Tag Archives: Photography

Svalbard (7) the way home Islfjorden and Longyearben

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When : August 2026 Weather: 0to5C

OM1mk2 Zuiko 150-400mm

Sailing back into the Islfjorden estuary, we were surprised by more sightings and interesting landscapes….

As we entered the estuary leading into Islfjorden the weather clear, the sun was shining…
Beluga! was the call
spouts from three belugas
Our only view was at this angle…this is when a drone would have done better but we were within the Spitzbergen drone exclusion zone…
and one of my favourite moments of the whole trip was this classic sighting of a puffin with fish in its beak…true it’s only 2 fish but I never thought I’d ever see this scene
Puffin
The hills fringing the fjord had really interesting colours!
after docking, we spent our last night on the boat…and were able to engage a local wildlife guide to bring us out….I really wanted to seek out the ptarmigan but alas we failed… this barnacle goose would have to do…
An arctic skua accompanied us
a flight of migratory barnacle geese!
Reindeer in the setting sun on Longyearbyen
Reindeer
one of our target animals was the arctic fox and it took a while but our guide then thought she saw some movement up the slopes…..
Indeed it was our arctic fox! It didn’t get close enough for us to take better shots and we thought that was that….
But just as we were leaving in the evening light….one of our group spotted something by the road…..
Indeed it was another arctic fox, much closer !
our final arctic wildlife experience was this lovely arctic fox bidding us goodbye…

So our great Arctic adventure finally ended…Singapore-Bangkok-Oslo-Longyearbyen, Arcic Icepack and back on our ice breaker. A unique wildlife trip…highly recommended!

Svalbard (6) Zodiacs to the water….

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When: August 2026 Weather: 0C OM1mk2 150-400mm Zuiko On our penultimate day, when we had crossed back over the Arctic Ocean to the Svalbard archipelago, we finally got a chance to get into our Zodiac equivalent Pioner boats to explore … Continue reading →

Birding Bibra Lake, Western Australia

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When: February 2026 Weather: Hot 30C

OM System

The birder we met at the Big Swamp in Bunbury had suggested that Bibra Lake would be worth a visit and so we arrived there at about 830am. We drove around the whole lake once to recce it and then parked on the East Side of the Lake near the skate park before walking towards the hides which are the nearer the top end of the east lakeside.

the boardwalk to the first hide which was small and rudimentary with nowhere to sit down…..we did shoot a few birds here but the better ones were at the second hide further north…
a few fairy wrens welcomed us
as did the silver eyes
grey fantail
fanning his tail
and flashing his wings!
new holland honeyeater’s colours are almost lost amongst the flowers
he too flashed his wings
rainbow lorikeet
yellow billed spoonbill posed beautifully
white faced heron from the first hide
Australian pelican flypast
oriental reed warblers were busy in the reeds
oriental reed warbler singing

Other local birders told us that we’d have better luck with the target ducks at the second hide and so we hiked over there….

this is the second hide where there were seats around the pontoon and the ducks came much closer……
Here it was we saw our first close up blue billed duck
blue billed duck
blue billed duck
australasian grebe
the rather drab musk duck
musk duck
musk duck
grey teal
grey teal
pacific black duck

As the sun came up nearer noon we thought we spotted some pink eared ducks in the far distance nearer the opposite shore……just a bit far for our lenses….so we opted to go for lunch in a wonderful grill and bar called Carrington’s, just about 10min from Bibra Lake…..they were awarded the best steak sandwich in West Australia so well worth a visit. After lunch we went back and parked on the west side of the lake and made our way to the water’s edge……

the western lake side where there wer many black swans and where the ducks were closer…
black swan flypast
black swan native to WA
and then we finally got close enough to see the lovely pink eared ducks!
Pink eared duck with typical stripes down the side
the pink ear isn’t the easiest thing to see as it’s a very small area but here we can see it quite clearly
notice also the unusual lower beak….

We finally called it a day about 3pm and made the 30 min journey back to Perth. Bibra Lake is well worth a visit from Perth as it is snear, eassy to navigate and has lots of bird activity. Highly recommended.