I awoke this morning to fresh snow fall and the snow had covered the feeding area of the Lagoon where the Western Sandpiper's had been feeding the previous 2 Day's. So with this disapointment Martin and myself decided to walk up on the road and towards to village and to search for area's of open water. Our walk took us around 6 KM's and it was quite nice seeing the Tundra pools with Duck, Geese and Swan's present but Wader's were just not present and maybe this was because the ground was still to hard for them to feed. Our walk took us to the village of Pervomayaka but to get to it we had to walk through an area that can only be described as a huge scrap yard with abonded rusty old cars, bits of trains and ex military vehicles. This was all with the back drop of old disused coal mines and old ruined building presumed to be remnants of the "Cold War" and of an industry gone by. Photo below shows the village in the distance.
Once we arrived in the village of Pervmoayka we went in search of a cafe to get some Coffee or Tea or even a shop to get a soft drink of some kind. The building above caused us some concern as were undecided on what it actually was and the picture at the top left hand side really didn't fill us with confidence that it was a grocery store, however after a few minutes of deliberating we ventured cautiously inside (photo below) and was plessantly pleased to discover that was infact a grocery store and so we purchased a couple of Coke's.
Upon leaving the shop we sat outside on the steps drinking the Coke we had purchased and taking in the views and getting these photo's of the area and people (Photo above and 3 below). It seems that there is a large useage of colour & I suspect that this is to brighten up a rather grey and bleak place.
Photo above provides some colour to a rather dull & depressing place but as you can see life here must be difficult and I suspect that locals are built of stern stuff to be able to get through the long and brutally harsh conditions of the winter. How often do you see a woman pushing a buggy next to an ATV (All Terrain Vehicle). Below shows a local woman going about her daily routine as she heads to the shop.
Photo below shows one of the local men who was under the influence (check the bottle in his left hand)
Photo above and below shows you a couple of Vega Gull's that were present on an area of open water next to the shop and also several Glaucous Gull's were present here. Other sightings today included 6 Bewicks Swan, Shoveler, a Pair of Green Winged Teal, a Pair of Long Tailed Ducks, a single and rather distant Long Billed Dowitcher, several Sandhill Cranes, up to 4 Rough Legged Buzzards. The usual Pintail were present on nearly every open patch of water.
After leaving Pervomayka we took the local bus back to our hotel and this cost 12 Rubles and took about 10 minutes.