Photo of the Day - Crystal Clear Autumn

Early September on Svalbard. There was still autumn in the valleys, but mountain tops were filled with a fresh snow and crystal-like ice.

Read more...

Svalbard landscapes

Before forgetting Svalbard for this season, it's good to go back for a short while and look at some landscape shots around the archipelago. Svalbard - views and atmosphere:

Read more...

Zooplankton

Decapod zoea (larvae) from a little auk diet sample

Everything ends - also field seasons. Autumns are for plankton in Tromsø. Hundreds of samples wait for people, who have the knowledge and nerves to look at them. Since I happen to be one of the few, getting a job for autumn seems to be an easy task. The lab at NPI is as labbish as ever before. White walls, stereoscope, formalin smell, zooplankton, zooplankton and zooplankton...However, they'll pay for it. I won't complain this time...Photo above represents one of the funkiest. A decapod, probably Pagurus pubescens (i.e. hermit grab), larvae.

Read more...

About Paid Holidays

M/S Expedition in Colesdalen

SVALEX (SVALbard EXpedition) is a Statoil funded course aimed for university students that want to work in oil industry. It consists of a theoretical part and a week-long cruise to places on Spitsbergen, which have similar geology than the reservoirs in the Barents and North Sea. A welcome break for modelling structures one cannot see. Finally they see what they’re modelling, they say.

The cruise is an expedition in oil people way. 120 people from cities around the world, with various - generally very low - amount of outdoor experience, are stuffed in a cruise ship with four star uphold. Landings and the safety during the few hours spent on the land are strictly controlled by the UNIS Logistics Personel. Rest of the time is spent in the warm safety of the ship studying papers in order to find the best way to stick a drill into a correct place to make lots of money.

Sunset in Colesdalen

The cruise is kind of a legend among UNIS students. This is not, because UNIS students would join for the course, but because of something more intresting. Safety during SVALEX is normally handled by the leader of the Logistics Department at UNIS. Rest of the safety staff, called ”Polar Bear Guards”, are hired amongst the most experinced UNIS students. This year I got the honor and was chosen as one of the Polar Bear Guards for the SVALEX Safety Team.

A waterfall close to Kapp Schulz

Walking short distances over the most trivial terrains on Svalbard and looking after a flock of people, who are typically behaving like a herd of sheep, can be suprising. But sleeping under white every day changed linens, eating two to three meals in a restaurant daily and being out less than eight hours a day cannot really be seen as a work. It must be holiday.

M/S Expedition in Tempelfjorden

This year SVALEX was done with Spitsbergen Travel’s biggest cruiser M/S Expedition. Philippino crew made sure that the conditions on board met the oil people standards. We had an amazing weather for three first days. Places such as Van Keulenfjorden, Axeløya and Festningen are always impressive, but in a perfect weather they look like an Arctic paradise. Particularly the sunsets were magnificent. Weather was so warm, that a jacket was not needed most of the time, although most of the students did not agree. Many thought that it was very cold and did want to stay on board whenever possible. Major safety hazards were experienced when rubber boats came to pick up students back to the ship. Everyone wanted to be the first one on board. People were pushing each other and fighting for a place in the boat in such a way that some of the students were almost pushed into the water. The biggest drill took place when they found a stone, which was smelling like hydrocarbons...A connection to making money, I assume. We are different.

Sunset in Isfjorden

However, the trip was a funny experience. I learned something about Svalbard geology, which apparently is quite interesting, when correct people are telling about it, There were cool people amongst the 120. Most of the teachers, other polar bear guards and some geologists became friends. Phillipino band was rocking the last night on board. Walks were very trivial, except for one walk over a mountain in Billefjorden, but bullshitting over the VHF radios, in the field and on board made the trip. Thanks for the nice time, guys!

Read more...

