Mega Update

Well, now that the internet is back and I have some free time, I suppose I need to check in with you all.  So, this is going to be a long one!

Last week we went to a different part of the coast, basically straight north of where our "camp" is, to the Beaufort Sea.  The area is called West Dock and it is where they "launch" hovercrafts that travel to Northstar.  There is also a pretty neat rusty old boat stuck in the ice over there.

Sign for hoverboats and old shipwreck on the Beaufort Sea.

This last week has been very busy with work.  We have worked long hours in very strong winds, which is very tiring.  We were able to set up all 6 transects of duck and shorebird artificial nests while we still had extra hands.  In the last few days we have checked them all and the outcome is dismal.  The first day, when the wind was 40mph we had 2 out of 80 nests that did not succumb to predators.  Wow.  Not only were we extremely tired after checking all those failed nests in battering winds, but to discover that we essentially had nothing to show for the hard work we did earlier setting up those nests, was pretty disheartening.  On top of it all, a few of the cameras did not work correctly (or the predator was small enough that it didn't trigger the camera) so we have no pictures.  On one though, three different predators showed up at the nest.  The best was the Pomarine Jaegar that nonchalantly walked right in front of the camera.  It's pretty cute.

Fox or weasel scat on depredated duck egg with 1" nail for comparison

Tuesday's highlight was seeing a brown bear!  Driving back, we had heard reports of some out east, but there was one right off the road.  I haven't been bringing my camera into the field, for many reasons, so I was unable to get a picture (my crew leader did get some and she will let me have some of the pictures later).  It had a radio collar and tag in the ear, and wasn't very large, so it might have been a younger bear.

Then yesterday we were out on two of the plots when my crew leader, Erica, radioed me saying that there was a bear on her plot.  My heart nearly stopped.  I was concerned for her, she said it was lumbering around about 300m from her.  I could see her and it with my binoculars and it was turned the other way and walking away from her, and didn't even notice that she was there.  Needless to say, it was sort of a scare but we are alright and when it comes down to it, the bear is probably more afraid of us than we are of it.  We are very safe out there with our bear spray and we can generally see them from far away since the terrain is so flat.  We also have contact with security and people that are aware of reports of bears and looking out for us (i.e. don't worry mom!).  We had to go back to the same area today, and there was no more bear!

Today, we were checking some of the transects with our artificial nests.  Three more nests depredated but stupidly there is one nest surviving on both of the transects and they are both about 2km away, which makes for a very annoying and long walk. Oh well, it is all for science, somehow.

Had a caribou cross the road when we were driving which was neat.

Caribou struttin'

Also, on one of the plots there is a Stilt Sandpiper nest.  The males do a display and have a call that kind of sounds like a monkey and donkey combined.  The female's are known to be very protective of their nests and Joe and Steve have told us they sometimes will not even move when they are checking the nest for eggs, so they just kind of lift them up to see under.  Well, I didn't disturb the little lady, but she didn't move when I was checking her out and got a picture of her on my cell phone.

Stilt Sandpiper female sitting on her nest. So cute!

That's all for now, now that we don't have as busy of days I will try to be better about posting more often!