Yellow-billed Loons and a Discussion about Red Foxes

Bryce, the crew leader for the long-term monitoring crew, also has a blog. You can look at it here. He is an excellent birder, a wonderful artist (seriously his art is amazing!) and all around fun gent. His blog also has many more followers than mine; but it has been very beneficial for us! He met a fellow birder up here through his blog. She works for the airport to observe and deter animals from coming on to the runway. The rest of us met her and formed fast friendships in such a remote location. Interestingly, she discovered some Yellow-billed Loons down the Haul Road. So we all took a trip to discover them for ourselves. We went out later at night for the mid-summer, midnight lighting. Unfortunately there were clouds blocking the sun but the experience made the night very magical. Once we got to the pond the loons were seen in just a few days before, we all easily spotted them. They never got too close, and we were all destroyed by mosquitoes but it was well worth it. Especially when another loon (probably a Pacific) flew over and the two started "talking". I wish I had captured their calls on video, it was such an amazing sound. Bryce was able to lay in some grass at the edge of the pond and the loons floated close for him to get some video and pictures. You can view the video on his blog, link here again if you missed it (i.e. seriously check it out for his art and prose alone!). In the meantime, here are my not as good pictures. 

Yellow-billed Loons on an Arctic summer night.

Beautiful birds.

We often talk about how climate change is affecting nesting birds in the Arctic. In fact, it is one of the primary reasons Wildlife Conservation Society started their research here almost 11 years ago. However, nesting birds are also affected by the increased number of predators, especially in the oilfields. In fact, many predators are also affected by climate change and are able to travel further north in search of prey. Other studies have shown that there are not as many predators in the high Arctic as there are at lower latitudes. But we also have to factor in how human infrastructure draws in predators that don't really belong. Both Common Ravens and Red Foxes are smart and opportunistic, and both are drawn to the oilfields for nesting/denning and ease of finding food. Red Fox are also responsible for out-competing as well as preying on the Arctic Fox. Red Fox can easily take down adult geese, but with all the babies running around there is even easier prey to catch. On W-Pad the other day, one of the pad operators told us there was a family of Red Foxes underneath the main building on the pad. Once we left the pad for the day we saw a fox carrying a gosling only to discover it actually had two goslings. At one point it dropped its catch and pounced on something else in the grass. As the pictures show, it caught itself a little lemming snack; and then picked up its meal to carry it back to the den and its kits. I think BP has other conservation groups that monitor ravens and foxes here, but there is not a management plan other than observing them. Foxes got to eat too, but to the detriment of nesting birds. It's a double whammy for the bird species that breed in the Arctic. 

Carrying off catch.

Stopping for a snack.

Chowing down.

"Time to take these back to my babies."

"They sure will enjoy these."