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The great skua is "the predator" of Svalbard bird life. In addition to bird chicks and eggs their diet consists of adult birds, such as kittiwakes, eiders and little auks. The eagle like look is not a coincidence... |
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| Feet of new-born bird chicks are those that grow first. This grey phalarope chick was catching small insects with its father, while the mother was keeping some distance. |
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| Have you ever wondered why they say that birds are evolved from reptiles? Well, this Arctic skua has some dinosaur-look, doesn't it? |
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| Black guillemots are difficult to photograph, because of their almost pure black and white plumage. Sometimes in right conditions it is possible to get the feathers visible. This one was taken in mist, while sun was shining partly through the clouds. |
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| Arctic skuas are protecting their nest from large predators, such as people, by acting wounded. Sometimes this acting looks like a dance... |
Norwegian Polar Institute mounts cameras around the island. These cameras are taking photos of certain bird colonies around the archipelago in order to monitor reproduction and population variations between years. This one was mounted on a bird colony in Nordaustlandet.
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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.
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.
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