Trekking through the Tundra: Day 2 Part 2

Ship anchored for excursion

Groups being dropped off by zodiac

Day Two:  6/18/2012 Monday

After lunch I had my first chance to try out my new Muck boots as the we were chauffeured via Zodiacs (rubber boats) from ship to shore for an excursion in Krossfjorden.  Katie (Grosvenor Teacher Fellow from Ohio) and I chose the long hike, 3 miles with incline. There were also shorter hikes and zodiac cruises to choose from.  We started the hike on a shale-covered beach near an amazing glacier.   The terrain varied from hard uneven shale to super spongy moss to very squishy wet moss.   

I spotted 3 reindeer off in the distance (well camouflaged...closer pics later) and learned that it has no predator, but when food is scarce is starves to death.  Thus, you could say, starvation is its predator and keeps the reindeer population in balance.  

I saw many of the native plants such as purple saxifrage, lycopodium, and reindeer lichen (major food source for reindeer).  

Purple Saxifrage.  This was just starting to bloom most of the places we hiked.

Lycopodium growing out of the snow.  Lots of green appearing in the brown tundra.

Reindeer Lichen-a favorite food of the reindeer.

Historical remains.  These are protected.  Don't touch and don't remove.

I viewed the remains of a WWII German weather station and a Norwegion station.  The remains, which include garbage left behind, look a bit out of place on the tundra, but are protected by the government as evidence of Svalbard’s past.  I took many pictures of the arctic terns.  They look like a gull with a black head and it migrates farther than any other bird—between the Arctic and Antarctic.  I saw a skua, Svalbard’s only predatory bird.  It will harass and stress out the kittiwakes (cute little gull with black wing tips), causing them to cough up their food—a unique way to get “fast food.”  The skua was also unique in that when it landed in the freshwater lake, it splashed around, bathing itself to wash off all of the salt from the seawater.  I saw and heard the snow bunting, Svalbard’s only songbird, Finally, I taped the running water coming running down into a river that led to the fjord.

Skua

Meltwater add to the green of the tundra.