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NunavutBirder

@[email protected]

I am a denizen of Canada's High Arctic. Father, husband, retired Mountie, recently retired Parks guy, and former EDO. I'm a photographer, writer, wannabe poet, and so much more.

“ Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)” -Whitman

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@NunavutBirder@mas.to avatar NunavutBirder , to random

Where are the pictures?


@NunavutBirder@mas.to avatar NunavutBirder , to random

The Tangled Bank Job


@NunavutBirder@mas.to avatar NunavutBirder , to random

The Descendants of Man


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The Beagle has landed


@NunavutBirder@mas.to avatar NunavutBirder , to random
@NunavutBirder@mas.to avatar NunavutBirder , to random

Is there any way to remove yourself from a thread if your post started it? Deleting the post didn’t help.

@NunavutBirder@mas.to avatar NunavutBirder , to random

“You learn, after a while, that quotes by Einstein, Twain, and Gandhi shared on the internet are not to be trusted.” - John F. Kennedy

@NunavutBirder@mas.to avatar NunavutBirder , to random

Today’s cabin views.

The sun peeks over hills across the frozen ocean. Clouds across the sky are orange, pink, mauve and grey.
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@NunavutBirder@mas.to avatar NunavutBirder , to random

Roswell: Shhh, don’t tell ICE


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Wasilla Alaska: You can see Russia from here.


@NunavutBirder@mas.to avatar NunavutBirder , to random

New York is big
But this is average sized

*this will make sense to people from Saskatchewan


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@NunavutBirder@mas.to avatar NunavutBirder , to random

Through the ice fog. The Prodigal Sun has returned. Time to slaughter a fatted calf.

A hazy blue tinted scene. Wedged in between broken tidal ice in the foreground and blue sky above, and through the haze of ice fog, the yellow orb of the Sun sis above blue mountains. It has tinged the horizon orange.
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@NunavutBirder@mas.to avatar NunavutBirder , to random

The view from the cabin this afternoon.

A cabin (my in-laws’) on the shore of a frozen bay of the Arctic Ocean. An SUV is parked on the ice. The sun skims just below the horizon and paints the sky orange.
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@NunavutBirder@mas.to avatar NunavutBirder , to random

So close.

A snowy landscape of hills, rocky peninsula, frozen ocean, and mountains. Just below the horizon, behind mountains, is the Sun. Orange, pink, and mauve clouds are coloured by that hidden sun. Blue skies above.
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@NunavutBirder@mas.to avatar NunavutBirder , to random

I’ll bet “Melania” cleans up at the FIFA Academy Awards

@NunavutBirder@mas.to avatar NunavutBirder , to random

“To truly appreciate this film you should view it through the President’s eyes… closed 30 seconds in.”


@NunavutBirder@mas.to avatar NunavutBirder , to random

Great place to hide out. No one will look in here. Noise cancelling headphones and a sleep mask and I’m set.


@NunavutBirder@mas.to avatar NunavutBirder , to random

Today is the official return of the Sun but it will be another week before we see it in town, because of the lay of the land.

Today we will see the sunlight shining on the top of the mountain and each day it will shine lower and lower.

If I rode out to Admiralty Inlet with a clear view of the southern horizon I could watch it peek out. When I first came here we’d drive up to the old Nanisivik airport to see it on the 30th.

But I’m more than patient to wait until the sixth to see it now.

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Colours colours everywhere.

Blue, red, and a tiny bit of green aurora fill a starry sky above the silhouette of hills across the frozen bay.
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Went to the cabin by truck for the first time this year. The wind picked up and we narrowly avoided getting stuck.

But a very fast coronal mass ejection sparked a G4 solar storm which I think is waning now. We stepped out to very bright rare pink aurora. It also extended north of us, which is unusual. Here is an iPhone shot.

A night photo of punk Aurora. The ice and landscape is tinged pink from the bright pink aurora that fills the sky.
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@NunavutBirder@mas.to avatar NunavutBirder , to random
@NunavutBirder@mas.to avatar NunavutBirder , to random

About last night.

I haven’t got to processing the short time lapse yet, so here’s a small taste.

Across a star filled dark night curtains of green light paint ribbons across the sky. A cabin lit with an outside light stands in the foreground.
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@NunavutBirder@mas.to avatar NunavutBirder , to random

‘Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number,
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you –
Ye are many – they are few.’

Percy Bysshe Shelley

@NunavutBirder@mas.to avatar NunavutBirder , to random

Dammit, I’ve got to dig out the ladder and get that thing unstuck from the antlers.

Cabin at night. An outside light illuminates the outside front of the cabin. Above the hill a bright full moon shines. The moon is positioned at the ends of caribou antlers mounted to the peak of the cabin roof.
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@NunavutBirder@mas.to avatar NunavutBirder , to random

A toast to the New Year. Two actually.

Two slices of toasted rye bread slathered in butter
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@NunavutBirder@mas.to avatar NunavutBirder , to random

Happy Solstice. Today the earth will begin its tilt back towards the Sun (here in the North). Six weeks until we see it.

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My FIL has been down in Ottawa on medical, back today. While he was away Leah and a niece have been painting the in-laws’ cabin while our niece’s partner and I put down new flooring. It’s been a struggle as we’ve had one generator issue after another. But they now seem to be sorted. Lots of cutting and the mitre saw was up at my cabin as it can handle the electrical load. So I walked back and forth the 100m or so all night. The wind was bitter but the Arqsarniit danced all night.

