One of the most amazing wildlife encounters I experienced during the two months I recently spent in the Arctic was whilst cruising around the base of one of Svalbard’s largest glacier fronts –Lilliehöökbreen. As we cruised slowly along the glacial front we discovered a wonderful archway shape in the deep blue ice with thousands and thousands of Kittiwakes engaged in a feeding frenzy at its base. The glacial face at Lilliehöökbreen is extremely active with chunks of ice the size houses and cars regularly calving off into the water below. These ice chunks stir up the marine life near the surface where the birds take advantage in a massive feeding frenzy. We were fortunate to have some wonderfully overcast skies which really makes the blues iridescent in the glacial ice. The Kittiwakes also help give a sense of scale of the massive glacial front.