Holiday Assistant

Photo: Peter Leopold

UNIS (University Centre on Svalbard) is, of course like almost everything up here, one of the worlds northernmost places to get university level education. It’s not just an university. It is an institution, which tends to change lives. It gives people everything they need: cool (also literally) things to do, good friends, home and an understanding of the beauty which lies under the barren landscape of Arctic. The institution and the people there has given me so much, that I have already forgotten more than a lot they have given to me. However, I am grateful.

Photo: Peter Leopold

Good thing about UNIS is that it doesn’t stop. People tend to come back. After you have got your education, they need you to do jobs, which are not exactly tricky, but need some knowledge about the area and about the rules when working in the Arctic. One this kind of jobs is the holiday assistant job at UNIS Logistics Department. Days are mostly spent on the field driving with a PolarCirkel (the manufacturer, photo above) speedboat people and equipment to various destinations around Isfjorden. If there is the job that is supposed to be the funniest in the world, it must be this one. Sun-glasses, motorboat with a big engine, rough seas and pretty girls looking like seals in their orange survival suits. Just like the scientists in the Hollywood movies. Bitty that it lasts only few weeks a year.

Read more...

Let ’em fly

Young Arctic tern trying its wings on Axeløya, Bellsund

The Arctic summer is a short event. From a bird-point-of-view this means that eggs are laid early June and chicks hatch in the both sides of the beginning of July. In the beginning of August most chicks have already fledged. New life develops from an egg into a self-sustaining creature during the three months of the summer on Svalbard. Those who did not manage to keep in the pace, died or will die as the autumn turns to winter. The speed the life takes, makes the summer to feel even shorter. Soon the sun goes down again and the summer is gone.

When chicks are ready to take off, adults will follow. In alcids juveniles tend to follow their fathers off to the sea to learn important hunting skills, while kittiwake chicks find themselves alone to form groups with other youngsters. Together they have to learn the rules needed to survive in the world, which gets tougher day by day as the autumn develops.

After the seabirds have left their colonies, seabird researchers have very few reasons to stay. Field season with birds has came to the end. For those in the high buildings of the city of Tromsø this means a work load with data in order to produce publications. For me it means a new kind of field work. Driving around to study chicks becomes to drive around chicks that are studying.

Read more...

Wildlife of Svalbard

I opened a new album to Google Picasa. Wildlife of Svalbard is a collection of 50 shots. The plan is to keep updating the album by adding new photos and removing some old ones from time to time just to keep it fresh. All published wildlife photos from the archipelago can still be found from Birds of Svalbard and Mammals of Svalbard -albums.

Read more...

There where the little bird flies

Little auk is the most abundant bird species on Svalbard. As many other sea bird species, little auks are long living and can sometimes reach the age of 30. A little auk pair lays an egg every year, but success in breeding (i.e. that the egg develops to an adult) is a rare occasion. They eat small nutritious zooplankton, which has a high fat content due to the extreme seasonality in the Arctic. While feeding their chicks little auks are doing two kinds of hunting trips: short and long ones. Short trips last only for some hours and are done to the waters close to their colonies. During these trips birds are collecting food for their chicks. Whereas long trips are done when a parent's energy reserves are getting so depleted that it can not continue chick rearing without a break. These trips can last for days. Typically another one of the parents heads for a long trip, while the other one is carrying food for their chick. Naturally the more long trips adults are completing and the longer the trips last, the worse is the breeding success and, eventually, the year.

Little auks are flying speeds about 40-50 km/h. While heading out for a long trip, they rest about half of the time and rest on the water the second half. One flight to feeding waters can take as long as ten hours. It is easy to calculate that during these trips the birds could fly very far from their colonies. Destinations for long trips probably vary from a year to year and are still largely a mystery for the people working with little auks.

One of this field season's goals was to look more deep into this mystery. We tried to deploy mini-GPS loggers on the birds to see, where they were flying, but the trial fell into technical problems. Loggers weren't technically strong enough take the Arctic challenges. Batteries did not work in cold water. A couple of weeks ago we went for a cruise trying to follow the birds flying out from their colonies. Huge densities of birds at the Ice-edge, just west from the legendary Whales bay confirmed the educated guess. These little birds are flying hundreds of kilometers only to find the fat plankton living at the edge of the Arctic sea ice zone.

