The Arctic Ocean

Friday

Arctic Ocean with my cell camera

Vast.  Beautiful.  Frozen.  The Arctic Ocean, what a sight.  There is a little "island" that juts out into the ocean.  One of the drill sites, it is pretty far removed from the whole oilfield compound.  It is called Endicott.  Of all of the places within the oilfield, I could foresee myself working out there.  It would probably be the coldest spot, since it gets the cold ocean winds and such, but it is freaking gorgeous.  Plus, the marine side of me gets all giddy thinking about all the marine mammals you might be able to see out there!  We went there to do a training for the nest monitoring crew that will be working on some plots near it.  Unfortunately, we will not get to go out there as much as they will.

They jokingly have a fake palm tree, that we took pictures in front of and we even walked out on to the ocean.  I mean, a lot of it is frozen so you can literally walk on the ocean.  I don't think we really made it passed the snow-covered beach, but it was awesome none the less.  I want to go back later in the season if we can to see it when the ice has melted more. 

View of Endicott from the ocean

Standing on a frozen beach

View of the pipeline from the ocean

After dinner, we met up with the other crew outside the oilfield and drove down the haul rode for a bit.  We saw so many Snowy Owls!  At least 12 in the entire day (a few out by Endicott are included in the count).  We saw them fighting in mid-air a few times, which was really exciting.  More musk ox and other birdies too.  We are hoping that it is a sign that it will be a high lemming year, which means more snowies and more Pomarine Jaegars for the season.

Digiscoped Musk Oxen

Digiscoped Snowy Owls (one on right hidden next to ice pile)

New creatures added to the list (same deal, * are new species never before seen by my eyes):
Snowy Owl*
Willow Ptarmgian*
Stilt Sandpiper*
Pomarine Jaegar*
Parasitic Jaegar*
Pacific Loon*
Red Phalarope*
Bar-tailed Godwit*
Rock Ptarmigan* (got a pretty good picture of this guy!)
ARCTIC FOX! Yay!*
Common Eider*
Sabine's Gull*

Angry Arctic Ground Squirrel 

Rock Ptarmigan hasn't molted his winter plumage yet

Saturday

We got to work out on the tundra today.  We set up plot stakes for the nest monitoring crew and counted the birds that we saw for the day.  When we did the training earlier, it was really cold and I was not too happy about the prospects of the rest of the field season being that cold.  However, once we got out there and were actually traipsing through the tundra, it was a lot better.  You get your blood flowing by walking in thigh high snow and ice in hip waders.  The ice will melt a bit more soon and then the bugs will come out, so I need to enjoy the cold and wind while it lasts!

Tomorrow we are taking a field trip down the haul road in search of Bluethroat (OMG!!!) and a Gyrfalcon family.

Hmm...my blog almost seems more like a journal right now.  But so many amazing and adventurous things are happening that I have to share with you all!