Polar Bear Alley

This is a collection of northern stories - polar bear, arctic and otherwise from Churchill, Manitoba, Canada - the polar
bear capital of the world.

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Tide Table for Churchill 
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If you like the Polar Bear Blog, check out my first book, Polar Bears of Churchill. It combines eight years of guiding experience in Churchill, Manitoba, Canada with the latest scientific research, local history and a bit of cabin fever. Independently published. Available online for $14.95! Click BUY NOW to purchase a copy and support Polar Bear Alley!

Churchill on Hudson Bay is a mix of Churchill history and stories from the trapline. Written by longtime Churchill residents, Angus and Bernice MacIver, it is the best resource about Churchill, Manitoba available. Published by the Churchill Ladies Club. Available for $16.95

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February 15-March 19, 2007
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Archived articles

Polar Bear Alley

This is a collection of northern stories - polar bear, arctic and otherwise from Churchill, Manitoba, Canada - the polar
bear capital of the world.

EMAIL POLAR BEAR ALLEY

Churchill Travel Guide
Hotels in Churchill, Manitoba
Travel to Churchill, Manitoba
Churchill, Manitoba Links

Polar Bear Alley Expeditions
Polar Bears of Churchill Book
Polar Bears of Churchill Facts
Polar Bear Photo Gallery
Beluga Whale Photo Gallery
Polar Bear News 
Polar Bear Attack Page

Weather in Churchill, Manitoba
Tide Table for Churchill 
Churchill Aurora Forecast 

Polar Bear Blog - It was all a Dream - September 9, 2007

So, that was a cliff hanger wasn't it? I announce that there is a uranium claim on our little patch of coast and then disappear as if some nefarious agents of a dark and sinister corporation had whisked me away in a black helicopter. Or maybe the mine started up and levelled my house before I could make another entry. Don't worry, the opening credits are rolling and I'm just stepping out of the shower and the August 18th entry was just a dream. Well, not quite... although I have to admit that it would be nice if this past year was just a dream.

Anyway, from what I gather, RJK Explorations has not actually obtained a work permit to set up a drilling rig in Churchill as it implies on their website. Manitoba Conservation officers would have to issue that permit and they were as surprized as anyone when I started asking about this whole thing. Which does seem a little strange that the mining side of the government would not consult with the conservation side of the government before issuing a claim but whatever.

But regardless of whether there is or isn't going to be a mine in Churchill, why are we even looking for uranium anymore? Isn't it pretty much solely used for nuclear bombs and nuclear energy? Oh wait a minute... nuclear energy is 'green' now, I forgot. Sure we don't know what to do with uranium tailings or nuclear waste and uranium mines leave a pretty radioactive footprint on places and a vast amount of fossil fuels are used up in the extraction process but nuclear energy itself does not emit greenhouse gases. Ergo: green. Nice, simple and easy. That's what Canada just signed on to be a 'nuclear' country - we're saving the planet!

Over these last couple years in Churchill, I started thinking like that, bought into my own bullshit et al, and its a dangerous thing to do. Because when you stop being honest with yourself, you stop being honest period and all of a sudden you look back down the road and go, hmmm, maybe I should have thought that one out a bit more.

Now, we are doing that with our priveleged status as life on this planet. The first step is probably to stop thinking we're 'saving' anything and admit that the only solution to your favourite flavour of global catastrophe simply using less and thinking more.

Polar Bear Blog - Sounds Lovely - September 9, 2007

This is a nice link to www.anawa.org.au

A bit more from their website about uranium tailings 'In mining, the uranium and its decay products buried deep in the earth are brought to the surface, and the rock containing them is crushed into a fine sand. After the uranium is chemically removed, the sand is stored in huge reservoirs. These left-over piles of radioactive sand are called "uranium tailings".

Uranium tailings contain over a dozen radioactive materials which are all extremely harmful to living things. The most important of these are thorium-230, radium-226, radon-222 (radon gas) and the radon progeny, including polonium-210. If this radioactive sand is left on the surface and allowed to dry out, it can blow in the wind and be deposited on vegetation far away, entering the food chain. Or it can wash into rivers and lakes and contaminate them.1

While the hazard per gram of mill tailings is low relative to most other radioactive wastes, the large volume and lack of regulations for their containment have resulted in widespread environmental contamination. Moreover, the half-lives of the principal radioactive components of mill tailings, thorium-230 and radium-226 are long, being about 75,000 years and 1,600 years respectively.