Read more...

Visit to the polar bear land

Svenskøya (Swedish island) in a paranormal weather.

King Karls Land is an island group east of Svalbard's main islands. It's know of very bad and cold (high Arctic) weather prevalent to this area, but also because of it has the highest density of polar bear dens (hides under snow where polar bear females are giving birth for their young) on Svalbard. It's very restricted and conserved area, because of the polar bears. One has to be very lucky to get the permission to visit these islands. For example, boats are not allowed to go even close to these islands. Needless to say that visiting the place has been one of my big dreams even since I came to Svalbard.

Last week we were lucky. A kind offer from my bosses. We were asked to join for an ivory gull counting trip heading to the islands. Weather was not good in Longyearbyen, but turned to amazing when approaching King Karls Land. Some minus degrees, blue sky and fresh breeze. Just-few-times-in-a-year weather for this area. The trip was fairly memorable...The place reminded me of Rijpfjorden. It must be the place to be. I love remote areas with harsh climate.

Helicopter on a fueling stop in front of the legendary polar bear research cabin in Kongsøya.

Geology of Kongsøya (King's island) is rather stony, apart from the ice.

Kvalrossøya (Walrus island), located to Storfjorden, on a way home.

Read more...

About a gull

Ivory gull is a bird that is breeding in vicinity of the high north pack-ice zone. It takes small fish and crustaceans, like other small gull like species, but it is also commonly seen feeding on seal corpses killed by a polar bear. These corpses are probably a significant part of the diet of this weird animal.

As a small species it probably can't compete most decent breeding sites with other seabirds such as kittiwakes. Thus small ivory gull colonies are found from inaccessible places such as nunataks (mountain tops in middle of glaciers, photo below) around the archipelago. Studying these gulls insists cool helicopter flights between mountain tops. Sometimes field assistants get lucky and are asked to join to have fun with the big guys and the flying machine...

Read more...

Run, hatching time!

Chicks of the birds nesting on Svalbard start hatching late June the peak occurring in early July. Barnacle geese (in photo) typically start the hatching period, seabirds following a week later. This time means extreme haste for those who are studying the birds. Days are spent on the field, evenings preparing for the next trip and nights out looking after the birds with loggers that can be mounted on adults after the chicks have hatched. This means no blogging for next few weeks.

Read more...

Photo of the Day - Brünnich's guillemot

Brünnich's guillemot is an auk species closely related to more southern distributed common guillemot. It is feeding on crustaceans and small fish, if available, and thus it can reproduce more north than common guillemot which is extensively feeding on capelin and herring (small silvery fishes). These fishes are scarce this high north. Brünnich's guillemot is very abundant up here and thus it is one of the most intensively studied species by Norwegian Polar Institute. This year's program includes mounting geolocation tags on a leg of bunch of birds. These loggers are able to calculate the location of the bird with accuracy of some kilometers by recording sun parameters (when sun is highest on the sky and when it sets, if it does). Loggers also record dive profiles of the birds and produce important data for conservation and population management applications.

Read more...

Photo of the Day - Grumantbyen

Grumantbyen is an old Soviet Union time mining town established on the coast of Isfjorden not further than 7 kilometers from Longyearbyen. The town was abandoned in 1961 because of weak profitability due to saw-tooth formed coal layers. Mining was more expencive than the profit got from the coal. Nowadays Grumant is just another old Russian mining town attracting curious tourists and locals for occassional visits. For our interests Grumant offers the Kittiwake house (white house down left on the photo), where kittiwakes have established a colony. This colony is easy to access and an effordless place to study the ecology of this common gull like seabird. Kittiwakes are nesting on window sills and can be picked up like mellow apples for biotelemetry studies. A pleasant bird to work with.

