Arctic #6

Arctic #6
Today (Sat Aug 31) we had high winds again with gusts up to 90 kmph. We did a nice uphill hike of about 1000 feet during which these gusts really wacked us. Whenever we go on shore, we are guarded by rifle toting members of the expedition team. We were in the fjord of Douglas Harbour so instead of flat rocky land we had some hills.
Sunday Sept 1 -- This was our day to see polar bears hopefully. We were at the Island of Akpatok which is uninhabited and is on the north coast of Quebe in Ungava Bay. It is predominately limestone and ringed with steep cliffs that rise 150 to 250 meters above sea level. On the cliffs the birds nest on ledges and the bears patrol underneath for eggs that have rolled off or baby birds which don't get to the water in time. A bird isn't much of a meal for a polar bear but this time of year they get nothing to eat as they can only hunt their main diet of seals when there is ice.
In the morning there were no bears sighted so instead we had another walk. This time we went up a ravine looking for fossils. Again there were rifles at all the high points as this was definitely bear country. In the afternoon the ship moved further up the coast and, voila, bears were sighted. We each got a chance at a 45 minute zodiac ride to see them. There was a mother with 2 cubs which everyone saw then the second group, which I was in, spotted another mother hurrying down the beach with her little guy hustling to keep up. The biologist thought that maybe she had been spooked by another bear -- maybe a male. So I saw 5. I'm glad we saw this second mom as the others were mostly just curled up together on the beach.For the first time this trip the weather co-operated. The winds were light so easy to take pictures from the zodiac. Otherwise my camera is in two plactic bags in my backpack as we get splashed thoroughly by waves. Most rides seem to be about 1 km. There aren't good charts up here so our captain ( a lady!) stays well off shore.
Tonite for dinner we lucked out and had our bird expert sitting at our table. He has a lab, students, etc at a university in Germany. He studies one type of bird and explained all his experiments to us. Fascinating. We now know more than we ever did about bird migration.
Temperature remains around 2 degrees C but with the wind dying down it feels much warmer. Wind chill yesterday was -10.