Day 68: Snapshots

Today, I saw two red fox, a vole, a golden eagle, countless small fluttering birds and a wolf (too brief and far away for a picture), within the span of 20 minutes driving down Twin Lakes Road toward West Twin Lake to do the water sampling. I like being the first one in the field, the first to disturb the wildlife and the first to see it.

Today, I found some really bizarre looking algae at Coast Pond. Let's do an ink blot test. What do you see? I see green algae that has made some sort of enclosure to capture escaping gas, probably CO2, but that is just my nerdy side cracking through.

Today, I poked the abdomen of a female spider until the baby spiders crawled off so I could count how many there were for the Godwit team. I think I still have a bit of a fear, irrational but present, of spiders.

Today, I interviewed amphibian ecologist, Ben Cash. The landscape came to life with his words as only a true naturalist has the power to do.

Today, I interviewed a plover lover, Lisa - also my rocket climbing, firefly watching buddy. I wonder if the mismatch hypothesis might actually be a benefit to the species... Anne? I will ask her tomorrow. And I'm going to make you, dear and precious reader, wait a bit longer to even know what that means. Though I will give you a hint to go back to the post Research in Action.

Today, I discovered that I have a select number of days left in Churchill and that I am secretly, almost unconsciously and certainly regretfully counting them down. I am making a conscious effort to instead keep counting up.

Today, I only wish to give you a few snapshots, snacks of the stories that each hour here accumulates.

Day 67: Fix

A lot of fixes were had today.

Fix (n.): a compulsively sought dose of something

Fix #1:  I was waiting at the train today to pick up the foxy team, otherwise known as the team that studies fox, but foxy is faster. After having spent the time to make a lunch, prepared to wait two hours like I had on Thursday for the train to come in (when I got my fix on chips!) the train pulled in right on time! 10:30. Which made it difficult for me to run the errand assigned to me by Rosalind to pick up some liquor for a long island ice tea since the liquor store opens at 11. Luckily, the foxy crew had to run a few errands in town, talking to the helicopter pilot, getting some stuff from the Northern and picking up some bottles at the liquor store as well! After having failed to get everything on Rosalind's list last week, not noticing that there was a quantity number beside the items..., I am glad that I was able to get what she wanted this time. I got her fix! It's odd though. I've never bought liquor before, I've never bought alcohol stronger than whatever is in my mouthwash. Until today. And I had never bought meat or tobacco before Rosalind asked me to last week. Maybe Churchill has changed me? Definitely new experiences!

Fix #2: This is Sarah's fix. She is a volunteer at the Centre, but always manages to sneak out with the researchers, to Krista's equipment on the fen or to the bluffs with Anne and Lisa. Today, she did the science on a soil core by removing the oligochaetes, worms, and insects from the mud. Anne will count and identify them tomorrow. What a nerdy fix! I love it!

Fix #3: This one is mine. Mine is a fix that I've found hard to satisfy up here. I was able to once, on the bluffs, the pleasure of hands against rock and straining muscles to make it to the top. Climbing, that's my "dose of something." And today I got it! On the rocket! I went biking and climbing! I don't know how Sarah and Lisa put up with me...

Getting down was the hard part... I may have... kinda... fallen.

Day 65: Mysterious findings

Today was a long day of waiting. I was picking up Matt and Caleigh from the train station, but the train was an hour and a half late, so being there a half hour early gave me a lot of down time to read and eat a bag of ships I picked up at the Northern (that was a bad idea). So the first unexpected thing that I found:

At the Northern, there was a book exchange shelf behind the chip aisle (hence the wandering down the chips aisle). Being a book nerd and nearing the end of the current book I'm reading, Atlas Shrugged, I perused. There was a John Grisham, a couple condensed reader editions, a book on the methods in studying behaviour, a psychology magazine, a couple kids books. I almost left with nothing really attracting my eye until....

Born Free by Joy Adamson

When I was little, there were two movies that I would constantly rent from the library, Fly Away Home - the story of a girl finding Canada goose eggs, having the chicks imprint on her, rearing them and then building an airplane with her father to teach them the migration path, and Born Free. Born Free is the story of a couple in Kenya who happen to find these wild lion cubs after the parents were put down and the raising of the cubs, keeping one cub, Elsa, to adulthood when they lived with her and trained her until one day they decided to let her back into the wild and set her free, because she was born free. It's a true story, and this book was written by the woman who raised Elsa. This is one of the stories that really captured my imagination of how humans and wildlife could live side by side. I am quite excited to have found this book up here in Churchill where bears and humans come into contact so frequently. It seems to be a reflection of lions in Kenya and polar bears in Churchill. I suppose some credit of my fascination with animal behaviour can be attributed to this story as well. And if you also happen to be interested in animals communicating with people, listen to Radiolab's Animal Minds episode - which I happened to listen to while I was filtering today. (Strange how connections happen like that sometimes.)

Unexpected finding number 2: After lunch, I went with Kat to do the weekly water sampling and we came across something intriguing. When we returned, I had this elaborate plan of how to present the finding to LeeAnn, stating various theories that could have lead to the thing we saw, but Kat just blurted it out. So to follow her example, we found evidence of the landing area of an alien spaceship. It turns out that the media have been lying to us all this time, the scale they always present is way off! The ships have to be much smaller to make this:

See the mysterious ring? What can it be? What can it be? Aliens!