The most serious health hazard associated with uranium mining is lung cancer due to inhaling uranium decay products. Uranium mill tailings contain radioactive materials, notably radium-226, and heavy metals (e.g., manganese and molybdenum) which can leach into groundwater. What happens to tailings after the mining companies have left the site poses an incredible headache for future generations. The production of this material simply has to stop.'

So, that's the word from Australia, the second largest uranium producer behind Canada. Sounds pretty bad but hey, it gets worse. Now Canada has signed on to spread the good word of nuclear technology to developing countries and the bonus is that there is a clause in this new multinational agreement that involves uranium producing countries to take responsbility for the nuclear waste created in the entire process. Hmm, I wonder if that clause would be in there if the US was the top uranium producer and not Canada and Australia. Link to the article

Polar Bear Blog - I Gotta Get Out of Here - August 26, 2007

So, there was a bear on the deck at the cabin today. Just a little one, probably two or a small three, maybe 300lbs at best. I could tell because Milo's bark changes to something more frantic and maybe more feral when there's a bear around. I ran over to see what was up and sure enough the bear was just running off the deck, so naturally I grabbed the video camera and chased after it.

Unfortunately, I still get a little excited when bears are around and forgot to remove the lens cap for the most part so no youtube footage is available but it was pretty neat. The bear ran through the lake and Milo and MoonUnit did laps around the house waiting for me to get the gun or the truck or something. Finally, Milo just looked at me and almost shook his head before running off to try and find another route to get at the bear - which, of course, was long gone by now and probably still running.

I went back inside with my partial bear/dog footage and strated thinking that maybe I really have lost my mind and maybe it was time I got away from this crazy little town for a while.

Polar Bear Blog - Orcas in the Bay - August 24, 2007

I'm entering this blog late so I can't quite remember the exact day but it was around the 24th when a pod of seven orcas passed by the mouth of the Churchill River.

They were cruising north, moving fast hitting speeds of up to 26kph, hunting beluga whales along the way. I think this pod makes an annual pilgrimage if not all the way around the bay at least down to York Factory area and back each year. Now, they are headed back to Roes Welcome Sound for the winter. There's a great photo of them passing by Churchill with Prince of Wales Fort in the background, I'll try and find a link to it somewhere and post it.

They are seldom sighted and this was pretty big news. I was at Prince of Wales' Fort that day but sitting on the wrong side so I missed it, which is kind of funny since I had been planning a trip to Vancouver Island for the sole purpose of seeing a killer whale and was about to leave. Of course, that wasn't meant to be either (see pending vegetable oil truck entry...).

For the next few days, chunks of beluga whale meat washed up here and there, making the bears' summer just a bit better.

Polar Bear Blog - You're Screwed Buddy - August 22, 2007

A dragonfly landed on my sleeve today, eyes big and green and opaque. It must have been three or four inches long, black and green striped. I think it was a female Eastern Pondhawk, Erythemis simplicicollis - I like the sound of that. It had just caught a fly and needed a place to stop and eat it, my sleeve was as good a place as any.

So, I stared into their eyes within eyes as one ate and the other was eaten. I can't say he was really chewed up, in fact, the dragonfly was completely motionless the whole time, her mouth never moving. The fly simply kept disappearing into that mouth, slowly and insidously sucked in beneath her impassive green orbs. That poor fly bastard just stared at me, in that blank and fatalistic thousand-eyed stare, kind of saying 'damn, i spend my whole life just buzzing around and now i'm being eaten alive'. All I could muster was a 'Sorry buddy, life sucks sometimes'. And then what was left of his head fell off and that was that.

I am updating this blog in September and since then, I've had my share of dragonfly encounters - in Churchill and along Lake Winnipeg and even in the city, some big, some small, some bright, some drab, some dead, some copulating. I like them because they eat mostquitoes and (sorry fly) flies.

Dragonflies are thought to be one of the oldest living species, possibly 300 million years old, older than dinosaurs and birds.

Native Americans believed that 'dragonflies are a symbol of renewal after times of great hardship' - well, hail to the chief on that one.

