The worlds most trusting bird?

When you see a bird, normally it will try to avoid getting close to you. Except for birds being fed in cities and chicks that havent learned yet, this is usually how it is, but not up here at the top of the World! The Red Phalarope (Polarsvømmesnipe) is a truly beautiful bird, and the fact that the female is the one who fight for males and who let the male deal With incubating and chick-rearing makes its history interesting as well. A short trip in the valley with a friend ended up in another great series of photos on this stunning species. When I walked down to the pair they were about seven meters away, and when I sat down next to the pond they were about five meters away. This is a great distance to photograph birds at, and the only problem with these birds are that they dont act like other birds. They both came swimming towards me, and I had to start to back up because they were suddenly within the three meters distance I need for my 500mm to focus. This is great to experience, and I love it every time I get to have such an encounter with such a great creature. 

Red Phalarope female

Red Phalarope male

The happy couple!

 

 

Lots of Brent Geese have allso visited the valley lately, so I had to have at least one pic of one of them. :)

 

Adult Brent Goose, subspecies hrota

 

Being out enjoying nature and wildlife together with others who are passionate about the same as me is something I truly appreciate, and when I manage to fill up their wish-list of birds I feel like I have managed to fullfill a proper task. On this trip I was out driving with a woman who works as a guide on one of the cruises around the island. I met her the day before, when she told me that the bird she really wanted to see was the King Eider (Praktærfugl). I remembered this when I drove by a couple who was feeding just next to the road, so I went to town and picked her up so she could meet them. We ended up having seen five or six pairs in the end, and the pair I have photographed here were lying just four meters away from us. And when I wanted to show her the Red Phalaropes they were really in spring-mood, of the five pairs we got to see, thre of them were prepairing the next generation of phalaropes with rapid wingbeats..... All of these colorful birds, in the midle of the Arctic, its truly amazing!

 

King Eider male

King Eider female

 

And to finish of this drive we found this male Long-tailed Duck (Havelle) next to the road. She was used to seing them in winter-plumage, so seing him in this transition-plumage was something she appreciated.

 

Long-tailed Duck male

The end of may, and soon summer will be here!

As may was going towards its end I knew that now was the time that is often the most productive when it comes to rarities! And, even though all the birds I got to see may not have been the rarest of them all, I still felt pretty good about them all. I do live at the top of the World, and I can not expect too many strange birds mis-navigating all teh way up here. :)

The first Pictures this time is of a bird that I thought might have been a rarity, but that showed to be one of the real common ones in disguise.... The Pink-footed Goose (kortnebbgås) appear here in huge numbers each year, and some of them resemble their close cousins in appearance. So after having looked for quite some time at this individual through my binoculars it finally showed that it was not actually a Great White-fronted Goose (Tundragås) that had been seen earlier in the valley, but "just" a Pink-footed Goose with white around its beak.....

Pink-footed Goose, imitating a Great White-fronted Goose :)

 

The same day, the 21st of May, I got to see a bird up here that has eluded me at several occasions. As I was driving I got aware of a quite large wader trying to hide in the tall dead grass. I stopped the car at the side of the road, and my first Whimbrel (småspove) on Svalbard was making an appearance in my camera. This species have been in teh vicinity of Longyearbyen several times when Ive been up here, but has allways vanished before I got to see it.

Whimbrel trying to hide in the grass.

After landing I managed to get a shot of its white wedge on the back.

Then, on the 23rd I got to see a bird through the window of my car that I had never thought I would see up here! In the corner of my eye I got to see a large black bird that was flying away from me! Immediately I said to my passenger; "Thats a Raven (ravn), isn't it? Yes, that's a Raven!" He later told me that the experience of being a passenger when I tried to get in front of the bird to get pictures was not the safest experience he had had.... This was the third photo-documented Raven for the Svalbard islands.

No doubt about it, its a Raven!

On the 26th I got to finally photograph a Great White-fronted Goose (tundragås) up here! I had been looking for this individual for a few days now, and this is the first of this species that have actually been at photo-range. The sad part is that I had some wrong settings on my camera, and the Pictures will never win any awards for being great...... But the bird is documented!

The Great White-fronted Goose wouldnt stop before there was about 100 meters to the car!

The other special bird I found this day was another hybrid. This time it was a Common Eider x King Eider (Ærfugl x praktærfugl). This specimen will never win any beauty-awards, but still it is a special bird. :) It is probably a 2cy (2. year) bird, and it will be interesting to see if it appears next year, because the colors of this individual are not of the prettiest! And again, my camera-settings were not good, so teh Pictures are out of focus....

Common Eider x King Eider

Together with a pair of King Eiders.

The final pictures of this blog-post are of a pair of Whimbrels (småspove) that have lingered around for a few days. All three Whimbrels Ive seen this month are of the Eurasian subspecies, so I am still wishing for an American one to show me that it has no white wedge on its back.

Two Whimbrels together.

The strange and the beautiful!

I have heard my share of comments about how strange I am due to the fact that I am passionate about birds, and that I spend as much as possible of my spare time to search for, and look at these feathered creatures. But this week I got to see, once again, one of the birds that really could be posted on any wall, and even People who are not truly into birds would go; "Thats a really cool bird". I have also gotten to see one of those who you really need to be "above averge" interested in birds to enjoy!

First, the colours of the Northern Shoveler (Skjeand) will make most perople look an extra time time at the male. But possibly the most interesting feature of the bird to most people is the strange beak. The strange shovel-shape makes it stand out among most other birds. To see a pair of these here in the High Arctic is just amazing to me. When I saw a pair of them up here last year it was 16 years since the species was seen up here the last time. Now I was once again sat together With them, and this time they were feeding only about Three meters away from me. It was a truly amazing experience!

