Bird place of the month,  Birds,  Coast & seascapes,  Svalbard

Arctic diary five: Alkefjellet and the Hinolpen Strait

September 16, 2025 / 62 Comments

I would bow slightly with my hands in my pockets, toward the birds and the evidence of life in their nests – because of their fecundity, unexpected in this remote region, and because of the serene arctic light that came down over the land like breath, like breathing.

Barry López, Arctic Dreams

Anyone who thinks of the Arctic as a bleak and desolate place, devoid of life, needs only to visit the bird cliffs of Alkefjellet to dispel that illusion. I have never seen so much activity, so much life, concentrated in one small area.

This is another instalment in my day by day accounts of the places we visited and sights we saw on our expedition cruise on Quark’s Ocean Explorer, and describes our fourth full day at sea. While yesterday had been a day of ice and of rain, today was mainly about the birds. As soon as I saw the cliffs at Alkefjellet I knew I would have to share them with Georgina and her Bird Places challenge.

Alkefjellet

After a night disturbed, unusually on this trip, by noise from the ship’s engine (more on that later!) we set off after breakfast on a zodiac cruise along the cliffs at Alkefjellet. 

Alkefjellet translates to ‘guillemot mountain’ in Norwegian. These imposing cliffs and basalt columns raise up from the sea to over 100 m high, interspersed with a dark layer – a dolerite intrusion. The molten rock, as it intruded, caused the limestone in the contact zone to re-crystalize and form marble. The dark and light strata of rocks add to this dramatic setting. Alkefjellet is a seasonal nesting location for guillemots and kittiwakes.

From the Ocean Explorer’s daily programme

Waterfalls in the cliffs

The guillemots here are mainly Brünnich’s. We learned later from Nigel that there are around 60,000 pairs breeding here! Yes, 60,000, so that’s 120,000 birds! I hope my slideshow below conveys some sense of the sheer number of birds on these cliffs.

  • Brünnich’s guillemots on the cliff ledges
  • Brünnich’s guillemots on the cliff ledges
  • Alkefjellet bird cliffs
  • Brünnich’s guillemots on the cliffs
  • Brünnich’s guillemots on a ledge
  • Brünnich’s guillemots on the cliff ledges

We also saw a few kittiwakes during our outing, and plenty of glaucous gulls who feed on the guillemot chicks.

Glaucous gull with a chick on the left, while if you click to enlarge the shot on the right you should spot the lone gull on the hunt for guillemot chicks (near the top, right of centre)

Along the bird cliffs

Our driver was less communicative than others had been, and I actually learned more about the birds from one of the other passengers, a keen naturalist. But the driver did get us into some great positions near the cliffs, whenever it was safe to do so. It was very misty at first and my camera struggled to focus. But conditions improved as the ride went on and we even saw the sun towards the end of it.

As we followed the line of the cliffs there were birds constantly overhead, coming and going from feeding areas.

  • Guillemots in the mist
  • Birds overhead
  • Birds overhead
  • Birds overhead

Birds (mainly guillemots) overhead!

I’ve removed the sound from my short video clip as the wind was so strong it dominated the recording. But I hope it gives you an idea of the scale of the activity here.

The rock formations were amazing. There were stacks and pinnacles all along the cliff, and rocks splintered into various shapes by the ice. We could clearly see the strata too.

Alkefjellet in the mist

We finished near a glacier and could easily see the difference in the sea water colour near the run-off. 

Approaching the glacier
The glacier
The Ocean Explorer awaits; you can see the different colour of the run-off water

From here we turned back towards the ship. Our driver warned us to put cameras etc away as it could be wet, and he was right. I was at the front and got drenched in spray at one point. But with all my protective clothing I only felt it on my face; icy cold, naturally. We learned later that Ryan had called an early end to the outing as the weather was closing in again, hence the need for speed.

The Hinolpen Strait

Chart displayed in the ship’s lounge (with apologies for the reflections); Alkefjellet is marked as 9 and our route through the Hinolpen Strait is also marked as a U-shaped loop (both top right quadrant)

Once everyone was back on board and the zodiacs berthed, we lifted anchor and set off further south on the planned route through the Hinolpen Strait. This separates the main island, Spitzbergen, from the second largest, Nordauslandet. The Ocean Explorer’s daily programme told us that the strait varies between 10 and 60 km wide and measures 150 km in length. It is named after seventeenth-century Dutch merchant, Thijmen Jacobsz Hinlopen.

As we travelled the mist closed in again as Ryan had expected it to, and turned to fog. The intention had been to look for polar bears on the small islands in the strait but it seemed clear that no one would be seeing much at all through the fog.

At lunch we enjoyed a chat with some of the other travellers and expedition team historian Ian. One of the things I liked about life on board the Ocean Explorer was that the members of the expedition team all joined us for meals and split up to sit with the guests, so we had some interesting conversations over these meals.

Towards the end of the meal Ian received a message informing him that he was to give a presentation that afternoon on the history of Svalbard! This then was the alternative to polar bear viewing; not quite the same but it nevertheless promised to be interesting. And so it proved, as Ian is a great storyteller.

There was no point in going on deck that afternoon so I have no photos of my own to share. Instead here is one taken during the morning excursion by ship’s photographer Kris, who manged to capture this great image of a guillemot chick.

Brünnich’s guillemots with chick, @kristopherandres

Briefings on board

At the later afternoon briefing we had a talk about the guillemots from Nigel and another about last night’s blue whales from Ema. Ryan then gave his usual general update on the voyage. We learned that it had been an eventful night, accounting for the noise that had disturbed us. The coastguard had requested the Ocean Explorer, as the nearest ship, to come to the aid of a sailing yacht with an injured crew member. We had diverted towards it and were preparing to send a zodiac to bring the injured man aboard. The plan was that he would then be airlifted from our ship; however just then the rescue helicopter arrived and was able to send someone down to the yacht to lift him directly from there, so we were able to resume our course.

Ryan also told us that this afternoon they had sent a zodiac to scout an island up ahead where he thought there might be polar bears. He was honest enough to tell us that there were but that he’d made the difficult decision not to take us there as it was impossible to do so within the rules that govern polar bear encounters. Although disappointing I fully respected him for that and for telling us when he didn’t need to.

The evening entertainment was a very interesting talk by Mike about his experiences of spending winters on Antarctic research stations. Soon after that it was time for bed, hoping for better weather for tomorrow’s planned visit to the edge of the sea ice.

I visited Svalbard in August 2025; this is an account of our adventures on Friday, August 8th

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