The Last Recluse: Akimiski Island

The first 2 and a half weeks of June I spent on Akimiski Island in James Bay. This was an awesome experience even though it was cold and we seen snow fall twice on the trip. We were there to find Canada Goose nests and monitor the number of Goslings that hatched from each nest.

This is a very labour intensive process as we had to thoroughly check the coast line for as many Canada Goose Nests as we could find which required each member in our 8 person crew to walk at least 10 km per day through mud and knee high bush.

 

But this is great way to see the sights of Akimiski Island. We were usually flown by helicopter from base camp to the area that needed to be searched that day, so we were able to explore much of the coastal area of the northern part of the island.

This year we also needed to estimate numbers in the Snow Goose colony so we spent 2 day nest searching in this area. Snow geese nest much closer together than Canada geese so they kept us on our toes.

As you may have guessed I was very excited to see what kinds of birds I would find on the Island. The bird I was most interested in seeing was a Marbled Godwit, and I was not disappointed I can say I seen one of these birds almost everyday!

Other Highlights for me included Arctic Tern, Short Eared Owl (on a nest), Brant were abundant, and a Norther Shrike.

But I think that the Northern Lights were one of the coolest things that we seen up there. There were two night with pretty spectacular displays

Thanks to the Pilots and the Crew for an awesome trip. To view more photos click here

Who are you? The last Canada Goose. Any Hip fans out there?