The belugas are plentiful in the river – everywhere, there are white humps appearing and disappearing all over. Before I left for the park, Anaise and Mike from the study centre met up with Janine and I – we all went down to the seaport to have some wine and cheese while watching the belugas and seals in the river at sunset. That was pretty cool.
Wapusk National Park was a whole new experience, last week. There were no roads leading into the park, so our means of getting there was by flight, or snowmobile in the winter-time. This was my first helicopter ride – I got to sit in the front, with the glass panel beneath my feet. The lift-off was unreal, and the scenery was excellent. There were lots of birds flying below – mostly snow geese (who have taken over the park in vast numbers), to me they looked like tiny little white specks moving around below. The park itself was very flat (wide-open), had very few trees – more like sparse clumps of evergreens here and there. Let’s just say that when I had to go, I just had to trust that my colleagues were looking the other way, because the bushes (if any) only went up to my knees, more often than not! I stayed for 9 days at the Nestor 1 camp, which was surrounded by a 10 foot fence, with barbed wire at the top to keep the polar bears out – kind of a role reversal in the sense that it was the humans enclosed behind a fence.
I was there to help a graduate student, Jessica, with her research on human and non-human impacts on the tundra ecosystem. Greg came along as a polar bear monitor (even though we didn’t see any – the other two researchers at the park did though). Basically, Jessica would determine which disturbed habitat she wanted to set up transects in – these were 25 m long, with 5 or 6 quadrats (squares to be sampled) each. I had to learn and familiarize myself with about 30 different species of vegetation – you’d be surprised how much diversity there is if you took a closer look at what’s on the ground. We calculated percentages of each species, soil depth, and more. I did some collection of specimens on the side for the barcode of life project, and set up some pitfall runs after we were done with Jessica’s stuff for the day.
After work, time was spent playing basketball (they have a net set up at camp), playing cribbage, and reading. There was quite a stack of hunting magazines in the kitchen. Now, when you hear me make reference to “my rack”, I’m talking about the antlers… Anyways, while I was out with Jessica and Greg, I saw lots of caribou, and even got up close to them (they walk right past you if you stay really still), an abundance of birds (snow geese, tundra swans, long-spurs…etc.), a lemming, and even an active fox den, with the mom and dad looking after their pups. No polar bears yet, but there were some sighted by other researches just north of the camp (and there have been several around town recently).
The other two researchers were from the states, and after they got back from being out for the day on Canada Day, they let off two shotgun blasts in celebration for us Canadians. We had weather there that ranged from stinking hot with bad bugs, to bloody cold with rain. It just goes to show how quickly the weather can change, based on wind direction (North, off the Bay or from the South). Neverless, I ended up with a tundra tan (hands and face), and realized how much more outdoor field gear I need to get after I return home.
Back in Churchill, I worked my 12th day in a row on Friday, and am now off for five days. Keeping occupied for that time is the current challenge. I tagged along to the gun range with some colleagues on Saturday, and tried out a different shotgun (a police magnum, with spot sights, rather than the usual marine magnum with ghost ring sights). I also got to shoot cracker shells (basically firecrackers that give a really loud bang), and a revolver with caps/firecracker.
On one of my ATV excursions, I visited an old abandoned wildlife research facility near Churchill. It was full of old medical equipment, drugs, animal cages, and even rusted oxygen tanks that had the University of Guelph printed on them! Apparently, back in the 70’s and 80’s, nasty experiments were undertaken there on polar bears (effects of crude oil on them), and on other marine life. Creepy…
Wapusk National Park was a whole new experience, last week. There were no roads leading into the park, so our means of getting there was by flight, or snowmobile in the winter-time. This was my first helicopter ride – I got to sit in the front, with the glass panel beneath my feet. The lift-off was unreal, and the scenery was excellent. There were lots of birds flying below – mostly snow geese (who have taken over the park in vast numbers), to me they looked like tiny little white specks moving around below. The park itself was very flat (wide-open), had very few trees – more like sparse clumps of evergreens here and there. Let’s just say that when I had to go, I just had to trust that my colleagues were looking the other way, because the bushes (if any) only went up to my knees, more often than not! I stayed for 9 days at the Nestor 1 camp, which was surrounded by a 10 foot fence, with barbed wire at the top to keep the polar bears out – kind of a role reversal in the sense that it was the humans enclosed behind a fence.
I was there to help a graduate student, Jessica, with her research on human and non-human impacts on the tundra ecosystem. Greg came along as a polar bear monitor (even though we didn’t see any – the other two researchers at the park did though). Basically, Jessica would determine which disturbed habitat she wanted to set up transects in – these were 25 m long, with 5 or 6 quadrats (squares to be sampled) each. I had to learn and familiarize myself with about 30 different species of vegetation – you’d be surprised how much diversity there is if you took a closer look at what’s on the ground. We calculated percentages of each species, soil depth, and more. I did some collection of specimens on the side for the barcode of life project, and set up some pitfall runs after we were done with Jessica’s stuff for the day.
After work, time was spent playing basketball (they have a net set up at camp), playing cribbage, and reading. There was quite a stack of hunting magazines in the kitchen. Now, when you hear me make reference to “my rack”, I’m talking about the antlers… Anyways, while I was out with Jessica and Greg, I saw lots of caribou, and even got up close to them (they walk right past you if you stay really still), an abundance of birds (snow geese, tundra swans, long-spurs…etc.), a lemming, and even an active fox den, with the mom and dad looking after their pups. No polar bears yet, but there were some sighted by other researches just north of the camp (and there have been several around town recently).
The other two researchers were from the states, and after they got back from being out for the day on Canada Day, they let off two shotgun blasts in celebration for us Canadians. We had weather there that ranged from stinking hot with bad bugs, to bloody cold with rain. It just goes to show how quickly the weather can change, based on wind direction (North, off the Bay or from the South). Neverless, I ended up with a tundra tan (hands and face), and realized how much more outdoor field gear I need to get after I return home.
Back in Churchill, I worked my 12th day in a row on Friday, and am now off for five days. Keeping occupied for that time is the current challenge. I tagged along to the gun range with some colleagues on Saturday, and tried out a different shotgun (a police magnum, with spot sights, rather than the usual marine magnum with ghost ring sights). I also got to shoot cracker shells (basically firecrackers that give a really loud bang), and a revolver with caps/firecracker.
On one of my ATV excursions, I visited an old abandoned wildlife research facility near Churchill. It was full of old medical equipment, drugs, animal cages, and even rusted oxygen tanks that had the University of Guelph printed on them! Apparently, back in the 70’s and 80’s, nasty experiments were undertaken there on polar bears (effects of crude oil on them), and on other marine life. Creepy…
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