Last week I just started my 13th season guiding Churchill Polar Bear trips for Natural Habitat Adventures. The temperatures were much warmer than average, but we still had several nice encounters with polar bears, saw two snowy owls, had some excellent opportunities to photograph ptarmigan, foxes and arctic hares. A strange thing happened while we were on the tundra. We drove by an old military observation tower built in the early 1950’s for cold weather training, and when we drove by it again a few hours later it had collapsed in the high winds. It had been an iconic landmark for almost 7 decades, but nature finally took its course.
It is going to be another awesome season in Churchill. Every trip is totally different, but they are always so much fun… polar bears, crazy weather, arctic creatures, and one of my favorite communities on earth!
Check out some of my favorite photos from this first week:
A young, fat polar bear cruises the kelp beds on the shore looking for snacks. Polar bears do eat dead kelp that piles up in the surf.
This is my favorite image from the trip, as the bear stands out in the red kelp bed, and the background shows a cold, stormy sea.
A polar bear wakes up from a nap to give us a look.
Young female bear sniffing the air after a nap in the willows.
This is the first tower, which had collapsed a few hours previous. It was built by the US/Canadian military in the early 1950’s. It was used to observe cold weather combat training maneuvers until the 1970’s, and some polar bear research projects after that.
This image shows the amazing “snow-booty” feet of a winter phase willow ptarmigan.
Ptarmigan are brown in the summer and change to pure white in the winter, except for some black tail feathers which distract aerial predators who try to hit the birds in the dark eyes. You can see a few summer feathers still left on this bird.
This arctic hare is anxious for the first snowfall, as it isn’t quite camouflaged on the bare tundra. These guys are huge compared to snowshoe hares, and average 6-12 lbs. They can run up to 40 mph.
We saw a ptarmigan which suffered from the lack of snow, and was easily noticed by this red fox.
On our last morning we visited the 220,000 square foot town complex which houses the school, bowling alley, curling rink, hockey rink, swimming pool, basketball court, library, government offices, hospital, and the famous polar bear slide! This amazing building has been the heart of the community since its construction in 1976.
Halloween is a big event in Churchill, and the decorations are already going up. This giant purple zombie haunts the lobby of the Seaport Hotel.
On our last morning we were lucky enough to see a large pod of beluga whales at the mouth of the Churchill River at Cape Merry.
Up to 3,000 belugas, or “sea canaries” concentrate in the Churchill River during the summer. They are normally gone by late October, but we were lucky to see a nice pod that was still hanging around the mouth. Click here to see the amazing trips Natural Habitat runs here in the summer to see belugas.
As we were watching belugas spouting a few hundred yards out, a large bearded seal swam very close to the shore, and even surfed a few breaking waves. Bearded seals are named for their long whiskers, and can grow to be 800 lbs.
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Awesome photos, Brad! Wish I was there in person, but am watching the webcam on explore.org. Hope the weather gets better and the bears come out for amazing photo ops for your guests! I was on your tour last November and want to come back!!