_{Inner Porsangen Fjord - BirdLife -IBA N0012}

Site description An area of huge mudflats, grassy shorelines, saltmarshes, mires and birch Betula forest, close to Stabbursneset headland. Heathland dominates on the islands. There is some traditional egg-collecting by local inhabitants, and harvesting of cloudberries Rubus chamaemorus on the islands. Goose hunting takes place, mainly of Anser anser. The area includes `Stabbursneset', a site (the former NO010) in the previous pan-European IBA inventory (Grimmett and Jones 1989).

Birds The Valdak Marshes is an important staging ground for almost the entire Norwegian breeding population of Anser erythropus, both in spring (May-June) and autumn (July-September), the species having declined dramatically in Fennoscandia since the 1940s. The huge flocks of staging Calidris canutus in late May are a spectacular sight, foraging on the sandbanks exposed at low tide before continuing their migration to Greenland and northern Canada. Some of these birds are the same as those staging at Sørkjosen (IBA 017) in Troms. Wildfowl and other waders, both breeding in the area or on migration, are also numerous in spring, e.g. Limosa lapponica (up to several hundred on passage). Good numbers of Somateria mollissima (10,000) and Melanitta nigra (3,000) gather to moult offshore after the breeding season. Species of global conservation concern that do not meet IBA criteria: Haliaeetus albicilla (1-2 pairs breed elsewhere but forage in the area in spring and summer).

Conservation issues Stabbursnes Nature Reserve consists of 14 km² of water/mudflats and c.2.2 km² of land. All human traffic is prohibited at Valdakmyra (part of the Nature Reserve, c.3.5-4.0 km²) between 1 May and 30 June. The staging Anser erythropus have been monitored regularly since 1971, and yearly since 1990 by NOF.

The official poster for the Stabbursnes Nature Reserve

 Field work at the Valdak Marshes in 2005. See some pictures from the area here»

The present weather in the inner Porsangen Fjord: