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Arctic

Typically restricted to rocky shores, black guillemots utilize the cliffs, crevices and boulders for their nests, hunting the inshore waters for prey.

Breeding pairs will typically lay 2-egg clutches and raise 2 chicks to fledging. Incubation typically lasts 28 to 32 days, once hatched chicks receive care from the parents until they fledge aged 30 – 40 days. Once fledged chicks are totally independent and by age three or four years they will begin to re-join their natal colony.

Fathers and chicks out in the ocean for weeks teaching the young ones to survive diving and flying.

Here you see a Glaucous Gull trying to break its way into the Guillemot areas to steal a chick to eat.

They feed mainly by diving towards the sea floor feeding on fish, crustaceans or other invertebrates.

Many chicks do not make it to the water and crash into the ground. The Glaucouos Gull flies down and eats the chick. They are the clean up birds I guess you call them.

In the middle of all the Guillemots flying in all directions around us we discover a private sailing ship to the right of us anchored. .

Zodiacs tied down for the night at the aft of the ship after a busy day.

The ice on the water is changing to frozen sheets all around us.

The Ice Breaker ship we are on is about to enter into the ice frozen over as we head north.

Larger and larger junks of ice appear around us in the Arctic.

Suddenly out of no where a polar bear is spotted on the floating ice in the middle of the Arctic Sea.

Even with the telephoto lens it is easy to see he is relaxing at one point on the ice.

Suddenly he stands up on the ice sensing that we are in the vicinity of this magnificent animal. What a thrill for me to see him standing on his rear feet.

He must be thinking.. Hey Jim...come on down and join me. OK only kidding.

Here he is jumping from one piece of ice to the next.

He is drifting nearer to the ship for closer up photos.

Jumping from one piece of ice to another trying not to fall into the freezing water.

One look back at us from the ice. We were so lucky to encounter this magnificent animal so close to us in the middle of the Arctic Ocean.

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