Yesterday afternoon we went to the BASC (Barrow Arctic Science Consortium) building to check out a lecture on marine mammal sounds. Kate Stafford- the lecturer- is the world leader on marine mammal sounds. She gave a great lecture letting us hear her recordings from a hydrophone (underwater microphone) of bowhead and beluga whales, walrus, and 3 species of seal. Each has a unique noise and they are all found off the coast here in Barrow.This is the BASC building- within walking distance of the college (away from the ice- no polar bears)
Here's a snow fence near BASC. I think it's working, that's about a 15 foot snowdrift on the right side.
After the lecture I went skiing out on the tundra with my cooperating teacher Deb Greene. Deb is great, she's very excited about being outside and adventuring. (She's climbed Mt. Mckinley twice) Our goal was to see caribou, or Tuttu (Tu-tu, short u's) as the locals call them.
It's incredible how flat and white everything is. We were hoping to see caribou on the horizon as we started, but we couldn't so we started skiing.
Flat, white, grey, no caribou. Tundra skiing at it's finest!
As we moved across the tundra, we first came upon something that wasn't white! Hoping it was a arctic fox den we moved in closer to take a peak:
As it turns out, what we saw was made by an arctic fox, but it wasn't a den. It was a hole where the fox had dug to find mice under the snow. VERY COOL (for a science nerd like me)
We continued skiing, and then on the horizon we started to see dots, more specifically moving dots! Well, at first I wasn't really sure if they were actually moving or even existed; my eyes were playing tricks on me because of all the whiteness. It was incredible! The dots were moving and sliding across the horizon, my eyes were going crazy! I wish I could describe it better to you. Deb commented that it was like vertigo because you couldn't tell where the white snow ended and the grey sky began, a very confusing experience.
However, we skied towards the moving dots, and as it turns out they were actually there, not a figment of our imaginations! We kept skiing, wondering if what we saw were snow machines (sno-ma-sheens) or Tuttu. We kept moving until we were close enough to tell that they had legs! They were Tuttu, but they were still over 1 kilometer away. Unfortunately, we had to turn back for dinner. We turned around and could still see the truck....somewhat depressing after skiing for 40 minutes, but we started on our way home, achieving our goal of seeing Tuttu, but not getting close enough to take a good picture (I tried but it didn't turn out.)
On the way home, something caught my eye on the left side of the road, I looked and there! A snowy owl!! It flew right across the road then perched on a post about 150 feet off the road. I did my best to take, zoom, and edit a picture so you could see, and here it is, but it doesn't do justice to the beauty of this animal.
New goal- get a better picture of a snowy owl.
All in all, we had a great weekend, and now you know a little more about the wildlife here in Barrow. As I learn more, I'll write more!
Stay warm,
Peter
Inupiaq word of the day:
Nanuk (na- nook): Polar Bear
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