Alright! On to the next part of the trip.
After enjoying the Black Bear roast, some wine and lots of entertaining stories, we retreated downstairs and began thoroughly packing our gear. I've never winter camped before, so I had decided to bring more gear than was needed just to be safe. My sleeping bag was advertised as a -40°C, though I really hoped it wouldn't have to be tested in that. We filled several jerry cans with gas at the local station, as we didn't know what the fuel situation was like past Moosonee and wanted to error on the side of safety. We finished getting eveything ready around 11pm and tried to get some sleep.
The original plan was leaving at sunrise, however things don't always go according to plan. Once we got the cars all loaded (Nathan's and Jeff's, as we needed two vehicles to carry all of our gear), we bid farewell to our hosts and attempted to exit the driveway. I say attempted because Nathan's vehicle didn't start, the battery was completely dead. We tried boosting it with a battery pack, but it was having none of that. CAA was called, but their ETA was after 10am. Oh the best laid plans. After several more unsuccessful tries at starting it, we retreated back inside and enjoyed some hot oatmeal as we waited for CAA. Some Hoary Redpolls at the feeder behind the house kept us occupied and we also saw what turned out to be the only Evening Grosbeaks of the trip there. Luckily for us CAA had outsourced the job to a local mechanic, who arrived shortly after 9am and had got the engine running almost immediately. It appeared that a light was left on the night before, honestly relieving as that implied there wasn't a deeper issue. We were slightly concerned though, as heading up to extreme northern Ontario with a faulty battery could be an issue. We ended up leaving Smooth Rock Falls shortly after 10am, a few hours later than hoped for but hey, at least we were on the road.
We retraced our path from Monday, up highway past Fraserdale towards Otter Rapids, stopping only a few times to look for birds (which there were hardly any of). Unlike Monday's drive, this time we headed north on the Wetum winter road, entering the Moose Cree First Nation and driving towards Moosonee. Entering the road required us to check in at a security checkpoint and answer some covid screening questions, as well as declare the purpose of our visit. A pair of Canada Jays perched on a spruce beside the gate was a nice start to this leg of our journey.
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| - Entrance of the Wetum Road |
I wasn't expecting the abrupt shift in habitat, but after only a few kilometers on the Wetum road the tall mixed forest was replaced with a sea of short, stunted Black Spruce and Tamarack. Occasionally we would drive through a section dominated by taller spruces and some aspen, but this open, muskeg habitat dominated this section of the drive. If you're wondering why this is only a winter road, that's the reason. For the majority of the year the "road" is nothing more than an open swath that traverses bogs, rivers and forests. Accessing it during the warmer months would be impossible with a normal vehicle.
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We stopped a few times along the way for Canada Jays, Boreal Chickadees and a Black-backed Woodpecker. A Red Fox, obviously habituated to humans feeding it, walked right up to the cars and posed for photos. I rarely get such close views of foxes in my area, so this was a real treat. We didn't know it then, but these tame foxes would be a staple of our trip and we would end up seeing close to a dozen along the highway to Attawapiskat.
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| - Red Fox |
The rest of the day was uneventful bird wise, though the scenery was gorgeous. Along the way we encountered a "Cross Fox", a dark version of the Red Fox with fur almost reminiscent of a Wolverine. Getting camera filling views of this gorgeous mammal was definitely a trip highlight for me.
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| - “Cross Fox” |
We arrived in Moosonee in the late afternoon, and after passing through two more checkpoints (one on the adjacent island of Moose Factory, and one at the entrance to town) we set out in search of food. There weren't many options, so we opted for KFC, if for warm food and calories if nothing else. The Super 8 motel across the street, who's website had assured us was close, was annoyingly open for business. My hopes were raised, as this meant there was a possibility to avoid winter camping. Jeff walked in, returning soon with the unfortunate news that they were fully booked. So close to a warm bed, yet so far. After gassing up in town (2.05 a liter, sheesh!!) we continued another hour up the winter road towards Fort Albany.
