In Search of Isbjørn.

[PRWIN]

Dewi lovely shots again

I just have a question.

Where you suffering from prolonged artic exposure.?

Use a mic and druck at a Isbjorn sighting great photo's ,can't wait for the others

[nan]

magic visions... the Bear and the bird's festival
what a pleasure I have to watch all these pictures, thanks
and read... of course -O

[Flutterby]

Lis, do you still have your teddy?

[Lisbeth]

I do not remember what happened to it, but it must have been more or less "slept" to pieces and I seem to remember that our dog gave it the final blow, it was probably jealous -O -O .....or was that the yellow teddy bear I was not the doll type, the only one I ever had was cut open to see what was inside

[Richprins]

it brings back some memories for me, I was stationed at an airforce base on Melville Island for a year or 2. (Canadian Arctic)

Better move along, Dewi, before the "War Stories" come out!

[Dewi]

Thanks once again for the comments and compliments everyone.

Bushcraft, Thanks. Hope I didn't freak you out too much there.

BJ, Thanks for the Castle, slurp.

Mel, the pics are a bit blurred. I got overexcited and made a mess of them.

PRWIN, proof shots first. I also wanted pics of them in their environment, so used the little camera as we approached the bear. Think I need more Arctic exposure after this trip though.

Nan, more festivals to come. It's been like a church fete up until now, Rio Carnival on its way soon.

Flutts, I still have my teddy. He even went to Antarctica with me, but was too scared to go to the Arctic in case the bears got him.

Lis, Remind me not to upset you, I don't want my insides cut open.

RP, moving along now, but a war story or two would not go amiss.

[Dewi]

As the morning drew on and it was time for lunch, I decided to skip the meal and just have some crackers as I was growing larger by the second with all the great food on board. Sorry RP, no update on lunch I'm afraid today.

Back on deck, the Fulmars were dropping down into the water to pick up bits of food, taking off by paddling furiously, only to drop down again as soon as another juicy morsel was seen.



















Two bears could be seen in the distance. One was at a kill and took the remains of the carcass into the water and swam a while with it before it dropped the backbone of a seal into the water and returned to the floe. The other was swimming from floe to floe, checking back on the other bear every now and then. Five Pomarine Skuas were on the ice the other side of the ship. Dilemma. What to do? Poms are a firm favourite of mine, but I usually only see them at a distance as they move through here in Wales on passage. I made my decision.

The Poms were closer than the Bears, so I snapped off a few pics of them as we closed in on their ice floe. They took off laconically and headed for the horizon.





This is the pic that made it into the local paper.




Eventually, we closed in on the Bears. The larger of the two females was swimming for a nearby ice floe. Will we get the chance for a closer look? I wondered.......

[Sprocky]

Finally...Isbjorns!!

[Lisbeth]

The sequence of the fulmars is great! The movement of the water (and the bird) is superb

Too bad that someone has not seen the other three bears

[PRWIN]

Dewi

Great in flight shots