Iced North Tough on Birds

Great Slave Lake in June
Credit: Jeff Wells

I was in Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories about a week ago and although the snow was gone from the ground and the smaller lakes, it was amazing how most of Great Slave Lake was still iced over. I include here and below some of my photos of the ice on Great Slave Lake from June 10.

Credit: Jeff Wells

Someone just forwarded to me a recent article from the Winnipeg Free Press that describes how much of the North was locked in with snow and ice very late this year. This is, of course, not good news for the birds that have to arrive and raise their young in the short Northern summer.

Here's an excerpt:

Big chill in Churchill

Winter grips 90 per cent of north, migratory birds can't breed

Robert Alison

13/06/2009 1:00 AM

It is the winter that refuses to go away in northern Manitoba and most of the eastern Arctic.

Prolonged cold snowy conditions in the Hudson Bay area are expected to obliterate the breeding season for migratory birds and most other species of wildlife this year.

According to Environment Canada, the spring of 2009 is record-late in the eastern Arctic with virtually 100 per cent snow cover from James Bay north as of June 11...

You can rest of the full article at:
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/westview/big-chill-in-churchill-47992231.html

I've posted below a short YouTube video of a flyover of the area, as well as some more images of the heavy icing the North still faces: