Narwhals & Polar Bears: Arctic Bay

We’ll all arrive to Ottawa at various times but will plan to rendezvous for dinner this evening at or near our airport hotel. This will give us a chance to go over expectations (most of which we’ll try to meet!) for our impending narwhals & polar bears tour to Arctic Bay. Night in Ottawa.

We’ll board our flight with guests and luggage for a flight to Iqaluit, at the south end of Baffin Island, and will have a short layover there. There may be enough time for a walk around town for some birding. Next, we fly northwest to Arctic Bay, at the northern extreme of Baffin.

This tour is unique as we head directly to our camp near the floe edge, making for a longer day but with the 24-hour daylight we usually have a surplus of energy. Plus, we arrive more quickly to our objective! There may be some time to spare while the guides load and sort the final gear piles, so guests can mingle with the locals or walk on the near-shore ice. As soon as possible, we will depart on an approximately four-hour journey north on Admiralty Inlet, to where the currents of Lancaster Sound create the floe edge. Cameras should be at the ready for this commute!

We use komatiks, or sledges, expertly towed by our Inuit guides on their snowmobiles. Once we arrive at camp, they’ll will set up the sleeping tents and mess tent if they are not up already, while we take in the surroundings. This includes some fairly multi-hued mountains carved by ancient glaciers. The massive Brodeur Peninsula looms to the west and we are near, but not quite at, the floe edge. Once we’re finally situated we can really get to know our guides and hear their stories over a filling, warm meal. Our tents are equipped with propane heaters to keep you cozy even if the temperate dips below freezing (it usually hovers at or just above zero C).

This is the moment we’ve been waiting for. Once we’re fed and geared up, we’ll set off on a trip to the floe edge itself, just off Cape Crawford. This will be our morning routine for our coming days: Wake up, drink coffee, eat breakfast and gear up for an exhilarating day trip. Oh, and maybe watch a polar bear stride past camp. We’ll follow our guides’ lead, as they understand best how to read the wildlife and ice movements to get us in the best position between the “fast” ice and the “pack” ice or open water. Since ice conditions are dynamic we may be in different areas each day. Once in place, we set up chairs, an outhouse and snack trays for a day of wildlife wonder. We may share the area with local hunters and see firsthand how it is to make a living of the land up here. Generally, it’s a far out place.

Narwhal move through on migration, and so do belugas, which are less common. Narwhals, with their lance-like “tusks” are about as close as it gets to spotting a mythical creature, so we can be forgiven for feeling like we’re in a fantasy! Soon enough, a brisk breeze coming off the arctic ocean no more than a metre away will bring us back to reality. A polar bear will have the same effect, and we hope to get good views of them at a respectable distance!

Bird-wise, we’re watching for Northern Fulmar, Black Guillemot, Thick-billed Murre, Common and King Eider, Long-tailed Duck, and Black-legged Kittiwake. These will be our most prominent fly-bys. However, we’ll be watching for other species, including smaller white and pink gulls. Ivory Gull is likely and they make for a great photo subject backlit by blue skies. Another possibility, albeit exceedingly rare, is Ross’s Gull if we get one of those cool northern breezes. For terrestrial birds, we’ll have a chance to explore the shoreline, where Purple Sandpiper, Snow Bunting and Long-tailed Jaeger can be found nesting.

Our activities will depend on the location of the floe edge, ice conditions and weather conditions, but will involve a commute from camp. Each evening (you’ll have to look at your watch, because it won’t be getting dark), we will recount the day’s sightings in our cozy group tent where we’ll enjoy some warming fare.

We make a final foray back to the floe edge if it is close enough to allow us to go there and then travel back to the community. We’ll depart from this amazing landscape and return to Arctic Bay. But the excitement is not over, as the journey takes us past looming cliffs, deep-blue cracks in the ice, and powder-blue pools of water that create a mirage-like landscape. It will have a lasting memory for all, but may seem like a dream.

We arrive back in town in time for dinner and the opportunity to walk around town in the evening. Arctic Bay has some nice birding around the town. Located on an isthmus with cliffs, shoreline and tundra, there is a variety of habitats to explore. One bird we’ll be on the lookout for is Common Ringed Plover, a Eurasian species that breeds in the northeastern Nearctic. Northern Wheatear is a possibility here, too. Night in Arctic Bay.

We have breakfast then catch our flight back to Ottawa, via Iqaluit, Nunavut, arriving in the evening. We recommend you plan for a night in Ottawa before returning home. Our narwhal & polar bear tour comes to a close, but we'll have many fond memories from our adventure in the high Arctic.