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

June 22nd

Yet another beautiful day in the Arctic wilderness! Even though I spent most of the day sat in the delta trying to catch Glaucous Gulls (Polarmåke) I enjoyed the day. The species-diversity was rather poor today, without even a single King Eider (Praktærfugl) in the delta. But the birds that did show up was even more welcome. I lay down in the gravel and got some quite nice pictures of the Red/Grey Phalarope (Polarsnipe) feeding along the shore. This might mean that it is thinking of leaving these areas, and will be heading down into the Atlantic Ocean to spend the next months before returning up here to breed again next year?

The Purple Sandpipers (Fjæreplytt) were trying their best to look like stones when the Arctic Skua (Tyvjo) came flying by, just three or four meters above my head. But soon they started to feed again.

The star of the day was the Arctic Terns (Rødnebbterne). I tried to get some nice pictures of them when they came flying in with fish, but I was usually occupied with explaining about the birds in the area to tourists when they came flying in with prey. But I did manage to get some rather good pictures of them when they were feeding in the rather strong South-Easterly winds that were blowing all day. I even got a few dives for food, and some water-action! I hope that you will be able to enjoy the pictures as much as I do! These little birds really make me envy them for their ability to fly!

June 18th

This is y 90th blog-post, and since I did not find any more interesting birds to photograph today, I spent my time out to read flags of Purple Sandpipers (Fjæreplytt). I managed to read twelve different individuals on the tundra, and I am quite pleased with this. The first picture shows the flag-type that we are using this year, dark green with white letters (AMA). The second picture shows one of the birds that were ringed last year, and this has got a lime-colored flag with black letters (EAY).

The last picture of today is of the King Eider (Praktærfugl) -pair that is still lying in Tuedammene.

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 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 17th

A day of photographing! What a seldom treat! And when I actually managed to get a couple off good shots I am more than happy. The first bird that I encountered amde my heart jump a little to begin with, before I saw what it actually was. At first glimpse, when I could only see the head it looked like a Cackling Goose (Polargås). Given the fact that I have been here long enough to ha ve seen many strange Barnacle Geese (Hvitkinngås), I found a better position to watch from. This resulted in that I could confirm that it was in deed a juvenile Barnacle. The angle of the head when I first saw it was such that the white forehead-patch was hidden, but when it turned its head it was visible. Together with a grey back and white underside its a plain Barnacle.

When I went further out I came across a quite photogenic Arctic Fox. It showed off well for some minutes before it went on its way to find todays ration of food. As the last picture shows, it even knows that it has to look along the road before it crosses.

Other species that I manged to get some good pictures of were a Fulmar (Havhest) and a Glaucous Gull (Polarmåke) that came flying past me at Vestpynten. I got some nice pictures of female Eiders (Ærfugl) with their still downy chicks roosting on the beach on Kullkaia, and a stretching adult Purple Sandpiper (Fjæreplytt) and a roosting adult Purple Sandpiper finnished off the day.