An Arctic Adventure

All through high school, I joked with my family that after college I would do Arctic research and live alone in a cabin in the far north studying birds. Well this past summer, I took one huge step towards my old career goals. I did a first field season for my Master’s degree on the beautiful Digges Island in the Canadian low Arctic studying an Arctic seabird. I am now several months into school, but the summer experience is worth sharing.

An unfortunate accident at the end of the season makes up much of what I have told people about the summer, but the group of us up there had an incredible month prior to that (Travis, who was injured at the end of the season, is recovering well now).

The Arctic is a beautiful and harsh place, even in the relatively warm summer months we were there. We flew into the small town of Ivujivk, the northernmost town of Quebec. We were welcomed warmly by all the locals we met, several of whom were a huge help throughout the season – helping move gear, providing boat transportation, providing support during the accident, and being a comforting presence 15 km from our island. The locals that I had the chance to have conversations with were all extremely friendly, and shockingly insightful. The strong connection to the land and animals that they have makes them very aware of environmental changes. The need for and results of our research really interests them. They understand what shifts in ice patterns mean, both for their own hunting and fishing opportunities, but as a global trend. It was truly amazing talking to them.

Living and working on Digges was endlessly exciting. Thick-Billed Murres, my study species, are cliff-nesting birds. This meant everyday working with them was a guaranteed adventure – rappelling down to our three work sites, leaning over the top of 500 foot cliffs to capture birds, handling birds among thousands of murres perched on their cliff ledges, and eating lunch leaning against a rock looking out at the constant stream of birds coming to and fro. Hiking to the work sites was always fun too – regular caribou family sightings, checking out the tiny wildflowers that manage to survive there, watching for the Golden Eagle pair and Peregrine Falcons pairs on the island, and of course, constantly being vigilant for polar bears. We did get to see (a good thing only after he left) one polar bear on the island. Three of us were walking back from a site chatting, looked up when we came to one of the lakes, and an “Oh shit!” came from one of us. There was a large, healthy bear ¼ of the way around the lake. The two of us with shotguns gripped them more tightly, the other guy got out his camera. We slowly kept walking towards camp, and the bear decided he was not interested, and ambled around the lake. On the far side he stopped to look at us, and in profile at 200 meters, he was a very impressive sight.

Words can only do so much to describe Digges, so I will let photos do the rest.

Our first look as a team

A row of murres

My commute to work

Banding and marking murres

Capturing murres

The lakes surrounding our camp (just past middle lake) and a break in the fog 

Luckily I learned to like heights

Another day at work

Gull hoping for some murre egg lunch

My favorite view

Just sitting at his desk

Hatched shell and chick hiding behind it's parents and neighbor

Lake and Ocean

Curious young caribou

The precarious pair (and chick under left bird's wing)

Camp

I'm Back, and on an Island!

After a long winter of seeing cool places, fauna, and flora, and not writing about any of it, I'm back to writing. It's spring, and feels like summer, on my new island of residence. Santa Cruz Island, part of California's Channel Islands, is a beautiful place to be watching spring come. The island is huge, and full of places to explore. It is owned by the National Park Service and The Nature Conservancy, so there are few other inhabitants.

Rain several weeks ago (a week before I arrived) on the steep, rocky slopes has started the process of greening the island up. Many things are still working on putting out all of their leaves, but the change appears rapid. And it is beautiful! There are lots of flowers appearing, and mostly on island endemic species such as Giant coreopsis, Santa Cruz Island Manzanita, two island ceonothus species, and the island morning glory. It's amazing how many species here are endemic to just the Channel Islands, or even to just this island. One of the cutest examples of this, is the island fox. They are tiny (house cat size) and not shy of people. I learned early to not leave anything outside where they can reach, for they are happy to take it away.

My work here is lots of fun. I'm working with another island endemic, the Island Scrub Jay. There are three sites where we are monitoring their behavior and reproductive success. One of these sites is new this year, so we are also spending time capturing and banding these new study birds. A final part of the project is radio tracking last year's hatch-year birds. This is a time-consuming, but exciting process. I have been doing radio tracking the last two days, and my hikes after these birds have taken me on long hikes into steep and remote valleys. It's really fun, and a cool way to be forced to explore all parts of their territories.

Afternoons are mostly free, so there is lots of time for more exploring. Today we jumped in the ocean (my first Pacific swimming in a while) and then sat on the beach and watched for seabirds. It seems like every bird I see here is a new species for me (I think twenty new birds so far...). There is much more exploring to do in the next few months here, and many more adventures, sightings, and reflections on this unique island to write about.