James Bay 2014

Part 1

Ive just returned from the James Bay Lowlands in northern Ontario. From July 15- August 15 i stayed in remote Moose Cree first nations goose hunting camps. The expedition was organised by The Royal Ontario Museum, Bird Studies Canada, Environment Canada  & Ministry of Natural Resources.  The main goal of the trip was to survey all the shorebirds we seen each day and also to try and record Red Knot leg flags using spotting scopes. Each day we usually left camp between 8-9 and would not return until supper (6:30). Once supper was finished we got ready and headed out to do night time banding from 9pm-12am. Along with surveying and other things we did some invert & water sampling. 

From Newfoundland i flew to Toronto and stayed with relatives for a few days before driving 750km to Cochrane with Christian Friis and other team members.  We stayed the night and then caught the Polar Bear express heading north to Moosonee (Approx 5 hours). After staying a night at the MNR waterfowl house we got the helicopter into the camps.

Crew:

For the first two weeks the crew at Piskwamish were as follows:

Peter & James Kennerley (Brittan)
Janice Chard (Bird Studies Canada, LPBO)
Emily Rondel (Bird Studies Canada)
Mark Peck (Royal Ontario Museum)

Second Crew:

Jean Iron
Eleanor Zurbrigg
Mark Peck
Dough McRae
Lisa Pollock
Hellen Fu
James Kennerley
Darrell Isaac (Moose Cree)
Jeff Isaac  (Moose Cree)

Everyone on the trip was fantastic and so informative on all the things i got to take part in. The trip was long and at times cold & wet. Other days were dry & hot but everyday the birds were amazing. We got to see 10,000's of shorebirds while we were there. My team alone got over 1600 flag re-sightings! with over 300 individuals. This information will give us an idea of how long the birds are staying and where they are returning each year on migration. It was really neat to witness birds like the Red Knot fatten up and continue on their southward migration.

Hudsonian Godwits 

This is Part 1 of my 3 part series i will be doing about my amazing trip to the James Bay Coast.
Over the next few days ill discuss some of the things i did like banding Semipalmated Sandpipers or even cooking homemade buns.