Read more...

Photo of the Day - Little Auk Talks

Read more...

Photo of the Day - Grey Phalarope

A lively wader, grey phalarope, has got its name, because its grey in UK while on the way to the wintering grounds somewhere in the far south. The american name red phalarope tells more about its appearance in the breeding grounds in the Arctic. For us its red, indeed.

Read more...

Photo of the Day - Purple Sandpiper

Read more...

Photo of the Day - Black Guillemot

Read more...

Photo of the Day - Black-legged Kittiwake

Read more...

Skansbukta

A great thing with this job as a field assistant is that you have to be out almost every day. About week a go we went for an overnight camping trip to Skansbukta, a bay that is located about 17 nm inwards Isfjorden from Longyearbyen. The name (engl. redoupt bay) it has got from a mountain Skansen which looks little bit like a castle. Skansen is well-known from it's bird colonies, which we were cheking out, and Skansbukta from the old plaster mine located there.

An old ferry perhaps used to transport miners

A mining car

Svalbard is full of old hunting huts. Here's one standing right front of Skansen.

Read more...

Photo of the Day - Balance of Terror

Producing offspring is serious stuff. For many birds on Svalbard breeding is fighting for space with others, trying to avoid predators and keeping eggs warm to ensure developing embryo. Tension. It can not be avoided.

Read more...

Photo of the Day - Little Auks

Little auk is a small social auk species breeding under stones on steep slopes in the Arctic. It is probably the most numerous seabird species in the world, breeding in huge quantities on Svalbard. Little auk colonies are found almost everywhere. Their squeaky sounds are the sound of summer for many Svalbardians.

As a black and white swift small birds they are difficult to photograph. One would think that a bright sunny day would produce good light for photography, but this apparently is not the case. Maybe the best yellow light could be achieved on cloudless nights? One of my this years projects is to produce sufficient photos of these extremely attractive and lively birds...

Read more...

Photo of the Day - Arctic Fox

Arctic foxes are considered as endangered in mainland Scandinavia, but are doing strong on Europe's northernmost archipelago. Being entirely white in the winter and brown during the summers, their camouflage is good enough to sneak attack on adult birds, such as auks, guillemots and geese. They are beautiful animals, always except during the moulding season, which is happens in June. Summer offers fox days for the foxes. Newly hatched bird chicks and eggs are so plentiful, that it's no need to sneak on adult birds. Killed chicks and found eggs are stored between rocks for later use in the winter. Busy, sneaky foxes are almost everyday sights on bird colonies.

Read more...

Photo of the Day - the Brent Geese

Brent goose is a relatively shy and not very common goose species on Svalbard. In addition to king eiders, also the brent geese are less regularly seen around Longyearbyen later in the season. On typical years there has been some brent goose observations in Adventvalley, but for nesting they seem to disappear into the numerous remote valleys and islands around the archipelago. This year we spotted a record breaking flock (at least for me) in the valley. 80 individuals were grazing on the first green plants and getting fit for the long and exhausiting nesting period. A day later they all were gone and probably won't come back until the next spring. Snow is melting rapidly. The nesting has begun!

Read more...

Photo of the Day - Cocks of the Dogyard

At a first glance, it appears that eiders are nesting in strange places. One example: at least 50 pairs that are nesting right next to the main dogyard in Longyearbyen. A busy place, where dogs are barking constantly and peace from people is just a remote fantasy. Eider males are making sure that their females are not having fun with other guys. They'll patrol next to the nesting females until their chicks have hatched, howling to the sky and attacking any other male, who dares to enter their territory. When the chicks are hatching the cocks take of in groups and go feeding on scallops in the sea for the rest of the summer. The females can take care of the offspring.

And why are they nesting in such a place? There is a good reason. The arctic foxes are afraid of dogs and won't dare to come even close to the place. Those few nests taken by accidentally unleashed dogs are a small harm compared to that destruction one fox could do.

