The start of my Svalbard adventure

The 21st. of june I got on a plane from Tromsø to Longyearbyen. This was the official start of my time as a resident of Longyearbyen and Svalbard. For the first time I got to see the surroundings of Longyearbyen in sunshine, since the last time I was up here it was dark the entire time (it was in December). With the sunshine the birds had come, and I of course took the first opportunity to get out into the surroundings of Longyear to watch birds. One of the first birds I got to see was the beautiful Ivory Gull. This bird came in from the delta and tried to find some food in the dogyard. Further up in the Advent valley I came across Red Phalaropes, Purple Sandpipers and Dunlins. Everywhere Glaucous gulls were seen, and the Snow Buntings were singing from all possible places. A very nice King Eider amle were very willing to be photographed, and this resulted in some very nice photos.

After this trip I got to see more of the areas surrounding Longyearbyen, and while I was working with the Little Auks in Bjørndalen, I allso got in close contact with the Arctic Foxes that searches the Little Auk colonies quite often for food. Not much happened, bird-wise, when I was still in Longyearbyen, but that was to be changed quite radically when I went onto the sailboat "S/Y Arctica" for counting birds on the eastern side of the archipelago. But that will be told in my next blog.