FOUR DAYS IN LONGYEARBYEN, SPITSBERGEN
Longyearbyen is the capital of the Svalbard archipelago, situated in the
Arctic, N. of Northern Norway. Longyearbyen lies on the Adventsfjord, a
sidebranch of the very large and wide Isfjorden, one of the fjords on the
western side of the main island of Spitsbergen, at 78*N. The Norwegian
coastal current, a 'warm' current, which is the prolongation of the Gulf
Stream, flows along the western and northern coasts of Svalbard, while the
cold polar currents flow down along the eastern and southern shores, which
consequently are much more severely arctic. Isfjorden, the Ice Fjord,
used to be completely ice bound all winter, and before the arrival of the
airport and winter flights, the coal-mining town of Longyearbyen was
completely isolated for many months each winter; during the later, also
here somewhat warmer winters, the Isfjorden has been partly ice-free in
winter, although the winter 2008-09 was again a more severe one and the
fjord was ice-covered all winter.
The town of Longyearbyen was originally a coal-mining company town, but
it is now rapidly developing into a normal village (c 2500 inhabitants),
with research and tourism as important as the coal-mining, which still
goes on. There are daily air connections to Tromsø and to Murmansk (There
is a Russian coal-mining village, Barentsburg, close by), and in summer
lots of cruiseships ply Svalbard waters. Longyearbyen is situated in a
flat-bottomed steep-sided glacial valley, with the Longyear gletscher at
the head of it and a river flowing from that and into the Adventfjord. The
Adventfjord itself ends in a marshy delta, slowly changing into typical
tundra vegetation.
Riet and I were in Longyearbyen for four days of a family visit: My
daughter Anna and family live here, as Kjetil, my son-in-law works at the
satellite station, on top of one of the flat-topped mountains surrounding
the town. The two small boys go to Kindergarten every day; as an
indication of the special conditions here I may add that there one of the
rules is that the children no longer take their midday naps outside, if
the temperature falls below -15*C, something that happens very often in
winter!)
Our visit was basically a family visit, so birds and flowers played a
secondary role; but Svalbard people are all outdoor people, so in spite of
somewhat untoward weather; grey and drizzly most days, with sleet and snow
one day, and temperatures from freezing to maybe +3*C, we still were
around regularly and got an impression of nature here in early summer. It
may be possibly of some interest to tell a little of what we saw and
found, as 'average summer tourists'; at the end of the four days our bird
list was at all of 19 bird species, out of the 35 that are more or less
annual in the area, so this is not a happy hunting ground for twitchers.
The first impression of Longyearbyen is of a grey and even somewhat dusty
place---coal dust is quite persistent, and the vegetation, which IS
present, is more bronzy than really green, at first sight. There is
permafrost here, of course, so in summer the area is often quite wet, and
everywhere the pipes of the communal heating system add to the slightly
untidy impression, as do the tens of snow scooters parked haphazardly
everywhere you look---every inhabitant of town has at least one, it looks
like. There is no snow on the ground now, only some heaps left here and
there, but the higher hills show intricate and beautiful patterns of
snow, and when you look out over the fjords, there are gletschers running
out to sea many places. (Fresh snow covered the higher hills after the
snowy day on Tuesday).
Most of the houses are constructed of wood and painted in many different
colours, which somewhat mitigates the greyness of the surroundings. A
great help are also the stark black-and-white Snow Buntings with their
ever optimistic calls and song-jingles. that freely nest in town and act
more or less like sparrows; they are the only songbirds that regularly
occur on Svalbard!. And when one looks closely, one discovers that there
ARE lots of flowers: the plants themselves here are generally small and
low, but as in the mountains, they tend to have relatively large flowers.
On the gravelly roadsides here and there white or pale yellow poppies
Papaver flower, and there are small rosettes of Whitlow-grass Draba and
Chickweed Cerastium species, while in the wetter ares the white round
white balls of the arctic Cotton Grass Eriophorum scheuchzeri peep up;
these will become much more prevalent later in summer. Here there are also
arctic buttercups, of which there are several species. On the hillsides
there are even far more flowers, with whole meadows of Mountain Avens
Dryas octopetala, now in full flower, and the quaint Arctic Bell-Heather
Cassiope tetragone . Near the seashore the ground is often pink with the
many tufts of Purple Saxifrage Saxifraga oppositifolia and Moss Campion
Silene acaulis. There are many other saxifrages here, but most flower a
little later.
