Perhaps partly because I’ve never gone out to sea for a long voyage before, I am continually impressed by the amount of life that we’ve seen from Oden. And not merely undersea life, but life above the waves, despite being far north in the Laptev Sea.

These are mostly incidental observations – I spend most of the day in the lab, or elsewhere inside the ship (such as the mess or my cabin), where I can’t see much outside. Despite my limited time outside, it is rare to walk outside and not see birds. Either following the ship, passing by, or diving in the water (for food), there are birds everywhere. And we are not near land at all. Here is a group of Thick-billed Murres (Uria lomvia) who were following the ship yesterday.



One has to be lucky with the light to get a photo of the passing birds. Why? The Arctic region is cloudy in summer most of the time. And often foggy... the fog led to a fogbow a few days ago.



A fogbow is somewhat like a rainbow, but the water droplets are so small, they don’t refract the light into colors. So a fogbow appears a ghostly white, unlike a rainbow. I’d never seen one before.