Itinerary

Day 1: Arrival in Ottawa

The tour begins in the evening in Ottawa, Ontario. We meet over a welcome dinner to discuss the coming adventure. Those arriving early may enjoy a visit to the Canadian Museum of Nature before dinner. Night at our hotel in Ottawa.

Day 2: Travel to Pond Inlet

We leave Ottawa in the morning for our flights to Pond Inlet at the northern tip of Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic. After a plane change in Iqaluit, the capital of Nunavut, we should arrive in Pond Inlet in the afternoon. After dinner we will have plenty of time for a short walk around town because the sun does not set at this time of year. Hotel night in Pond Inlet.

Day 3: Travel to the Floe Edge

In the morning we will explore the shoreline, tundra and ponds close to Pond Inlet. We will encounter some of the more common species such as Lapland Longspur, Horned Lark and Snow Bunting, and we will be looking for Common Ringed Plover here and elsewhere. This mostly Palearctic species has a very small breeding range in North America, restricted to the eastern Arctic of Canada. After lunch, we will depart for the floe edge. We travel by komatik, which is a wooden sled lashed together and pulled behind a snowmobile. This is the traditional means of travel for the Inuit. The difference today is that snowmobiles have replaced dog teams.

Enroute we may have the opportunity to get up close and personal with several icebergs that have spent the winter frozen in place. These can be both beautiful and enormous as they await break up of the ice before they continue to drift southward. The floe edge is where the winter ice meets the open waters of Baffin Bay and it is where the wildlife is concentrated on their northward migration. We should have wonderful opportunities to photograph and enjoy the wildlife. The birding at the floe edge should be superb! Hundreds of Northern Fulmars, Brant, Common and King Eiders, and all three species of Jaegers will be a treat. We will see hundreds or even thousands of Thick-billed Murres, many Black Guillemots, and with luck, several Dovekie in their very sharp breeding plumage! We will also see a collection of northern gulls: Glaucous, Thayer?s, Sabine?s, Black-legged Kittiwake, and with much luck, Ivory Gull. You have to travel very far north to find this beautiful all white arctic gull, but here we will be in the heart of its range. Unfortunately, they have become quite scarce in the last several years and are now an endangered species. We will have the opportunity to watch as these and possibly other species move northward along the floe edge.

Day 4-7: Floe Edge and Bylot Island

Our daily activities will depend on the location of the floe edge and weather conditions, but will likely include these highlights. We will use a camp near the floe edge for these nights.

Bylot Island

Bylot Island is part of the recently declared Sirmilik National Park and is one of the largest bird refuges in the world. We plan to go for a walk near our camp to see the remains of several traditional sod and whalebone houses, used until recently by the Inuit. On the tundra, we look for many of the common northern species that are returning from the south at this time of year. Shorebirds are sparsely distributed, but we hope to find several species nesting including American Golden-Plover, Baird's Sandpiper, White-rumped Sandpiper and Red Phalarope. On the cliffs, we will look closely for Gyrfalcon, including white-morph individuals, and Peregrine Falcon. In the ponds on Bylot Island and around Pond Inlet, we will search for Red-throated Loon, Greater Snow Goose, and Long-tailed Duck. It should be a spectacular setting on the tundra surrounded by the rugged snow-covered mountains that rim the eastern Arctic.

Visit to Seabird Colony

From our camp, if ice conditions permit, we will travel to the seabird colony on Bylot Island. North of Cape Graham Moore, cliffs rise thousands of feet and host over 40,000 Thick-billed Murres and 6,500 Black-legged Kittiwakes. Hundreds of them will be coming and going from their precarious ledges as they head east to feed at the floe edge, the region's great buffet table.

At the Floe Edge

Day 8: Return to Pond Inlet

After a final morning at the floe edge, we leave our camp to return to Pond Inlet. On our journey we may view the towering hoodoos of Bylot Island plus the spectacular landscape of mountains and massive glaciers. Hotel night in Pond Inlet.

Day 9: Travel to Ottawa and Onward

We reluctantly leave this magical northern hamlet and fly south to Iqaluit and on to Ottawa,arriving in the afternoon, usually with time to catch connecting flights home. We will head home with many fond memories from this amazing adventure in the land of the midnight sun.

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