In early July we traveled to Norway to embark on an expedition cruise around the Svalbard Archipelago. While there were some life birds to be had, our most wanted animal was a polar bear. We booked the trip through Field Guides and took the cruise with Oceanwide Expeditions on the M/V Ortelius. We arrived in Oslo a couple of days before meeting up with our Field Guides group so set about exploring the city. I'm sure Susan will write that up later. After meeting up with the group and our guide John Coons we did a little local birding then took a flight to the northernmost town in the world, Longyearbyen on the island of Spitzbergen. We had a night and most of a day before boarding the ship, so did some walking around the town for birds and animals. It was a great introduction to the high arctic. So far above the arctic circle the sun didn't set for the duration of our time in Svalbard. We had to force ourselves to get some rest.
Svalbard isn't a destination to see lots of bird species, but more the spectacle of tens of thousands of individuals of just a few species. We did add a few life birds in Svalbard and a few more from Oslo. For those interested, here's a link to the trip report:
eBird Trip Report
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| A sign at the airport. We're only 800ish miles from the North Pole. |
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| Sledding is a popular activity in Longyearbyen |
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| Barnacle Geese (iphone photo) |
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| Common Eiders nest alongside the road |
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| This is as far as you walk out of town (unless your want to be polar bear food) |
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| It's finally time to go aboard! |
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| After settling in we had safety briefings, dinner and set sail for the great unknown |
A few photos from our time in Longyearbyen.
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| Barnacle Geese |
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| Arctic Fox |
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| Pink-footed Goose |
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| The only nesting passerine in Svalbard, Snow Bunting |
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| Rock Ptarmigan |
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| Purple Sandpiper |
Our journey would take us counter-clockwise around the archipelago so we started off by cruising south. We made two landings by zodiac on the first full day. First up was Bamsebu, a historic beluga whaling station. As it was the start of high summer, arctic flowers were coming on and quite beautiful. After stretching our legs and hiking around the peninsula for a while, a polar bear was spotted over a mile away. Safety protocol dictated an immediate evacuation back to the landing site. John got his scope on it, and while it was a fuzzy dot even at magnification, at least we had seen our first bear.
Our afternoon landing was at Vårsolbukta, home to one of Svalbard's largest Dovekie colonies. Dovekies nest in burrows on high talus slopes allowing reasonable protection from predators (foxes, Glaucous Gulls). Getting close to the birds wasn't happening, but scope views and seeing hundreds of these tiny alcids flying to and from their nests made for an enjoyable afternoon.
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| The shipboard map was updated daily with our activities |
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| Our first landing at Bamsebu |
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| The historic whaling hut |
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| The remnants of an active beluga whaling station |
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| Svalbard (Polar) Poppy, Oreomecon dahliana |
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| Time for our second landing |
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| Susan hikes towards the talus nesting slopes of the Dovekies |
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| The Svalbard Reindeer is the smallest of the world subspecies with shorter legs and neck, an adaptation from the low total snowfall on Svalbard. They are quite tame around humans. |
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| Northern Fulmar |
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| Black-legged Kittiwake |
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| Dovekies |
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| Common Ringed Plover |
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| The fuzzy white dot WAY out there is a polar bear |
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| Reindeer, seriously shedding |
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| Parasitic Jaeger |
On our second full day we awoke in Burgerbukta, a beautiful bay in the Hornsund fjord. Our morning activity was a zodiac cruise along the towering peaks and enormous glaciers. It was stunning. Some of the best weather of the entire trip greeted us this day with mostly blue skies and nearly flat water.
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| Black-legged Kittiwakes lounge around on an iceberg |
Our afternoon activity was a landing at Treskelen for a nice hike in a receding glacier moraine. Some small ponds turned up a few birds and the emerging flowers were nice.
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| Day old polar bear tracks. They are HUGE! |
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| Black Guillemot |
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| Glaucous Gull |
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| Common Eider pair |
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| Black Guillemot |
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| Red-throated Loon |
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| Red-throated Loon |
To keep this post from getting too long I'll stop now. But rest assured there's lots of great stuff to come!
