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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Hudson Bay Quest 2007
February 15-March 19, 2007
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December-January12, 2007
December 1-10, 2006
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October 1-October 9, 2006
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August 8-17, 2006
August 1-8, 2006  
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July 18-24, 2006   
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July 2006   
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May 2006 
Archived articles

Polar Bear Blog - Its my Anniversary! - October 9th, 2006

I just realized that today is the anniversary of my eighth October in Churchill. I still remember getting off the train and onto the Tundra Buggy bus and Melissa, their office girl at the time, saying 'let's get you moved in later, would you mind doing a tour right now? Just follow someone and it will be fine. Have fun.' And that was that. A pretty wild and wonderful first season, I must say.

So, I went for a walk to celebrate and look for our resident polar bear. Yup, he (or maybe a new bear) is still living across the lake. First we found his tracks and then some digging in the peat (dirt). I pile of bear scat full of undigested crowberries and cranberries was next and finally, there he was across the lake, nestled underneath a tree! Milo wanted to go over and chase him but I called him off (it really is the only time he listens to me, sigh...). Glad our bear is still there.

Not much else today, a few ravens tipped their wings at us and a pair of old wolf tracks crossed the trail. The sun is out now and it has turned into a great day! Calm and cool, there is even a light south wind. Of course, as I returned to the cabin, you could feel the first blast of north wind. It only lasted a moment but is an ominous sign of things to come. When there is a good storm on its way, things are usually calm (I mean, there is a reason they say calm before the storm) and then you will have an occasional gust that shakes the trees and creates an audible stir. You watch through the day as the trees shudder occasionally and the hydro wires begin to sway and then about ten or twelve hours after that first gust, all hell breaks loose.

Polar Bear Blog - Snow on the Deck - October 9th, 2006

I cannot believe that it is October 9th already, time is flying. Anyway, this is the first morning with snow still dusting my deck. The pastels of early winter have taken over the skies and a real winter storm, complete with 80km/hr winds (40 mph), is predicted for tomorrow. Hopefully that will not knock out my internet... although thinking about it, I could use a break from it. Some time apart to think about our relationship and decide if we should break-up or buy a couch from IKEA.

Paper is 90% done and ready for print - just have to drive around and check a few more facts today. It is a good feeling to be on the home stretch.

While some of the bears from last week have been handled by Polar Bear Alert, there are still a few bears around and if it stays cold, we should get a whole bunch more. Polar bears do not like walking through water and wet ground at this time of year. They will wait until the ground and the ponds are frozen before making a real appearance in numbers.

Polar Bear Blog - Pre-Season Wildlife - October 8th, 2006

A good cold October day, strong north winds and a chill in the air. Time for the ol' red longjohns!

Around this time of year, it is not just polar bears emerging around Churchill. For this first part of October, wildlife is varied and active along the coast.

The loons and longtailed ducks are long gone from our lake but mergansers and American black ducks now visit on a daily basis. A family of four Mergansers is particularly reliable, returning daily to feast on stickleback (little fish), splash and swim around.

Saw two red foxes cruising along the coast, searching for lemmings and fattening up for the winter although they both look like they are in decent shape. Churchill is a crossover spot between red and arctic foxes. Their territories converge here and they compete for food and denning space. This is a tough deal for the smaller and weaker arctic fox and they are often pushed out of the best areas. On rare occasions, the red fox will even prey upon the arctic fox.

What else? The newspaper is just about done and my brain is just about mush. I send it off to print tomorrow - the newspaper, not my brain - and should have it up here by Friday the 13th!

Polar Bear Blog - Winter is Here just not Here - October 7th, 2006

It is cool and overcast today. Forecast is calling for a winter storm through much of northern Manitoba, except Churchill. We had a bit of a snow squall late last night but not enough to be called real snow, that will have to wait for a few more days.

I have been talking about an early winter in a few blog entries and I guess I should preface that a bit. People who have lived here since the sixties and seventies remember winter starting in mid-September and in full stride by October. So, I guess early is a bit of a relative term.

Regardless of early winter or not, it has been a decent start to polar bear season, there are three or four hanging out in buggyland and another three or four between Camp Nanuq and Churchill. I even got my first good bear season tall tale last night - this week, the Polar Bear Alert program darted a polar bear and were taking it to the Polar Bear Jail in the back of their truck. I guess the dart was a little light on tranquilizer or the bear was a little heavy on fat and by the time they got to the jail, the bear had stood up in the back of the truck and was, albeit dazedly, looking around, trying to figure out what was going on. That's good bear gossip.

Polar Bear Blog - Bears are Here, Winter is on its Way - October 5th, 2006

Weather has changed a bit since the last entry. Strong south-southwest winds have reached us, harrowing our one-sided trees and berating the lyme grass. It is also likely bringing snow and that snow should be here in maybe two days. This time of year the land is still warmer than the bay and south wind inevitably results in precipitation. I still hold out hope for an early winter with a lot of snow.

