Blue Eyed Birder: Day 5 - 16th June 2026 - Svalbard - Spitzbergen & the pack ice with Bird's Wildlife & Nature

Overnight we headed north for the pack ice and not long before 0700 it was in sight. The weather was closing in and snow showers sprinkled across us. Bill and I had just seen a few auks when a Korean lady flapped past us saying ’Where is the Blue Whale?’ We had heard a Tannoy but were not near a speaker and only heard the ‘mwah mwah’ of Charlie Brown’s teacher.

I ran up to the bridge where the ET were stationed and asked only to be pointed at a behemoth blowing before slipping beneath the waves! ‘Start the clock’ they said. Five minutes later and bang on cue a Blue Whale surface on the port side close enough to hear the expulsion of air and see the distinct kids tree type shape. It blew three more times and then slipped beneath the waves which from the side seemed to take forever with the small dorsal fin being almost the last thing you saw. While we waited the towering plumes of Fin Whales could be seen in the distance and then the Blue Whale re-surfaced but this time there were two. A third came up in front of the ship.

Blue Whale

My crew had all assembled by this point having been chivvied from their rooms and we all looked incredulously at one another. Had we really added Blue Whale to our extraordinary list of wildlife encounters?

Breakfast was called and we all retreated to the warmth down below as we started to crunch our way through the pack ice that soon enveloped us.

The bridge had radiators

Entering the ice

The rest of the day became about deck time with hour after hour scanning the ice in increasingly fine weather for signs of life. There were Brunnich’s Guillemots and Little Auks even our here and flocks of Black Guillemots which puzzled me for such a coastline specialist but I think that almost everyone that I saw was a 2cy bird with some degree of dark barring across the white wing patches. The form here is ‘mandti’ and I did see one striking bird still in almost all white winter plumage but I can find nothing in the literature about immature plumages. Anyway flocks of these whistling birds circled the boat and were actively feeding in the churned up wake behind the Ortelius which also attracted plenty of Kittiwakes and Fulmars along with the odd Glaucous Gull and a single Ivory Gull. One Arctic Skua was well out of range and a Ringed Plover attempted to land on the ship. I was hoping it would call but I could not see anything to think it was a Semi-palmated!

Fulmar - Jim Willett

Multi-hued Fulmars

Little Auks

Black Guillemots and a Little Auk

Black Guillemots - I presume 2cy bird - consistently odd wings

Black Guillemots

Black Guillemot

Black Guillemots

Little Auks

Black Guillemots - the lower one was almost completely dark

Ivory Gull

Kittiwake - Jim Willett

And so to the occasional mammals. Obviously we were scouting for Polar Bears but we did find a few Pinnipeds with our first dinky Harp Seals, several lounging Bearded Seals and a bull Hooded Seal that completely threw me as it looked like an Elephant Seal with the big bibbly bobbly nose thingy and I had to ask the folks on the Bridge what it was. Annoying it by the time they came outside it had slipped out of view from the open water it was in. I found a Minke Whale too but this at least had the decency to come back up closer and give some excellent views on both sides. We hoped for Bowhead but had no joy.

Compression ridge

Underside ice now on the up side

There was something strangely alien about the Harp Seals when they were porpoising.

Harp Seal

Harp Seal breathing hole

Way off in the distance there appeared to be open water with a yacht on not and either side we could see the enormous blows of several Fin Whales. I have no idea just how far away these were. While watching them two Polar Bears were at last found and with some stealthy approaching we were able to watch the male pursuing his love interest. They played kiss chase for an age and she was coyly playing hard to get and making him work. The poor sod was getting seriously overheated and both required a slump in the ice now and then when black tongues were out and panting. Draping yourself seductively over an small ice chunk is not what we called a definitive ‘bugger off’ and once he had got his breath back the pursuit continued. A proper idea of how fast they can run was demonstrated and their leaping prowess across gaps in the ice too.

Snogging

She draped herself alluringly across a mini berg

Polar Bears - she was playing hard to get

Polar Bear - Jim Willett

Polar Bear love - Jim Willett

Polar Bear - jump across - Jim Willett

Tonight was BBQ time on the helideck and everyone assembled for a wonderful meal on trestle tables under a blue sky with the Ortelius drifting, engines off, through the pack ice while our Polar Bear friends continued their courtship across the pack ice through which we floated.

The gang. Anne, Cindy, Nigel, me, our adopted buddy Zoe, Lex, Jacqui, Bill, Steve and Jim with the lovely Expedition Leader Ali

Complimentary ale was available and there were two fine ales to sample with some travel behind them. A dark Beagle Husky and a blonde Berlina Patagonian Special Bitter. Both were consumed at 80.6 degrees north and we were officially at that point the most northerly humans on Earth. Both fine beers (not bears) had travelled on the ship from the Fuegian brewery at the southern tip of Argentina. No air miles. Just a lot of ocean between there and their place of consumption!