Churchill’s prime polar bear season is “barely” a month away and polar bears are already congregating in the region around this hearty frontier town on the rocky shores of the Hudson Bay. Here are some recent photo’s from Churchillian Jodi Grosbrink…soon the landscape will take on a quite different look. Winter is lurking to the north. Keep up with all the action in and around Churchill this October/November with our daily postings from the area. Natural Habitat Adventures guides will be supplying fresh video of amazing polar bear behavior as well as other incredible scenes from the north. Should be another exciting season!
This coming polar bear season we will be featuring fresh footage from the Churchill Wildlife management Area through Natural Habitat Adventures. Come to Churchill and see some of these same bears in the Mangelson video now two years old. Watch for video from the tundra lodge and other places out on the land rimming the Hudson Bay coastline….should be an amazing season with healthy polar bears already showing up in the region!
The Churchill River has cracked its’ icy surface into chunky bergs that cruise in and out of the mouth with the swift currents connecting with the Hudson Bay. The annual Spring break-up opens the estuary to sows with baby calves who migrate south each year to enjoy the bounty of food and comfort of the warm water of the inner river. Males swim in mini pods feasting on capelin all across the massive river. The massive white ice vessels will soon be supplanted by graceful shining belugas gliding effortlessly through the frigid brackish water. Churchill’s Arctic summer is almost here.
These recent photos by Churchill local and Natural Habitat guide Rhonda Reid illustrate the sublime transition and rebirth of the Churchill River this Spring.
The greatest memories of adventure tours seem to be the ones that aren’t predictable or pre -determined by set activity schedules. They happen unexpectedly and usually involve some trepidation. With the Churchill Arctic Summer season approaching I’m reminiscing about a memorable day on the Hudson Bay coast.
Curious polar bear checking out travelers..
I had a feeling of angst that August morning years ago as we boarded the polar rover docked at the platform just outside the Great White Bear shop 20 kilometers outside Churchill, MB. After an extraordinary 38 hour train journey from Winnipeg to Churchill with a group of a dozen avid Arctic explorers, we were all anxious to get out, “on the land” as they say in the north. The rover journey to Halfway Point was one I had taken nearly a hundred times before..but this day something felt strange. The air was cool and misty fog floated from the bogs up and over the tundra toward the coast. My mind kept wandering.
Halfway Point..a view down to the beach and location of the beluga skeleton in the grass.
Our drive through the Churchill Wildlife Management Area (CWMA) was soothing as the rocking movement of the rover blended with the slight hint of salt air wafting up from the Hudson Bay to lull everyone into a calm state of mind. Although the group had spent minimal time on land the past couple of days, everyone seemed content to know that soon we would be on foot trudging over the precambrian shield rocks and incredible wildflowers and berries of various northern plants. A barbecue overlooking the Hudson Bay with a cool Summer breeze off the water to dissuade mosquitoes….life doesn’t get any better up north…unless a polar bear happens to walk by.
On board my co-guide and Ornithology expert Bonnie Chartier spotted various birds in the willows and across the landscape. Birders in the group enjoyed witnessing rare species interacting in the northern web of life. With the fog sometimes making identification difficult, the enjoyment came from just observing. The excitement was infectious to all.
We crept closer to the point overlooking the turbulent Hudson Bay. I explained that we would be hiking down through a rocky outcropping which opened onto a beach strewn with kelp. There was a skeleton from a beluga whale carcass at the far end of the beach nestled up in the sea grass. Another Natural Habitat group led by myself and long -time colleague Mike Bruscia had been lucky enough to discover it nearly a year before while exploring the beach. Now the hope was to find it again…though we would never make it that far.
Our rover driver, John Sinclair, who this story really is about, was a quiet unassuming local who did whatever he needed to provide for his family. A great guy and a friend of mine. As John maneuvered the machine into a spot up on the rise above the bay, everyone was anxious to disembark and feel the tundra under their feet. I still had a sense of hesitation but couldn’t pin point why….just a feeling.
John lowered the heavy aluminum-grated stairway and the group gathered around the rover’s enormous rear wheel for some safety rules. We headed down the gravelly road toward the beach. Usually the rover driver would stay behind on the hike to get the barbecue going for the guests return and I alone, wielding a 12 gauge shotgun filled with cracker shells and a couple of slugs would escort the group along the beach. But as I quickly realized, John was walking quietly and..well..unassuming next to me.
The mist was now a ground – fog as the group moved tentatively along and we were soon about a hundred yards from the rover. John told me, “he was going back to the rover”…well at least that’s what I thought he said. What he actually said in a tone somewhere between a whisper and a mumble was, ” I think we all should go back to the rover”. At the time I was talking with a traveler so the moment didn’t sink in as it did later. I remember looking up at John and seeing the calm in his eyes…though later on I realized it was a heightened calm that only someone who lives year – round amongst the polar bears has…someone who knows to never let his guard down when in the bear’s territory. A breeze separated the curtain of fog just enough for us to see a massive male bear about another hundred yards from us..slowly walking, as calm as John, right toward us all. We quickly signaled the rest of the group that was somewhat spread out and we all as one unit retreated intently though slowly back toward the machine waiting silently to rescue us. This was really the only time in the 12 years of guiding Summer trips I thought I might actually have to shoot a polar bear. If it wasn’t for John Sinclair’s innate sense of the land and bears I surely would have….hopefully with success.
Years later John Sinclair died in a snow mobile accident on the outskirts of Churchill in late winter. I will always remember him for his cool and relaxed personality as well as the day he possibly saved many lives. Whenever I think of him I first remember that afternoon at Halfway Point.
Get immersed in the intimate lives of polar bears with National Geographic WILD and Ice Bear. Using stereoscopic 3D camera technology, the complexities of polar bear survival is brought to life as never before with an immersive 3D experience and point-of-view shots that will take you right in to the polar bear’s sensory and physical world.
Through the course of Ice Bear, we follow individual bears and entire families as they make the treacherous journey from the hunting grounds on the winter ice fields, to the highly contested summer pack ice of the Hudson Bay. In the winter, bears can use the ice platforms to hunt seals and fish which provide them with a rich source of protein. With the encroaching summer, the ice begins to melt, leaving the bears to fight for their patches of hunting ground. Opportunistic packs of hungry wolves and a shortage of available prey could mean a bear won’t survive the summer. But when bear meets bear, a whole new set of challenges arise. -National Geographic.
Enjoy this video of a three-year old polar bear out on his own. The Arctic can be a truly formidable place to live…even for polar bears.
