Spring Wings 2014- Bodacious Birding!

After spending February and the first week of March this year as a volunteer at the Churchill Northern Studies Centre and seeing the quality of their learning adventures, I decided I needed to be a guest and enjoy birding and belugas in Churchill this summer. I booked Spring Wings June 5-10 with Rudolf Koes as the leader. This is the blurb from the brochure:

Spring's Wings: Birding in Churchill

Instructor: Rudolf Koes
Participants: 9
After nearly 8 months of winter, the ice in the Churchill River begins to move and the tundra comes alive with the carillon cry of hundreds of thousands of returning snow geese. Join the migration and explore the excellent birding opportunities to be found in Churchill, Manitoba, a well known birding "hotspot" that you'll want to experience firsthand. Daily guided tours and field trips allow you to see a wide variety of bird species, while keeping a sharp eye out for such rarities as the Ross's gull, bohemian waxwing and Harris' sparrow. Some unique birds common to Churchill include the Pacific loon, jaegers, willow ptarmigan and Smith's longspur. Our programs are led by birding experts with decades of experience and group sizes are kept to a minimum. There is also ample opportunity to explore the town and the world-famous Eskimo Museum with its renowned collection of historic and contemporary Inuit art and artifacts. 5 full days of birding!

The vacation was incredible, a zillion times better than the blurb suggests but that is the way of CNSC staff- understated and over accommodating! We saw over 130 species of birds in breeding plumage, snowshoe hare, the first polar bears of the season, a mom and two cubs, seals, and belugas! Talk about WOW!

The bears are pictured in my polar bear section - the mama and cubs on the ice with the ringed seals and the belugas will be covered in another section. I didn't get the best pictures, as birds are difficult, and pardon the pun, flighty, but we had binoculars, scopes, and the spotting expertise of Rudolf Koes, BIRDMAN of Churchill!

If you like birding, wildlife, and a totally different adventure (we had a summer blizzard, saw icebergs, then had beautiful,, balmy weather)  check out the learning adventures at the Churchill Northern Studies Centre. Take it from someone who travels a lot. It is so much more than a vacation. They can't be beat!

First day of birding , the day after the blizzard

Willow Ptarmigan

Whimbrel

Northern Shoveler

Red-necked Phalarope

Arctic Tern

Pine Grosbeak

Raven

Yellow Warbler

Geese and shorebirds aplenty

Hudsonian Godwit

Spruce Grouse

Willows by the lake

Savanah sparrow

White-crowned sparrow

Semipalmated sandpiper

Icebergs in the bay!

Hudson Bay breakup

Common Eider, Canada Goose

Gulls on ice!

Sandhill Crane in summer adult, breeding plumage

Nesting Pacific loon

Canada Geese in molt migration formation

These are just a few of the birds and sights that I witnessed on Spring Wings but the true joy and majesty of the experience cannot be expressed adequately in words or even pictures.