July 26th

Today I have got some pictures from the ringing-session that I did up here. The day before and this day there was a Polarbear (Isbjørn) in the fiord, and that of course made it a bit more interesting, allthough it was on the other side of the fiord. Today I caught both Purple Sandpiper (Fjæreplytt) and Dunlin (Myrsnipe), but the most fun bird to get in the traps were a young Snow Bunting (Snøspurv). This I think is the first time we have caught a Snow Bunting in the sandpiper-traps.

Purple Sandpiper

Dunlin

Dunlin

Snow Bunting

Snow Bunting

A short summary of young, old and strange

I have not been good enough to follow up the blog the last days, but I will try to remember it the next days.

A Long-tailed Skua (Fjelljo) made the 7th a special day, since I dont get to see these every day up here.

On the 12th I found a Red Phalarope (Polarsvømmenipe) male, wich was running around with a chick. I was hoping to ring the chick, but it disappeared in the grass and was never seen again.

On the 13th I got hand on two Dunlin (Myrsnipe) chicks. These were equipped with metal-rings and orange plastic-flags. Hopefully they will be seen in their wintering-quarters when the season is over up North.

On the 19th I got some nice photos of the Arctic Skua (Tyvjo) hunting. There were about 50 adult Glaucous Gulls (Polarnåke), one Herring Gull (Gråmåke) and lots of Kittiwakes (Krykkje) and Arctic Terns (Rødnebbterne) feeding on something being stirred up by the wind.

On the 21st I finally got some photos of a bird that I have wanted to get photos for quite a while. One of the white Barnacle Geese (Hvitkinngås). It lay in between about thirty of its fellows in a moulting-flock. On Isdammen now there are several hundreds of them, and in between there are a few Pink.footed Geese (Kortnebbgås).

May 28th

Today was a nice, sunny, and bird-rich day. To start off with I got this picture of two male Goldeneyes (Kvinand) flying by in the delta. This is a regular visitor in spring and I was awaiting theire arrival.

The Purple Sandpipers (Fjæreplytt) have allready started to build theire nest-cups on teh tundra, and this specimen was actually ringed last year in the delta and is flag-tagged with a lime-colored flag.

The Dunlins (Myrsnipe) are also getting into their territories, and are displaying more or less the entire day. They are quite nice to work with, and are not too afraid when you approach them.

The Common Eiders (Ærfugl) have gotten back to the dog-yard, and are now giving great photo-opportunities. This male was stood only a few meters from my car when I photographed him, and the bright yellow on his bill shows that this is most definately of the subspecies hyperborea.

The Greylag Goose (Grågås) is still found in amongst the Eiders, and today I got some shots of it where it has got a green tide-line from the algal-bloom in one of the ponds.

This Barnacle Goose (Hvitkinngås) was sleeping at Isdammen. I took this picture for two reasons. First, because it was a very pretty sight, and second because I wanted to show the difference between sleeping Barnacle- and Canada Goose (Kanadagås).

These two pictures are of the two presumed ssp. parvipes Canada Geese. They were feeding in Isdammen, and eventually went to sleep.

The probable ssp. interior Canada Goose at the dogyard on the other hand did not want to sleep, and just kept eating as much as it could. But eventually a rough day takes its toll, and it too fell asleep.

Todays big highlight for me was this adult Iceland Gull (Grønlandsmåke) that showed well in the delta. Since I have gotten so used to the Glaucous Gull (Polarmåke), seeing its smaller relative makes me appreciate how big the Glaucous really is. The Iceland Gull even gave me the opportunity to photograph it while in flight today.

May 22nd

Another day with nice birds, although without any of the big surprises. The most exclusive today by Svalbard-standard was the pair of Greylag Goose (Grågås) that has been here for some time. I managed to find my first Long-tailed Ducks (Havelle) of the year. Both were in breeding plumage, dark chocolate with honney-stripes, and vanilla ice-cream underneath. At least that was what I came to think of when I was looking at them since I was quite peckish at the time.....

The Dunlins (Myrsnipe) were showing of quite well today, and I managed to take a few OK pictures of them. I never get tired of watching these small waders. Hopefully they stay in the delta since we will start the ringing-season next week, and Dunlins are one of the target-species this year.

The Ringed Plovers (Sandlo) are increasing in number, and there are now more than ten in the delta. This carismatic little bird is not too common up here, but I usually manage to find one when I feel like watching restless birds.

May 19th

I did not get out until late today to look for birds, and I figured that the best thing to do today was to get the secong gull-trap from the dump, and bring it to the delta since the gulls seem to be much more cooperative there. I counted geese on my way in the valley, and now there are more than 300 Pink-footed and 70 Barnacle Geese (Kortnebbgås og Hvitkinngås) in the valley. If you add the ones that are in town and along the fiord there are more than 700 geese in total in the area now. But it is soon to be many more geese here.

When I had gotten the trap, and had driven it down to the delta I heard a long awaited sound. The binoculars came up, and I quickly managed to locate three Ringed Plovers (Sandlo) and one Dunlin (Myrsnipe). This is the first Dunlin of the year, and it brought my year-total up to 28 species until now.  I also looked through the Purple Sandpipers (Fjæreplytt) and found two with our lime-colored flags. The one which I have a picture of here is called "AVE". This one was ringed june 6th 2010 as an adult of unknown sex.

A short trip to Hotellneset earlier in the day on my way to work resulted in three Teals (Krikkand). This was two males, and the first female of the year.

                                          Purple Sandpiper lime "AVE"

                                          Pair of Teals

                                          Male Teal

                                          Dunlin and Ringed Plovers

                                          Dunlin

August 11th

Today I was ringing Purple Sandpipers (Fjæreplytt) and Dunlins (Myrsnipe) again in the Advent Delta. I am attaching a couple of pictures of a young and an adult to show the different markings on the belly. I am allso attaching some photos of my emergency setup of powersupply to the speakers I am using. The two batteries that I have got were both empty, so the only way to manage to keep ringing was to use the one sat in the car. On the last picture you can see the traps that I am using.