The House & other Arctic musings

Run

Under the rainbow

Coming back from Victor Bay yesterday, after a long day painting and cleaning, there was a rainbow over Arctic Bay (the body of water). Just a fragment was visible, but it was reflected in the calm waters. It was mostly gone when I decided to try and grab a photo.  I actually like the photo in Black and White, but I've already posted that version on Facebook. 

So here is a rather contrasty version in colour.

Its only fair

Seeing as I posted a photo of Travis with a puppy that I post one of Hilary also

Pacific Loon - recent photos

Just a few photographs from the night before last. 

 

While not a singularly great photo, this one shows the four "checkerboard" patterns on the bird's back.

Bursting from the sky, Prickly Saxifrage

The faces say it all

City of Dust

We have had sublime weather so far this summer. It harkens back to the summers when I first arrived up here, before the world forgot that this is supposed to be a desert. Blue skies, punctuated by the occasional cloud, and lately, hardly a breath of wind.

The downside to all this fantastic weather is Arctic Bay has turned to dust.  Well not quite, but the air surrounding it has. Dust is everywhere.  Our roads up here are mostly made of a mudstone shale, with some gravel in there somewhere.  Every vehicle launches a cloud of dust into the air, and with the dry windless conditions the dust just hangs there. Well it just hangs there except for the 100 pounds or so of it that settles onto my truck, or caked in my nasal passages. 

There is a lot of traffic right now, this is a busy time. ATVs and trucks move back and forth between Victor Bay at a frantic pace. Add to that the construction of a new sewage lagoon, and road, that means heavy trucks move back and forth steadily between near first bridge and town, and well, a lot of dust gets launched into the air. Where it stays.

Arctic Bay is enveloped in a cloud of dust.  Looking from town you can see it back over the bay and beyond. But look back towards town and you can really see it. This is taken over the new airport towards town.

Would it be wrong to ask for a little rain, say on Mondays from 9 to 2?  Then we can get back to the bluebird skies.

Tired

... so all you get are a bunch of random photos.

Apparently Arctic Hares like to munch on poppies.

Sled dog portrait

An Arctic Trifecta: King Eider, Long-tailed Duck, and Red-throated Loon

Hare today, gone in a couple of seconds

Two Ravens playing with a feather

Travis, Bolt and a couple of the pups

Purple

I've set aside my plans to have a Big Year for the High Arctic this year. Due to work commitments and the growing and looming house work, and a sundry smaller things, I gave up on going to the Floe Edge, and to travelling to the southern reaches of Admiralty Inlet. Those two trips were key to my seeing more species than I normally here.

But incredibly, this would have been a spectacular year for me to try, for I have been surprised on a few occasions already, with species I didn't really expect to see.

Friday evening, we went out for our usual drive, and as is often the case ended up at the outflow of Marcil Lake.  It has turned into one of my favourite places to watch birds here. A quick count off the top of my head reveals some 17 species I've seen there. But more than the number, I've seen some great behaviours and had challenges in ID'ing what I've seen.

While we were there there were a couple of loons in the pond nearest the road, and while they were surprisingly confiding and stayed put I didn't think much about them. Well, I thought about how great this was, how beautiful they were on a calm, calm pond, orange from the sun (and to tell the truth the sun filtered through an amazing amount of dust in the air). I snapped off some photos, and as we were about to leave finally took a closer look at what I assumed were Red-throated Loons. I discovered that they were something completely different.  Well, not completely, they were loons, but they were an unexpected species. 

I noticed that this pair of loons had a different pattern on their back, and the stripes on their neck were on the side, not the back. These were Pacific Loons, and when the light was right, their throat patch was purple, not red.  They were, as I said, unexpected.

It wouldn't be unheard of for them to be here, but they are supposed to breed further south, down at the south end of Baffin Island and on the mainland.  I am aware of a old record in Pond Inlet, but there are undoubtedly others. This late in the season, I would expect that they were breeding, which might be their most northern record of breeding.

We returned the next day and the pair was still their, although one was out foraging when we arrived. The one that had remained at the pond, had an interesting display that it did from time to time.  It would splash, then shoot forward several feet, make a small call and dive under water.  I tried, without success to photograph the purple throat, and then we left them in peace.

Early Monday, hoping to have better light, I headed back before work. There was my confirmation of their breeding, for overnight they had built a nest, and the female settled on it shortly after I arrived. 

The cool thing about this shot below, is that there are two loon nests in it, the Pacific Loon in the foreground and a Red-throated Loon in the upper right left background.

See it now.

Tranquil

It's been so calm and peaceful here by the time we get out for our nightly drive. Here's a Sundog (parhelion) from last night, downstream of Marcil Lake.