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The landscape is one with fairly little vegetation. The landscape is typical for an area where glaciers have passed over. Soft valleys peppered with lots of lakes, large and small. The exposed bedrock in many of the hills show strata of all hues and particularly when one gets closer to the edge of the inland ice the strata is sometimes close to vertical alignment due to the post glacial rebound and one can appreciate the huge forces at play looking at this.
Itīs a tundra and the thawing has started in earnest. The tundra is now very fragile and feels like a wet mattress when walking on it. We are just entering a period without frost at night and daytime temperatures can reach 10 to 15 degrees C. There are long periods of clear skies and sun as we are about 170km inland at the end of a deep fjord. The annual precipitation in the area is an order of a magnitude less that you would find on the cost to the west of us and the climate resembles dry mainland climate as apposed to costal.
In general in Greenland there have been observed about 235 species off bird but only 60 are considered permanent breeders. The birds we typically see in the area are Raven, Ptarmigan Greenland Falcon, White-tailed Eagle. With summer come various species of duck and small birds that resemble Housemartins (I could not find the proper name for them in the dictornary :) We in particular await the arrival of the Loom that nest here by the lake a short distance from our house. They can keep you up all night!
I observed my first flock of Greenland White-fronted Geese in early May. The arrival of the geese is an indicator to the people of Greenland that finally summer is around the corner but people also pay attention to this because hunting is still a way of life to provide food on the table. The question is, do the geese show up before or after May 1? Before May 1, you may hunt them! Afterwards they are safe.
Best of luck to you and the geese.
Eggert
Further Reading:
Check Lightning and GFG's virtual fuel gauges
Find Lightning and GFG's current location
Read Lightning and GFG's migration blog