Critters Arctic adventure #3

We did see polar bears

I enjoyed watching this duck and her brood in Sisimiut

I am the proud possessor of a new lens in my left eyeball. That's a good thing. The whites are whiter and at the post-op check the day after the surgery I could already read two lines on the eye chart below what I could before the surgery. Apparently the vision keeps getting better. Two minor grumbles: I didn't realize how fast 30 minutes went by until I had to put drops in my eye every 30 minutes while I'm awake. I get to do this for a week. I'm glad it's only a week! The other one is going to take a bit of reframing on my part. I can't be in dusty environments for three weeks. The ukulele is so close now that I'm a bit impatient. Also, I'm going to get the cataract on my right eye removed four weeks after the one on the left eye. That means one week in the shop and then another three weeks out of it. So, I guess this is as good a time as any to get back at the blog and back at the photos of the Arctic.

Snow geese on the tundra

The first of the trips we went on was titled 'Arctic Safari.' I think they've changed that title because spotting wildlife in the Arctic isn't like spotting it in other places where safaris usually go. We were incredibly lucky in the amount and variety of wildlife we spotted but, as with weather and ice, there is no guarantee. I got a few photos but you'll just have to take my word for some of the sightings.

Seeing a critter, knowing a critter is there, and being able to get a photo of it are entirely different things. A number of people seemed to suspect that the wild creatures would swim or fly by the ship on cue and all they would have to do was to pull out their cell phones to attain fabulous close-ups. I have to confess, there were a number of animals spotted by people standing right beside me that I never did manage to see despite many people describing in different ways where I needed to look. “Oh it's just over there beside that big rock.” “See those three notches in the ridge? It's just coming down between the second and third.” I actually saw 5 notches in the ridge. “ See that long flat iceberg?” No, I see three of them, and it's not just my eyes! I'm not mocking the people who were trying to help me see the animals. My descriptions to others when I saw something they didn't were equally earnest and equally unhelpful. At first I was quite frustrated and eventually I got used to not seeing everything others saw.

Red-throated loons Dundas Harbour

Sometimes we were in the zodiacs and the folks on the other side got a great view of the whales blowing while we had our backs to them. The drivers did a great job of trying to turn the boats around so that everyone got a turn but, again, the creatures didn't necessarily get the memo. There was much talk among those of us with cameras about how carrying a camera influenced the experience. Were we so busy trying to get the photo that we weren't paying attention to the rest of the immense expanse of sea and land that we were travelling through? One day I made the classic rookie mistake of not checking I had put the battery back in my camera after charging it the night before. I've often wondered how people could be so stupid as to do that. I found it was much easier than I thought! When I realized what I'd done I shrugged, put the camera in my backpack and took out the binoculars. There was a kind of relief in not having to dodge heads to try and capture a moment. I had my cell phone with me and I did use that when a wide angle made sense. 

Whale tail

Not sure what kind of whale

There were times when my longest lens wasn't long enough to show more than black dots for a whale's tail so I put the camera down and enjoyed the show through the binoculars. We saw humpbacks, belugas, killer whales, and narwhals. What was just as cool as seeing them was hearing them blow and seeing the spray as they did so. The narwhals were exfoliating on a gravel beach so we had quite a bit of time to observe them. Again I didn't manage to get photos but two people spotted one male with a tusk. I came away with a new respect for the patience and tenacity of wildlife photographers.

Fulmar

More fulmars

There were many many different species of birds, most of which looked like gulls to me. I had hours of fun chasing them with my lens and looking at them through binoculars and, again, got very few good photos. On our way to the viewpoint for the Ilulissat Glacier we saw an Arctic fox running across the tundra. Twice people spotted a mother polar with cubs on an ice flow. We also saw two solitary male bears, one on land and one on an ice flow.

Thick-billed murres in flight

Our zodiac group was extremely lucky in that we got to cruise near a bird colony before the fog rolled in. The second zodiac group didn't get that chance because the fog was too thick for them to launch. I fell in love with the thick-billed murres, “penguins of the Arctic.”

They aren't actually penguins, being members of the auk family but they are black and white, have small stubby wings and look a bit like penguins. You have to give them full marks for effort in the flying department. They are anything but graceful whether taking off, landing, or flying.

It was a tough take-off!

Nesting on the cliff

One ornithologist said they are the bumblebees of the bird world: they shouldn't be able to fly but no one told them that. They are, however, expert divers. They can reach a depth of 150m and stay down for up to 4 minutes at a time. They use their wings to swim underwater. Pairs lay one egg directly on rocky ledges and the parents actually become slightly anorexic while feeding the chick. Lower body weight means they can fly farther in search of food. When the chick is ready to fledge, Dad goes into the ocean and calls to the chick. The chick eventually leaps off the ledge and splashes down beside the him. Murres spend most of their lives in the sea and the chicks' first migration is accomplished in the water. These birds delighted me no matter what they did. I couldn't help but laugh at the way they would fly close to the surface of the water and then crash-land into it.

Seal

Seals weren't a common sight but we did see them several times. We didn't see walruses. Apparently, that's not entirely bad because you can smell them before you are close enough to see them very well and the smell is unique and overwhelming. I think I'm okay with not being able to tick the box beside walrus.

Another seal

My eyes are telling me I've had enough screen time for the present so I'll leave it there. While I'm out of the shop I'll spend some time going through Richard's photos and perhaps he'll let me use a few of his to augment the ones I took. Some of mine are pretty grainy, apologies for that. The camera is 8 years old with  a 10 megapixel sensor and no image stabilization. Do I have camera lust? Yup.