19 May 2011
Woke at 0600 drank tea and got ready for the day, we visited the small shop which is at one end of the accommodation. Our current routine now is to buy a drinking yoghurt, some bread if they have any or breadsticks if not and eat it with cheese triangles or salami for breakfast. There is fruit for sale and lots of essential items, stock varies daily, many products are out of date. I plan to buy lots of supplies for our destination as there will be very little for us there.
We are awaiting the arrival of our shipment to the airport so we can divide the equipment between the two sites of Meinypilgyno (our base until 10 July, when we get there that is) and Anadyr. It is scheduled to arrive at 1400hrs today as it was postponed yesterday due to the weather. Nige has been emailing, the queue is long and the PC very slow and I have had problems with the video software on my PC which I am hoping to resolve soon.
1332hrs, a cargo plane has just arrived, we hope the stuff is aboard. My head hurts from the vodka. The vega gulls have stolen our butter through the window, I only left it slightly ajar and they dragged it through a small gap smearing it everywhere.
1900hrs After waiting all afternoon it has now been confirmed that our cargo has not arrived, it is still in Moscow so we will not be able to set up any equipment in preparation. We have been told that ‘hopefully’ it will arrive next Tuesday. Everyone has taken a knock on this situation the weather is poor, lots of snow flurries on/off all day and no sunshine.
Simon had been out birding and saw displaying pectoral sandpiper this morning. I have seen a few birds flying over or past the hotel, mostly geese and a party of 26 sandhill cranes.
Sandhill cranes, photo by Rosalind Renfrew
Not much to add to today’s log with Igor. We will be stuck here until next week, really going to have to dig in and busy ourselves with editing images, writing blogs etc. Gerrit Vyn (Cornell Lab cameraman and photographer) popped round to our room with a film that his organisation made, which included his work, a lovely piece on the bar-tailed godwit migration from Alaska to New Zealand and the transmitters that were fitted. Also a short film on Birds of Paradise, he also showcased his images, all were excellent. He is a great photographer. We were also joined by Simon and Jochen.
