Headstarting is a collaborative effort between WWT, BirdsRussia and the RSPB, and occurs as part of the International Arctic Expedition mounted each year by BirdsRussia under the leadership of Dr. Evgeny Syroechkovskiy.

Gale force winds

Liz writes:

Gale force winds have been playing havoc with our routine today. The day started with heavy, driving rain that turned our little piece of Chukotkan tundra into a boggy swamp.

In the afternoon quite suddenly intense North Westerly winds picked up, blowing the roofs off several of the bird houses.  Rapidly trying to exit my tent was difficult, as the tent was blown flat on top of me.  I eventually managed to escape the tent trap to help Roland tie the roofs down with bits of string.

The birds didn’t even seem to notice the wind, while we were desperately trying to stay standing up!  Later, while I was inside the apartment cooking dinner, Roland did some Macgyver like tricks with string, spare aluminium poles, and cable ties to prevent the hole outside enclosure blowing away or collapsing!  Unfortunately we have no photos of this episode, as we were much more concerned with stopping the birds getting blown away!

Two of the oldest birds huddled against the cold (c) Liz Brown

Two of the oldest birds huddled against the cold (c) Liz Brown

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