Polar Bear Blog - Uranium Tours - August 18, 2007

This is a good one. The Province of Manitoba recently approved a mining claim for 36 square kilometres or about 10,000 acres of Hudson Bay coastline. There is a company called RJK Explorations that is looking for gold and uranium in some 'underutilized' spots that were sampled in the seventies.

Well, these underutilized spots cover approximately half of the coastline accessible to Churchill tour operators - both by bus and by tundra vehicle. The claim stretches from Mile 4 (around the old radar site known as the Golf Balls) out past Halfway Point (almost up to the site of Great White Bear's tundra camp. Brilliant. As if tour operators weren't boxed in here enough. RJK has secured a test drilling rig for this fall and yes, they will most likely be drilling around the Bird Cove area during this bear season.

The area given to RJK covers almost the entire area where summer tourists and even 'bear season' tourists see polar bears. Ever been to the Ithaca? That's RJK's. Finished your tundra buggy tour at Halfway Point? That's RJKs. Do you live at Camp Nanuq? So sorry... that's RJKs as well. Wow, I didn't think the province could do any less to help out this little cottage subdivision but never really thought they would just give it away. Thanks, buddy.

So Omnitrax screwed up the rail line by freighting their bags and bags of money down to the states and now we have RJK coming in to drill holes along one of the few relatively pristine spots in Churchill. It would be nice if we could do something about this but I am pretty sure that once a claim is staked, mining companies have a lot more rights than, well, anyone including the government. Maybe the new mine will have a polar bear viewing tower included on the site.

Polar Bear Blog - The Day that was the Day - August 8, 2007

275 years ago, three French ships arrived at the mouth of the Churchill River. The had travelled on a secret, suicidal mission to raid the trading posts along Hudson Bay. It was so secret in fact that they didn't pack warm clothes as they left port, dressing as though they were headed back to the Carribean.

They would land 200 troops on the west side of Prince of Wales Fort and bring their main ship, the Sceptre, into firing range on the east side. This show of force was met with no resistance as Prince of Wales Fort, only fifty years after the first stone was laid, surrendered without firing a shot.

Samuel Hearne was the Chief Factor at Prince of Wales on that day and history has often given him a harsh rebuke for not resisting. The fact of the matter is, however, that Prince of Wales Fort, while looking like a military installation, was never staffed with enough men to defend it. On August 8, 1782, less than 40 men were stationed at the fort, enough to fire maybe half a dozen of the forty cannon, at best. Rumor has it that a good chunk of the contingent were out goose hunting anyway.

So, it was probably for the best that Hearne surrendered. Good for the Hudson's Bay Company - they would sue the British Government for not defending their fort who in turn forced France to pay reparations in a treaty signed the very next year. It was good for the men, all of whom were eventually released and likely returned to Company service.

The French left supplies for the homeguard Cree and Dene traders returning to the fort. Smallpox, however, would decimate the Dene peoples in the next few years and leave the north depopulated and trade at Churchill in ruins.

Samuel Hearne, for his part, lost everything. He returned to rebuild the trading post in 1784 but both his country wife, Mary Norton, and his good friend and trading partner, Matonabee, had died in the previous year. Hearne, who a decade before had walked 3500 miles to the Coppermine River and who had established the HBC's first inland trading post, now passed his last years on the coast of Hudson Bay in a drunken and passive haze, watching the decline of his beloved home.

This event is often overlooked in Canadian history, as is Samuel Hearne, but Prince of Wales Fort and its destruction signal a change in the fate of northern Canada. It was a symbol of a trade of equals not of exploitation. In the ensuing years, the HBC and Northwest Companies would race to exploit northern markets until finally merging in 1821, and the focus of the fur trade changed to balance sheets and the bottom line.

Polar Bear Blog - Sounds Like Churchill - August 2, 2007

Yesterday, I was interviewed by CBC Radio's Sounds Like Canada. They are doing a series called Summer of Discontent or something like that, they picked up on my 'strange and disastrous' comment in the blog. We talked about the lack of train service and garbage and coffee and stuff like that, I rambled incoherently for a bit and that was that.

But the interview started with them asking me how I came to Churchill and that was a pretty tough question. I first heard about Churchill in a conversation with my friend Carmen in the fall of 1999. I hadn't even heard about Churchill or thought about polar bears before that.

She was working up here at the Lazy Bear Lodge and suggested that I come up and get a job with Tundra Buggy. I wasn't thinking so much about Tundra Buggy as I was about her. She's a beautiful hippy chick with a lot of energy and a love for wildlife and everything important in the world. She helped me launch the newspaper up here and build the cabin. We battled our way through five winters up here and a few other things as well. Since then, I've really screwed things up as only truly immature men are apt to do and things are pretty tough right now. And its a strange thing.

I have such a hard time recollecting anything else I said in that interview after the first question and suddenly the interview was over. That's what life feels like right now, I seem to have gone from there to here in one big stupid blur and now we're here and there seems like a long way away and what's said is said and what's done is done. And that's what's strange and disastrous about this summer.

Polar Bear Blog - Gone Away - July 31, 2007

Its raining today, cold east wind and gloomy, a good day for Churchill. I was watching the forest fire near Herriott Creek the other day, a gusting north wind had kicked up and flared up the fire once again. Smoke billowed along the treeline from three different places.

As I watched it, I realized that if this same wind was coming from the west, sparks from the fire could easily ignite east of the river and head straight towards the polar bear denning area. Even a random lightning strike in Wapusk National Park could have done it this summer. One forest fire could wipe out a large chunk of the polar bear's birthing area and as a result put this population beyond the point of no return.

I don't know if I believe in climate change or not anyore but I do know that its a hell of a thing to lose something that 's important to you, especially if you have just taken it for granted. That's what its like for people and bears or any form of nature really, we just assume that it will always be there. We love it but we continue on in our own selfish ways, assuming that nothing will ever change. Its a very hard thing to accept when it does.

Polar Bear Blog - Forest Fires and Fireweed- July 23, 2007

The fireweed started blooming this weekend, a sign that our brief summer is about to start sliding out the door. You could say it was been a strange and disastrous one.

Today, Churchill is smokey and orange, a forest fire burns to the south, near Deer River. You could see the plumes of smoke on the treeline yesterday and watch it grow through the day. Last weekend, you could smell smoke from fires near Thompson, Manitoba, and haze alleviated our 30C plus temperatures. It has been a dry year and lightning strikes or sparks from the train have started a few fires up here. Plus, its going to be a recordbreaking +35C in Thompson today so expect more fires. True, fires are all part of a natural progression of forests but up here that progression takes a lot longer than down south.

Speaking of trains, we don't seem to have one anymore. After several years of letting track maintenance slide with lack of money and lack of personnel, Hudson Bay Railway (owned by Omnitrax) is in a bit of a bind. Somewhere between 50 or 100 miles of track was condemned last weekend and the train and its passengers were trapped in Churchill for three days. The atmosphere in the train station on Saturday and Sunday was verging on Lord of the Flies.

To make matters worse, once service finally resumed, the passenger train heading up to Churchill got stuck behind a grain train derailment near The Pas (a northern Manitoban community). Right now, the train is officially 24 hours late and its not in yet... This is tough for a tourist town with no road access. I wonder if the Town of Churchill and Canadian Government can sue Omnitrax for loss of revenue? Or maybe pain and suffering?

Of course, wildlife is not disappointing this summer. There are at least seven to ten polar bears in the area, yesterday a mother and cubs and a young male were seen from Prince of Wales Fort (that's where I am a polar bear security guard). Other family groups and singles have also been spotted at various locations. I still credit the closure of the garbage dump for this, normally these bears would just be camped out behind the dump, rarely visible to locals and tourists.

The whales fill the mouth of the river each day complemented by Eider ducks, Parasitic Jaegers and Arctic Terns. The flowers still carpet the tundra but the cool spring and dry summer have limited the berry crop a bit, there are a few berries waiting to ripen but nothing like the past couple years.

Fireweed started blooming yesterday, a sign that summer is at its peak and will soon begins its all too speedy decline...

Polar Bear Blog - Whale Watching - July 5, 2007

Summer is in full stride in Churchill. As the temperatures rise so do the numbers of bugs, of whales, of foxes and even bears... there are one or two hanging around these days.

But, also, the town itself comes alive. As tourists and transient workers return, they add more and new faces to the restaurants, stores and bars up here. Buses are becoming a regular sight on the streets once again and whalewatching tours are going strong.

Yesterday, I helped out SeaNorth Tours with an inflatable zodiac whalewatching tour and some Prince of Wales Fort transfers. It was a classic Churchill day, starting off with an all consuming mist, where we navigated the river by GPS unit, the only sounds being the occasional splash and spray of the whales.

By 10am, the sun started to burn off the mist and all of a sudden the rocky west Peninsula emerged, beckoning what would become a beautiful sunny day. Under blue skies, the whales herded and hunted schools of capelin, a little sardine-like fish, through the river, gathering in what is called a feeding frenzy - a chaotic collection of splashing whales, tails and bubbling water. Seagulls, parasitic jaegers and arctic terns circled above, picking their spots and their fish, gained by means fair or foul. Fair being the Arctic Tern's impressive and spiralling dive, crashing into the water only to emerge with a tiny fish; foul, the Parasitic Jaegers agile and airborne piracy, harassing birds until they drop their new caught fish then swooping to snatch the falling meal in mid-air.

Afternoon, brought a healthy northwind, kicking up standing waves on the Churchill River. Whales still swam beneath the waves, now looking appearing yellow in the tannic, freshwater tide. A swirling and stirring river brought an end to whalewatching for the day and a well-deserved rest before an evening hike to the Ithaca shipwreck.

Update from Camp Nanuq: Its been a busy summer so far and doesn't appear to be slowing down much, so my apologies for slowing down on the entries. We are getting ready for our first tour group in mid-July while working a selection of northern jobs, finishing this year's redneck greenhouse and swatting mosquitoes. The running water project is complete but the redneck deck is not screened in yet. We have a new shotgun but the front tire of our truck is about to fall off. The living room is clean but the yard isn't and Milo is now living under the house, refusing to come out unless the temperatures go below 10C.

Polar Bear Blog - Revisionist Theory - June 25, 2007

Its been a cool June, cloudy, misty, foggy, you name it. We've had some nice days, even nice hours between cloud banks, but it has been cool enough to change my little ice breakup prediction.

May looked like it heralded an early spring and it did for a bit. But now we sit at the end of June and while the bay looks completely open near Churchill, most of it remains ice locked. In fact, there is at least two, if not, three times the amount of ice remaining than at this time last year. This big pad of ice is what's keeping us cool and cloudy and unless a July heat wave hits, breakup will probably wait until the end of July as it usually does.

Cool temperatures, especially at night have changed spring a bit. With near freezing temperatures at night, summer does not have a chance to get any momentum. Melting only occurs through part of the day, leaving bugs, birds and flowers a little confused as to their plan of action.

On the other hand, cool and misty makes for some very pretty scenery. Tonite, we walked along the bay, checking out some of our hiking trails for the summer, planning pond crossings and potential bridges.

Hiking back along the coast, the sun glows orange in the clouds; the bay, like fired glass, returns the favour. Grounded ice floes huddle between ridges of greywacke rock, the last vestiges of an army of ice gaining a temporary reprieve, as the sun retreats for the day.

Loons call and thrive in the mist, splashing, hunting and circling as geese and ducks skirt the edge of the ponds. A common redpoll flitters from treetop to straggly treetop. Its a nice night.

Polar Bear Blog - Beluga Whales are Back - June 18, 2007

The whales showed up this weekend, back for another summer in the Churchill River. They are still a bit tough to spot considering ice floes once again dominate the tides, floating in and out of the estuary, carrying eider ducks, scoters and mergansers with them.

For their part, the whales come in early and stay late, probably up around Mosquito Point, past the salt water tide in the warm, fresh water - a nice change from a winter in Hudson Strait and northern Hudson Bay.

These whales are probably scouts or early risers or maybe even whales stopping by before continuing south to the Nelson and Hayes Rivers near York Factory. More and more whales will show up by the day now, peaking at two or three thousand by late July.

The arrival of the whales is possibly due in part to the movement of bay ice now. The latest sea ice maps show that more than a sliver of open water extends north from Churchill all the way up the coast to Repulse Bay in northwest Hudson Bay. A sign that an early breakup is coming.

In the meantime, life is good for people and bears around here. A few days ago, big lilypads of sea ice floated just off the Churchill coast, perfect sunning spots for at least a couple hundred ringed seals. There has been broken ice and a big lead open near Churchill for quite a while now, making my drive to town each day pretty spectacular.

