Once we were on board the excursion
boat, the icicles were melting and dripping on us, so it must have been just above
freezing, but the wind chill made it very cold. Some people complained
about the boat, "it was just a fishing boat", but what did they expect?
There was a picture of it in the excursion booklet. We saw some good birds;
eagles, puffins, black guillemots, a small unidentified grebe (maybe a slavonian),
cormorant and various gulls. There were lots of Eider in the harbour at
Svolvaer, unusual for us to see adult males
in with the females. In Essex we normally only get over wintering creches with
big flocks of juveniles being looked after by Aunties. There were two different eagles; one
very dark all over, about raven size but larger wings, the other was slightly bigger with more grey on
underparts and a distinct white diamond tail. They had been throwing pieces of salmon. much
of which went to the gulls, but the final gift was a whole fish. This was snapped up by an
eagle in front of us.
Despite being wrapped with several layers (Long Johns with fleece lined waterproof trousers,
and vest. shirt, pullover, cardigan, fleece and waterproof jacket, we still got very cold.
It took us a long while to warm through when we got back. The tender on the way back
was quite slow, and pretty cold as it was open sided.
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