Little Auk

 One stop was at Sandbach Halvo, a peninsula. An Inuit told us that biologists worked there. We dropped anchor off the sandy beach, the next morning rowed in, were promptly greeted by an inquisitive fox. Went up to the ramshackle cabin; a note on the door said they were out with the auks. We saw them up the mountain and joined them. Jerome, French, the ornithologist in charge, has been coming here, 14x in the last 20 years. With him was Eva, North Carolina, USA, and Pauline, of Brussels, Belgium. There were here 5 weeks total, and they had already seen 40 polar bears. All 3 carried their own rifles.

Anyway, this post is about the colony of 200,000 lesser auks they were studying.

                Blizzard of auks whirling past high up on a steep slope of talus - dizzying

                                    Eva with auk chick, weighing & taking samples

Later in the evening, we joined the research team for a fire and dinner on the beach (while maintaining a constant bear watch), marshmallows included!