Arctic Adventures - Day 3

So, having got over the journey, today was the beginning of the real adventure. Our first sighting was of a harp seal before breakfast and keen and eager as we were for food, the seal won hands down and all excited travellers took to the decks with our binoculars and cameras (not to mention several layers of clothes as the temperature was only about 6 degrees).

Landing

After breakfast and a briefing from the expedition leader we were off to put on the thermal and waterproof layers for our first zodiac trip to land.   The aim was in Kongsfjorden and a walk at Bloustrandhalvoya taking us over tundra and boggy land where walking uphill through treacle would have almost been easier.   At least we didn't feel the cold as we used our breakfast calories to scale the dizzy heights.  

The priority for me was (as always) avian, however the specialist plants and flowers were a great draw, and when you have an expert botanist around like Jenny it makes it all the more enjoyable.

Red-throated Diver on the nest

Back to feathers, however, and we saw arctic skua, two pairs of red-throated diver one on a nest which was on an island in the middle of a small glacial lake.   Two pairs of barnacle geese one with two young and the other with three.   On a further lake we saw long-tailed duck, a male and two females, as we watched them from a distance the male started to display, a great sight.

Jenny spent much time and patience explaining the plants to us all, with purple saxifrage, pale whitlow grass, hairy lousewort and drooping saxifrage being the ones I can remember. 

Our guide Philippe explained how the 'Old Red' stone conglomerate which stretches from as far away as Greenland all through Spitsbergen and was brought by the last ice age.

Reindeer

As we walked 6 reindeer were spotted, one with spectacular antlers and the women were both amazed and envious of their eyelashes!
We ended up by a settlement made by prospectors looking for marble mining potential, unfortunately as soon as the rock is moved south it dries up and crumbles.   After we had watched very protective long-tailed skua near their nest it was back to the zodiac and on to the ship for lunch.

As we dined in style the Captain sailed to another location where we hoped to be able to walk on a glacier, however another boat as moored up where we needed to be so we moved further on to Krossfjorden and a place called Tynerebukta.
Here we had our second zodiac trip and saw reindeer remains - this prompted a discussion about arctic foxes where the dominant foxes live near the coast and feed on seabird colonies, ducks, goslings and even adult geese when in eclipse.   The inland (less dominant foxes) live a harder life without these ample food sources and they have to scavenge on dead and weak reindeer.   As polar bears rarely kill a reindeer they have no real predators, their main sources of death are starvation or fighting other males for territory.

As we walked we saw an unnamed bronze coloured funghi and more reindeer with young about a month old. 

Common eider and king eider were spotted together which gave us a great opportunity to compare the females which when apart seem almost impossible.   When they are together however, the king either female looks smaller, with a slightly smaller head and a more golden brown plumage than the common.   We also saw common eider with over a creche of over 20 ducklings.

Reindeer Antlers in a tangle

As we walked we also saw puffin, little auk, fulmar, kittiwake and brunnich's gulliemot.   Two bearded seals were spotted on bergy-bits, and two pairs of reindeer antlers had also been washed ashore tangled in some thick rope.

At dinner we had a long discussion about bird ringing, and also discussed sub-species and different colour morphs - needless to say I didn't stay up late!