The House & other Arctic musings

Silhouettes

Even though we have four vehicles (a truck, ATV, and two snowmobiles) none of them are working right now. The truck has serious braking issues (as in no brakes), the ATV probably could start but has been sitting in the cold for the fall winter and I don't want to spend the time required pulling it started (plus probably shouldn't with my back in the shape it is right now).  My four stroke just needs a boost, but is at my in-laws and I don't want to beg for someone with a vehicle for a boost right now, figuring I've used up enough favours for the next little while.

That leaves Leah's four stroke, and the other day it just wouldn't start. In the course of trying to figure out what was wrong I checked the oil and discovered the oil level was way too high. Having gone through this once before I smelled the oil and sure enough it smelled of gas. With my four stroke I discovered early on (the hard way) that if you leave the key on, and just shut the machine off with the kill switch the fuel pump continues to run and eventually all that gas ends up in the oil pan. Leah's machine apparently does the same, but hers doesn't have a key so I have to figure out why it's doing that. I also have to drain/change the oil.

All of this is just a long-winded way of saying I'm walking these days. No biggie, and better for me I know. Yesterday it was better for my soul too. I had a meeting in the afternoon, but first I had to walk in the opposite direction with Hilary, to drop her off at Leah's folks. The moon hung in the dark side of the sky behind us, and we walked towards the lighter southern horizon.

The horizon was banded by orange and pink that lightened to a light blue that deepened all the way across the sky, until it met the moon. Much of the land surrounding us was in silhouette, dark and not very detailed.  And then the Ravens came.

Three Ravens played and chased each other, simply dark birds against the lighter sky.  Their silhouettes danced, hung in the air, dipped and dived. Stark living shapes against a gorgeous painted background. One by one they dropped down, foraging near the shore, still visible, just not as dramatic.  I looked down at my little girl, and saw that she was looking up at me, smiling.

Through an Aperture

There has been much keeping me away from the blog of late but I'll spare you the details, for now. In a little bit of spare time I've started playing with Apple's Aperture program, and the plugins for it from Nik Software.  There is much to learn and I've only scratched the surface.  Here is a couple of photos, one of which I've posted before, that I've converted to black and white with Silver Efex Pro.

Just to let you know I'm still kicking.

Hungry

It isn't often that you (or rather I) get to see predators taking on potential prey larger than them. At least not avian predators. Three years ago, I watched a falcon make a stoop at a Raven out my front window (and with the vagaries of memory I was amazed that it was three years ago, I could have sworn it was last year). It was a short attack, and after it failed the bird left.

This morning I looked at that same window and saw a couple of Ravens playing in the wind. It is a cold blustery, snowy day here, and I marvel at how the Ravens seem to take joy in days like this. But as I turned I thought something looked, well, different, and turned back for a closer look. It was then I realized that what I was seeing was a Peregrine Falcon making turn after turn at a Raven, trying to knock it out of the sky. I cursed the fact that both my long lens, and my binoculars were in the truck, and I expected the show to end quickly.

But it didn't. The falcon continued to make short dives at, and chase, the Raven. It actually tried a couple of different Ravens, but seemed bent on getting the one bird. By now I was torn between watching the drama unfold, or running and getting my camera and getting some photos. I ran to my room and grabbed the camera, threw on a coat and boots and got the lens, and binoculars. I arrived at the corner of the House just in time to see the Raven land, and the Peregrine make a couple of passes at it. I kept losing sight of the Peregrine through the camera but every time the Raven would try and take to the air, it would come back at it, so I began concentrating on the Raven.

The Raven took off again and sure enough the Peregrine came at it low, closed the distance and then began diving at it repeatedly. The photos are crumby, but they convey some of the story.

Here the Raven rolls to meet the falcon, coming at it with talons extended.

The next couple are the Peregrine making another couple of passes at the Raven, you get a good sense of the size difference between the two in the second photo.

Finally the Peregrine peeled away and flew back towards the hills behind town. As it flew low I lost sight of it in the poor light. The drama had ended, but I look forward to bird's next hunting foray in town.

