Svalbard again

The last week I have spent again guiding around Svalbard. This time a group of primarily Australian passengers went with me and my colleagues from Aurora Expeditions. Polar bears were again high on the agenda, and we went had several crowd pleasers out on the sea ice. We manage to reach the remote Kvitøya as the first ship this season. All of the 9 bears but one came close to our ship or zodiacs, and all passengers were of course very happy. It is all about finding the right kind of bears, not the total number of bear sightings.

We also found at least four Blue whales (blåhval) on this trip, actually almost as many as our Fin whales (finhval). But then again, we did search out the good areas for Blues and didn’t go so much after the fins this time. Blue whales have, if you know where to go, become fairly easy to find around the Svalbard waters. Apart from great bear and whale sightings, we had Arctic foxes (fjellrev) hunting geese, Walrus (hvalross) fights and both Ivory gull (ismåke) and Sabine’s gull (sabinemåke) made it to the trip list as well. The most remarkable sighting bird wise, even though not a new species for my Big year list, was three Great-northern divers (islom) in a possible breeding area at the east coast. A species that is very rare in Svalbard indeed. We also found a new spot with very accessible Puffins (lunde) for photography. Something I have been searching for in Svalbard for some time. Puffins are always very high on foreign tourists’ wish list when they come to Svalbard.

Next week, I will have another guiding tour for Aurora Expedition. Hopefully I manage to add something to my Big Year list this time – but it will have to be a rarity.

This bear stayed with us for an hour, and apparantly he liked being taken
pictures of. No, it is not a circus bear, just a crowd pleaser.

Even though being big and heavy, polar bears can be cery gentle as well. This
one was showing its body control by climbing along the ledges feeding on
 guillemot chicks. He even manged to take an adult!

The world's largest mammal ever lived on earth. We found four blue whales
on our voyage. 

Brünnich's guillemot (polarlomvi) throwim himself out from the bird cliff. 

This voyage, we found a very nice spot for puffin photography. A colony of
about one hundred birds, and many of them in only a fewww meters distance.
For sure the best place to photograph this species in Svalbard.

Until next time....

-EG-

Searching for years....

I remember the very first time I came to Svalbard. It was 6th June 2001. As many of the other people visiting Svalbard, one of my biggest hope was to see the Ross’s gull. After all Svalbard is part of the Arctic, and the ross’s gull is an Arctic species.

Many years have passed since 2001, and I have visited Svalbard virtually in every one of them. I have searched the flocks of kittiwakes, I have searched south of Svalbard, east of Svalbard, west of Svalbard, north of Svalbard, in the sea ice, outside the sea ice. In summer and winter, in autumn and spring. I have even searched some of the remote eastern shores of Greenland, but I’ve never seen a ross’s gull (apart from the one bird I saw in southern Sweden in 2002). Every year, herds of tourists are visiting Svalbard, many of them birders, and apparantly many of them see the ross’s gull on their brief visit. Why not. After all, they are visiting the Arctic, and ross’s gull is an Arctic species. What I have always found very strange, is that despite more cameras than ever before are coming with these human visitors there has as far as I know not been a single one of these ross’s gulls that have been documented since 2001. You have probably guessed already, since I have bothered to write this blog that this has now changed.

Frankly, I started to think that ross’s gull was one of those species that only exists in bird books. I’ve almost given up my hopes for this species, when I suddenly saw a very peculiar marked bird flying along side our research vessel. The flight was actually not very much different from a kittiwake, but the markings were a give away. A beautiful juvenile ross’s gull! Outside the window I have so many times before looked through in the hope of seeing one. Here it was, alone but not lonely. The gull was soon joined by a kittiwake, and then I could appreciate the size difference between the two. A few minutes went by, and as it left us into the horison westwards I couldn’t help thinking that this was nothing like I imagined the jizz of a ross’s gull. The plumage I just had seen is actually not illustrated in any bird book – not mine at least. So I had to look at my images carefully to double check. Yes indeed – a juvenile ross’s gull.

A couple of blue whales later and a few days had passed – north of Svalbard somewhere I was still smiling from the nice ross’s gull observation when I again looked out the window. Two ross’s gulls! This time, they behaved much more like I’ve always pictured them in my head. Very swift, elegant, and throwing themselves from side to side rapidly changing directions. They reminded me not at all about kittiwakes, but much more of pratincoles hunting for insects. Even though these birds where exactly similar patterned as my first one, they gave a very different appearance and experience. Best of all – I managed to document them all J

It seems to be an exceptional good year for the species in Svalbard this year as two other obersvations have also been reported and documented. One from June and another from August - both concerning single adult bird.

-EG-

Arctic fox

A long overdue update. The summer and autumn has been very busy, and only the last weeks have I found some time to sit in front of the computer. An eventful summer, where lots of fun and challenges has made life dynamic and interesting as it always should be. However, it means that I havent had time to edit any images since April. These Arctic foxes I got to spend two days with this summer.

Safety in friends - always good not be alone when meeting challenges in life..