By the time we found a campsite (a wide plowed out area beside the road), which for the remainder of the trip joined like bathroom, restaurant and warmth as words best used with quotation marks. The sun had set at this point, and setting up while the temperature dropped below -22°C was not an enjoyable task. Once the tent was up and the sleeping bags set up, we went for a night drive down the road in search of mammals. This was partly to see a lynx/wolf and partly to delay getting into the sleeping bag in the cold :) The mammals turned out to be a no show, however we were treated by a spectacular display of the Aurora Borealis when we returned to the site. Faint greenish hues against the starry night sky, slowly growing brighter and seeming to ripple like waves as pulses of light shot up and faded a few seconds later. This was by far the best northern lights I've witnessed, and seeing it in the total silence of the northern night somehow made it so much better. I didn't have a proper lens to capture it, although even if I had one, taking my fingers out of my gloves would have made this unpleasant.
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| - Northern lights, photo credit Ezra |
The worst part of winter camping is getting into and out of the sleeping bag. Once I was in there it was surprisingly warm, but taking my boots off, climbing into the cold tent and moving stuff around was a cold task. I woke up in the middle of the night because my one nostril had frozen shut, trust me it is a rather alarming feeling. This issue was solved by totally covering my face with the sleeping bag, leaving only a small hole for breathing. I awoke shortly after 6am to discover that I was still alive, I was actually decently warm, and my sleeping bag was covered in ice. Packing up everything into the car was COLD, the temperature had dropped to -32°C and my hands were numb from taking apart the tent. It was a gorgeous day apart from the temperature, a clear sky and no wind at all. Canada Jays and redpolls flitted around the campsite, not a bad start. Nathan and Ezra had camped in the Pilot (I was in the tent with Jeff) so they could turn it on every 4 hours so the battery wouldn't sit all night. They too had survived the night, as had their car battery. After warming up in the car and eating breakfast, which consisted of frozen Cliff Bars and frozen yogurt, we continued down the road towards Fort Albany. The birding was fairly quiet besides Canada Jays, Common Ravens and Boreal Chickadees. We saw a few flocks of redpolls beside the road, including 15 Hoary Redpolls.
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| - Hoary Redpoll |
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| - seeing a few pure flocks of hoary polls was cool |
At one point we came across some grouse tracks leading into a loose stand of willows beside the road. They might have been Sharp-tailed Grouse or Willow Ptarmigan, so to be safe we investigated. No birds were found, however we did find some scat. Jeff collected some of it and put it in a plastic bag in his pocket, with the goal of analyzing it when he got home.
Like the habitat transition we encountered at the beginning of the road, as soon as we crossed the river by Fort Ablany things changed drastically again. The vegetation was very sparse in sections, with the majority of the trees being tamarack and shorter willows, alder and spruce. A large hydro corridor paralleled the road, continuing alongside us basically the entire way to Attawapiskat. After driving only a few kilometers in this habitat we found a Snowy Owl, our first raptor of the trip.
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| - Snowy Owl |
A few minutes later we came across another snowy, then another. This more open habitat, the proximity to the coast, or a mixture of both must have made this area more desirable for birds of prey.
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| - Snowy Owl |
A bit farther down the road we spotted a Northern Hawk Owl sitting atop of small spruce next to the road. We stopped for photos, and thought we heard a second hawk owl calling after we got out. Since a pair in suitable habitat would be good data for the breeding bird atlas, we played a recording and waited for a response. Almost immediately two hawk owls flew in, landing on a dead tree and looking for the rival owl. The views were insanely good, without a doubt the best photo opt I've had with this species.
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| - Northern Hawk Owl |
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| - Two Northern Hawk Owls |
The following few hours netted us an additional 8 Snowy Owls and 10 Northern Hawk Owls, making it hard to get anywhere as we stopped for most of them.
By this point in the day we were almost at Attawapiskat, where we hoped there would be warm food. Unfortunately for us the one restaurant in town was closed, so we returned to the winter road for another cold night of camping. Remember that scat that Jeff put in his pocket? Well we had forgotten about it until this point. We had been in the warm car for a few hours, so it shouldn't have been surprising when Jeff reached in the pocket and brought his hand out absolutely covered in running grouse faeces. Hands, pockets and the seat of the car were all innocent victims, now fowled by well, fowl turds. It may have been due to the lack of sleep in the previous week, but to everyone in the group this seemed absolutely hilarious....definitely a trip highlight (sorry Jeff). The temperature was about the same, but somehow it was worse. The sound of passing vehicles kept me awake most of the night, and I couldn't seem to find the perfect temperature in the sleeping bag, I was either too hot or too cold. The previous night we had talked to a local on a snowmobile, who had told us he had seen ptarmigan a few days previous down a frozen river beside the road. The other people we had talked to along the way had said that well they had seen lots of ptarmigan the previous winter, there had been none this year... so snowshoeing down the river the following morning seemed like the best bet.
