Last days

I am home so let's finish up the last couple of days.

Monday the weather was nicer.  As usual, we had breakfast and went out immediately after.  I haven't mentioned the meals, I haven't really had time to talk about anything but the basics but now I have a few minutes more.

The Centre is lovely and the people there are very nice.  It is dorm style living.  There are four beds to a room but we had our room to ourselves.  Dining is cafeteria style but the cook is really good.  Each meal of each day was something new and delicious.  She really knows how to feed a crowd.  For lunches and dinners we had perogies, nachos, bannock hot dogs, teriyaki chicken, cabbage rolls, pasta with two sauces, grilled cheese sandwiches, and more.  Each breakfast had a meat, eggs and some sort of home cooked bread, one day it was cinnamon buns (which were the best!), french toast made with homemade bread, croissants, muffins etc.  And, unbelievably, she made fresh cookies practically every day, each day a different kind.  Meals were heaven.

Here is the dorm room

This was our window with lovely view, and all of our junk

Here is the cafeteria, also with a lovely view.

Back to birding.  We visited the grain port a couple more times.  We saw our Crane only once more, the second time only for a few seconds.  I think we were lucky to have had that one chance to get pictures (lucky you too).  Lunch, birding.

We crossed the tracks many times during out time in Churchill

Red Grosbeak

Osprey

Cold but happy

White Wing Scoter

This may be abandoned or just waiting for warmer weather,
impossible to know in Churchill

Pacific Loon

Abandoned cabin on a lake

Common Loons

In the evening we took another walk around Twin Lakes (I was finally starting to figure out where we were).  Remember on that first day we saw a Snowy Owl and a Spruce Grouse but I didn't get pictures of either.  Well, as you know, we saw another Snowy on Sunday and then on Monday we saw another Spruce Grouse.  With pictures.  And bonus, with the Snowy, I took a picture with someone else's camera (better camera than mine) and she kindly sent me a copy.  I will post below.

A picture of the Snowy Owl from the day before but using a better camera

Spruce Grouse

Spruce Grouse in a different tree

This was as close as I got to a sunset

Now seems as good a time as any to mention our group.  There were nine of us, seven women, two men plus Rudolf driving. guiding and spotting.  I think we lucked out with our group.  Not everyone was a super keener.  We had a nice mix of experienced birders who knew what they were doing, some mid-level (me and a couple of others) and some newbies who were happy to learn.  We all got along and had all of our meals together.  There were three Gails in our small group.

The van organization was fun.  Each outing, everyone had their seat.  Then the next outing, everyone moved right or forward so that everyone had a chance at the front and also the purgatory of the back seat.  The front seat person was responsible for getting out the step so that the back people could get in and out easily.  The back seat was pretty terrible, hard to see and hard to hear but no one had to stay there too long.

From left:  Mary from Boston, Rudolf from Winnipeg, Mom, Quiet Gail from California,
Renee from Brandon, Man, Me, Purple Gail from Connecticut,
Tom from Brandon, Man (husband of Renee) and Rob from Winnipeg.
 Missing:  Little Gail from Winnipeg who was taking the picture

Our last day was raining again but it was much warmer without the wind so it was ok.  It had been clear in the night because the rising sun woke me up at 4AM.  But by the time we got into the van, it had started to rain.

Sunrise at 4am from our bedroom window

That morning, we got to visit the gift shop in town.  Now I know that I don't want anything from the gift shop.  I did buy a few Christmas gifts as the Museum gift shop and the CNRC gift shop.  If I had a few hundred extra dollars, I might have been tempted to buy a soapstone carving.  

The Centre has a few Arctic Hares who live in the area.  I finally got a picture on my last day. 

He's likin' that lichen!

Here are a few pictures from our last outing

A shorebird in a tree, a Hudsonian Godwit I think.
(Update, Mom has reminded me that it was a Snipe)
Birders will understand how strange this looks

We saw so many nesting Canada Geese that I finally just took a picture of one.

Bridge on the Weir

Did I mention I could never ID shorebirds.  This may be a Lesser Greenlegs.
We must have seen hundreds of Lesser Greenlegs and I still don't know if this is one of them.
I like the picture though.

After lunch Mom, I and a couple of other guests got dropped off at the airport for the 2:30 Calm Air flight to Winnipeg.  I am happy to report that it was indeed Calm.  Here are some pictures of the tundra from the airplane window. 

We got to Winnipeg, said goodbye to Little Gail and Gail from Connecticut and headed to our hotel.  I do not recommend where we stayed but it was half the price of Days Inn and we were just there to sleep (and watch a cooking show for 2 hours).  This morning we had our free breakfast and cabbed it to the airport.  Uneventful flight and into Victoria at 1:45 where lovely Chris was waiting for us.  She got us home, kept the cat and tomato plants alive all for the price of a latte.  

And because you have been so patient, here are some puppies. 

Ptarmigan Ptime!

Breakfast is in 30 minutes.  If yesterday is any indication, I better use my time wisely as we are always birding. Back to yesterday morning.

We were picked up by Stephanie and Heidi who work at the Centre and Rudolf who is our bird guide for the trip.  There was one other guest who had just flown in.  Big news in Churchill, there is a Common Crane is town. It sounds boring but it is from Eurasia (also known as the Eurasian Crane), first time in Manitoba and very few previous in Canada.  First stop, the grain port where he is hanging out with some Sandhill Cranes.  We did not find him.  

Then a slow ride to the Centre during which we saw our first Ptarmigan.  At the Centre we dropped off our bags and get our rooms sorted.  Mom and I are in room 4.  There are two bunk beds, we claimed the two bottom beds.  Now that everyone has arrived, I think we get to keep the room to ourselves.  Then we had a safety orientation that mostly said - don't get eaten by a bear.