Not the usual place to find Northern Shovelers, in a ice-covered pond on Spitzbergen, With a background of piles of coal and snow-covered Mountains. 



A truly spectacular array of colours on the back and wings of this species!

The Wind made the male display some of his feathers.

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She had an itch....

Wonderful colours in the late day sun....

I know a couple of people who are "Gull-heads". These are birders who know lots about gulls, and how to separate the different species, which is really dificult With these closely related species. As a result of these people I too have become very interested in gulls, and up here I have gotten to know a few species that People at home dont see as often as I do. The one gull that I found this week is probably a hybrid between European Herring Gull (Gråmåke) and Glaucous Gull (Polarmåke). This hybrid have actually got its own "name", Viking Gull (Vikingmåke). This individual, on top of being a hybrid, has got a wing-pattern that led me to think of Thayers Gull (Eskimomåke), wich is a real rarity in Europe. But very little black colour on top of the flight feathers, and allmost no black, just grey, on the underside of the flight feathers made me sure of my identification. If I am strange due to my interests, I am happy to be so! :)

Posing as a European Herring Gull (Gråmåke)

Showing restricted black in the primaries.

Showing the "Thayers-like" pattern in the primaries fairly well.

Before it shows the pale underside of the primaries.

Other than this I almost got hit by a Brambling (Bjørkefink) which was chased by the resident Snowbunting (Snøspurv) which took it for a competitor for the breeding rights!

Finally! Spring has arrived in the High Arctic!

Suddenly, four days ago, spring came to Spitzbergen! Most places you will have a transition between winter and spring, but here it just appeared out of a snowstorm! I havent been doing too much birdwatching before this, but now my hopes of seeing new and interesting species up here are renewed tenfold!

Spring brought With it the first Pink-footed Geese (Kortnebbgås), a European Golden Plover (Heilo) and a pair of Mallards (Stokkand). This is my fifth and sixth Mallard up here, nad it is my first female, so I was quite happy to see these. Other people have seen Redwing (Rødvingetrost), Song Trush (Måltrost), Redpoll (Gråsisik), Shoveler (Skjeand) and Tufted Duck (Toppand) the last few days, so I guess I will have to be out looking now. :) Hopefully I will be getting better photos soon of the birds that are out there waiting for me.

Pair of Mallards on a very cloudy day and at quite som distance.....

Glaucous Gull Red/White ZS, ringed in Longyearbyen in 2007

A windy day in the Arctic

I finally got to do some birdwatching again after a long winter without any activity from me. And I did get to see a couple of good birds for up here. Two adult European Herring Gulls (Gråmåke) was a nice sight. One of them flew right next to teh car and gave great views. The only bad thing is that due to the heavy winds today I didnt bother to bring my camera with me, and hence I didnt get any photos of it. Other than these about 20 Glaucous Gulls (polarmåke), 20 Kittiwakes (krykkjer) and 10 Common Eiders (ærfugl) were aobut the numbers I was expecting, but the massive number og more than 1500 Northern Fulmars (havhest) was a really nice view.

I hope for better weather soon so that the Snow Buntings (snøspurv) will arrive in numbers so that I can start the ringing-season. I have also lately seen European Blackbird (svarttrost) and Snow Bunting (snøspurv) in the neighbour-town, Barentsburg, so there are things happening now in the early spring in the High Arctic.

The light is returning to the Arctic!

As February now has started I am thrilled that the light is slowly coming back. Lovely blue light now lights up the snow-covered mountains around Longyearbyen, and I am starting to have high hopes for the season to come.

The ringing-season of 2013 was not the greatest in numbers, but I managed to counter-act that With quality! To a nest of Lapland Bunting (Lappspurv) in the middle of the tundra in Adventdalen was something I had wanted for a long time. That nest is the third confirmed breeding of Lapland Bunting on Svalbard. The first being a newly-fledged chick seen near the dogyard some years ago, and teh second being a nest found by some researchers this summer about two kilometers from where "my" nest was located. Unfortunately this nest got robbed, but the parent birds in "my" nest did a great job and managed to get four of five chicks on the wings. All of these chicks got a metal-band, and will hopefully either show up again in Svalbard or somewhere else.



Lappland Bunting nest July 8th 2013. Well hidden on the tundra.

 

 

 

Lapland Bunting chick July 18th 2013.

The entire brood that survived the rain and cold temperatures after they had been ringed.

No Luck in finding my other target-species on nest though...... Between five and seven Pectoral Sandpipers (Alaskasnipe) spent the entire summer in the surrounding areas all through summer, so hopefully next year I hope that I will be Lucky enough to find this magnificent wader on a nest.

Pectoral Sandpiper male, probably 2 cy. June 23rd Adventdalen.

During the autumn and the winter re-sightings of our waders ringed up here have steadily come in. The Purple Sandpipers (Fjæreplytt) still spend their winters around the North Sea and the coasts of Sweden, Finland and Germany. But the most interesting re-sighting this winter came from Banc d`arguin in Mauretania. There one of the Dunlins (Myrsnipe) that was flagg-tagged last year was seen. Over 6300 km to the South!!!!

Im now eagerly awaiting the start of a New season up here, but first the birds need to come back.

Dancing in the sky......

Finally I managed to pull myself outdoors with the camera to photograph the Aurora dancing over the sky this winter. Not many are as fortunate as to have their home draped in snow and Aurora! With these pictures I wish all of you out there a happy new year with natures own fireworks. Hope you like it.

One of the EISCAT-radars lit up by car and Aurora.

Not often I see this much life and color in the Aurora up here.

Longyearbyen draped in snow and Aurora!