I was working outside the House, putting on some siding, yesterday and I heard a Qarsauq flying around. Qarsauq is inuktitut for Red-Throated Loon Gavia stellata, and several pairs nest around here. They sound nothing like the Common Loon with it's haunting voice, sounding more like a nuthatch on steroids. Try as I might I couldn't find it in the air, I'll have to make a trip out to one of the lakes that has a pair and welcome them back as I have yet to see one this year. The water lake has a pair, as does a small lake on the way to Victor Bay. Those are the easiest to get to, although any moderate side lake here has them.
There are no Common Loons up here, and I've yet to see the other species of loon, the Yellow-billed Loon Gavia adamsii. It nests farther south of here, around the bottom of Admiralty Inlet, and I have not been down there at this time of the year.
There are about fifty species that are possible to see around here, although some would be unusual. Of course there are also accidentals. I saw one cold, hungry looking Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) sitting on a wire in town one day in early June 2000. I saw it the next day however couldn't find it again after that. I suspect with the dearth of insect life at that time of year that it didn't make it through its High Arctic adventure.
The birds that you would likely see right in or around town would be the omnipresent Raven Corvus corax (worth several hundred posts on its own), Red-throated Loon, Snow Goose Chen caerulescens, Glaucous Gull Larus hyperboreus, Iceland Gull Larus glaucoides, Thayer's Gull Larus thayeri, Baird's Sandpiper Calidris bairdi, Rough-legged Hawk Buteo lagopus, Peregrine Falcon Falco peregrinus, Gyrfalcon Falco rusticolus, Horned Lark Eremophila alpestris, American Pipit Anthus spinoletta, Lapland Longspur Calcarius lapponicus and Snow Bunting Plectrophenax nivalis. To see the others, one must go farther afield. (For some of the birds we saw at the Floe Edge you can go here and here.)
We do have a couple of birds that migrate to Europe instead of heading south, although I must admit I've never seen a Northern Wheatear Oenanthe oenanthe here. I was told that several years ago they were seen around, but that you are more likely to see them on the islands north of here. The other is the Common Ringed Plover Charadrius hiaticula, which (living up to its name) is common enough to find. I've mostly seen them around Nanisivik, sorry I've only seen them around Nanisivik, but can usually find them if I look.
But tonight, the bird I think I'll look for is the Qarsauq. After all it was calling yesterday.
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