The Centre is pretty cool.  There is dorms upstairs with a library and games room.  I saw a pool table somewhere.  Downstairs is the cafeteria and gift shop.  At one end is the research area with labs and microscope-y type stuff. People are working in there so I just took a quick peek.

Meals are at 7am, noon and 5:30.  Be there or don’t eat (that's not true but that is when hot meals are served, otherwise it is cold leftovers in the fridge).  There are a couple of paid cooks but most of the clean up is by volunteers and guests.

Apparently, this is the only picture I have taken of the Centre, inside or out.

I think this was our longest 'break' while we had our bear talk.  Then we had lunch and out the door, into the van and birding commenced.  Back to the grain port but no luck again. Then to the airport to pick up the last five of our group and then back to the grain port.  Still no luck.  People were getting antsy about that crane.  Of course when we weren't at the airport or the grain port, we were looking at other birds, all of which escape me at the moment (no worries, I have pictures!).  Zillions of water birds.

Horned Grebe

Common Eider

A pair of Pintails

Green-winged Teal

Dinner and back out again 45 minutes later.  The blessing and the curse of the cold weather and long days, birding never has to stop.  No whimpy southern excuses like it is too hot mid-day or it is dark at 9 o'clock.  Nope, we birded until 10:30pm.  We were all exhausted but Rudolf is a keener.   We certainly can't complain we aren't getting our money's worth.

We saw some great birds at the end of the day - a Spruce Grouse, and a Snowy Owl.  My camera died so not pictures of these two, I'm sorry to say.  Funny bird story - one of the guests had just asked Rudolf if we would see a Snowy Owl and he was explaining how that was very unlikely as they had all left town by now.   Literally as he was saying that, another guest says - isn't that one there?  There was a huge Snowy Owl right in front of us on a tiny tree.  So awesome.  Plus, we spent all day looking for another Ptarmigan and then found one sitting in a tree just down the road from the Centre.

The Ptarmigan, in between his winter whites and his summer browns

Here are some pictures from our first day

This is an area called the 'Flats'

Squirrel!!!

There are hundreds of ponds, everywhere.

The gorgeous greeny-grey moss grows under the trees.

The Ithica in the ice.  It is an old shipwreck.  I have no historical data for you.

Houses in the Flats, it is a poor area of town

There are so many abandoned buildings here.
This was a radar station that is falling apart.

Another abandoned building.  This was apartments for the port workers

I should mention the ice on the bay/river.  We had heard that it was starting to break up when we were on the train.  Sure enough, by the time we reached Churchill, the ice was mostly gone.  There is still some in a couple of bays but not in the main body of water.  This means the belugas are here! Yay.  Breakup is also when the polar bears start coming back into town as they leave the ice and move inland.  We have been told that it is still too early and even when they do arrive, they don't mass like they do in fall.  But, just to drive us crazy, there was a sighting on a nearby beach the day before we arrived.

Ice still in a small bay

Some seals on the ice, from very far away.

That white blob is a beluga, the grey smaller blob beside it is a baby beluga.
 I don't think I can do better from shore, sorry

I cropped the photo to see if the beluga shows up.  I will let you be the judge.

It is cold here.  3 degrees yesterday.  It is colder than the coldest day in Victoria this winter.  I am bundled up with my inadequate parka, inadequate toque, inadequate scarf and mitts.  Brrrr.

Seriously, it was COLD

This morning I was up at 6am.  I spent the few minutes of breaks between meals and birding to finally upload some pictures to yesterday's post.  (I haven't actually had time to look at them so I may add or remove some at a later date.)

Breakfast where we saw our Ptarmigan sitting on some rocks outside of the cafeteria window.  I guess I needn't have worried about seeing one.  Back into the van for 7:45.  Back to the grain port.  NO CRANE!!  Onward.  Bird, bird, bird.

The grain port.  You can see why I wasn't too thrilled to be there so many times.

I had to see it over and over so you have to look at it twice,
here is the port from a distance 

Back to the grain port.  CRANE!  Finally, success.  He is a lovely bird with a gorgeous tail.  I have a crappy picture taken through a chain link fence.  And the best part - we can stop hanging out at the grain port.

Common Crane

Here is his splendiforous tail.

Lunch.  Back in the van.  Birds, birds birds.  We took a long walk at one point.  We literally just went over what we saw as a group and I can't remember what we saw.  Oh, one highlight, four snow buntings.

Birds

Northern Shoveler

Blue-winged Teal

Pacific Loon

Golden Plover

Nesting Herring Gull and her dutiful mate.  He is holding nesting material in his beak

Canada Geese. These are everywhere in the tundra, nesting.  We have even seen a few goslings.
I liked these guys posing.

Bald Eagle on the ice

I think this is a Dowitcher.  I can not keep track of the shorebirds.

Surf Scoter

Snow Bunting

Merlin

Dinner.  We are all so tired, Rudolph said he would do an easy evening activity.  So we drove a bit past the rocket launch (have I mentioned that the Centre is located on a defunct Rocket Launch site from the '50s.)

That is the rocket launcher on the right.  These buildings are abandoned.
The Centre is right beside them.

One of many duds.  This rocket is about 10 km from the launcher.

Then we did another hour long walk.  It was so cold out.  Best bird from the walk, a long-tailed Jaeger. Plus we found a broken up rocket that has been rusting in the woods for 50 years.  And lots of teeny-tiny flowers.

Longtail Jaeger

Teeny-tiny flowers.  

If I was nice, I would find out their names but I do not have time.

Now we are home again and it is already past ten and I haven't even looked, let alone downloaded my pictures. So I am going to post again without pictures (sorry) and try to do them tomorrow.  No one will look at this until Monday anyway.