This days trips ended with two new species of the year! From my livingroom window I saw that there was a Lesser Black-backed Gull (Sildemåke) together with the Glaucous Gulls (Polarmåke) in the delta. I hurried down and managed to get some pictures to document the gull. I then continued my drive and when I arrived at Hotellneset I found yet another dark gull. This time it was an adult Great Black-backed Gull (Svartbak). After this gull I got a short photo-session with a pair of Svalbard Ptarmigan (Svalbardrype). They were displaying quite well, but due to my hurry in getting the camera into shooting-position I didnt get the best of set-up so the pictures could have been much better. But the male was still stunning in the sunshine when he was watching over his mate, with his eyebrows puffed up in bright red. When I was done with the ptarmigans I drove further out towards Bjørndalen, and was awarded a nice meeting with an Arctic Fox (Fjellrev) It was running along the road so that I got many opportunities to take photos. The time now got close to the start of todays work, so I had to drive away again. But when I came to the large mixed-flock of Pink-footed and Barnacle Geese (Kortnebb- og Hvitkinngås) I felt I had to stop to take a few pictures. Thats when I noticed the two foxes that were out goose-hunting. It was amazing to watch them try to get un-seen into striking-distance from the geese. But the gees had everything under control, they lifted off when the fox was baout thirty meters away, and they werent really worried.
In the evening I had another trip out and managed to find a flock of four male Teal (Krikkand). I also photographed a 1cy/2k Glaucous Gull (Polarmåke) which is the lightest-colored individual that I have seen up here. Usually the young birds are quite dark up here, but this one was a nice exception.
Greater Black-backed Gull with GLaucous Gulls
Lesser Black-backed Gull with Glaucous Gulls
Lesser Black-backed Gull showing features better
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