There must have been more moisture in the tent, as when I woke up my sleeping bag, and the rest of the tent, was coated in several centimeters of ice. After another blisteringly cold take down, we went for a quick drive to warm up, then strapped on the snowshoes and headed down the river. After about 20 minutes of walking we had found no birds, bird tracks or even good habitat, so we turned back to the cars. An idling truck was there waiting for us, containing a middle aged man named Steve who worked as the coordinator for that section of the road. Apparently winter campers were quite the novelty and he was curious what we were searching for. Steve was very helpful, after chatting with us for a while he suggested driving a road northwest of Attawapiskat that goes right to the James Bay coast. We thanked him for the information and decided that we might as well try it since we were close.
Along the way we came across the local dump, and being birders naturally we had to check it out. A group of 50 ravens picked through the garbage, but they were the only birds to be found.
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| - Attawapiskat dump |
Along the way to the coast I spotted a Great Gray Owl beside the road, a bird we weren't really expecting to encounter up there. Unfortunately it flew off before we could get photos, but it was still awesome (plus it was a new bird for my self-found list). A bit farther down the road we found yet another Northern Hawk Owl, #14 for the trip.
Around 20 kilometers of driving later, we found ourselves where the road dead ends, right near the mouth of the Attawapiskat River. The surrounding habitat, small willows scattered across the snow, looked absolutely perfect for Willow Ptarmigan. Once again we donned our snowshoes, then fanned out and began searching. No more than 20 minutes later I heard Jeff doing a wolf howl, the signal that there was a bird. I joined Ezra in a mad dash towards Jeff, which was slowed considerably by constantly sinking in the snow. Once we finally got to where he and Nathan were standing, we saw a white, grouse-shaped blob ahead of Jeff, hunkered down in a stand of willows. I fumbled for my camera (which I brought in my backpack this time to avoid getting it snowy) and rattled off a few photos ot my lifer Willow Ptarmigan. Oh success was sweet! We snuck a bit closer, then another ptarmigan popped out of the snow, followed by 3 more! They looked at us for a little bit, then flew up and disappeared out of sight over the willows. We were all just standing there grinning, stunned that we had actually found our elusive target.
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| - Willow Ptarmigan |
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Before we returned to the car, we snowshoed the remaining kilometer to the coast, because how often do you get a chance to see James Bay in the winter? The provincial boundaries are strange, technically the Ontario/Nunavut border is the ocean, so if you stand in the water you're in Nunavut. Seeing that it was winter obviously there wasn't water, however I'm assuming the ice is still the border.... anyways we can say that we stood in Nunavut!
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| - Standing in Nunavut |
It was noon by the time we returned to the vehicles, and the water/fruit that was waiting for us was much needed. We all agreed that we would rather drive straight back to Smooth Rock falls instead of spending another night in the cold, so we began the long trek back down the winter road. We tried to stop very infrequently as we were trying to make time, however we couldn't resist for a few more Northern Hawk Owls that were right beside the road.
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| - photographing a hawk owl |
The rest of the drive was fairly uneventful, after another stop at the Moosonee KFC we continued on, driving through the night and arriving at the Williams household after midnight.
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| - Sunset by Moosonee |
One of the biggest surprises of the trip for me was the winter road, I just wasn't expecting it to be so darn nice. For almost the entire way it was as wide as the 401, very smooth and well maintained. Our vehicles easily covered it & there were no issues.
Overall it was an amazing experience, seeing a part of Ontario that few Southern Ontarians have ever seen. Plus getting our target bird didn't hurt :)
Ending with a few more fox photos, just because...
In other news, the events are live on the Huron Fringe Birding Festival website! Check it out : )
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