More Churchill

One of the most beautiful areas of Churchill is the bog habitat along Twin Lakes Road. The white stuff in the above photo is reindeer moss. I will post a closer up photo of reindeer moss below. This photo was taken along Cook Street which runs off Twin Lakes Road. Right near this area I found Bohemian Waxwings, White-winged Crossbills, Boreal Chickadees, Northern three-toed Woodpeckers and Gray Jays. We missed out on Spruce Grouse but made up for the miss by finding a Boreal Owl nest!.

Here is a closer look of reindeer moss and by the way there are no reindeer in Churchill. The only thing close to a reindeer is a caribu or possibly a moose. We did not see either mammal while we were up there. The moss is sensitive on being walked on and in the Churchill guide book the author asked birders to be careful and watch where you walk.

When I was in SE Arizona I was amazed by the mountains and birds but Churchill is my kind of place. It may not have a huge variety of birds like Arizona but man-o-man for some reason I fell in love with the place!

Well here is the photo of one of the young Boreal Owl owlets. This poor owl was being harassed by robins, white-crowned sparrows, gray-cheeked thrush and other birds. The other owlets were safe inside the nest hole but this pwl decided to roam out and see the world. I have no idea if Boreal Owls are doing ok in Canada but the area where I found the nest is a location that had nesting owls in the past. My group my very excited by this find and we had smiles all day long --- well maybe not all day long because the Ross's Gull was yet to be relocated by birders and my group really wanted to see one. The pressure of being a bird guide!

This structure is not located in Churchill but instead you can see this structure at Neepswa, Manitoba. It's the world's largest martin house! All this rectangles on the sides of the structure are martin houses and yes there are martins to be found nesting in those martin houses. In fact while reading the "Find Birds in Southern Manitoba" bird guide they make claim for lots of north american records or concentrations. For example Douglas Marsh says "largest concentration of Yellow Rails in North America" We heard two!. Then at the Delta Marsh the birders wrote in the guide book that the woodland areas along the beach hold the largest concentrations of yellow warblers and least Flycatchers in North America. I thought all these north american records were some what amusing to read!

Yep they had Hawk Owls in Churchill too! These birds are nesting some where along the Goose Creek Road. The residents gave the pair names and they are easily to be found in the morning and late evening. When we found them they were calling to each other. The male was actually singing in the woods. If you never heard a Northern Hawk Owl sing, its a great song!

The photo is blurry but then again I am not great at taking photos. I just try to do my best and that is all. Our owl list was quite good for the trip! We saw Long-eared Owl, Short-eared Owl, Great Gray, Hawk Owl and Boreal Owl. I was quite please with the list of owls found for the trip!

Again I hope there are enough people signed up for next year!

This photo was taken along the coast road which follows Hudson Bay as you head east of town. This is the area where Polar Bears are normally found in the fall thru winter months. Way out are some seals and yes I tried to get photos but they were so far out resting on the floating on the ice.

Of course when I saw the seals I began to walk to the beach and then as I got to the beach area, my little pea brain informed me that morning a Polar Bear was seen just east of town and I am east of town, Polar Bears eat seals and I am walking towards Polar Bear's entrees! So I decided to walk back to the SUV and take photos from the road. Stupid me!

Right in the heart of Churchill is this sculpture of a Polar Bear and a large rock cairn. (spelling on cairn) The Inuits have a spiritual belief in the rock cairns and you see them all over the place.

Most of the time up their the skies were cloudy except the last day when the skies opened up and day's temp rocketed to 55 degrees! As I left my mind and thoughts were looking further north to places like Baker's Lake or Baffin Island. You can fly to Baker's Lake on Calm Air, which happens to be the best damn airlines in the world! Yuo get free food and beverages on the flights!! No peanuts but food like sandwiches, deserts and candy! Hell I was offered all sorts of stuff but did I get the same treatment on Northwest Airlines? Hell NO! I love Calm Air!

Well anyway that is part of my photos and from time to time I will be posting a few more to share. YES I know my blog has tamed down since I got back and where are my rants and swearing? Well nothing has yet to piss me off and even though there are some subjects that I like to bitch about like why birders are lousy at giving exact directions on where they found thier birds or why some birders who are over 700 species still cannot ID the simplest birds in the field? Also some other subjects that interest me like why are there so many woman birding blogs and very few men birding blogs? and also why do these woman all comment on the same blogs and act like some sort of posse? Its a like a huge TV "The View" with the same people chatting about this and that about birds. Strange.

Another day and as always -- Later all!