Having boarded Polar Front it was great to finally be heading north. It is always exciting heading into wild places and more so when it is a new environment with new discoveries awaiting. The primary goal for this expedition was Polar bear so the Arctic pack ice north of Svalbard was our target. We headed north up the western side of Svalbard marvelling at the sharp peaks that were the origin of the name Spitzbergen for the main island.

For me, the opportunity to spend time at sea watching and photographing northern hemisphere seabirds was my priority. This gave me the opportunity to enjoy every minute even when conditions made Polar bear hunting very difficult and slow. Northern fulmars were the representative of the Procellariiformes that we have in abundance in the Southern hemisphere so had a familiarity about them.

They regularly followed the ship so provided great subjects for flight photography.

It was exciting to see northern skuas in their Arctic environment. They are summer visitors to our southern waters where they are regular kleptoparasites harassing other seabirds for their catch.

Alcids were the group of northern seabirds I was most excited to see as we have no equivalents in the southern hemisphere where their ecological niches are filled by other seabirds. I have shared some images of Atlantic puffins, Brunnich’s guillemots and Black guillemots in my Exploring Isfjorden post and it was exciting to have days stretching ahead with possibilities to observe and photograph them in their marine habit.

Photos with Nikon Z9 and Nikkor Z 800mm f6.3 VR S