDawn flight calls of thousands of thrushes, pipits and finches leaving the coast, waders on the Lista beaches, skuas and gannets passing the lighthouse in a westerly gale; at night, redwing and song thrush calls overhead.
Puffin arrival day on Lovund and the Røst coloniesThe wing-roar and growling of a puffin colony wheeling over the slope, kittiwakes, eagles; on Røst, Leach's and storm petrels at night; the Atlantic.
Runde bird cliffs: puffins at LundeuraKittiwake colonies screaming from the cliffs, puffin growls at the burrows, gannet colony grating from Rundebranden, eagles yelping, surf below; storm petrels purring from stone walls after midnight.
White-tailed eagles: Smøla, Lofoten and the TrollfjordThe eagle's yelping 'klee-klee-klee' duet from a nest crag, wing-rush of a 2.4 m bird taking a fish 10 m from the boat, gull and tern colonies, otters whistling in the skerries.