Blog #12 – Churchill, Manitoba!

    Snow Geese (with individuals of white morph and the blue morph) are abundant in late May

This is my first visit to Churchill, Manitoba, the Polar Bear Capital of the World. I do not expect to see Polar Bears (it’s the wrong season) but I hope to get a feel for the subarctic and to spend some time with breeding Hudsonian Godwits, and their relatives.

    An adult male Common Redpoll is showing his stuff. He does lots of display flights over the spruces

Churchill is famous because the tundra meets the taiga (boreal spruce forest) there…this is quite far south, a product of the last frozen Hudson Bay just to the east… The line between the tundra and the spruce forest, of course, is not sharp here, but quite patchy, based on the topography, drainage, soil, underlying rock, and exposure to the cold winds of Hudson Bay.

    Looking out over the icy-cover Hudson Bay, a giant inland sea ice-covered most of the year

Approaching Churchill, the low cloud obscures the landscape. When the 737 drops below the last layer of gray cloud I am in for a shock. I see nothing but a deep winter landscape.

    Here's a patch of White Spruce up on the rocky Canadian shield

The entirety of Hudson Bay is covered by white ice. The Churchill River, a mighty stream, is encased in white ice. The landscape is mainly brown and gray, with patches of dark green indicating the presence of spruce stands. Large swathes of snow cover this wintery landscape.

    This Pacific Loon is OK floating in an ice-covered lake

So… the godwits are rushing to get up to this?

    Male Hudsonian Godwit, having just arrived from south, is fattening up on the mudflats of Goose Creek

Morgan Dobroski, a staffer from the Churchill Northern Studies Centre, picks me up at the airport and points out landmarks as we drive the 20 kilometers east to the Centre, which is situated within the Churchill Wildlife Management Area, just west of Wapusk National Park. I will be staying at this superb research center for 5 nights, using their facilities and benefiting from their expertise. It is a wonderful facility, and the staff and volunteers make every visitor welcome.

    Yes, scaup, male and female, but which species?

Months earlier, long-time godwit researcher Nathan Senner introduced me to the Centre’s research director, LeeAnn Fishback, who has made it possible for me to base out of the Center in order to search for nesting godwits in the environs.

    Here is a female Hudsonian Godwit at Goose Creek, she's a bit paler ventrally than the males...

For my first several days the temperature hangs around the freezing mark, and snow flurries are encountered daily (but no rain, thankfully).

    One day, more than 50 flocks of Snow Geese passed by the Centre, heading north

Here is a surprise for me: Hudson Bay remains ice-covered for most of the year. It is ice-free only from August to October. So, today, 3 June, the view north from the Centre is of continuous ice cover on this great inland sea (it is salty).

    White-crowned Sparrow, the most common sparrow in Churchill

Most of the many lakes that dot the landscape remain ice-covered, or mainly ice covered. One sees Pacific Loons foraging in the small water openings surrounded by ice. On my first evening I see a pair of these northern loons displaying and vocalizing. It’s that time of the year, in spite of the wintery weather…

    A male Willow Ptarmigan--this time of year the males are in display mode

But it is not too early for the northward-migrating Hudsonian Godwits. I find them on my very first afternoon here, when I drive west toward Churchill town and then south towards Goose Creek, a tributary of the Churchill River.

    A single godwit with many Stilt Sandpipers and a few Dunlins.

Here there are abundant wetlands that attract arriving shorebirds. The first day I find large flocks of Stilt Sandpipers, Lesser Yellowlegs, Short-billed Dowitchers, and, yes, six Hudsonian Godwits, resting and feeding voraciously to gain weight after their long travels north from Chile. This site is a favored loafing site, not a breeding site. And I visit here several times over the next few days to count and photograph godwits and other birds.

    Another female godwit, not quite molted into its breeding plumage

One of the research limitations relates to Polar Bear safety. I am OK when I am near my vehicle, but Centre rules on safety prevent me from wandering cross country in search of birds and wildlife (even during the “off season” for Polar Bears, when they remain out on the sea ice, feeding on seals). Better to be safe.

    An Arctic Hare, transitioning to the darker summer pelage

This first Churchill blog is all based on observations made very close to the Centre building and near the two main roads, where I could stay next to my car. The next blog will feature my subsequent wanderings out into the tundra in search of breeding shorebirds, during which time I am accompanied by a field partner, carrying a small shotgun, and keeping a sharp eye out for bears.

    The ptarmigan's red "eyebrows" have been erected and make him more attractive

There are things to see right by the Centre. A male Willow Ptarmigan gives its hilarious Donald Duck (or “Mel White”) call, often accompanied by a display flight, ending with the bird prominently perched in a spruce or on a rock on the ground.

    A fine Peregrine, one of best of shorebird hunters

The ptarmigans are quite confiding, allowing close approach.

In the spruces behind the Centre one finds noisily courting Common Redpolls, White-crowned Sparrows, American Tree Sparrows, American Robins, and Yellow-rumped Warblers.

I have seen no caribou or bears, but it is interesting to note that Polar, Black, and Grizzly Bears can all be found in the vicinity. I have to be satisfied with various color morphs of Red Fox (the blackish “Silver Fox” is my favorite—I see one of these at the end of the Goose Creek Road).

Also Arctic Hares are here, and in the process of molting to their summer pelage.

    The Peregrine, heading off in search of feathered prey

On my first day watching godwits down on Goose Creek, a fine adult Peregrine Falcon swooped over the shorebirds several times, sending them exploding off the flats…Peregrines love shorebirds…

Snow Geese are abundant here now, many are on their way further north, but some apparently nest here.

The final blog, from Churchill, will feature nesting godwits out on the Fen…