Created 19-Jun-22
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North of the Brooks Range in the far west there is a region of low hills. The Kokolik River cuts north through those hills, which are composed of gently-folded, inter-bedded sandstone and shale of the Nanushuk Formation.
Up there the seasons are always changing fast, and early June is a period of transition. The sun is above the horizon for 24 hours a day, but the snow only started to melt a few weeks previous and it still dropped below freezing for part of most days. The tundra was still mostly brown and yellow, with only a few hints of green. We had two days of snow early in the trip, and even some of the sunny days felt cold.
But spring was happening. The flowers bloomed, the birds nested, and more baby mammals appeared every day. The one thing we didn't see were any mosquitos or flies - but we were ok with that.
The wildlife was incredible. We saw lots of caribou, muskoxen, bears, foxes, marmots and ground squirrels. We watched a muskoxen calf, saw several bears with cubs, and got to see several smaller groups of caribou in the calving process.
The list of birds is really long so I will only mention my favorites, which were Rough-legged Hawks, Gyrfalcons, Peregrine Falcons, Golden Eagles, Whimbrels, Red-necked Phalaropes, American Goldenplovers, Lapland Longspurs, and Bluethroats. We saw lots of nests, and were able to check out several of them really closely, including Semipalmated Plover, Cackling Goose, Rough-legged Hawk, and Gyrfalcon nests.
Up there the seasons are always changing fast, and early June is a period of transition. The sun is above the horizon for 24 hours a day, but the snow only started to melt a few weeks previous and it still dropped below freezing for part of most days. The tundra was still mostly brown and yellow, with only a few hints of green. We had two days of snow early in the trip, and even some of the sunny days felt cold.
But spring was happening. The flowers bloomed, the birds nested, and more baby mammals appeared every day. The one thing we didn't see were any mosquitos or flies - but we were ok with that.
The wildlife was incredible. We saw lots of caribou, muskoxen, bears, foxes, marmots and ground squirrels. We watched a muskoxen calf, saw several bears with cubs, and got to see several smaller groups of caribou in the calving process.
The list of birds is really long so I will only mention my favorites, which were Rough-legged Hawks, Gyrfalcons, Peregrine Falcons, Golden Eagles, Whimbrels, Red-necked Phalaropes, American Goldenplovers, Lapland Longspurs, and Bluethroats. We saw lots of nests, and were able to check out several of them really closely, including Semipalmated Plover, Cackling Goose, Rough-legged Hawk, and Gyrfalcon nests.
© Louis Sass
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