• Summary
• Text account
• Data table and detailed info
• Map
• Reference and further resources

Site description (2000 baseline)
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 fabalis. The area includes `Stabbursneset', a site (the former NO010) in the previous pan-European IBA inventory (Grimmett and Jones 1989).

Key biodiversity
Valdakmyra 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).

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Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Inner Porsangerfjord (Norway). Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/inner-porsangerfjord-iba-norway on 22/12/2024.