Just before my departure for Madrid I had a quick call from Passant Minor, (still a bit dopey after flying home across 6 time zones from Anadyr via Moscow). He tells me that Wrangel Island was shrouded for long periods in more mist than usual. Highlights of his trip were Hump-backed and Minke Whales, Musk Ox, Walrus, and a couple of dozen Polar Bears, though of course with no Woolly Mammoths bellowing or sauntering across the tundra. Apparently Wrangel was their last refuge prior to extinction and is still the best place to find well preserved fossils. In terms of birds, the alcids were well represented by Tufted Puffins, Little Auks, Brunnichs Guillemots, Rhynoceros Auklets, with huge no´s of Crested Auklets passing their vessel. Also noteworthy was Spectacled Eider (a near mythical species in West Pal terms) and a single Snowy Owl. On a sobering note, Wrangel used to support some 50 pairs of breeding Spoon-billed Sandpipers, now reduced to one known pair, which is properly strictly "off limits" to visitors.
Just before my departure for Madrid I had a quick call from Passant Minor, (still a bit dopey after flying home across 6 time zones from Anadyr via Moscow).
He tells me that Wrangel Island was shrouded for long periods in more mist than usual.
Highlights of his trip were Hump-backed and Minke Whales, Musk Ox, Walrus, and a couple of dozen Polar Bears, though of course with no Woolly Mammoths bellowing or sauntering across the tundra. Apparently Wrangel was their last refuge prior to extinction and is still the best place to find well preserved fossils.
In terms of birds, the alcids were well represented by Tufted Puffins, Little Auks, Brunnichs Guillemots, Rhynoceros Auklets, with huge no´s of Crested Auklets passing their vessel. Also noteworthy was Spectacled Eider (a near mythical species in West Pal terms) and a single Snowy Owl.
On a sobering note, Wrangel used to support some 50 pairs of breeding Spoon-billed Sandpipers, now reduced to one known pair, which is properly strictly "off limits" to visitors.