12 June 2003:
Our Plane departed at 6:25 pm from Amsterdam, and arrived in Oslo at 8:25 pm . From Oslo we took the plane to Longyearbyen,
Svalbard, this plane departed at 9:50 pm. In Norway the weather was very cloudy. Around midnight we saw Svalbard. The weather
was very good and we could see every part of the land. We saw ice, glaciers, the jagged mountains covered with snow and the sea
full of icebergs. We enjoyed the nice view and of course we took some pictures. At 12:30 am our plane landed at the Longyearbyen
Airport. It still wasn't dark. Because of the northern position of Svalbard, the sun doesn't set for 3 months! The first bird we
saw was the Snow Bunting flying around on the airport. During the ride to our temporary house, we saw 3 reindeer (special
subspecies on Svalbard.) Around 3 AM we went to bed tired but satisfied.
Southern Svalbard seen from the Plane
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Female Svalbard Ptarmigan
13 June 2003:
This morning we woke at 10 am, outside there was snow. First we went to the UNIS, this is the University of Svalbard
which we have a contract with. When we came back home for lunchtime, there was a reindeer standing in our garden!
After lunchtime, we did some research and after that we drove to the viewing point. On top of the mountain, we
discovered a male Ptarmigan (also a Svalbard subspecies). When we started taking some pictures of it, we discovered
that there was also a female with him. We didn't see it because of the nice camouflage colors. The male still had his
winter feathers as you can see on the picture.
Male Svalbard Ptarmigan
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