Blue Eyed Birder: Day 4 - 15th June 2026 - Svalbard - Spitzbergen & the pack ice with Bird's Wildlife & Nature

Overnight we covered quite a lot of nautical miles and by 6am we were well within the Hinlopenstretet sound between Spitzbergen and Nordaustlandet, the mighty ice caped northeastern Svalbardian islands. Four Walruses were hauled out as we came past Wahlbergøya and further south towards Wilhelmøya where we started to meet the fast ice. It was a grey but calm day with moody skies that created an even more atmospheric vista.

Brunnich's Guillemots

Nordaustlandet ice cap

Not sure if this is an ice cow or an ice slug

Little Auks

North Atlantic Penguin. It actually evoked images of all the Great Auk paintings I have grown up seeing

Brunnich's Guillemots

Northern Fulmar

The sun came out, the breeze dropped and we were treated to the most stunning afternoon. We slowly bumped our way through the loose ice sheets with literally thousands of Brunnich’s Guillemots and Little Auks moving ahead of us. Rather oddly I had never noticed that all the auks do not use their feet to help get airborne but rather bounce along the surface of the water flapping their wings furiously while their legs are stuck out to one side like a useless pair of flippers before pulling them back in once up and flying! The sound of their calls and the slashing pattering echoed all around us. Frustratingly I picked up a distant Ivory Gull and on the ice we found our first Ringed Seals, several hefty Bearded Seals and a a Minke Whale briefly surfaced.

Brunnich's Guillemots

Bearded Seal

Bearded Seal - Jim Willett

Bearded Seal - Jim Willett

Brunnich's Guillemots

Brunnich's Guillemot

Kittiwake

Brunnich's Guillemot

Brunnich's Guillemot - Jim Willett

Fulmars tracked our progress and Arctic Terns and Kittiwakes were constantly with us. Once back into open water the bridge teams spied two Polar Bears working the fast ice attached to Wilhelmøya. They were a long way off but were steadily working the ice where we could count over 40 Ringed Seals dotted around.

Kittiwake - Jim Willett

Arctic Terns - Jim Willett

Northern Fulmar - Anne Bielamowicz

Prowling Polar Bears #3 & #4

They both settled down some way apart and went to sleep and after lunch we boarded the zodiacs and headed out to explore. Sacha once again had our group and with his expert hand at the tiller we got the best views of anyone of a huge Walrus up on the ice along with Ringed Seals and a pair of dancing Black Guillemots that spent an age circling each other like there was an imaginary Maypole.

PB prints

Ringed Seal

Ringed Seal - huge eyes!

Ringed Seal - Jim Willett

The Polar Bears were always on view and started to wander across the ice again but were still a way off and we were well out of harm’s way. A shout from Ali of Ivory Gull had me looking straight up as this pure white ghost of a bird drifted over our heads. All my crew got straight on it and then a second one drifted over on light buoyant wings. A radio shout from Alan of ‘Howard, I hope you all got that?’ was much appreciated as they Team all knew how much we wanted one of these.

Ivory Gull

Ivory Gull - Jim Willett

Walrus

Close to the shore we tracked Polar Bear and Arctic Fox tracks and a Purple Sandpiper flew into a stream entering the sea while a single Pale-bellied Brent Goose going over was somewhat incongruous.

Brunnich's Guillemot

Black Guillemot

Black Guillemots

Black Guillemot

We returned happy to the Ortelius and started our return journey through the ice and blue water. With unchanging sun it makes remembering when things happened a little off kilter at times but I am sure it was after dinner and I was upstairs in the lounge tippety tapping on my pc with Jim when the calm voice of Ali announced a Polar Bear lump at the end of some tracks on the starboard island. We downed tools and headed out and there indeed was a yellow (we had decided on Hollandaise over Mayonaise) blob. It put its head up and then lumbered up to gasps of, not appreciation but disbelief at just how enormous in all proportions the male was. His head was stained blood brown as were his paws and entre belly and he had eaten so much that his big fat belly almost touched the ground.

Fat Boy PB #5 - Jim Willett

Suddenly there was a shout of another bear and this one also came down the ridge but headed away from Fat Boy and upon reaching the beach, calmly slipped into the water and began to swim straight out – 15 minutes later she was still going strong into the distance.

PB #6 - Jim Willett

Fat Boy had lumbered a few more paces and at this stage we all learnt that the age old adage about bears and woods also applies to Polar Bears and Ice. He must have felt better for that and staggered a few more paces and then flumped down in the snow once again to sleep off his vast meal. Amazingly another PB (#7) appeared on the ridge before heading towards the beach of view. Whatever that carcass over there must have been very large indeed!

Fat Boy PB #5 - Anne Bielamowicz

Fat Boy PB #5 - Jim Willett

Another shout and another PB appeared on the ridge before heading down to the sea! This was getting silly. ‘PB on the port side’ came the message and number four was quickly found patrolling the vast area of fast ice.

Can you spot PB #8 - Jim Willett

I ran back round to tell people at which point two more PBs came over the ridge with big bellies swinging – whatever had died on that side of the island must have been very large to leave five bears fully sated. These two also headed for the beach and began a long swim for the fast ice in the other direction.

PB #9 & #10 - Jim Willett

What an astonishing half hour with six Polar Bears taking us to eight for the day and ten for the trip. Everyone just walked around smiling and shaking their heads in disbelief at just how lucky we had been.

My porthole view as the sun pretended to set at bed time.

Blue Eyed Birder

Thursday, 9 July 2026

Day 4 - 15th June 2026 - Svalbard - Spitzbergen & the pack ice with Bird's Wildlife & Nature

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