2019TuktoFtNelson

Well we made it through the 780 km Dempster dirt highway without a flat tire! Each van held a spare tire  and Tom had bought an extra spare for each vehicle as a second back up.  We were so lucky.  There was little rain so the roadway was dry.  Unlucky for us in that there were clouds of dust kicked up by us and anybody passing us.  We saw several bicyclists on the roadway and we don't know how they did it.  In places the gravel is pretty soft so it must be so difficult to ride a bike on a dirt road like that.  Plus what does one do when one sees a roadside bear.    And the bears seem to like to be roadside. We left Eagle Plains Motel at 7:40 this morning with 370 km of dirt road to travel.  One cannot blast down the road.  Often the dirt road is higher than the abutting land and times it is a road on a high cliff.  You can't go too fast on a dirt road either.  So one is lucky to do a steady 50 or 60 km.  ...

Monday June 10, 2019-06-10 It was an early wake-up time for the group today and the plan was to leave at 5:30 am.   For the first time in our stay here the sun was not shining this morning.  The sun seems to shine eternally all day and all night here!     It was overcast and cool.    We packed up and left Inuvik.   We had about a 350 km drive today on a dirt road highway and in spots it was not that great so one had to go slow.    Tom’s packing up the vans plus our picnic lunch was amazing.  It all fit and there was room to spare.  Some people had smaller luggage while others had big pieces of luggage.   OK, my bag was one of the pretty heavy ones.  No body in it though.   We started on the road and about 40 minutes into the drive, the lead car in a cloud of dust saw a lynx cross the highway.   We stopped and looked and got out and looked at birds and one of us looked down the road and th...

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 ta...

For its first outing, the birding group headed a bit up the Tuk highway this morning.  Our guides are Tom Hince and Bruce Dilabio.  We know Bruce from birding in Ottawa.  I took my first birding course taught by Bruce.  More recently we were on a birding tour in Costa Rica together. Our birding group travels in two caravans up the Tuk highway which is a dirt road.  It is raised quite high with soft shoulders.  I have read about this highway and it is an engineering feat as it is built over permafrost.  At first there were lots of trees.  We stopped at two ponds to view the birds on them.  There were Pacific Loon, Red-throated Loon, Horned Grebe, Long tailed Duck, White winged Scoter, Surf Scoter, Tundra Swan and Greater Scaup found here.  Plus we had the lovely Fox Sparrow show up and the American Tree Sparrow along with a rump-view of the Harris's Sparrow. As one drives north on this dirt highway, gradually the small t...

I woke up at 5:30 am and I think I fell asleep around 8 pm.  I did not even notice the long daylight.  I did not wake up during the night or anything.  So a wonderful sleep.  Continental breakfast was at 7 am.  While we were downstairs  in the lobby we met up with several retired RCMP people on tour with partners mostly.  They had started in Regina and were going to Tuk today.  There were 48 people on this huge bus which I had seen parked in the parking lot. At breakfast we met up with our guides Tom and  Bruce and we briefly chatted.  I also happened to meet a lady from Bruce's first tour and she was from Austin Texas.  I did not recognize anyone on the birding tour to get up here.  That tour ends today and we are on the next birding tour that eventually heads south along the same route as the first tour which headed north.  We also met a fellow, Martin, at breakfast from Ottawa who is here for work on studying the p...