Read more...

Photo of the Day - Isfjorden

Longyearbyen, the "capital of Svalbard" is located on the coast of Isfjorden, one of the major fjord systems on Svalbard. Being based to Longyearbyen Isfjorden is naturally our working ground. Not the most exotic place compared to other places around the archipelago, but when the weather is nice, the field work can be quite a pleasure. This photo is from Diabas, close to our Brünnich's guillemot research colony.

Read more...

Flashback! - Wildlife of South East Asia

Here is a collection of the wildlife shots I took during my trip to South East Asia earlier this year. The page needs Flashplayer to work. If you want to shuffle the photos, you can access the album by clicking the Google symbol on the right down corner or by clicking this link (works also for those without Flashplayer).

Read more...

Photo of the Day - King Eider

King eider male is a magnificent bird with it's colourful forehead. The king eider is a species that utilizes fresh-water ponds as breeding grounds. Early in the season the birds are assembling to the marches in Advendalen (the valley next to Longyearbyen) to find a partner while waiting for the inland bonds to melt. From here they eventually will head to the inland where spotting them is often difficult. This gives the feeling that the species rarer than it actually is.

There was lots of snow this winter. Melting has taken longer than on average. Probably that's why there are much more king eiders around Longyearbyen than before. A flock of hundreds individuals is currently floating around in the bay close to River Adventelva delta!

Read more...

Photo of the Day - Spring Awakening

Spring is a good time for a wannabe nature photographer. Nature awakes from the long hibernation. Birds are back "doing stuff" in the pursuit of making new life, being much more active than later in the season.

On Svalbard the spring starts already sometime in the late April, but the real action takes place in the beginning of June when snow disappears from the breeding grounds. Taking photographs from displaying animals, such as these common eiders, is rewarding. It gives a possibility to observe the courtship and fetches an incredible amount of joy inside the photographer. The courtship season lasts only some weeks. After that a passive incubating takes place leading to the time, when new life spawns all-over the archipelago. The season is short, the development mind-blowingly fast.

From here it starts. May my camera rest after the season.

Read more...

Photo of the Day - An Other Day in the Office

Little auk is a small auk species that nests under rocks on mountain slopes in the Arctic areas. It is one of the most extensively studied species at Norwegian Polar Institute. Our research colony is located to a slope in Bjørndalen. Because of the intensive study, Bjørndalen feels sometimes like another office for us. The way up there is pretty steep, but how many really has a better view from their office? Probably even the leader of Petronas would be jealous - and even better it's goes for a good exersise to climb up almost every day!

Read more...

Svalbard

Longyearbyen at mid-night

Svalbard is an archipelago located between 76 and 80.5 degrees North, half way from the North Pole to mainland Norway. There is an university there. UNIS is an institute, which tends to change lives. It gives young people reason to live in and like cold places. It is the place where I learned great deal of skills I need in my work today. If you have been studying at UNIS for longer time, you'll get stamped as an "old UNIS student". That stamp follows you the rest of your life.
Odd in it's own way, gray, cloudy, cold, snowy and sometimes slightly windy, but still warmer than any place in world. The arrival to Svalbard is like so many times before. Strangely it feels like I never left. That's how the old UNIS students do. Wander around, but always end up to the island time after time. Svalbard has it's own rules, but it's like cycling: once you have learnt it, it just feels natural.
This time, to my surprise, two of my good friends, Allison and Daniel, were waiting at the airport. I guess I happened to mention that I am coming, but didn't ask anyone to pick me up. We were supposed to have an own transport organised by the Polar Institute. A gesture is highly appreciated, though. It makes the feeling of coming back home.
When we drive towards Forskningsparken, where UNIS and Norwegian Polar Institute are located, I watch the snow covered mountains. There are still quite many snow patches around the town, which is normal for early June. Eiders are floating around in the bay. The geese are grazing on moss. I see some kittiwakes flying by. There is also one huge glaucous gull, which seems to be very focused on pecking a junk of garbage, which it probably has taken from a rubbish bin. At the evening the sky opens. Sun shines to the town without changing colour even at mid-night. There is no place like Svalbard. It feels like home.