Of birds there are quite few in town, besides the Snow Buntings. Large
Glaucous Gulls fly overhead and scavenge; they nest on the mountain sides,
just as do the Barnacle Geese that one also meets with in town now and
then. And closer to the seashore there are always Arctic Terns, that are
just starting to get aggressive---later in the season they become very
aggressive indeed and often draw blood if you are not careful. In the
stone rubble on the steep mountainsides many places large numbers of the
cozy Little Auks (Dovekies) nest, swarming like starlings, their twitter
is a constant sound when one walks in these areas. Also pairs of Black
Guillemots, here of the large arctic race, nest in these areas, but there
are much more easy to watch on the water---there are always some in the
harbour. There should also be Ptarmigan here, of the very distinctive
Svalbard race, but we never saw any this time. But we did see Arctic Foxes
here, always a nice bonus!
One day we took a trip along one of the few roads, going from town to the
only coal-mine in the direct surroundings of town that is still active;
most mining is now done at Svea, 'one fjord down the coast'. The muddy
shores of Adventfjorden are a haven for small shorebirds, among which the
Purple Sandpipers are by far the most common. The ornithological club in
town has very recently set up a wonderfully cozy and practical cabin (too
nice to just call it a hide) on the brink of the mudflats, and there we
could watch at leisure almost a hundred Purple Sandpipers, smaller numbers
of Ringed Plovers , and a single Sanderling in full summer plumage (There
ought to be some Dunlins here too, but I did not see any this time). Here
there are also Northern Eiders, a few already with small pulli, their arch
enemy the Glaucous Gull, Arctic Terns and the odd Arctic Skua (Parasitic
Jaeger). To my great surprise a lone Iceland Gull also materialized here;
a pair of these gulls have stayed in this alrea already for some years,
although nesting has not yet been proven. A bit further on are the dog
pounds, and the presence of the many tethered huskies here has encouraged
eider ducks to come and nest here, protected from the always marauding
Arctic Foxes; now almost a hundred pairs of eiders nest in the small area
between the road and the dog pounds, and signs have been set up to warn
the tourists, and also drivers along the road.
There are many smaller and larger ponds in the Adventdalen (dalen=
valley), and here more shorebirds nest (same species) , as well as
Long-tailed Ducks, the odd pair of Pink-footed Goose , and the always
popular and spectacular Grey Phalaropes Phalaropus fulicarius in their red
summer finery. As everywhere in the surroundings of Longyearbyen, also
here the roly-poly short-legged Svalbard reindeer graze, unperturbed by
the passing tourists, and blissfully unaware of the coming hunting season.
On the other side of town, on the shores of the Isfjord, is the airport,
and below this, near the communal camping place at Hotellneset, there is a
series of ponds, which are also very attractive to waterbirds. There are
basically the same species there as in Adventdalen, although we watched a
splendid male King Eider here (most of those are in this area only in the
migration period, and nest elsewhere on Svalbard). But the area also
houses a largish tern colony (and a few Arctic Skua pairs), while flocks
of Kittiwakes traditionally come to bathe and drink here. Along the shore
a regular stream of Northern Fulmars passes, and at sea one can also see
Brunnich's Guillemots (Thick-billed Murres) and usually (but not this
time) Atlantic Puffins.
And what about the Polar Bears, you will ask! They are ubiquitous in all
the tourist shops, and road signs at the airport warn for them and add
ominously: 'This warning applies to the entire archipelago.' But in summer
there are very few polar bears in the populated parts of Svalbard, and we
never saw one. One always need to be prepared, though, so on all our
walks my daughter Anna went with a rifle on her back! In winter bears
often wander into the Longyearbyen area, where they then are chased away
as quickly as possible. Every winter a few bears get shot, in
self-defense, and every few years someone gets killed by a polar bear on
Svalbard. So the danger is real enough!
As I said, this was primarily a family visit,with grandchildren taking
priority to birds and flowers. But maybe it nevertheless can give an
impression of 'daily nature' in Longyearbyen, the capital of Svalbard, in
the far far north!
Wim Vader, Tromsø
Museum
9037 Tromsø, Norway
==============================www.birding-aus.org
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