Page 52 - 2003 SVALBARD, NORWAY

good slide presentation with excellent examples of all the birds he

mentioned. Because the slides were so clear, we recognized a
couple of birds we had definitely seen but were not sure of their

names: the Glaucous Winged Gull and the Dovekie or Little Auk.
The talk was enjoyable and it was good to see all the bird life that

calls Svalbard home for at least part of the year.

Hike Cancelled by Bear
Ralph next got us all excited about going on shore. Dinner was

moved back to 8 PM and we signed up for the medium walk (the
long walk was already filled by the time we got to Reception). We

ran back to the cabin to get geared up for the cold and since no
call for medium walkers ever came we went eagerly to the “side

gate” on the 200 deck. We found that they had already started to
load our fellow medium length walkers so we were relieved we

had “come on down.”

We got into the Zodiac and settled ourselves for a cold ride over

the waves to the landing site when suddenly Lisa (Asst. EL) told us
to get back off the Zodiac because a bear had been spotted near

the landing. Immediately all the Zodiacs were launched and the 30
long walkers already ashore were very efficiently returned to the

ship as well as all the staff.

Of course, that meant that our evening shore excursion was
scrubbed. We all watched the intruder bear way up on a rock face
quite a bit away from the proposed landing site. However, we

realize these animals can move very rapidly and so understand the
necessary caution of Lindblad. One polar bear “accident” and that

would be the end of the company.

Not one of the naturalists understood what the bear was doing so
high on the rock face because there are no rodents or birds in that