22 Aug 2017

SOE: Bird Cliffs Delight

We woke to a startlingly warm, calm and sunny day. Outside temperature was above 10 degrees C. Kittiwakes, fulmars and short-tailed shearwaters buzzed around the ship as we filled the morning with our mandatory briefings, including how to use our amazing Zodiacs to get on and off the ship, and our emergency procedure drills. We dropped anchor in Preobrezhniya Bay just before lunch, and by 1.30 pm, were about to launch Zodiacs for our cruise visit the nearby bird cliffs. But first there was activity in the waters near the ship as two aluminium boats with local hunters began taking walrus, using both rifles and harpoons. We put our operations on hold while Howard and Liya went across to one of the hunters’ boats to find out their intentions and to ensure safe passage to the cliffs for our own boats. Soon we were making our way across through a rising wind and chop to incredible bird cliffs.

Kittiwakes and chicks, thick-billed and common murres, horned and tufted puffins, least auklets, glaucous gulls and pigeon guillemots could be seen holding court on the ledges, flying nearby or floating on the sea. It was lovely to hear the cries of the chicks begging for food, and particularly nice to see harlequin ducks moving surreptitiously along the shore. It was like a busy high rise packed with life, horned puffins tucked into niches, murres and kittiwakes dominating ledges, glaucous gulls taking the high ground and the tufted puffins painting a whole mountainside brown as they flew to and from their burrows to fish.

We continued beyond the bird cliffs to the centre of the bay, where a rocky outcrop beckoned our walkers. After landing near the small river mouth, some of us set off up the hill, stopping from time to time to pick delicious crowberries blueberries, until we were rewarded with a vantage that looked deep into the tundra valley and also along the narrow spit that divided the mirrored sea. Late afternoon light dappled the distant slopes and made the sea cliffs glow silver.

Returning to the beach, we encountered both the remains of a brown bear that had died some time ago, and the prints of what appeared from their size to be those of either a healthy female, or young male. Just above where we landed, a small camp had been made near the skull and jawbone of a bowhead whale. It set several of us to dreaming of spending a night there under the stars.

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