Godwit Blog 2-1.    27 July to 4 August 2019. Bethesda, MD to James Bay, Ontario

    Pilot Rob Burns flies across the James Bay lowlands north to Longridge Point

The second stage of my godwit-focused travels was jump-started by an invitation from Christian Friis of the Canadian Wildlife Service to join the second session of the 2019 James Bay Shorebird Survey as a volunteer. Each two-week session surveys all shorebirds along a specific section of the western shore of James Bay. I was assigned to join a crew of four based at the Longridge Point Camp, 70 kilometers as the crow flies north of the town of Moosonee.

    The views from the heli were of vast expanses of flat boreal vegetation of various kinds

After two very long days on the road driving from Bethesda, Maryland north to Cochrane, Ontario, I trained north from Cochrane on the Polar Bear Express to Moosonee, a trip of 5 hours.

    Boreal conifer forest dominated by White Spruce were commonplace near Moosonee, less so to the north

After two nights in Moosonee waiting for a helicopter, I flew north from Moosonee to the Longridge  Point camp in a Ministry of Natural Resources & Forestry Euro-copter EC130-B4 piloted by Rob Burns. Fellow passengers included Doug McRae the camp lead for Longridge, and Quinten Wiegersma who was headed to the project’s sister camp—Piskwamish. The field teams combine experts as well as volunteers (Quinten and I were of the latter category).

    Our team at Longridge says goodby to the heli and sends it back south

The half-hour flight took us over tracts of boreal conifer forest (taiga), large expanses of grassy wetlands, as well as large boggy tracts that included a mix of grass and dwarf conifers (mainly Black Spruce or Tamarack).

    The mix of wetlands, willow swale, and conifer forest on the higher land

The only road headed north along the western coast of James Bay is the winter road that is not passable during the warm months of the year, and boats do not ply the west coast of James Bay because of its very shallow waters featuring an abundance of rocks. Hence the need for a helicopter.

    Large stands of Fireweed enlivened the landscape near the camp

Our helicopter dropped into some tall grass in front of the camp, which is a traditional hunting camp of a family of the Moose Cree Band, which is centered in Moose Factory, across the Moose River from Moosonee. This family visits the camp in spring and fall to hunt mainly waterfowl (Canada Geese and Snow Geese). The family project leases the camp to the project for the summer.

    Adult male Black-bellied Plover--fairly common as a passage migrant

The camp is set on a raised old beach ridge that is cloaked in spruce forest, and looks east across wet grasslands toward the shore of James Bay, about a kilometer distant. It is a stunning location for a summer encampment. The cabins are comfy, but there is no electricity except that periodically produced by a small generator to recharge batteries.

    Sign that bears are present in the landscape

To supply drinking water requires carrying large bottles of stream water from a distant site then filtering it in two stages. So the camp requires a range of daily chores that keep us busy all the time, and which have to be balanced against the demands of the field work.

    Sometimes bears are seen in the landscape....better than sign!

The only downsides of the site are the very wet conditions across much of the landscape in all directions and the presence of biting insects—black flies in the early summer, mosquitoes throughout the season, and many horse flies in the later summer. Fieldworkers dress as much for the insects as for the weather.

    A Clay-colored Sparrow with a bill full of food headed to its hungry nestlings

There were two targeted activities at Longridge: a daily netting and banding of shorebirds, operated by Ross Wood with assistance from Angelika Aleksieva. The rest of the crew (Doug McRae, Gray Carlin, and myself) did walking transects of shorebirds, following fixed routes along the shoreline. These were carried out around high tide, and were conducted as frequently as possible, with either one- or two-person teams. A team would do a single survey in a day.

    Flock of White-rumped Sandpipers with a single Ruddy Turnstone (larger and blacker-backed) and Semipalmated 
     Sandpiper (far left, smaller)

It was the eBird reporting of the results of these shorebird surveys that drew my attention to this field program. Hudsonian Godwits, coming south from the breeding grounds, are common on the shores of James Bay in August and early September. I was here to spend time observing these staging godwits.

The banding team rose at 4:30am to be able to open the mist-nets before dawn. The day’s netting schedule usually ended by mid-afternoon. Ross played a changing series of shorebird vocalizations to draw the birds into the nets.

    The three cool wetland breeders were Yellow Rail, Nelson's Sparrow, and this singing Le Conte's Sparrow

The walking survey teams’ daily schedule followed the ever-changing high tide. On some days, survey teams were up by 4:30am, when the high tide was in the morning. Some late tides required the survey teams to work until after 7pm. The banding team stayed at the cluster of nets, whereas the survey teams moved far and wide, covering considerable distances across the broad expanses of wetlands and mudflats and shorelines.

    Common Loons flew over our camp every morning, calling in the sky

Outside of the township of Moosonee and the Moose Factory reserve, the James Bay lowlands are a vast wilderness with virtually no permanent population, mainly indigenous families utilizing their seasonal camps for the traditional harvest of wildlife resources. We were all alone up here with the critters and the birds and the insects. The nearest other human (nonproject) residents to our Longridge camp were in Moosonee.

    Juvenile Greater Yellowlegs foraging

It was just us and the birds and other wildlife. A remarkable situation in North America in the 21^st Century. Northern Canada is a vast expanse of little-inhabited wild lands and waters. Difficult of access and demanding in lifestyle.

    Molting adult Hudsonian Godwit foraging

In the two blogs to follow I shall provide more details about what I saw and experienced up on the eastern shore of James Bay, with lots more images of what lives there… stand by!

    A small flock of godwits on the wing