Dip

It's been a strange summer for me in terms of birds in many ways. Birds that I should have seen, for various reasons I haven't. Birds I didn't expect to see, materialized. Birds have shown me some jaw dropping behaviour that I've not seen in the past. And other people are seeing birds, telling me about them, and they've disappeared off the face of the earth, at least for me.

I've made an effort, starting mostly last year, to participate in the Nunavut Checklist program. Its a citizen science project to expand our knowledge of breeding birds in Nunavut (the program also is for the NWT) run by the Canadian Wildlife Service. Between that, and the fact that people here generally know that I'm a bird guy, I'll get calls when someone sees something new or unusual for them.

Early in the year it was a call about a bird that likely was a Gyrfalcon. Its a bird that generally isn't thought to winter this far north, so I rushed outside but didn't see it. I spent a couple of days following looking in likely spots (including the aerie) with no luck. A second sighting at the same time convinced me that there was a wintering bird here. Then this summer it was the Ukpikjuaq (Snowy Owl).

Strangely, the only Snowy Owls I've seen have been down south, not up here where they breed. Leah's parents know that I want to see one up here, as they often hunt in an area that they are plentiful. So I often ask them if they saw any when they come back. Earlier they saw one just above town on the way to Victor Bay, they told Leah to tell me. Unfortunately she forgot until the next day, and trip after trip to Victor Bay failed to make the bird materialize. Just when my hope was flagging, they casually tossed out that the bird was still there, they'd seen it at 6:00 that morning.

I searched with renewed zeal, and even got up early in case the bird showed at the same time. Nope, my zeal may have reappeared, but the Snow Owl still eluded me. And now a third species (if you don't count my nemesis bird – Sabine's Gull) has got me dipping (searching for a bird and failing to find it) on a regular basis.

A couple of days ago a friend mentioned that the Narwhal were at Uluksan, and oh yeah, there were two Sandpipers there that another fellow got really close to and took photos. Shorebirds? Forget the whales, I was intrigued. The common shorebird here is Baird's but I'm sure they've long left for the south, and you don't usually see them out there. So I wanted to find out just what bird it was.

Of course, there were a lot of Narwhal (a long way out in Adam's Sound) but no shorebirds. Walking the shoreline a couple of times a day has failed to see them turn up. Luckily there are photos and I got a hold of those today. Turns out the birds are Purple Sandpipers (Calidris maritima), which I didn't believe existed here. But they do, and although its not a breeding record another bit of the map gets shaded in. I might try a couple more times, but it looks like I dipped on them as well. Now a winter gale has moved in, so its likely that they'll have started south.

I did enjoy my trip to Uluksan today. Three very co-operative Ravens were there, playing in the strong winds, flying tantalizingly close. And I discovered a caterpillar that I've not seen before, in Purple Sandpiper habitat on the rocks near the shore. If anyone knows what kind of caterpillar it is, let me know.

Checking me out

Circling

One of the three calling from the rocks.

Mystery caterpillar.