PRINCE LEOPOLD ISLAND IS ONE OF the most significant bird sanctuaries in the the Canadian Arctic, home to hundreds of thousand thick-billed murres, black guillemots, northern fulmars and black-legged kittiwakes. The problem is, if you’ve seen one black guillemot, you’ve seen them all. And we have. Besides, yesterday’s weather was terrible. Nor did the narwhal, bowhead or beluga whales appear.
Today was better.
Nesting kittiwakes
After a visit to the former Hudson’s Bay Company fur trading outpost, we prepared to negotiate the narrow Beloit Strait. Aaron played up the danger in passing through such a narrow strait with currents of ten miles per hour, and I am sure the Captain was on the bridge. I didn’t look too risky to us, nothing like running Lava Falls in the Grand Canyon. And obviously we made it.
The Captain is on the Bridge
About halfway through we spotted a pod of narwahl, several hundred yards off and moving fast. Between the rocking of the ship and the wind, photography was pretty challenging. My shots show narwhals if you know what you’re looking for and in one you can imagine the male’s unicorn horn.
