8th – Dogs and (more) whales

We all gathered at 0730 to go to breakfast together before leaving to visit Dave and his sleigh dogs. Dave, like last year, was a great story teller and talked about the principles and practical execution of dog sleighing. It was also part of the plan to do the Ididamile ride but now in carts as opposed to sleighs used in the winter – for obvious reasons. Unfortunately, due to the heat – I’m guessing 25-30°C at the time – he refused to let the dogs work as he pointed out they are built to work at -30°C. As he stated “Not even if the queen of England came by and wanted a ride!”. Instead we got to come into the pen and walk among the dogs and give them all the scratches they wanted – and they wanted lots!

We returned to Churchill where we had and 1½ hour break before lunch, so I went down to the beach in the hopes of seeing anything interesting. I managed to see a swimming polar bear in the distance (had I been there ½ an hour earlier I would likely have seen it pass right by the beach), multiple belugas, terns and the occasional seal.

Far out, but probably the most out-of-the-water beluga on the trip.

A non-flying fly.

After lunch we had app. 3 hours off until the next point in our itinerary, so our guide & driver took us out of town on the hunt for wildlife. We ended up primarily seeing birds; a few bald eagles including juveniles, ravens and a harrier.

Young bald eagle (they get the white head at around 4-5 years).

Returning to town once again we went out in zodiacs for an 1½ hours to get closer to the whales. We started off, though, with returning to the point at the Prince of Wales Fort where we got to see a single polar bear and not much else, before going up the river to the estuary where the whales were all over and we just drifted along and looked at all the whales when they came up for air. There were quite a few juveniles among them that could be recognized by their grey coloration, they don’t turn fully white until they reach an age of around 7.

Polar bear butt (and - I assume - the rest of the polar bear hidden behind).

Belugas.

Young beluga before getting its white coloration.

It was amazing to see how fast the weather changed. When we were heading out it was still sunny and warm, but when circling the point at the fort the mist suddenly rolled in and within 10 minutes the visibility dropped to less than 100m. At one point when going to the estuary we could see no land or markers for a while which felt pretty disturbing. This behavior wasn’t a rare occurrence so our driver didn’t hesitate at any time when navigating.

Returning to land we went to have diner and in the meantime the mist had rolled up through the town and everything looked quiet and eerie. When leaving for the hotel we were informed by our guide it was perfect polar bear weather so she highly recommended us to take the bus back even if it was less than a 5 minute drive. At this point the streets were mostly abandoned – it was around 2100 and the recommend staying inside from 2200 – as to confirm it was definitely safest to stay away from streets and especially back alleys.