June 9, 2019 - to Tuk and back today.

It was a sunny (like continual sunshine) and a bit cool this morning when we headed up the Tuk highway at 6 am today.  We stopped for a Black Bear that was eating grass along the dirt highway.  Don spotted him.  The bear then sat and watched us watch him.  Then the bear ambled into the woods.  The fur on the bear was a healthy glossy colour and it was a beautiful animal.  A good start to the morning.

Next stop was for what was thought a Great Gray Owl, given it was a very gray colour.  But once we could clearly see the owl, it was determined that it was a northwest Taiga species of Great Horned Owl.  It also looked at us.  Now that was a great second start to the day and we were barely on the Tuk highway.  We drove to the spot where we tried for the Harris' Sparrow yesterday and yes, today the Harris' Sparrow showed itself to us!   From here we stopped when we saw something interesting.  We stopped for Long tailed Jaeger and one of my favourites, a Ptarmigan... Willow Ptarmigan!  It was wonderful for me to see a Ptarmigan.  We saw several of them on the drive.  This is a lifer for me.

This is the Harris' Sparrow.   A spectacular sparrow.

This is the Cotton Grass which is everywhere in bloom right now.  It is found in the tundra and can cover meadows completely.  From a distance it looks like snow.

This is the Long tailed Jaeger flying.

This is a beautiful delicate looking bird, Red necked Pharlarope.

This is a Long tailed Duck.  Very pretty.  They are not regularly seen in Ottawa.

This is the Long tailed Jaeger.

The drive to Tuk is 160 km and usually takes the better part of 3 hours.  The road is dirt and the surface varies with soft top gravel and a more firm surface of gravel and dirt.  There are clouds of dust from just one vehicle.  One can go at best 60 to 70 km an hour.  With our stops for some great birding today, it took us almost 6 hours to get to Tuk.  

The first thing one sees when entering Tuk is the "Welcome to Tuk" sign and then one sees the town dump and it is not pretty.  Really this should be fixed.  There were some nice gulls there though and yes we did bird there.  But for the future tourism trade, the has to be moved or a barrier or something to make it nice.  The view as it is now sends the wrong message.  Every small, medium and large community has a dump but it is not the first thing one sees when one comes into the community.  So something about the optics needs to be addressed and maybe moved to the back of the town.

We planned to go to Gramma's Kitchen for our lunch and try some Muktuk (whale blubber appetizers) but Gramma was not home!!!  We phoned and we waited, no Gramma.  Gramma was not showing up.

We toured around the town a bit.  Some of us put our feet in the Arctic Ocean or our hands in the ocean water.  We took our group photo at the Arctic Ocean sign.  Then we went to the local grocery store once it opened at 1 pm.  We all had some fast food type lunch.

We birded the various ponds around town and there were some lovely  birds such as Red necked Phalarope, Lapland Longspur and shorebirds.   We saw a Snowy Owl flying over the ice.   There are also land formations called "Pingos" that are caused by the permafrost dynamics.   These look like rounded mountains and some are big mounds and some are as large as hills.  One of these in Tuk is used as a community freezer and it keeps food frozen.  The photo below is a Pingo.

One of the glacial ponds around Tuk.

This is a common sight in the north.  Antlers and bones are set out in the sunshine to dry out.

The Arctic Ocean

Lapland Landspur in beautiful breeding plumage on a line in Tuk.

Ice chunks out on the ocean near shore.

Greater White fronted Goose

Whimbrel out on the tundra.

Red necked Phalarope

Mew Gull

At the Arctic Ocean and as you can see it is cold up there with a stiff wind coming off the ocean.  I put my hands in the ocean water.  It was  really cold.

Then with a few more birding stops we left Tuk around 3 pm and arrived back in Inuvik around 5:20 pm.  There was time for a splash and then supper at 6 and we did the bird list.  

After supper Louise and I went for a walk.  At the park across the street, there was a children's talent show and a young teenager was playing classical music on the cello.  Then another teenager played the piano and sang a pop song.  There were plenty of people and kids.  The judges were on the stage also and it was cool and windy.  There is a cold front coming through and we had a steady cool wind from Tuk and all the way to Inuvik.  We continued on our walk and it felt good to get moving as we did sit a great portion of the day today.

Another excellent day in the Far North