Polar Bear Blog - Another Early Spring...Incredible! - June 11, 2007

Okay, I have to admit I was right. Summer did come early and then so did fall followed by winter and now again spring, except now spring is not really that early anymore.

Today, our south winds have finally returned pushing temperatures up to 14C. For the past week, northwinds have packed the sea ice back on shore and back into the river. At one point the ice was jammed up higher than the Ithaca shipwreck.

South wind has brought birds out and about and probably a few more in and around Churchill. This morning, our Harris Sparrow was back, along with a white-crowned sparrow and yellow warbler perched in our willows.

The yellow warbler is a neat little bird, appearing bright yellow at first glance. Of course, as with most birds, once you see them up close, a much more complex plumage is revealed. This one was a male with rusty red stripes running vertically down his breast. His wings are a dusty green that combined with the rusty streaks kind of remind me of a 1979 Datsun 510 station wagon that we used to own (tip of the day: don't buy one).

Hopefully, this male is staking his territory near our cabin. Fresh off an epic migration from Central America, he is cruising around singing a song that kind of goes, 'sweet sweet sweet i'm so very sweet' although it could just as easily be 'feet feet feet i've got smelly feet' but I believe that song is only used by those warblers which end up living on their parents' couch reading Maxim and watching 'one versus 100'.

Polar Bear Blog - Apparently Recycling is Hard to Do As Well - June 7, 2007

Knock, knock. Who's there? Recycling. Recycling who? Recycling in Churchill.

Okay, its not that funny but it has turned into a joke. Don't get me wrong, I am in favour of recycling and support the idea of Churchill being green. But, something has gone horribly wrong.

I was excited when the Churchill dump closed, I hated watching bears alternately eating diapers and tin cans and occasionally breathing fire. It was the best thing that could have happened to our bears. But let's be clear now - this was not done for the good of the town or for the good of the bears, it was simply because the federal government was divesting all its non-revenue, high liability properties. Churchil had no choice and our hands were a bit tied by varied and longwinded government regulations and policies.

We brought up a consultant (my favourite word) to make a plan for a recycling facility and we paid them a lot and got a wonderful plan that looks great on paper - I was just looking through it the other day, we were going to be profiting from recycling by now, joy!!! Since then our past CAO and town manager left (some say parachuted out of) town when they saw more and more garbage piling up. Now, council, town employees and the new CAO is working on Plan B kind of on the run - we don't have much choice.

There was lots of talk that we would ship our garbage to the City of Thompson - Thompson did not this unfortunately. Gardewine transport was going to ship it for free - I don't think they knew that either. And the town would go from 16% recycling level to 80% in three years by creating an underpaid recycling coordinator position to promote the program. I think there was a monorail in the plan somewhere as well.

But, why rant now? Well, we drove down to Mile 4 last night - just an old gravel pit on the coast of Hudson Bay - but a beautiful view and a good place to find polar bears and birds in the summer. It was a bit surprising to find a pile of cardboard waiting to be 'recycled' with gasoline and a match. There's probably more to come - we have a mountain of it lying in the 'L5' recycling centre.

Now, I don't want to get down on the town of Churchill - they are working towards a solution - we are temporarily shipping some garbage out and looking at purchasing an incinerator. Unfortunately, these solutions are not really recycling and its too bad we can't sue the brilliant engineers and consultants that started us off on this road to randomness.

I am just tired of watching Churchill wreck our coastline. I know this is a temporary solution but temporary has a way of turning into plastic bags blowing across the tundra. Shouldn't we clean up Mile 4 since all our tour operators use it was part of their tour instead of creating a new dump?

There are dead end roads, scrap metal and tire tracks that all could be cleaned up. Churchill is still a beautiful place but we really could make life easier for local guides and bus drivers. Churchill talks about marketing and competing on a world ecotourism scale but maybe we should get together and clean up our view of the Arctic Ocean instead of launch a new ad campaign.

I won't even get into the state of our 'lagoon' or as locals lovingly call it - the 'dead dog cafe'.

I've only been living here for five years and it bugs me how much coastline and how much Churchill history just gets wrecked or used or whatever. I can't fathom what it must be like for someone to watch the various 'new' plans change the landscape over thirty or forty years, but every time I drive by the 'old' incinerator, I think I understand it a bit better.

Ahh, that's better. I think I'm back.