Feeding Time

Don't you just hate having someone looking over your shoulder while you're trying to eat?

Dip

It's been a strange summer for me in terms of birds in many ways. Birds that I should have seen, for various reasons I haven't. Birds I didn't expect to see, materialized. Birds have shown me some jaw dropping behaviour that I've not seen in the past. And other people are seeing birds, telling me about them, and they've disappeared off the face of the earth, at least for me.

I've made an effort, starting mostly last year, to participate in the Nunavut Checklist program. Its a citizen science project to expand our knowledge of breeding birds in Nunavut (the program also is for the NWT) run by the Canadian Wildlife Service. Between that, and the fact that people here generally know that I'm a bird guy, I'll get calls when someone sees something new or unusual for them.

Early in the year it was a call about a bird that likely was a Gyrfalcon. Its a bird that generally isn't thought to winter this far north, so I rushed outside but didn't see it. I spent a couple of days following looking in likely spots (including the aerie) with no luck. A second sighting at the same time convinced me that there was a wintering bird here. Then this summer it was the Ukpikjuaq (Snowy Owl).

Strangely, the only Snowy Owls I've seen have been down south, not up here where they breed. Leah's parents know that I want to see one up here, as they often hunt in an area that they are plentiful. So I often ask them if they saw any when they come back. Earlier they saw one just above town on the way to Victor Bay, they told Leah to tell me. Unfortunately she forgot until the next day, and trip after trip to Victor Bay failed to make the bird materialize. Just when my hope was flagging, they casually tossed out that the bird was still there, they'd seen it at 6:00 that morning.

I searched with renewed zeal, and even got up early in case the bird showed at the same time. Nope, my zeal may have reappeared, but the Snow Owl still eluded me. And now a third species (if you don't count my nemesis bird - Sabine's Gull) has got me dipping (searching for a bird and failing to find it) on a regular basis.

A couple of days ago a friend mentioned that the Narwhal were at Uluksan, and oh yeah, there were two Sandpipers there that another fellow got really close to and took photos. Shorebirds? Forget the whales, I was intrigued. The common shorebird here is Baird's but I'm sure they've long left for the south, and you don't usually see them out there. So I wanted to find out just what bird it was.

Of course, there were a lot of Narwhal (a long way out in Adam's Sound) but no shorebirds. Walking the shoreline a couple of times a day has failed to see them turn up. Luckily there are photos and I got a hold of those today. Turns out the birds are Purple Sandpipers (Calidris maritima), which I didn't believe existed here. But they do, and although its not a breeding record another bit of the map gets shaded in. I might try a couple more times, but it looks like I dipped on them as well. Now a winter gale has moved in, so its likely that they'll have started south.

I did enjoy my trip to Uluksan today. Three very co-operative Ravens were there, playing in the strong winds, flying tantalizingly close. And I discovered a caterpillar that I've not seen before, in Purple Sandpiper habitat on the rocks near the shore. If anyone knows what kind of caterpillar it is, let me know.

Checking me out

Circling

One of the three calling from the rocks.

Mystery caterpillar.

Northern Fulmar (Fulmaris glacialis)

An Arctic Trifecta

I ventured out to Uluksan Point this afternoon, as pods of Narwhal are still hanging around in Adam's Sound. Everything was a long way off, but this photo contains 1) Narwhal; 2) A small flock of eider; and 3) and iceberg.

As a bonus here is a slightly better photo of a Narwhal splashing in the distance.

Feeding Frenzy (Glaucous Gulls and Northern Fulmars)

Late season longspurs

Out the other day, I found a couple of juvenile Lapland Longspurs that were still hanging around. I would have suspected that they would have headed south already, but apparently not all of them. I tried to get a couple of photos of them but they left a lot to be desired.

I'm at the start of some unexpected days off, and managed to get out on a great hike today (more on that in another post - I really need to stop taking a hundred photos every outing). I again came across a couple of longspurs, but this time I managed to get a few decent shots.

American Pipit (Anthus rubescens)