Two cabins sit along the shore of the frozen ocean. Both are lit up. In the sky bands of bright green aurora wind across the sky. The pinpoint light of stars shine through the green aurora.
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Not sure if this is a scam but I got an email from Four Seasons Total Landscaping saying I’m shortlisted for their Peace Prize.

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@NunavutBirder@mas.to avatar NunavutBirder , to random

I don’t think I posted this poem I wrote at 6 am after getting off polar bear watch while building a Parks Canada cabin in Sirmilik National Park.

3am on polar bear watch.

And behind me I hear in camp Gentle snoring A compatriot in their tent Ringed with wire electrified Quiet, rhythmic. Sound safe sleep The fog has deepened now Thick The cliffs on either side, gone. And as I stand amongst these tent rings And ancient qarmat, homes I wonder if there are generations of ghosts Watching Watching me peering into a near invisible Sea of white ice, looking for something Padding silently, white on white.

And behind me I hear in camp Gentle snoring A compatriot in their tent Ringed with wire electrified Quiet, rhythmic. Sound safe sleep The fog has deepened now Thick The cliffs on either side, gone. And as I stand amongst these tent rings And ancient qarmat, homes I wonder if there are generations of ghosts Watching Watching me peering into a near invisible Sea of white ice, looking for something Padding silently, white on white.
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@NunavutBirder@mas.to avatar NunavutBirder , to random

Short time lapse from last night. Missed much of the big display. Most of the activity was south of us when I went out there. Short because I wasn't prepared with batteries etc.

The northern Lights dance across the sky above a frozen lake and fjord. Green and red aurora. A field of stars move from left to right.

@NunavutBirder@mas.to avatar NunavutBirder , to random

I’m of Irish and Ukrainian descent, but my grandfather fought a war wearing one of these, so I wear it on Remembrance Day. Well other times as well.

A kilt garbed lap with a sporran and a couple of crossed relaxed legs. The tartan is the MacKenzie Modern.
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NunavutBirder OP ,
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@sister_ratched well I’m not intending to have any more. She’s a keeper as long as she’ll have me.

NunavutBirder OP ,
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@sister_ratched I’m just being a smart ass. If my sister-in-law and her Scottish partner ever tie the knot, probably.

NunavutBirder OP ,
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@sister_ratched I have the nicest sgian dubh in the world.

NunavutBirder OP ,
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@sister_ratched Damascus blade, Inuit carved ivory handle, 6000 year old bog oak from Speyside for pommel and bolster.

NunavutBirder OP ,
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@NunavutBirder@mas.to avatar NunavutBirder , to random

Was headed to the hardware supply for a piece of trim. Paused to take in the sky and ice.

Looking out on the bay. Jumbled ice on the edge and smooth ice beyond reflecting the sky of pinks, oranges, yellows and blue.
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@NunavutBirder@mas.to avatar NunavutBirder , to random

My little town.

A mostly full moon scatters its light among the clouds. Below it a ring of hills hold a small lit town in their arms. The lights of town reflected in the water and ice of the bay.
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@NunavutBirder@mas.to avatar NunavutBirder , to random

The Sun set today. We won’t see it again here until February.

@NunavutBirder@mas.to avatar NunavutBirder , to random

“I love the smell of onions and mustard in the morning. You know, one time we had a ICE squad sandwiched for twelve hours. When it was all over, I walked up. We didn’t find one of ’em, not one stinkin’ masked Brownshirt. The smell, you know, the condiment smell, the whole street. Smelled like…victory.” - Lt. Col. A. N. Tifa

@NunavutBirder@mas.to avatar NunavutBirder , to random

We’re waiting on a couple pieces of trim for the bedroom and I need to make cabinet doors. But we are calling it done. Starting to haul tools back tomorrow.

Wide angle view of the inside of our cabin.
Wide angle view looking the opposite direction of the cabin. The built in shelves are on the left with a built in bench. Along the right wall is a small fridge and oil heater. Against the far gable wall is a love seat and a built in coat rack. The door to the exterior is on the far left.

Wide angle view looking the opposite direction of the cabin. The built in shelves are on the left with a built in bench. Along the right wall is a small fridge and oil heater. Against the far gable wall is a love seat and a built in coat rack. The door to the exterior is on the far left.
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@NunavutBirder@mas.to avatar NunavutBirder , to random

So I guess he’s now the Andrew formerly known as Prince

@NunavutBirder@mas.to avatar NunavutBirder , to random

The other photo from this morning. My son and two other boats get ready to head out.

Three runabout boats about to head out. The sky is filled with colour, the hills in silhouette, the water ablaze in reflection.
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@NunavutBirder@mas.to avatar NunavutBirder , to random

Yeah, sunrises this time of year aren’t too shabby. In a couple of days sunrises and sunsets will be one and the same.

Sunrise. The hills along the fjord and across the bay are in silhouette. The sky is filled with colour, yellows, oranges, pinks, mauves, purples, greys and blues. The calm water of the bay reflects the colours of the sky.
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@NunavutBirder@mas.to avatar NunavutBirder , to random

The dark isn’t so bad. 6 pm.

A look across the bay from town. King George mountain glows, the top nebulous in thin clouds. Lights of the industrial area on shore reflects in the calm waters of the bay.
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@NunavutBirder@mas.to avatar NunavutBirder , to random

We’re a little more than a week away from the Sun setting for the next three months. November 6th.

.

The Sun, low on the horizon at noon, casts a golden light through a break in the clouds. The calm ocean is painted gold by that light. Crepuscular rays can be seen over a black volcanic point.
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