Black & White portrait

- EG -

Fluffy, white and cute

In March, I was attending the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research on a seal monitoring project of one of the most remote seal populations in Europe. The West Ice east of Greenland is for a few weeks each year dotted with harp- and hooded seals crawling up on the ice to give birth. It is both a fantastic and priveleged experience to jump from ice floe to ice floe between thousands of seals knowing that if the ice breaks or one miss judgement of falling into the crack between the ice floes and there is 1600 meters down to the bottom of the sea...Here is some harp seal (grønlandsel) pictures from the trip.

Only a few hours old, still drying off the blood from the birth.

One mistake of jumping, and 1600 meter to the bottom of the freezing ocean.

   -EG-

Svalbard Guiding

The first week of August, I was guiding a group of photographers for a ten-day trip on Svalbard. I like going with a small group size and small boats. This way you get a much more intimate experience with the Arctic landscape, harshness and of course most importantly also the wildlife. Even though we might be a bit more vulnerable to the weather and ice, we almost always find all the things we are looking for. I have now eight years of experience working as a fieldbiologist/guide on Svalbard.


Some of the highlights the last trip were Pomarine- and Long-tailed skuas, total of 4 Sabine’s gull (3 observations), 20 ivory gulls in front of a fantastic blue glacier, Polar bear killing an Arctic fox puppy and all possible seal species on Svalbard including Harbour-, Hooded and Harp seal. We missed out a bit on the cetaceans due to bad whale searching conditions, but we managed to photograph Belugas in front of blue ice and addtionally a large flock of about 70 animals in one of the west coast fjords. A jumping minke whale was quite spectacular to see and photograph as well. The highlight of the trip happened when we had belugas, sabine’s gulls, polar bear and a spectacular calfing blue glacier in the same view at the same time! All this and more together with stunning landscapes, means only one thing – happy clients!

Watching seven polar bears feeding on a whale carcass was a memorable experience for the whole group - including the guide

 

A polar bear is close to getting crushed under falling ice

 
 

Svalbard is one of few places in the world, where you can expect to see the increasingly rare ivory gull.

 
 

Glaciers are vital to the extreme biomass productivity in many of the fjords of Svalbard. Thousands of kittiwakes feeding on amphipods is an unforgettable nature spectacle.

Minke whale breaching! On the last trip, we had about 15 sightings of this spectacular whale.

Every trip is different from the last one, so time will show what we find next time.











At the moment I am attending a scientific expedition, and although we have seen a few ivory gulls and pomarine skuas, no big surprises have be seen yet. One of the first days in the drift ice west of Spitsbergen we came across about 40 Fin whales, one Blue whale. No less than five blue whales have been seen so far on the trip. A Polar bear on a seal kill was also seen, but photographing these things from a big ship is far from ideal….

The giant of the sea! The blue whale, the world's largest animal, is a regular sight in certain areas of Svalbard. Note the embarrasing small dorsal fin and blue grey colour compmared to the more or less equally sized fin whale seen in the next image.

A flock of fin whales in the drift ice on Svalbard.

I only do guiding on chartered boats, so if you want to use my services for a Svalbard expedition you will have to book early as both my own schedule and the boat charter is allready starting to fill up for the exciting year ahead.


If you want to see sights like this through your camera lens – then you should go wild with WildNature.no!

-EG-

Busy busy busy.....

After a week camping on the wonderful island of Bear Island, I am now back i civilization. Working mostly 15hr days, trying to solve the mystery of the great skua, I was looking forward to a few relaxing days working on the computer. But things want it differently. Since I arrived Spitsbergen (another Arctic island) I’ve been busy running around preparing for the one month long expedition I am leading on the east coast of the archipelago. Its probably one of the most remote places in Europe, so its important that everything is in shape. On top of this, I am also putting up a nice exhibition about the Arctic wildlife called ”Polar Moments”. It has allready been up for a month in my home town, and there I got really good backfeed on it, so I am a little bit excited to see how the true Arctic people judge these images. In other words not much time for photography, so I leave you with a few images from my work on Bear Island.

Our camp. It doesn't look like much, but its one of the best places I have ever been.

Myself negotiating with a GREAT skua - at the end we agreed to let him fly. Photo: Hálfdán H. Helgarson


-EG-

Out and About

In a few hours I leave for my 7th summer in the Arctic. I am off for a nice start to a very remote and beutiful island - Bear island. Nine people live here as part of a weather station. The weather station change crew every six months, and for the rest of year they barely see any people.

Well, I  am not going there to see the people either, but to do fieldwork on seabirds as part of a team employed by the Norwegian Polar Institute. I will be busy, teaching new people the methodology and catching great skuas. Hopefully I get the chance to do some photography inbetween all the work. People often think I am going on holiday when I'm off for fieldwork. Even though I get to see many interesting places, its often hard work with 12-18 hrs working days in all sorts of weather and usually seven days a week.

Anyway, the nature experienses I get during my fieldbiology jobs is worth the effort. Going to remote places also means no phones or email for some time - which itself is making going to these places worth it.

The island and the great skua. In July, the average is 27,5 days with fog, so this view is actually pretty rare on Bjørnøya. Because of all the days with bad weather, you learn to appreciate the good days even more.....