Polar Bear Blog - Breaking Up is Hard to Do - June 3, 2007

Still working on the new newspaper and finishing our waterworks and my brain is a little full these days so please excuse the dramatic pause in blogs. Summer is still chugging its way into Churchill, seeming here for good one day only to disappear the next, replaced by a smattering of snow or frost.

We have had a lot of south winds this spring and there is still a lot of open water near Churchill, at first glimpse looking like the bay will open any day now. Of course, ice still covers about 80-90% of Hudson Bay and we are at least a month away from real break-up and the bears' return to land.

Ringed seals are starting to appear out on the ice, sunning themselves on our temporary floe edge. Lying on the ice, they spend the day in a regular pattern of sleep-wake periods. Dozing off for a few seconds, they snap awake on a fairly regular basis, scan the horizon and then drift back to sleep. A good idea when you are polar bear's favourite food.

Bears for their part, try their best to anticipate this sleep-wake schedule and stalk the seals by inching forward during 'sleep' and staying motionless during 'wake'. Once they are within striking distance - about 30 metres, their 'stalk' turns to a 'charge' and hopefully, they can grab the unfortunate seal before it flops back into the ocean.

We are about two months past seal birthing season and two months into prime seal hunting season up here - for polar bears not people. Most of the seals that polar bears eat, somewhere around 90%, are under two years of age, fat and inexperienced. In spring, the bears themselves get fatter and happier by the day.

This is why the timing of break-up is an important thing for bears. An early breakup can cut this season short by two to three weeks or about 50-60lbs lighter. Not a big deal for bears in the prime of life but possibly fatal for the very young or the very old.

Polar Bear Blog - Polar Bears Here and There - May 24, 2007

I have been saying it is an early spring, so I might as well push that one along to read early summer. The Churchill River 'broke' about a week ago now, high tide opening up the mouth and leaving a constant channel running out to the sea ice. Now, only ten or twelve feet of ice remains along the shore, even the bergy bits and ice floes are diminishing by the day, worn down and pushed around by the tides. Dark blue clouds, signs of open water, are a daily occurrence, that is, when open water itself isn't visible out on the sea ice, which is pretty rare.

Of course, with an early summer will come early polar bears. And with early polar bears will come film crews and news anchors and the clang and rattle of the climate change bandwagon. I suppose this is good, though, and handy as well, considering our Premier Gary Doer is flying Arnold Schwarzenegger up here this fall, to talk about how 'green' we all are. And it doesn't hurt to spread the message of conservation and that sort of thing but I have a feeling the media might take it a tad further - I have this vision of colour coded 'Climate Change Alerts' by the end of summer.

So far, a few bears have been spotted on shore but not for good. These are simply polar bears wandering on to land for an hour or a day, satisfy their curiosity, then head back on the ice, you really can run into a polar bear at any time of the year up here. There have been two spotted behind the Town Centre Complex and the occasional track out this way, near Halfway Point. Yesterday, a polar bear was cruising along the rocks at Cape Merry, just west of the Town of Churchill.

More bears to come, no doubt, and judging by the river, birds, frogs and such, I'm betting the fun starts the first week of July.

Polar Bear Blog - Eiders Down and Old Squabbles - May 22, 2007

A beautiful, pre-bug day in Churchill, one where the sun spends the day eating snow and ice by the mouthful. Our lake is 3/4 open even if a bit reluctantly, ice slush still crackles in defiance of spring before giving way.

This is the season of birds not bears. Geese still fly and bonaparte's gulls are noisily nesting around my house. A flock of football shaped eider ducks zoomed by the deck today, headed inland to scope out a nice deep lake, deciding which location provides the best access to the ocean and protection at the same time. White-crowned sparrows now join the robins and gray jays, its getting a little crowded out here.

Four pairs of long-tailed ducks (formerly and less politically correctly called oldsquaws) tried to lay claim to our lake, amidst much tail waving and diving displays. Persistent, the longtails would fly away only to circle and return with their wobbly, daring landings. Once again, squawks, at once mournful and aggressive, would begin and in a duck language incomprehensible to me, they would beat their chests and stake their claims. Eventually, two pairs rose to the top of the hierarchy only to be usurped by our neighbour as he pruned his willows, the noise of his chainsaw unknowingly laying claim to the lake...for now.