In the meantime, I am enjoying the latest wave of polar bears to hit Churchill. After a bit of a lull, the bears have made an appearance en force. So far, I have seen eight polar bears today and know of at least one more that was airlifted out, captured in a bear trap at L5, our recycling centre.

To me, it looks like a lot of these bears were returning to the dump site, in fact, one family unit (a mother with two big - almost three year old? - cubs) remains camped out on the rocks near 'Dump Beach'. Another family roams around Bird Cove, the rocky beach close to our cabin. This one has yearling cubs (22 months old). She looks a little thin but still quite a big bear, possibly quite old. Once she settled in the willows off the main road, I managed to catch a glimpse of her lunchtime nursing session!

The big bear is still cruising around and another smaller bear wandered in the distance. No word how things are east of here in BuggyLand but so far Bird Cove is a pretty happening place!

Who else is here? Snow buntings have arrived en masse and swoop and dive in numbers along the coast. In the last week, an arctic fox made an appearance, arctic hare can be seen every night along the main highway, eagles, geese, black-bellied plovers, red fox, gray jays, even lemmings. Lemmings are basically a short-tailed mouse and are a semi-regular sighting now. This is a good indication that their population is once again on the increase. Since they are pretty low on the food chain, this means that next summer will be an even better time for wildlife viewing!

Polar Bear Blog - Waiting for Winter - October 5th, 2006

Well, my predictions of an early winter are limping along. Today, we are supposed to reach 13C and sunrise found us at a relatively balmy 5C although the north wind is reminding us of what's to come. They are calling for snow by the weekend but temperatures are still predicted to be a little above 'normal'.

However, the arctic hare and ptarmigan are all pure white and have been for a while and things can change pretty quickly up here.

We are also waiting for the upcoming municipal elections up here. Last night, we had the pre-election forum and heard from the three mayoral and ten councillor candidates. Our three potential mayors are all very different people, if I had to classify them into parties, I think Progressive Liberal, Conservative Libertarian and the New Enigmatic Party would probably fit pretty well.

But, what they do have in common is that they were standing up and saying what they believed in and honestly believe that they can do what's right for Churchill. It was very refreshing in an era of marketing spin and gladhanding.

Polar Bear Blog - Your Burning Garbage is Gone - October 5th, 2006

A quick add-on to yesterday's polar bear sighting. I guess we ran into him just after his encounter with an electric fence. A friend of ours and the owner of Nature First Tours now lives next to the former dump site. He moved a house in there this summer and has rigged up some bear defences for the coming season.

One of them is an electric fence, I think something like 11,000 volts, enough to annoy a polar bear anyway. The tricky thing about electric fences is that you need to make sure the wires are close enough so that the shock goes through the bear's nose. If it gets its whole head through the fence, the shock will have little effect on the thick skin of its neck.

Anyway, it is another good reminder for our old bear that the old days of Churchill's dump are gone!

Polar Bear Blog - Where's my Burning Garbage? - October 4th, 2006

Another big bear walking around, probably the same one I saw a few days ago, finally making his way to his old haunts. One of which was obviously the garbage dump. Yesterday, we were heading into town around 4pm and saw this big old boy winding his way back from the old dump site.

Wary of our vehicle (we had seen the Polar Bear Alert truck drive by a little earlier), he stopped and slid into a clump of willows, disappearing as mysteriously as he appeared.

I cannot stress how good it is that the old Churchill dump is closed. No more pictures of bears amidst burning garbage and just more bears around and in their natural habitat. Sometimes you hear that the dump used to be the place where locals went to watch bears and that now that is gone but it is the complete opposite. The dump used to localize polar bear activity and forced people to go there to watch bears because there was little other option.

Another nice thing about yesterday's bear sighting was that he was headed back east instead of to town and to L5, our recycling centre. Older bears are usually smart enough to avoid human activity and development and it looks like this guy made the right choice.

Polar Bear Blog - Eagle Antics - October 2nd, 2006

All of a sudden there are geese back in Churchill. Small bands of Canada Geese and Snow Geese dot the tundra, much to the delight of this year's crop of bald eagles.

Two or three bald eagles cruise the coastline and terrorize these lagging flocks of geese. Today, I found a sheltered spot along Polar Bear Alley with a whole bunch of snow goose carcasses piled into it. It could be the remnants of a local snow goose hunt or an eagle stockpile or maybe both. All that remained of the geese were their wings, still attached together, the bones picked clean. This is pretty classic eagle leftovers; they pin the bird down, tear out its guts and then move on.

What I am trying to figure out is if it was eagle pellets that was lying around out there... A pellet is basically the stuff that an eagle or owl cannot digest and regurgitates it instead. This looked a lot like an owl pellet except larger and bright, bright red, a mix of feathers, bones and seeds. Kind of confusing since eagles and most carnivores don't usually eat berries, unless they are already in the belly of a goose!?!

Polar Bear Blog - Real Facts about Churchill's Polar Bears - October 1st, 2006

Just finished an article for the latest edition of the Hudson Bay Post called 'What's Up with our Bears?' It is kind of a snapshot of the polar bears of western Hudson Bay without any hype or hysterics.

Here it is