Svalbard part 23

Svalbard part 23

3 -17 August 2003:
It is getting quiet on Svalbard now. Most bird species finished breeding and a couple of them already left towards the open sea or to the South. There are not many flowers left and the landscape gets real fall colors.

Earthball

On August 6th on the way to our fieldwork we found a nice mushroom. It is what we call an Earthball but we don't know which species.

Eriophorum scheuchzeri

Eriophorum scheuchzeri is still in full flower, and the view is magnificent with all those fluffy balls all over the tundra.

Polar bear sign Adventalen

Above is a picture of the Polar Bear sign near the road to Adventalen. You will see these signs as soon as you leave Longyearbyen. In fact you can encounter these bears almost anywhere. There are a lot of tall tales about Polar Bears that walked through Longyearbyen past the nightclub, especially in the winter. This is because the Fjord is frozen then and their favorite prey, the Ringed Seal, is readily available close to Longyearbyen.

Arctic fox

Arctic fox

On the 8th of August we saw the Arctic Fox behind our home again. The fox looked much nicer, not like the last time with all the patches of loose hair. It had a very nice tight summer coat now and looked a lot thinner without the all the long hair!

Arctic fox

On the 10th of August we did a hike to Bjorndalen to stay there for the night in the students cabin. First we had to walk through a small river to climb up the plateau. Once on top of the plateau it appeared to be very foggy. After 5 minutes of walking it looked exactly the same in all directions and we couldn't see further then 10 meters. Luckily we brought a GPS so we managed to find the way.

Dead reindeer

On top of the plateau we found the skeleton of a reindeer. It had been strangled after it had gotten tangled in some old fence that was left there by people. You could tell that the reindeer had fought for his live before it died. We couldn't understand that there are people who would leave such things in nature. On the other side of the plateau we walked down again towards Bjorndalen. In the picture you can see the valley that we walked through (downwards).