Hello birders,
Most of you will have read Wim Vaders excellent (as usual) description FOUR
DAYS IN LONGYEARBYEN, SPITSBERGEN, dated 5th July, with it's wonderful details.
(Thank goodness for friends and archives, as I was away).
Away? Indeed. On that very day, the 5th, I was winging my way from Oslo with a
group of likeminded folk from the UK, with a transit in.....TROMSØ!!! I thought
of you Wim, taking in as much as I could from plane and terminal, which was
repeated on our return flight. So, we were flying to Longyearbyen, to commence
a 10 day circumnavigation, clockwise, of Spitsbergen, the largest of the
Norwegian, Svalbard Islands.
We were a group of 50 odd passengers on the Russian ship, "Professor
Molchanov", and indeed had a glorious trip, with Zodiac landings/cruises. The
drift ice to the North-east did give us access problems to certain islands,
combined with fog - but, we went above 80° North twice, and managed to forge
our way through the ice, where the previous trip had been forced to turn back,
and completed the round trip. Spellbinding, yes, and having been to the
Antarctic some years previously did not matter one bit - each has it's own
beauty. Ice-melt/global warming? Not noticeable for us, but the leaders can
tell of differences. If the melt does become as bad as predicted, then the
seals will move away in pursuit of their 'coldwater' food, and as they haul up
on icefloes and not dry land, that is where the Polar Bears must go to hunt the
seals.....so, no ice close enough to land in summer for even these powerful
swimmers - that will be a problem.
For details of this sort of trip you can Google the various exploration
companies, and I can give details off-line. Some observations from my trip,
including from Denmark, follow:
Recently returned from two and a half months in the Northern Hemisphere, I can
say - "The birding was good".
Got some lifers in Denmark, such as Garganey, Black Tern, Red Kite, Temminck's
Stint, Razorbill, Treecreeper, and had good views of many other niceties, only
really dipping on the Black Woodpecker!
Cruising round Spitsbergen in the Svalbard Islands group, in the High Arctic,
was something else: making landfalls by Zodiac on the tundra and hiking over
the landscape accompanied by armed, naturalist leaders, while trying to avoid
stepping on dainty vegetation and spooking the Reindeer; or sitting still under
the midnight sun on deck as our ship had shut down engines, held securely by
the floating ice, as we keenly scanned our surrounds for Polar Bears on the
prowl for Ringed Seal!
Birds presented themselves beautifully: Grey ('Red") Phalarope in stunning
plumage, a Ptarmigan in winter/summer feathers, Purple Sandpiper, Snow Bunting,
Arctic Tern - trying to chase us away, having even laid their eggs right next
to a road in Longyearbyen! Great, Arctic, Pomarine, and Long-tailed Skua, in
breeding and close up, which together with Glaucous Gulls made life difficult
for colonies of Black - and Brünnich's Guillemot, and the delightful Little
Auk. Northern Fulmar, Black-legged Kittiwake, and even some splendid Ivory
Gulls followed the ship, ready to pounce on miniscule prey exposed by our
parting of the ice floes. A Red-throated Diver swam across my vision, as I was
scoping some male, King Eiders!
Skilled photographers with good lenses got stunning photos, but I was happy
with a few of mine taken with a Lumix 12x. A Polar Bear close to our ship, just
after I put down the camera, stood up briefly on his hind legs to survey us!
Walrus came fascinatingly up close to us as we were sitting on the beach, full
of curiosity!! Thank goodness these magnificent beasts, together with the pod
of white, Beluga Whales we saw, are no longer hunted.
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