Changing Landscape

Did I say things were drying up?  Well.. little did I know!  About 70% of our study sites are currently under water!  Oh, and that bridge we worked so hard to build.. washed away the next day.  But our little yellow friends have arrived so we've been busy busy busy every moment!  


I'm afraid we've been without internet for a few days and the last few nights have been busy with other things.. The internet seems to come and go, which is frustrating to no end when you’ve promised skype calls or blog updates! 


So much has happened since I last wrote!  Last Saturday, we took the day off.  Or rather, I took the day off and Michelle went out to do a quick morning survey to check for Yellow Warblers  and then we had the afternoon free.  Our friend here in town came and picked us up and we drove a ways down the Dempster on what was a gorgeous afternoon.  We parked in a small pull out and walked up to a lookout point along the ridge, his two dogs bounding ahead, collapsing and leaping awkwardly through the snow!  From there, we walked along the ridge a ways and bush-wacked our way over and up to the next ridge, from which the views over the delta were spectacular.  I'm so accustomed to seeing views surrounded by mountains or ocean.. having some sort of finite border, but here, things just stretch on and on.  It all seems so big!  We came across a few sharp-tailed grouse perched comically on the very tops of some of the trees!  They're such big, fat-looking birds, and yet they sit on the very very top branch!  Kevin even got a couple of them to bring home for dinner!  I got some great photos of that day... make sure to check them out on the picasa page!


A Summer in Inuvik


On the way back, we stopped in to visit some of the elders living in the area that he knew.  It was a unique experience.. to get a small glimpse into their lives, if only for a moment.  One woman had a face full of laughter and stories to tell.  She insisted we try her donuts, which we did with jam.  I'd like to get to know them a bit better... apparently an invitation for tea is just the way to sit down and have a good long talk.


The next day, the Yellow Warblers had officially landed!  We managed to connect with the guy giving us our truck for the summer, who we've affectionally named Murphy (the truck.. not the guy!).  That night, we went over to our friend's place for barbecue feast.  He’d prepared the grouse he’d caught in two different ways, and a friend of his brought over some caribou meat which we threw onto skewers!  Michelle and I even got to eat the Grouse heart.. delicious!


This past week we’ve just been heading out every day, trying to figure out which birds are where, which ones are new and which ones have been banded here before.  We’ve been catching some of our own and been banding them too, which is really cool!  Now, Michelle’s supervisor is here for just more than a week and he’ll be out with us in the field, which will be a great help!


I might try and take this Sunday off, as I get one day off a week.  I’m hoping to go on another adventure for my birthday, but we’ll see..


That’s it for now!  The internet has crashed on me again so I’m hoping I can actually post this sometime soon!!!

Pictures on Picasa

So.. due to long loading times and irritating formatting issues using blog spot, pictures will also be posted on my picasa page if you'd prefer to look at them there. Here's the link..

Summer in Inuvik

Just sayin...

Much to see...

Looking mighty fine in my waders...

Fox!  Not the best picture.. but evidence none the less!

This is the view out of my window at 12:01am this morning!  The street cleaner was doing his rounds and the sun was still up!

Fox tracks and bones..

Savannah Sparrow singing

View across the melting Mackenzie

Our newly built bridge!

I Like Birds

The spring thaw has almost been and gone this week.  Monday, it was snowy and cold, today, I've got my summer pants and tank top on with our front door wide open and the sun streaming through the windows.  I'm quite sure the heating in our house is off, but 20 hours of sunlight shining through the windows seams to do the trick.  The flooding from the snowmelt has subsided and the dust is starting to fly from beneath the trucks. 

We've just come back from our morning rounds along the river.  My face is burning and my muscles ache, and it feels amazing.  Each morning, we walk along the river amongst the willows, mud, and snow for about 6 hours, eyes and ears searching for the little yellow guys.  No sign of them yet, but we've seen at least one new species every morning that we've been down there.  Allow me to introduce you to the diversity of the north...  Dark-eyed Juncos, American Robins, Ravens, possibly Rusty Blackbirds, Bank Swallows, White-crowned Sparrows, Savannah Sparrows, Fox Sparrows, American Tree Sparrows, Wilson's Warblers, Yellow-rumped Warblers, Orange-crowned Warblers, Northern Water Thrushes, Mallards, (Greater) Scaups, Mew Gulls, Glaucus Gulls, Bonaparte's Gulls, Belted Kingfishers, a Northern Flicker, some sort of Sandpiper, Tundra Swans, and Bald Eagles.  And those are just the ones we think we've identified!  There are probably a few more out there that we haven't gotten.  We've also been sharing our trails with the foxes and have seen them a few mornings now.