Read more...

Through the North

After London, I flew back to Finland, where I had two relaxed days at my parent's. There was just enough time to unpack shorts, hammocks and mosquito nets and stuff up my backpack with warm winter clothes, before I had to take off again. A new field season was about to start. It was time to head back to the North.

Because flying is such a superficial way of traveling, it's more fun to take the train & bus combination through Finland to Tromsø in the Northern Norway. During the trip one sees how variable landscape the country has. Mighty conifer forests chance to fields and small houses of East Bothnia. The sun is set, but there is lots of light, although it's close to mid-night. When getting closer to Rovaniemi the fields have changed back to conifer forests, which are somewhat shorter, and the trees thinner, than in the South. The train reaches Rovaniemi by morning. It's raining and much colder than in Tampere. I have to change to a bus, which takes me through the most beautiful county in Finland. Lapland is huge, swampy and forested. Big lakes are replaced by rivers. The forest is getting scrubbier and the vast swamps even vaster when travelling northwards.

After Muonio the conifer forest changes to aggregations of scrubby birch bushes, river plains and swamps. In Kilpisjärvi there are fjells covered by tundra and snow, the lake (kilpi means shield or shelter and järvi lake in Finnish) and some smaller rivers. Very scrubby birch bushes are covering valleys. The birches haven't got leaf yet. Newly fallen snow is covering the back of Saana, the characteristic and famous fjell lying on the shore of lake Kilpisjärvi.

I arrive to the shop, Kilpishalli, which is the end point of public transport in Finland. Apart from three summer months, there is no public link between Finland and Norway. One has to use private car. From now on, I am on my own.

I start asking for a lift to Norway from the Norwegians who have came after cheaper beer and meat. I use my poor Norwegian, partly to show respect, partly because many of the older people are not speaking English. After an hour or so, I start to get desperate. Hitch-hiking is not part of Norwegian culture. They probably think that everyone should have their own car.

The shop is closing. Just at the last moment I get lucky. Pair of older Norwegians kindly promise to take me to Norway to the place, where I can take a bus to Tromsø. They're about 70 years old mother and her daughter. Obligated I try to keep up conversation, while we're passing high, snow covered mountains. Creeks are flowing down to valleys on steep slopes. Leaves in birches are getting bigger, greener and more mature as we drive down towards the sea. River Skibotnelva flows majestically in it's valley. I can't help smiling. It all looks a bit like Svalbard. It feels so homely, like the place I belong.

Tromsø is as grey, rainy and foggy as any town on the Norwegian coast during the summer. Last time I was here, it was dark excluding few blue hours during the mid-day. Now it's light all the time. One can't notice difference between the day and night. It's cloudy, cold and raining constantly, but the weather doesn't matter. The friends here make the place warmer than any other in the tropics could be.

On Monday, I am going to fly to Svalbard, where I am working on the field for the whole summer, which means about three months that north. I'll be a field assistant for the sea bird research at Norwegian Polar Institute. This basicly means, that I am going to drive around with a speed boat after auks, guillemots, gulls and puffins. I'll be doing various tasks from banding, to food and blood sampling and to counting sea birds at the sea and on colonies. It's about as close to my dream job, as anything.

Read more...

Photo of the Day - London and Growing

Read more...

Escape from the Soul

According to a (baseless?) rumour, some Indians believed that one´s soul can travel no faster than one can walk himself. For example: if one travels by a horse, one has to wait for the soul to follow the same time than it would have taken to walk the distance. Those Indians had no idea of airplanes...

