Red square and the Kremlin, Moscow

Les Underhill and I winged our way to the Netherlands on the 19th June 2002. We were excited with anticipation and terrified with fear of the unknown. We spent a few days with Bart Ebbinge and his wife Doortje in Wijk bij Duurstede in the Netherlands - they looked after us very well! While in the Netherlands we joined the preparatory activities of Les' arctic team coworkers at Alterra and we cycled around a bit doing some sight-seeing - we ended up in Culemborg and found the house that Jan van Riebeck grew up in. We were also able to meet Henk Visser and Karen Krigsveld in Groningen for a quick update and discussion about the future.

On the 23rd June we joined Les' team on a flight to Moscow. We had a day in Moscow where we could do a little sight-seeing before we headed north to Norilsk - we managed to choose a rathr rainy day to see the Kremlin! We journeyed from our hotel to the Domestic airport where we flew to Norilsk. Unfortunately our plane was diverted due to fog and by the time we had reached our destination the flight to Dikson had already left! Horrors, we were stranded! It took a day and two nights in Dudinka, about 2 hours drive from Norilsk, to sort out transport to our respective study sites. I was quite relieved because someone had neglected to buy a plane ticket for me to Dikson so I would have been stranded in Norilsk anyway! We spent time in Dudinka birding and "site-seeing".

Les Underhill at the hotel in Dudinka

Dudinka

Raymond Klaasen and Les Underhill birding in Dudinka

Uboina from the helicopter

Finally Gerhard Muskens, the leader of the group organised a helicopter to fly us to our study sites. I was lucky enough to join the trip and then be dropped off at the Medusa Bay station. Because I was last, one of the pilots, Alexander, was put in charge of me - and insisted that I sit in the cockpit - it was great scenery! I left a very worried looking supervisor in the Pyasina Delta and was soon greeted by the sight of Medusa Bay station out of the mist.

Hans and Ingrid ringing Phalaropes

So, my first day out in the field was the 28th June! I Joined Hans Schekkerman and Ingrid Tulp in nest searching and bird catching. The tundra and its birds were breathtaking! About a week after I arrived we were joined by Joep de Leeuw, also a Dutch scientist, to make our team one of four. We were going to have a busy season because in addition to the egg mass loss measurements and energetics experiments that I planned to do they were also planning to do several experiments. The first was to complete their sample of doubly-labelled water experiments on incubating adult Dunlins. The second was to do a series of feeding experiments on incubating Little Stints. And the third, to look at nest insulation of breeding waders. Joep and I had arrived just in time for the beginning of the nesting period. Amazingly we quickly found nests of Dunlin, Pacific Golden Plovers, Turnstone, Little Stint and Curlew Sandpipers. Later we found Pectoral Sandpipers, Red and Rednecked Phalaropes and Ruff. There were several other species nesting in the tundra too - Shore Lark, Snow Bunting, Lapland Bunting, Common Redpoll, Redthroated Pipit, Brent Geese, Snowy Owls, Rough-legged Buzzard, Longtailed and Pomarine Skuas, Longtailed Duck and a pair of Stellar's Eider!

Ice flows on the Tundra

In the mist

Turnstone nest

The diversity of the Tundra was amazing! There were a million different varieties of weather - no day was the same. Similarly each day presented new challenges with more species nesting. The first eggs to hatch were those Lapland Bunting but the first wader hatchlings were Dunlin, closely followed by the Curlew and Pectoral Sandpipers and Little Stints. The hatchling period was off with a bang and at the rate at which the chicks grew it was over before we could catch our breath. We achieved all that we wanted in the breeding season: we found about 300 nests altogether and of the wader nests we ringed the hatchlings of about two-thirds of the surviving wader nests, we completed many Little Stint chick and Dunlin adult experiments and Joep obtained some interesting nest insulation data.

On the 12th August we left Medusa Bay by boat and ended up spending the night in the offices of the Great Arctic Reserve in Dikson. We left Dikson on rather misty weather and ended up stranded in Norilsk. Tania, our Ukranian travel companion who also spent her time in Medusa Bay studying migrating birds, organised a place in Dudinka for us to stay. The next day we managed to get to Moscow. Olga Stepanova put up with the five of us for three nights and hospitably hosted a dinner to celebrate the end of the field season with all the other scientists that were working at Medusa Bay that season. On the 16th August we returned to the Netherlands feeling a little weary but totally satisfied!

It was a great trip and I learned a great deal from the people around me; about different cultures, different mammals and birds that breed in the Tundra and particularly about all the different chick-rearing methods of the migratory waders.

 

Little Stint chicks

Ptarmigan female

Common Redpole

Kathy Calf's participation in this expedition was made possible by research funding from the Skye Foundation, the Darwin Initiative and the National Research Foundation. Cape Storm provided hardweather gear and sleeping bag at a big discount, and Campus Camera provided film, and the processing afterwards, at cost price. She borrowed waterproof clothing from Marine and Coastal Management.