After our visit to the area around the Svalbard Global Seed Vault and then the walrus on the beach, we headed to the bird ponds over the road from the Longyearbyen Camping site which lies just a short walk from the Longyearbyen airport. The ponds are lovely habitat with a number of small gravel islands to provide security for breeding birds. The ubiquitous Arctic terns were in full breeding mode, courtship feeding and squabbling.

Ringed plover and Purple sandpiper gave nice opportunities for low angle images as they foraged along the edges of the ponds.

I noticed a pair of incoming Long-tailed ducks and was lucky to get a sequence of them landing.

My most exciting sighting was a Red (Grey) phalarope. These are fascinating little birds and I will devote a post to it.

This was a location I could happily spend days at.

Photos with Nikon Z9 and Nikkor Z 800mm f6.3 VR S