International Bird Festival

The Bird Festival this year was organised by the Pasvik Nature Reserve from the Russian side and. It was quite well planned with the activities offered adding a touch of informality which is exactly what the students needed.

The MC gave brief introductions and welcoming’s to everyone, and encouraged everyone else to do the same. The formal part was over within minutes and the fun began just a few minutes after we got there!

Great food was offered, the ultimate Russian experience. The students from Pasvik FHS baked blueberry muffins as a sign of gratitude and we were pleased to see that at the end, all the muffins had been eaten up!

Two international teams competed against each other, allowing everyone to work together as a team. We went out on treasure hunts, had to guess the sound of birds and also, observe and record as many bird species as we could.

In the end one team won but the fun and games was experienced by everyone.

"Even though it was a bit fun, our objective was more the Russian experience than the birds", said Daniel, a student from Denmark.

This is because the students did not have to show any special documents to cross over into the border and that already, was a huge privilege!