Ivory Gull - an arctic retrospective from Spitsbergen, 2008

Recently, matters birdwise have been rather quiet locally so below are a few photos from the arctic of an Ivory Gull which I saw in Spitsbergen in July 2008. Like many birds when in arctic surroundings they can be quite approachable and show little fear of humans. This bird was scavenging on wet partially bare earth for what little food was available. There was only time for a  few photos before it flew off to try elsewhere. Its characteristic orange-tipped, grey-blue beak shows up well and the plumage is pure white.