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

May 27th and 28th

The winter does not seem to want to resign this year, and a cold wind is still making birding a cold experience. But now the migrants have really started to come, and new species are coming up to this still frozen place.

At least two different Iceland Gulls (Grønlandsmåke) are staying in the area, even though the one in these photos made me think of a possinble hybrid with Glaucous Gull (Polarmåke) due to its heavy bill and the fact that when it moves its head while sitting, it sometimes looks more like a Glaucous than an Iceland. But long wing-projection, a large eye and red legs tell me that this is "just" an Iceland Gull.

The numbers of geese in the valley have increased over the last few days, and by now there have to be thousands around. The Pink-footed Geese (Kortnebbgås) were the first to come in numbers, but also the Barnacle Geese (Hvitkinngås) are now here in large numbers.

I was also pleased when I got to see this years first Brent Geese (Ringgås) These geees that are just a bit bigger than a Common Eider (Ærfugl) are really birds with an attitude, and fights between the males are frequent. And all the time they are feeding you can hear theire grunts, unlike any other sound from any goose that I know of.

And finally the Red-throated Diver arrived. I have been waiting for it for some days, and suddenly one was lying in shallow water in the delta.

I will come back with more on the latest arrivals in a later post, and then hopefully with some pictures to show you as well.

August 19th

As the Brent Goose-team are focusing on where their satellite-tagged birds are during their migration, I found this little flock of eight adults just outside Longyearbyen. Wonderful birds, only sad that they did not have any chicks with them. Hopefully I will get to see some young birds before they have all left for warmer areas.

June 9th

Despite the fact that I did not get any photos of the really fun birds today, I did manage to get some OK pictures. First I re-found the ssp. bernicla Brent Goose (Ringås). This picture shows well the darker belly of the "dark-bellied" Brent vs the "light-bellied" Brent.

Arctic Terns (Rødnebbterne) are thought of as a menace by many people, but I still keep on my opinion that they are some of the most elegant and beautiful birds around. Hence why I have uploaded some photos of them here.

 

When I was more or less done with todays birding I became aware that the local pair of Arctic Skuas (Tyvjo) were unhappy with something in the neighbourhood. A few moments later this Arctic Fox (Fjellrev) came trotting along one of the sewage/water-lines. This was a welcome sight since it is not very often I get the oppurtunity to photograph this species in town.

June 7th

After a few days at the mainland I was back in Longyearbyen again, and through the telephone I found that there was a Gadwall (Snadderand) in the valley. I met up with a friend on the plane who was more than happy to join in re-finding this bird again. On our way out we first encountered a flock of Brent Geese (Ringgås) at Tuedammene. In amongst the regular ssp. hrota were one ssp. bernicla. This subspecies is supposed to be in Siberia, but it is apparently not an entirely uncommon sight in these parts of the Arctic. I have uploaded a picture of it together with two ssp. hrota. 

The Gadwall was not difficult to find, and it was swimming alongside a male Wigeon (Brunnakke). I have uploaded a record-shot of the bird here.

May 27th

Yet another day in the world of ducks and geese, with a couple of additional nice birds. Ill start off todays blog with some pictures of the Canada Goose (Kanadagås) which spent most of the day feeding next to the dogyard next to town. This is probably one of the pair that we found a few days ago. There has been quite a bit of conversations about the which subspecies these birds belong to. There were two ssp that were looked upon as most possible, interior and parvipes. Due to the long neck, and a size similar or larger to Pink-footed Goose (Kortnebbgås), parvipes was soon removed from the short-list, and we now think this might be interior. I would be very happy if anyone with knowledge would comment on which ssp this one might belong to. I tried to get pictures where its possible to compare the size with Barnacle Goose (Hvitkinngås) and Pink-footed Goose.

One of the less frequent visitors among the breeding birds of Svalbard is the Brent Goose (Ringgås). Today there were two pairs at the lagoon at Hotellneset. These nice, small geese are allways nice to see. I even got to see some action, the male of one of the pairs chased off the other male when he came a bit to close to his female. Then the first pair followed up with some courting behaviour.

We are not quite sure where this Greylag Goose (Grågås) comes from. The first Greylag that came up this year was a lone bird, then there was a pair of Greylags that stayed at Hotellneset and at the airport. This lone bird might be one of these, or it might be a new bird. Anyway it is a nice sight in among all the Pink-foots and Barnacles.

Also in the same place as the Canada and the Greylag Goose the two Mallard (Stokkand) males were feeding along. Allways nice to see uncommon birds in the sunshine.

Other than these birds, the only birds that I can recall that are worth mentioning are a female Red-necked Phalarope (Svømmesnipe) and an adult Iceland Gull (Grønlandsmåke).