The Dutch-Russian team in their study area, Knipovich Bay, northern Siberia (from left to right): Job ten Horn, Anastasia Popovkina, Misha Zhemchuzhnikov, Thomas Lameris, Jan van Gils, Maria Sukhova, Mikhail Soloviev, and Viktor Golovnyuk. 30 May 2019 NIOZ crew flies to Russia (Jan van Gils, Misha Zhemchuzhnikov, Thomas Lameris, Job ten Horn). 31 May 2019 The team has arrived in the northern village Khatanga (72° N) from where they will continue by helicopter to their study area. 3 June 2019 In the small grocery shops in Khatanga the team needs to purchase all provisions for the rest of the summer. 4 June 2019 Making use of the ‘waiting’ time in Khatanga, Jan van Gils explains to the local pupils why studying birds can teach us something about the state of the world. 6 June 2019 D-day! The team has bought all necessary provisions and loads up the truck that drops them at the airport. 6 June 2019 A fully stuffed helicopter ready to take off from Khatanga (with 6 out of 8 expedition members on the picture: Anastasia Popovkina, Thomas Lameris, Jan van Gils, Maria Sukhova, Viktor Golovnyuk, and Misha Zhemchuzhnikov). 6 June 2019 A ‘helicopter view’ on Taimyr: already quite some snow has melted – will the team be in time to await the birds? 6 June 2019 The helicopter takes off from the tundra on Knipovich Bay (76 ° N), and will only come back after the short Arctic summer is over (3 August). 6 June 2019 Approximately 2,000 kg of luggage containing provisions and research material. In the background the team is pitching the tent camp. 6 June 2019 Pitching the tent camp. 7 June 2019 Misha and Thomas installing the weather station, needed to record the severities of the Arctic summer weather. 8 June 2019 The first knots appear. This one, male K44, has its territory just next to the camp and three days later Job will find its nest. 9 June 2019 Thomas flies a camera attached to a kite to record snow cover from above. 12 June 2019 The camp wakes up in freshly fallen snow. 12 June 2019 A pair of wolves crosses our study area. We will spot them a few more times in the days to come. 15 June 2019 The camp is hit by a very strong storm. Luckily no one gets hurt and there is no major damage (except for some permanently bended tents). 17 June 2019 Misha making a round trip to set his pitfalls to measure arthropod abundance. 18 June 2019 Catching the knots proves tough this year. For some unknown reason the singing males do not respond to our display calls so well as they did last year. July 2019 Nevertheless, once the chicks are hatching in July we find and catch many broods (20 in total). 15 July 2019 Today we had the most spectacular catch of the season, when we trap N2PYYR that was banded 4 years ago and 10,000 km away in Mauritania, by the same catcher as today: Job ten Horn! It has been an extremely good year for knots: many grow fast and survive till fledging. We suspect due to a combination of a relatively cold June (to insulate the permafrost and keep the insect larvae alive) and a warm July (to reduce thermostatic costs). 3 August 2019 The Arctic summer is over, and so is the expedition: exactly as agreed upon, the helicopter arrived in the afternoon to bring us back to Khatanga. 3 August 2019 Flying back home across a snow-free tundra!