I don´t particularly like the flying. It´s not only that the soul is too slow to keep up with the pace, but also the superficial feeling of traveling. Breaking mindless distances, flying over thousands of places worth of seeing, just in few hours. Windows closed that the sun is not dimming the TV screen. Airports are portals to other worlds, where one should not get so easily, because the soul is not ready for it. They are also temples of capitalism. Products only the posh better people can afford are sold in shiny glass cabinets. Adds where those products are looking cool on some trendy Hollywood or sports star. Meaningless high-price shopping just to kill time between flights. Tax-free shops, selling stuff with only slightly cheaper prices, where you have to buy 10 packages of chewing gum to get the only one you need. Water sold in plastic bottles more expensive than beer outside the airport.

When I set my feet on KLIA LCCT airport, I expect a killing boring time. I walk around, give my luggage to a safe-keeping, find a food stall, which is selling reasonably priced tom-yam clay-pot noodles with seafood. I don´t want to sleep. Why should I? I will get jet-lagged anyway and I can save my tiredness to the plane. There´s a free internet and Seven-Eleven to buy beer. After half a bottle of Guinness, I feel drunk. After two bottles I am wasted for ten minutes. I meet an Australian older couple. We´re talking for an hour about the lust which is driving us traveling again and again. They buy me a coffee, which tastes like it was from the Heaven in my mouth. They advertise that KLIA is "world´s best airport". I don´t know about that, but at least it´s not the worst. I am having fun. 

I decide to go to the check-in, buy a book, and finally, step into the plane. There´s no food served for me in the plane, but I´ve brought my own noodles. A good book, skipped night of sleep and the girl sitting next to me makes the time to run by. Ling is from KL and on the way to Spain to meet her friend. After that she´s probably going to backpack in Europe for some time, as long as she can afford it, which is probably much shorter than I could afford her country.

It´s one of the smoothest flights seeing the length of it - but the soul. It´s still somewhere on the way from Asia. When I step out from London-Stansted airport, everything appears so organized, clean and strictly ruled. There are no hello-misters to bother me, no chaos, no animals stalking everywhere. People are walking fast without looking around, without smiling, without taking any contact to other people. Everything looks so very...British. It´s called the reverse culture shock. It feels much worse than the culture shock I experienced in the City of Angels.

I walk to the coach stand, buy an expensive ticket to Birmingham, order my first cafe Americano for a long time and start waiting for the coach. It arrives after ten minutes. The driver is black. First one in the country, who doesn´t seem to be withdrawn in his shell. He´s talking clear, but cool English, just like the black people tend to do in the movies. We´re talking while waiting for people to crawl into the coach. I like him. He seems like a hearty man.

When watching the landscape to whistle by my nose, I realize that I have been in England only once and that time was a visit to London. I haven´t really seen the countryside, but I´ve seen many English TV shows. Small towns full of low two-floor red-brick or grey-stone houses. Wild-haired teenagers sitting and smoking close to a bus stand. Old English couples dressed neat and always having a hat. Small patches of green peaceful deciduous forests in between of yellow turnip fields in flower. Everything looks exactly like what I´ve seen from TV.

I arrive to Brom´s central bus station around 10pm local time after 43 hours and 12 000 km of traveling. The sun has set for some time ago, but there is still some light left. I´d expected something more fancy. Birmingham is Britain´s second most populous city with more than a million inhabitants, but it looks very small to me. Low industrial houses. Badly illuminated streets. Just very few people anywhere. It´s just far from KL.

Marco is waiting at the bus station. It´s good to meet old friends again. It reminds me of the good times (not that these times would be bad). It reminds me of the spring 2007, maybe the best spring in my life so far, the spirit of Svalbard, the summer and the mid-summer partey with my parents and brother, the fall of the hope and finally the great success. Life´s a journey, where one must learn something every day, but without friends it would be like a candle without a flame, as Buddha used to say. Good friends are those you´ve experienced something similar with, gone through tougher times, learned from those times and shared it. Marco, indeed, is a good friend.

