Arctic Renewal

We have drifted from spring into summer and a rapid  renewal has been taking place.  The tundra is now covered with many different flowers and the ground is getting a nice green tinge to it.  With the warm days, the butterflies have  been busy  flitting from flower to flower getting nectar.

Most of the birds have hatched so there are many young about, either in our yard or around the edge of the lake by the house.  Several broods of both Snow Buntings and Lapland Longspurs are now around the feeder out the kitchen window.  With the 24 hour daylight, they go through lots of seed, especially when we have a cold foggy day and the parents have a hard time finding bugs to feed the hungry little ones. 

  On the left a young Snow Bunting  (  Plectrophenax nivalis) with its short tail and a few tuffs of down on the head.

  On the right is a group of white avens (Dryas integrifolia ).

 

 

 

With access to the nest boxes we put up on the various buildings, the Snow Buntings are the first to hatch, followed closely by the larger geese.  Since the Snow Geese only need 22 days to hatch, they are the first to start hatching, followed closely by  Brant and White-fronted Geese.   The last part of June sees a flurry of hatching activity as the shorebirds, ptarmigan, longspurs,  and some of the early duck species hatch.  The hatch continues into the first part of July with eiders, scaup, Long-tailed Duck, swans, loons, and late shorebirds finishing up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Snow Goose (Chen caerulescens) brood left, and a Black Brant brood (Branta bernicla) moving through the yard.

 

  Greater White-fronted Goose (Anser albifrons) hatching out.

Even as the hatch is taking place, there are signs that this is a place of a short growing season.  The geese that didn’t nest or failed early on have moved out of the area, headed off to one or more of the summer moulting  areas.  This frees up the limited food  in the brood rearing areas for the young that need lots of good forage to be ready to migrate south in less than two months.

 

 

Willow Ptarmigan  ( Lagopus lagopus)  family feeding in the grass around the house.

The shorebirds are also starting to flock up and non-breeding and extra adults will be starting their migration  south in the nest few days. Usually one parent stays with the chicks till they are flegged and then they are pretty much on their own.  The Semipalmated Sandpiper is our most common shorebird that nests on our island and we usually have at least 10 nests near by our house.  By late July the yard is full of Juvenile Semi’s of various sizes, and all the adults have already left on their southbound journey.  Summer activities must progress quickly in the Arctic.  Time is of the essence.

I will end this entry today with a photo of a young Caribou taken next to our house last week.

Sweet Smell of Summer

Several species of flowers are now in bloom and the tundra vegetation is greening up nicely. One of my favorite flowers is the Rock Jasmine – Androsace chamaejasme, which has  a very fragrant smell.  It grows in large patches in sandy areas here in the Colville River Delta and  the breezes carry the lovely fragrance about the area.

 

 

Rock Jasmine

 

 

 

So far the spring and early summer has been on the cool side, and the warm spell of the past two days really brought out the mosquitoes.  This was the worst I have seen them around on our island.  Even with a stiff breeze they were everywhere and one was glad to have a good headnet or bug spray in order to enjoy being outside.

 

 

Mosquitoes attracted to a fresh set of caribou antlers that are still in the velvet.

 

 

Some of the other early flowers that we have out now are Purple Saxifrage - Saxifraga oppositifolis subsp. oppositifolia, Wooly Lousewort -Pedicularis kanei subsp. kanei , Parry’s Wallflower - Parrya nudicaulis,  Arctic Sweet Coltsfoot - Petasites frigidus, White Avens - Dryas integrifolia subsp. integrifolia,  Marsh Marigold - Caltha palustris subsp. arctica,  Snow Buttercup - Ranunculus nivalis, Mastodon Flower – Senecio congestus, and Northern Primrose - Primula borealis.

 

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UPDATE:      The Muskox family has continued to stay in the local area, feeding either on our island or the one just to the west of us.  Even when they are at the far end of the island, we still have a good view of the cow and calf in the spotting scope.  At times they have fed down to the north end and close to the house.   One foggy morning they even fed around the lake and right past the house.  It has been fun watching the calf,  who has grown quite a bit since we first saw them in early May.   The cow is shedding her soft wool-like underhair, also called qiviut, so she is now looking quite shaggy compared to her earlier pictures.

 

 

  Cow muskox shedding her soft undercoat and looking quite shaggy.  Also you can see lots of mosquitoes buzzing around her. With her long hair she  seemed to be only bothered around her ears and face.

 

 

Cow and calf muskox feeding on sedges and short Arctic willow.