1 July 2011 In the afternoon Simon and I walked across the gravel plain to the base of the hills, much of the water and pools has dried up, seeped away leaving only a few wet spots. No sign or sound of any SBS in the time we were there. It was a warm day and the mosquitoes were active

18 June 2011 Nige and I spent the day searching for nests with Jochen, each day we partner, go it alone or form a group to search, we covered several over hills, marsh and gravel,  and employed a treble transect technique, forming a line with the three of us spaced out and walking the

9 June 2011 Oh dear….late start, missed breakfast, I was trying to email WWT when Liza knocked, she had brought porridge for the larry lightweights who had not got up for breakfast, the Pacific air and tequila had taken its toll. Apart from the reaction to celebratory spirits on

5 June 2011 It is still very windy and cold but less so than the last few days, after breakfast I got ready and picked up the Quad bike (ATV) from the storage container. I headed west of the village to check the spits that had thawed to see if any Spoon-billed Sandpipers were present,

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

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

21 May 2011 I headed out across the Tundra during the morning with Nige and Jochen, a close Willow Grouse walked ahead of us. A Short-eared Owl and Arctic Skua were dominating the area, Long-billed Dowitchers, c200 in total were flying over calling and displaying. Otherwise it was a s

20 May 2011 We woke at around 0630, I got ready to go out, I needed a long walk to make up for the day spent inside hanging around for nothing yesterday, Nige was spending the morning working on his laptop. I got my outdoor gear on and headed out across the Tundra from the airport. On