July 1 - mosquitoes

This caribou calf was forlornly running around calling for his mother, coming up to us to see if we happened to be family before trotting off once more into the tundra

Well today was another milestone – the first day of mine without finding a shorebird nest since June 10th, 21 days in a row. A pretty sobering testament to how quiet it is around here now. We had a net of -8 nests today, eight more lost to fox predation than were found, bringing us to 102 active nests out of the 275 found throughout the season (39% currently active).

The highlight of today was banding a few phalaropes, only Red-necked and not Red unfortunately, but quite fun to hold and band! It was also just fun to go out with Laura and Alfredo, good company and a good day down in the 7s.

A male Red-necked Phalarope - this one happened to have a very patriotic band color combination

Saw two more wolves today from camp in the scope, we watched them eat a caribou calf carcass – pretty distant but totally awesome. Migration is in the air everywhere, shorebirds and waterbirds alike. Also, I can’t believe I forgot until this late in the entry, but July announced itself in style – with mosquitoes.

A migrant flock of phalaropes on Gull Lake - this flock swelled to almost 200 birds at one point

This morning there were a few around, as there have been, but as it heated up we all started having personal clouds, and I ended up wearing my neckwarmer as a head wrap before long, covering as much skin as possible. By the time we got back to camp we had hundreds surrounding us, and the rest of the day was spent almost exclusively in tents.

Alan killed 155 in the cook tent around dinnertime, and that isn’t counting ones dispatched by others or in other tents, or the fact that it had cooled down and they had mostly vanished – earlier that number could have been hundreds higher! We shall see what tomorrow brings.

Along with the mosquitoes there are also many butterflies around now - like this strikingly patterned sulphur

June 30 - fluffy babies

You can see the flowers in the foreground that are now on the high barren areas on this fine late-June day 

Today I did the 3s with Elin, and the late season was readily evident. Birdsong has been greatly reduced for days now, mosquitoes and other wee winged beasties are out in force, and we saw chicks finally!

Right at the edge of the study area we saw two broods with at least one chick per family. Adorable critters, baby Semi Sandpipers have cryptic rufous, brown, and silver flecked fuzz, and are basically cottonballs with legs. How can you not love that? After all of the predation it was so nice to see some living progeny of all these hard working shorebirds.

The leg-to-body ratio of juvenile shorebirds is fairly comical

I also found a nest with three eggs, all with tiny beak tips protruding from little holes in the shell – in the process of hatching! Otherwise the day was very slow, the lowest number of nests found today by all parties in a day since the first day of nest finding.

The other highlight, non-bird, was having a herd of caribou come within 40m or so. I saw them working along the edge of the swamp, so I laid down in the direction they were headed, where luckily the wind was in a direction that blew my scent away from the herd. About 90 individuals in total, so a small group, but led by an impressive group of four old bucks with very nice sets of antlers. The others followed this quartet of leaders, mixed adults and calved picking their way across the tundra. This group was part of a couple thousand caribou in the area today, a nice mammal-filled day.

In addition to the shorebirds, fledgling Lapland Longspurs are also underfoot quite often now

June 29 - wolf encounter

Gray Wolf surveying his domain

Today was official rope drag day for the second time, after doing it just for fun yesterday. Scott, Laura, and I dragged the 7s today, finding only three phalarope nests, and later I got a Red-throated Loon and Pectoral Sandpiper – but I failed at locating a Semipalmated Sandpiper nest, so my final total stands at 19 days in a row. I guess I should have gone to the 3s where they found four today!

This Freija Frittilary would like to remind you that not all life is birds and mammals up there

The most exciting happening today was while I was going to hatch-check a nest, so I was separated from Laura and Scott by a hundred meters or so. I was walking along and happened to be looking down and checking the nest card for the nest I was checking, when I heard a yell coming from behind me: “Wolf!”

The pinkish tones to the belly and forelegs are blood from feeding on a caribou carcass nearby

In front of me, about 80 meters away, was a Gray Wolf, just looking at me. I dropped to my knees in the hope that I would be less menacing and it would get closer, and right on cue it approached until maybe 15-20 meters before it caught my scent, stopped short, and stared. After a short period of looking at each other, the wolf started calmly loping away, glancing back at me occasionally as it departed the area and was lost to sight over the hill. A truly awesome experience.

So lanky and lean, with a blocky head and build that means business

On a contrasting low note though the nests that we checked today that were supposed to hatch were all predated by a fox overnight, eaten the day before they would have been chicks. Devil fox.

June 28 - first hatching

Caribou herd from camp, a common sight

My day off today – slept in until ten and it was amazing. No other way to put it. Had some pancakes for brunch, entered some data since the sun ended up coming out, and then had a nice relaxing afternoon dragging a 50 meter long rope for about two miles with Scott.

Rope dragging is quite an effecting way to nest search on flat terrain, but more effort than just walking. We found three nests including my daily Semipalmated Sandpiper – 17 days in a row of finding a Semi Sandpiper nest now! We are over 250 nests for the season as of today, sadly over half are already terminated due to the predation pressure exacted by the foxes.