Marco is living in a nice English style stone house with some of his theatre-school mates. People in the house are practicing 24/7, which feels slightly weird at the beginning. But you´ll never become an actor, if you´re not ready to give everything for it, I guess. Everything here is just so English, which shouldn´t be a surprise. This is England anyway. Everything just feels unreal after four months in South-East Asia. I really hope my soul is faster than my legs would be. I can´t wait to have it back.

I am too tired to go out to explore the town. Tomorrow must be the day. On Saturday morning we´re heading to London, where´s a nationwide theatre-school gathering and a partey. My strong guess is that we´re gonna visit a theatre while in London. Hopefully they play Shakespeare. I want to listen to that fancy English...

Read more...

Homewards

View Exploring the World Around in a larger map

The island Borneo is huge, about twice the size of Finland or Germany and bigger than France or Spain. It ain't easy job to have only two weeks to visit one of the most interesting islands on the planet. Since I had got so little time, I had to use it efficiently. After photographing orangutans and conquering Mount Kinabalu, I headed to a riverine jungle at the lower parts of River Kinabatangan. The trip turned out as a great change to photograph animals. More about these trips later.

After the jungle, it was time to head back to the airport in Tawau and start flying back to the north. My trip in South-East Asia has come to the end. Soon I'll be heading back to Svalbard, but before that I have got the chance to visit a good Svalbard friend Marco in Birmigham. Probably some pasta could be involved?

My feelings are bipartite. On the other hand I would like to continue. Go explore islands, reefs and jungles in Indonesia and Philippines. Again, I am happy to come back to the north. The summer with dream job and birds on Svalbard is just gonna be awesome. The science has become interesting again. After all, only during my trip, I realised how close to burn-out I was. It was good to take some time off, but now I am ready to work again.

This might be an end, but it ain't over. Blogging continues from Europe. I'll try to add more photos.

Read more...

Photo of the Day - the Kinabatangan Beast

Saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) or the salty is the largest living reptile on the planet. Old males can reach the length of 6-7 meters and the weight of far over thousand kilos. Salties are excellent swimmers and apex predators taking almost everything from fish to mammals. The species can live in saltwater, but normally prefers river estuaries.  

Unlike sharks, the dangerous reputation of the saltwater crocodile is well earned. In Australia it´s know of it´s aggressiveness and of the regular attacks towards people. Salties are killing bunch of people every year. In Borneo the species appears to be somewhat more relaxed and the attacks towards people were unknown concept until 17th of May 2009, when a salty took a swimming local fisherman just few kilometers out from our camp. A lose head was the only thing left to proof the cruelty, the locals said. 

This guy is photographed a kilometer outside from our camp on the river bank. It´s an especially large specimen, being at least 5 meters long. Could he be the one who ate the poor fisherman just day before taking this shot?

Read more...

Photo of the Day - Bird Nest Soup Caves

Gomantong caves are known from the stunning BBC's Planet Earth nature document. The caves consist of 16 separate halls, which all form a special ecosystem. Over 2 million bats are hanging below the highest parts of the cave roof to fly out for food before dusk. Guana from these bats gives a habitat and nutrition for millions and millions cockroaches, worms and land-dwelling crabs. Specialised mammal (can't remember the name) is feeding on the worms. Most importantly, at least for the Chinese and Malay's, these caves suppost huge populations of swiflets (suom. paasky), which are building nests from their saliva. The Chinese find these nests extremelly tasty and especially the white nests are of high value. Two harvesting seasons annually are strictly regulated and supervised events to ensure that these birds are produsing nests also for the coming years.

Read more...

Photo of the Day - Pygmy Elephants

Borneo elephants grossing a river at lower Sungai Kinabatangan. Asian elephant, sometimes called Indian elephant or pigmy elephant, is an endemic species to South Asia. Once it used to be common species in large areas, but nowadays it is restricted to smaller and smaller pieces of low-land rainforest. Subspecies Borneo Elephant was probably introduced to Borneo by Sultan of Sulu sometime in 16th century from Java.

Read more...