Yesterday, we faced an obstacle.  Our two study sites are separated by a stream that at first we could cross over the snow.  With our trusty waders on, we were sure we could manage to cross, however we were forced to turn back after Michelle took an icy dip on our first crossing attempt!  Turns out it's deeper than we thought!  There's a way to walk around the lakes to the other side, but it adds a half hour to our routine!  So, today, we were determined to cross the stream.  We found a long 2x4 lying in the grass at the very far end of our study site and managed to carry it all the way back to the stream, crossing it triumphantly!

Now, it feels like a Friday afternoon.  We've finished our work and our errands, it's gorgeous, there's a hockey game on tonight, and we're having a BBQ with our neighbours!  We've only been here 5 days and it already feels like home.  A few people stop us on the street (particularly when we're walking through town in our field gear) and ask us where we're from.  We've gotten to know the people at the Institute and in the grocery store.  We also met a local on the plane ride up, who we ran into again yesterday outside the post office.  He invited us for dinner at his place with his wife and some of their friends, which was fantastic.  Almost everything in this town is within walking distance, so we strolled over to the liquor store and picked up a bottle of wine before walking over to their house just down the road from us.  We ate hare that they'd caught themselves and marinated in some sort of delicious Thai sauce, as well as quinoa salad, caribou stew, and fruit pudding!  The wife used cook in restaurants in Vancouver and Nanaimo, so the food was that one step up.  Their both amazing people, and so full of energy!  They have a million stories to tell and are doing a lot to contribute to the community.  They sent us home with a few yoghurt containers packed full of rabbit and with plans to go out paddling or goose hunting on Saturday!

We've already visited the infamous Trapper, one of the bars here in town.  We went there to watch the last hockey game.  It's a bit of a sad place.  People just end up shouting and swearing at each other across the room with raspy voices, without really saying much else, but talking non-stop about one thing that happened to them that day.. saying it over and over in different ways.  This town has some really interesting people, people doing good things, people with stories to tell, but it's sad to see the others that just seem bored and resigned to their bottle.

Tomorrow is my day off, and I'm looking forward to more adventures!

Working Down by The Riverside

                                        Snowmobile tracks along the Mackenzie

 

                                 The raven and the fox.. (and the hockey net)

 

                                             Savannah Sparrow

                      Lovers in Inuvik

Ravens

Although the day is coming to an end as far as my energy levels go, the sun is still shining and the ravens are still flying overhead.  Their ancient dialect seems to follow you wherever you walk in this place.  The locals have come to call them crows; they're so abundant.

It was cold when we stepped outside around 7am this morning.  The previous afternoon had been so hot that I wasn't really expecting it.  I later made a note to myself: thicker socks, gators, and gloves definitely necessary for morning walks along the river.  Our two sites consist of a trail through dense willow and alder species between the sewage lagoons and the Mackenzie River.  With everything buried under snow and ice, we are still spared from the insects and odours that are sure to come.  During the course of the morning, we saw a number of birds skittering through the shrubs or soaring over the river, many of which we couldn't identify for sure, but for which we have our educated guesses.  Besides the ravens on every side, we saw ducks, geese, northern water thrushes, gulls, a few predatory birds, possibly savannah sparrows, and a couple bank swallows.  No yellow warblers as of yet.

The afternoon was spent organizing some of our field gear, as well as getting books from the library, cooking in our great little kitchen, and watching CBC news over dinner (one of three channels on our TV!)

The snow is melting fast here and is almost completely gone from the sidewalks and street sides where it was only yesterday!  It's been quite warm this afternoon, and many of the locals are dressed for summer!  I would be too after 8 months of winter...

Pricey Living!

Inuvik.. Day 1

                                    Flying over Ogilvie Mts.

                                    Coming into Inuvik

                                Didn't know Rolls Royce made funky little planes!