So an acceptably alternative hypothesis is that is was made by fairies which is why it is sometimes called a fairy ring or elf ring as well. The hypothesis that everyone wants you to believe is that it is a fungus, mushrooms that grow in a ring because of the connected mycelia or connected oval genets of neighboring mushrooms. I'm sticking with aliens.

The third interesting thing: After filtering, I went back to the lab to grab the camera to download the pictures of the lakes from water sampling. As soon as I enter the lab, I see:

Remember the post about the squirrel? ... I found him!

First, I grabbed a bucket, think that I might be able to catch him before he fled. Then I realized how unlikely that scenario was, catch a squirrel with a bucket! Kat had already tried this, throwing a bucket at the squirrel, but unsuccessful in the catch. So I gently put the bucket down and grabbed the camera that I was there to retrieve anyways. The little thing posed for me! Then ran at me, under my desk, then Kat's desk, then LeeAnn's desk, then into the classroom where I lost track of him. I just have to remind myself not to feed the wild animals. Though, interestingly, Celia had buns and cheese in a box in the lab last night left over from the Wapusk trip that had little bite marks out of it... I think we found the culprit. Until next time, little buddy.

Day 64: Simply keeping busy

The actual work of today consisted of plucking white dryas puffs in 40km/hr winds, measuring the earth's magnetic field, analyzing CO2 flux, and preparing buoys.

The outside of work for today was mainly yoga and reading. I don't have much to share today.

Dryas puff: Imagine carefully pulling the white
stuff off and stuffing it into a plastic bag without
losing it to the wind... I lost a lot to the wind.

Radish seeds have been planted in the bedroom. Two sprouts,
after one day, have already poked out!

After the rain and sun combination all day, we got a
rainbow!

Day 63: Day of Sound

I had the rare luxury of being able to drive by myself through the boreal forests after dropping off the Waterloo/Laurier crew at the airport. Today was the day of sound.

I listened to the radio, to the CBC broadcasts. I listened to music, and sang loudly with it. Then swhistled loudly over the weather forecast that the radio voice kept repeating. I stood in the wind and listened to the waves on the river, the waves on the beach. I baked in the sun while I read a novel. I ate an orange in the sand and cheese in the forest.

First stop on Goose Creek Rd was a kennel of sled dogs who
perked up at the approach of my car

Second stop: I found a new dump of twisted metal scraps

A taxidermied fox with the fur removed, found at the dump...

A plaque in memory and honour of the Sayisi Dene People.
They were relocated by the government to these concrete houses
where disease killed over 1/3 of the population from 1956 to 1973
at which point they freed themselves from the "grips of genocide."

What's left of the foundation of a house in "Dene Village"

Third stop: marshes

"One of these mornings
You're going to rise up singing
Then you'll spread your wings
And you'll take to the sky"

- "Summertime" by jazz artist George Gershwin

Adrift

The singing tower at the weir. With the wind blowing at 40km/hr
the metal sang like blowing air over a bottle top. It was beautiful.

The end of Goose Creek Road: the Churchill River

Day 61: Come play with me

I saw a small reddish squirrel run with tail low through the kitchen of the original CNSC building.

To a Squierrel at Kyle-na-gno
by William Butler Yeats in The Wild Swans at Coole (1919).

COME play with me;
Why should you run
Through the shaking tree
As though I'd a gun
To strike you dead?
When all I would do
Is to scratch your head
And let you go.

Why are we so drawn to the small wild creatures? Do not be afraid little ones, I just want to pet you and let you go on your way. The squirrels, the baby hares, the chicks - plover and dunlin and yellow warbler and godwit, the baby fox, the polar bear cubs... Why are they so very cute with upturned eyes, but quick feet and fear?

From Winnipeg Free Press article

The slight irony of the poem I chose to share is that I habitually do carry a gun, but not to hunt, only to protect myself. Though that brings me back to another story of a polar bear incident in town. A third bear was killed in Churchill this year. I don't know why so many this year. Winnipeg Free Press and CBC covered the story of a woman and her two children's encounter with a polar bear near the health centre. No humans were hurt, and the woman ended up fighting off the bear with her handbags while screaming until it ran and the natural resource officers showed up. The bear was shot and killed due to aggression. And the same questions I had at the beginning of June are resurfacing. Why such killing? Why can't there be a way to live together without any death? Should there be a limit to nature? Can a top predator and humans ever get along? Anywhere?

This is such a contrast to the squirrel poem. That I am tempted to write a poem in response from the bears.



To a Human in Churchill

COME play with me;
Why should you run
Screaming as you flee
in the land of midnight sun?
You think I want you dead?
When all I would do
Is to sniff your head
And let you go.

Day 60: Home

I realized today that CNSC has become my summer home. My home. The first month, I merely lived and worked here. Then one day, I found myself saying, after a long field day, "time to go home." What a strong word, home. Home is friends, comfort, safety, enjoyment. Home is stimulation and relaxation. Home is freedom to be myself. I have a home in Waterloo, still with people I love and miss and places and freedoms I love and miss. But I have discovered that I can have more than one home. I am happy in this home of the north.

Today, I lost one roommate of the two, so I now only have one, Krista. So we decided to expand and really unpack. We have been here for two months and have one more month to go, so why not unpack all our books and display the rocks and feathers and drift wood that we have collected this summer. We cleaned up - though we have been keeping pretty clean anyways, and we reorganized so we are no longer just visiting, we have moved in. And we have additional plans to place plants around the room and decorate it to our tastes. I love it. And I love it here. In many ways, I don't want to leave. So I will thoroughly enjoy August up here, in my home.

My little corner of home

My rock and feather collection