While I was on vacation last week, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, one of our Boreal Songbird Network partners, dispatched one of its own to Ontario's Boreal. Last summer I traveled to Ontario's Far North with writer Eddie Nickens, photographer Per Breiehagen and photographer's assistant Tim Trudeau to record the sounds of birds and other wildlife along the Albany River. The trip was covered with a great story in Audubon magazine and I blogged about the trip here as well. That trip was hosted by the generous, friendly, and highly capable people of Wilderness North outfitters. Wilderness North has an amazing network of remote lodges and cabins across Ontario's Boreal as well as its own fleet of float planes to shuttle guests in and out on schedule.
While fishing has been the mainstay of the business for Wilderness North, their various outposts offer incredible opportunities for enjoying birds and other wildlife deep within the heart of the world's last vast wilderness. To increase their own understanding of the special birding and wildlife experiences that occur there, Wilderness North offered to fly in and host another ornithologist and sound recordist this year, this time from Cornell University's Laboratory of Ornithology.
Matt Medler, a former Boreal Songbird Initiative staffer who now works for the world famous Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab, agreed to make the two day drive from upstate New York to the Wilderness North float plane base north of Thunder Bay, Ontario. Matt drove out from Ithaca, New York on Monday, recording birds along the way north through Michigan and Ontario. He arrived at the base on Wednesday night and flew out on Thursday, July 10.
He sent along the post below soon after arrival at the lodge. Hopefully we will get some photos from him to share soon as well.
"I've just arrived at Wilderness North's Striker's Point Lodge in Wabakimi Provincial Park. This lodge, one of several that Wilderness North operates in the heart of Ontario's Boreal Forest, is located along the beautiful 25-mile long Whitewater Lake.
I'm here in the main lodge after a spectacular 30 minute flight on board a small deHaviland Otter plane. This was my first flight on a "sea plane," and my only complaint is that the flight was too short. (And for those curious, the flight and landing was incredibly smooth.) To say that the flight over the Boreal Forest was impressive would be an understatement. The scenery was absolutely spectacular! Mile after mile of lush green coniferous forest, interrupted only by numerous lakes, ponds, and the occasional bog. I have spent the past two days driving north along Lake Superior into the Ontario wilderness, so I have been enjoying Boreal scenery since Michigan's Upper Peninsula, but to see the Boreal from a bird's-eye view is unlike anything I've ever seen. Truly remarkable."
