30 May 2011 Uncomfortable night as no pillow, my blow up one has punctured. After breakfast at Sveta’s house (local lady of the settlement who cooks breakfast and evening meals for us) we headed back to the house to continue house clearance and cleaning, the ‘incubation’ room was clea
29 May 2011 Spent all day clearing out three rooms in the house, dirty, grimy, dusty work and we were all itching. Finished at 1700 and after dinner went for a walk at 2000hrs, I watched the sea to witness the migration for an hour, big parties of Pomarine Skuas and Black Scoters were
28 May 2011 After breakfast we walked out with Pavel leading and everyone else following to check all the last breeding territories of Spoon-billed Sandpipers, we checked the gravel spits and ridges where a few Turnstone were seen and Dunlin heard to the low moraine hills and slopes,
27 May 2011 I woke early at 0300 and could see the mountains in the distance, we had to be flying today, surely. I stayed restless until 0500 and was going out but for the pools being all frozen. I went back to sleep until 0700 and then headed out to watch Long-toed Stints displaying.
26 May 2011 Again I got up early with tightly packed bags for a chopper flight at 0900….put off to 1100……cancelled at 1200….again, sitting around waiting for the heads up and once again a big fat negative. The sun was out and we could see the mountains in the d
25 May 2011 Hanging about until 0900, no helicopter flight, review later……..1100, still no flight…..1200 flight cancelled. I took a walk out through the airport marsh…2 displaying Long-billed Dowitcher and 2 more in the river marsh. 7 Pacific Eiders, 80 Black B
24 May 2011 Another sunny day, good news as the cargo finally arrived and we went to the hangar to sort out which equipment stays in Anadyr and which is to be loaded onto the helicopter to take to Meinypilgyno. It had been battered a bit since Nige sent it in late April from Slimbridg
23 May 2011 I woke up in the night feeling bad and took some medication, I spent the morning recovering from the migraine, In the late afternoon Nige and I went for a long Tundra walk, we saw a pair of Pectoral Sandpipers, 13 flew in and landed next to us with 3 and 8 seen later. Also
22 May 2011 I woke with a migraine, not a great start to the day, Nige and I were getting up and ready when a knock at the door revealed seven border officials. We spent much of the morning with them, they checked out our details and later we were told we could go about our business a