                                  Landed in Inuvik

                                    My room!

                                             Our place!

                                  The colourful rowhouses of Inuvik

                                   Igloo Church

                                  Living room

                                        Kitchen

Whitehorse

En Route..

Good Morning Sunshine!

8:02pm in Inuvik and the sun is high in the sky!  We just had dinner.. a homemade pizza.. which felt oddly like lunch!  But the exhaustion from the last couple of days is setting in.. reminding me it's not as early as it feels!  

Michelle and I arrived in Inuvik around 12:45pm this afternoon.  But wait.. you need the whole story.  My parents dropped Michelle and I off at Vancouver Airport at 10am on Sunday morning.  Our flight was at 11:30am.. destined to arrive in Whitehorse by 1:30pm.  However, half an hour after take off, the captain informed us that his windshield had cracked extensively, and that we had to make a stop in Prince George for repairs.  We lingered in the extensive Prince George airport until 7pm that night... as they had to fly in a new plane to take us the rest of the way.  At least we got to watch the first two periods of Game 1 against the Sharks!  And the captain informed us later that the Canucks had won!  The staff were great and really took care of everyone the whole time.  The passengers got to know each other, and we were all one big happy family when we finally staggered off the plane in Whitehorse at 9pm.  

On the shuttle into town, we were with a bunch of students from all over Canada who'd come up to the Yukon to do soil sampling with all the new gold mining operations up here.  They were a cool crowd, and we were on the same flight heading north the next morning.  We caught our first taste of Arctic wildlife on that shuttle ride, catching a glimpse of a fox crossing the street, and a coyote running along the side of the road!

I met up with my friend Meagan, who's from Whitehorse originally.  We did the Global Capstone course together at UBC.  She picked me up from the hotel and we drove down to the canyon just below Schwatka Lake.. also their reservoir (see pix of the moon over the glacier and river!).  We walked along the river a ways, seeing two little muskrats cruising near the riverbank.  We headed into town and grabbed a pint of the Yukon Gold, the local pale ale.  We were the last ones out of the bar as they closed up. 

I was exhausted when I arrived back at our hotel, but somehow got caught up talking with the man at the front desk!  He kept me there for an hour and fifteen minutes... talking about his harem, showing me his wildlife pictures, and some of his artwork, as well as showing off his facebook pictures of his trip around Europe!  He was really great, and I would've loved to stay and talk if it wasn't 1am, but I finally snuck off to bed to get a few hours sleep!

We found ourselves hanging about the Whitehorse airport this morning with many of the same faces we saw yesterday.  We had a big breakfast upstairs and then did laps of the small waiting area before boarding.  There was no security.  NO SECURITY.  I thought such things couldn't possibly exist in this scare crazed world, but I suppose they're just a little more realistic up here!

We rode a little Hawker Siddeley 748 up to Inuvik, stopping in Dawson City on the way.  One of the friendly faces we'd met along our journey was a local to Inuvik and offered us a ride into town.  He even waited for us while we figured out where we were supposed to be going!  We've met nothing but super nice, chatty, helpful people the whole way!  Except for one old man sitting in a parking lot that told us to go back where we came from when he learned we were from Vancouver... we've run into him twice now, and he hasn't had the most pleasant greetings for us... but besides him, the people are great!

We've settled into our place, a little blue unit that's part of a rowhouse.  There's no one else living here yet, so we've got the place to ourselves!  It's pretty nice too!  Check out the pix!

Anyways, we took a little promenade through the town this afternoon before picking up some groceries. We are awaiting access to a vehicle up here so we dragged our heavy bags back to our place.  It's been sunny and gorgeous and much warmer than we were expecting!  The locals we've talked to think it's going to be a quick thaw this year, meaning we could be seeing our little yellow friends sooner than we thought!  Michelle and I are going to head down to our sites tomorrow morning to sus the scene and see what's hanging out along the river.  

I'm going to try for an early night tonight, but we'll see how that goes with all this light!  Apparently Inuvik gets about 20 hours of daylight at the moment, which will stretch to 24 hours of daylight for the course of 56 days starting at the end of June.  I still can't imagine! 

Yellow Warbler at Iona

Image from: http://ionaislandbirdobservatory.blogspot.com/