Richard Smith writes: 3 hours sleep is all I got… Nikolay greeted us and told us we were Team Ironman from now on due to last nights mammoth performance… we have gained a little respect. I wandered out about 6ish and picked up my first Pacific golden plover and long-toed s

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

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

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

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

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 brea