One of the nests we found today was of this Red-necked Phalarope - incredibly camouflaged on his nest. Just right of center you can see some rufous coloration, that is his hindneck.

The same male Red-necked Phalarope waiting to get back on his nest

We also, on a brighter note, had our first nest hatch today! A Semi Sandpiper nest successfully hatched four chicks as of today as seen by Brad and Mark -I hope they make it.

Only three more days here for Brad and Mark before they head back to civilization, and it is two thirds of the way through the season for the rest of us. Crazy! I also got word from home that my parents bought a house, and that I will have a minor amount of employment when I get back before school – so today was a good day!

July 27 - caribou trapping

Brad strolling across the tundra

A pretty uneventful day overall, went out with Brad to the 5s and found three nests. One of the nests was that of a Dunlin, which is always fun because we don’t get many here, and this one was particularly interesting because it is due to hatch in three days and had evaded detection by us until now! Makes you wonder how many we miss.

The crafty Dunlin that avoided detection while having a nest for 18 days

It has been cloudy regularly for a few days now, so the electricity is running low – no data entry on my day off tomorrow unless the sun breaks through. Caribou are back on the horizon numbering in the hundreds, and we saw a helicopter that was looking for caribou to capture today.

Apparently a guy sits in a harness on one of the runners of the helicopter, while the pilot flies the aircraft low down at the same level as the running caribou. When they get near enough to a calf, the guy on the runner unclips himself and jumps off of the moving ‘copter, wrestling a calf to the ground as they land next to him, and then they proceed to tag the captured animal. Pretty intense job, definitely exactly like wandering around the tundra looking for bird nests..except not really.

Parasitic Jaegers are as close as we get to being intense

Although I think Long-taileds might be better

June 26 - many nests

This male Pectoral Sandpiper was looking nice all puffed up today

Today I went to the 7s with Elin, but we each brought a gun so that we could split up to be more effective in our work for the day, which we did pretty early on. It ended up being my personal best nest finding day, with eleven nests! The species makeup of the eleven was one each of Red Phalarope and Red-throated Loon, two Red-necked Phalaropes, and seven Semipalmated Sandpipers.

One of the Semipalmated Sandpiper nests

The loon nest was so awesome, on a small island just offshore in one of the large lakes on the study area, and the egg was gorgeous – dark green like jade with black splotches across it. I was also impressed by the size of the lone egg in the nest, about 1/3 again as large as a chicken egg – not surprising seeing that loons are large birds.

That egg is 1/3 again as big as a chicken egg - this is a big nest!

Other cool sights today included three Parasitic Jaegers mobbing a Snowy Owl that was sitting on the ice on Gull Lake, which is still more than 90% iced over. They would arc high up into the air and then come down with a good head of speed, pulling up right before hitting the owl, which would duck at each pass, before it eventually flew off.

I also had a Western Sandpiper, the only one seen on the study area by anyone through the whole season. I was walking along and I heard a call that I didn’t recognize, which after being up there for over 3 weeks was pretty unusual, so I looked up at the sky and saw this bird flying over, and then I saw it land ~300 meters away. I was really hoping it was some rare Asian vagrant, but when I tracked it down I found that it was in fact “just” my first Western Sandpiper on the breeding grounds!

Western Sandpiper, a really gorgeous bird with that arrowhead streaking below

Today was also the day that I got the closest to a Spectacled Eider for the whole season, a female that didn’t seem to mind the strange two-legger clicking away with a camera.

Female Spectacled Eider, showing the female version of the striking head pattern on the males

June 25 - oil, lemming

While walking around on the tundra you often see oil slicks where natural oil has welled to the surface

Today was chilly and foggy in the early morning, a morning that was brightened up bt the pancakes that Brad made for everyone! A nice treat – thanks Brad!

Scott and I then headed out plot searching the fives, which consists of walking W-shaped patterns across eighty 50m­² subplots – forty walked each. It takes quite a while, but is a rewarding investment! Today it gave us ten nests on plot, and another two just off, totaling a respectable even dozen for the day!

The low point of the day was right after we started, when the rain on the horizon bore down on us with a vengeance, forcing us to walk over a mile back into a cold rain whipping along sideways into our faces due to the 35kt+ winds that came with the inclement weather. By the time we got back we were thoroughly drenched, but the parts that mattered, my electronics, were dry at least.

The view over our tents late in the day when it was nice out - flowers in the foreground!

It is pretty foolish that the primary energy that we rely on for technology, electricity, is susceptible to water, what most of our world is made of. Don’t you think it could have been thought out a little better before basing our whole world on it?

No more rain after we ventured back out post-lunch, and most of the afternoon was even sunny! Highlight of the afternoon was capturing a Brown Lemming, a different species than the usual Collared Lemmings I would catch after dinner under the tents.

The "keeper" Brown Lemming I caught, a majestic creature