Farther up the snowy mountainside, we cross some tracks of the Svalbard ptarmigan, the only resident bird in Svalbard. All the other birds, such as Brünnich’s guillemots, little auks, various gulls, and purple sandpipers, are migratory. Of special interest is the arctic tern. Many of these terns migrate all the way to the opposite end of the globe, to Antarctica.

[Pictures on page 26]

The Svalbard ptarmigan,