Common Eider Duck, originally uploaded by Dave Walsh Photography.
Eider drake stands on a roadway outside Longyearbyen, while craning its neck to vocalise its oh-oooo call. Common Eider Duck, Somateria mollissima, at the dog yard outside Longyearbyen, on the Arctic island of Spitsbergen, Svalbard. The eider nest between two enclosures of sled dogs on the outskirts of Longyearbyen, where the eggs are safe from the arctic fox, which is too scared to come close to the howling dogs.
Picture made during the Greenpeace Arctic Under Pressure expedition, 2010
Audio: Listen to the Common Eider (mp3)
(apologies for wind noise)
Writer, photographer, environmental campaigner and "known troublemaker" Dave Walsh is the founder of Blather.net, described both as "possibly the most arrogant and depraved website to be found either side of the majestic Shannon River", and "the nicest website circulating in Ireland". Half Irishman, half-bicycle. He lives in southern Irish city of Barcelona.