Expedition to the east Our four-man survey team camped two nights at Ankavia, 12km east of Meinoypil’gyno, to survey an area another 6 km on to the south east. We had to cross a narrow strait between Lake Peculnej and Yandatavey inlet, littered with icebergs that flowed off the lake,

Phil writes: Getting out early to Third River, where yesterday’s SbS had been seen, I found only one present with a flighty flock of Dunlin and Red-necked Stint. By mid-morning they were more settled, so I slowly walked to the mid-stream ice sheet and laid down on it. Soon a Terek San

The morning is bright with a strong and cold south-west migration-friendly wind. The first of the Terns have arrived, Arctic Terns flying along the coast on their elaborate wing beats. Christoph took the WWT group out on to the tundra in search of a good site to build the rearing avia

25 June 2011 I have been wondering how the team are doing across the water, we will find out later. It has been a foggy but still day. I joined Nikolay on the quad bike and we were out from 1000-1720hrs. We headed 15kms away to check a site that was still holding a territorial SBS las

19 June 2011 Late afternoon Nige dropped Simon at the foot of the hills so he could search he returned for me as I was going to lead him to a Dunlin nest later. Pavel, Egor and Nikolay were all searching the moraine hill territories for SBS nests. Jochen went with Gerrit to the east e

17 June 2011 Today as usual we all had a different area to cover, we are moved around so we all get a change. I was paired with Simon to take the quad into the hills to check over a few areas. It was quite a challenge getting the machine through marshes in particular but the route is

Sunday 12th June Martin reports: A bright sunny day. Today we headed out onto the spit with the quad bike. Simon and I took a radio and did a range check. It was connecting to about 2.5kms. We rode the 15kms to the end of the spit stopping off to check marshy ground adjacent to the la

10 June 2011 I went to breakfast without Nige and Simon, we had a lot of planning and set up a meeting at our place to discuss immediate issues. Nicolai thinks the birds in the study area are 4-5 days away from laying eggs, we all agree that it is best that we stand down until then to

3 June 2011 Simon went out at 0200-0900 but did not find any spoon-billed sandpipers, I decided against going out in the harsh conditions at 0700, nothing to be gained, I spared a thought for Simon as I made a hot cup of tea. He returned with news of the leg flagged Mongolian plover p

31 May 2011 A misty and foggy start to the day. All three of us at Base camp continued with cleaning after breakfast, I copped the toilet and Simon the kitchen areas behind the cupboards and floor. We had to disinfect everything as we want nothing nasty to be anywhere in the base. The