May 13th

This cloudy day produced a couple of nice birds. One of the male Northern Pintails (Stjertand) were still present and gave great views as the sun briefly came through the clouds. Also present today were lots of Pink-footed Geese (Kortnebbgås) and Barnacle Geese (Hvitkinngås). In amongst teh Glaucous Gulls (Polarmåke) today was a probable hybrid Herring X Glaucous Gull (Gråmåke X Polarmåke). I saw it from the livingroom window, but it had disappeared when I came to the delta. I stayed in the delta for almost an hour, and came in close with some of the first Purple Sandpipers (Fjæreplytt) of the season. In amongst these I managed to locate a ringed and flag-tagged bird. This is actually a bird that was ringed at the same site as I saw it on the 9th of june 2010 by the head of the ringing-project. After nearly a full year it is back at the exact same spot where it was trapped and ringed. When I was done looking in the delta I was awarded a photo-session by the resident pair of Snow Buntings (Snøspurv). Espescially the male showed off well, and I got pretty pleased with the pictures I got.


Northern Pintale male
Pink-footed Geese in flight


Snow Bunting male

Snow Bunting female

Snow Bunting male wanting to drive a dogsled

May 12th

Today became a pretty good day! It started with two pairs of Northern Pintails (Stjertand), three male and one female Tufted Ducks (Toppand) and a 1 cy/2k Herring Gull (Gråmåke). These were all seen when I set up the second of my gull-traps, and hopefully I will be trapping gulls there on Saturday. These were all seen in the delta, and I continued out towards the mouth of the fiord to look for more birds. At Hotellneset I first came to see a 3cy/4k Herring Gull roosting with Glaucous Gulls (Polarmåke). Further along there were five Barnacle Geese (Hvitkinngås) feeding, and on the other side of the road were two pairs of Pink-footed Geese grazing on the dead vegetation. Other thanthese there were quite a lot of Kittiwakes (Krykkje) and Glaucous Gulls flying along the shore, and Common Eiders (Ærfugl) and King Eiders (Praktærfugl) were all over the fiord. When I drove home I went by the harbour to take some shots of the Bearded Seal (Storkobbe) that was lying there. It did not care that there was a tiny human stood some meters away taking photos of it. As a matter of fact it was so calm that I did not get the pictures I wanted, but thats how nature is. You cant decide how it is to act.


Northern Pintails grazing in the shallows

Tufted Ducks relaxing alongside Nrthern Pintails

1cy/2k Herring Gull along with Glaucous Gulls

3cy/4k Herring Gull roosting with Glaucous Gulls

Barnacle Goose

Bearded Seal relaxing on the ice