During late August I had the pleasure of doing a Narwhal-survey in Melville Bay in North-west Greenland. Mainly based out of Thule Airbase I had several opportunities to bird this quite big military base. Several small ponds and a bay with good mud flats during low tide makes this a very good birding area. Many different species of wader breed in the area.
The permanents at the base called the summer of 2014 the worst ever. I actually got the meaning of "Mud Season" by the end of our stay. With rain, wind and temperatures close to 0 degrees it was not at all as I remembered it from my three previous trips in 2012. Due to the crappy weather we had several down days (not flying) which gave me some spare time for birding.
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28/8 American Herring Gull, Thule Airbase. Sorry for the poor quality but had to keep my eyes out for Polar Bears. |
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28/8 American Herring Gull Thule Airbase. |
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28/8 Cackling Goose ssp. hutchinsii, Thule Airbase. |
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28/8 Cackling Goose ssp. hutchinsii, Thule Airbase. |
Also got to see good numbers of the more common birds of the area. A white Gyrfalcon was seen almost daily and Ringed Plover, Red Knot, Turnstone and Sanderling were all fairly numerous. Passerines like Arctic Redpoll ssp. h
ornemanni, Lapland Bunting, Greenlandic Wheatear and Snow Bunting were all still common.
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26/8 Arctic Redpoll at its roost, Thule Airbase. Not as many seen as on my last visits. |
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28/8 Purple Sandpiper, Thule Airbase. Local breeding bird but not seen during my last visit. |
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28/8 Greenlandic Gyr. One of the best raptors around |
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28/8 Greenlandic Gyr. Flew down to inspect me |
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28/8 Greenlandic Gyr trying to catch gulls. |
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26/8 Arctic Hare. Very confiding at Thule. |
RDN