Canada
Churchill
Information
SITE RANK
53
HABITAT Tundra, taiga forest, coast
KEY SPECIES Ross’s Gull, Snowy Owl, 15 species of breeding waders including Hudsonian Godwit, Spruce Grouse, Smith’s Longspur
TIME OF YEAR Late May through to July is the best time for spring migrants and breeding birds; late autumn for a few birds (including Rock Ptarmigan) and Polar Bears
The uncommon Smith’s Longspur brings its colourful breeding regime to the summer tundra of Churchill.
When the Hudson Bay Railway finally rolled into Churchill in 1929, the builders could hardly have envisaged that their long, lonely track would one day carry tourists with binoculars. Covering the 1,600 km from the Manitoba state capital, Winnipeg, the railway was constructed to bring grain from the prairie wheat belt to the shores of Hudson Bay, and thence by sea to the rest of the world. Churchill, on the shores of the great bay, grew up as a frontier town, a remote outpost where no one but those in need of work would ever go. Yet these days it is far more famous as an eco-tourism destination, and the vast grain silos and container ships are merely the backdrop to some fantastic wildlife viewing.
There are few places in the world where it is easy to observe the birds of the true tundra, but Churchill is one of them. During the short summer growing season, which begins in late May and ends in August, the tundra turns a vibrant mix of subtle colours as the mosses, lichens, sedge-grasses and sphagnum are at last unveiled by melting snow. Dotted with innumerable lakes and bogs, the sun-warmed tundra supports unimaginably high populations of mosquitoes, midges, spiders and other invertebrates, and these in turn provide food for a wealth of Arctic breeding birds. In this bloom of productivity, as many bite-plagued birders will attest, there is plenty of everything to go around.
To visit the tundra at this time is a noisy, as well as a visually stunning experience, since one of the most dominant groups of birds here, the waders, spend all the many hours of daylight performing their spirited song-flights. The sounds are incessant; birds tend to arrive unpaired and must acquire a mate as quickly as possible. Thus the sharp Arctic air rings with the whinnying sounds of Wilson’s Snipe, the braying of the Stilt Sandpiper and the spluttering of the Semipalmated Sandpiper, among many others, each male trying to grab the attention of a nearby female.
Studies of shorebirds here and at other tundra sites have revealed that their breeding ecology is full of fascinating details. For example, while most waders are monogamous here, several are not. A female Spotted Sandpiper, for example, might copulate with up to four different males, lay maybe four clutches of eggs and try to enlist each male to incubate one of them – the ultimate in female emancipation! The male Pectoral Sandpiper, by contrast, often attempts to acquire several female mates, while Wilson’s Snipe’s overall behaviour appears to be a promiscuous free-for-all. When it comes to protecting the nest-site, several waders go in for the broken-wing distraction display, but Hudsonian Godwits instead resort to making a constant deafening noise, one of the loudest made by a wader and undoubtedly irritating to the sensitive ears of an Arctic Fox. Another aspect of wader ecology is that, in many species, only one parent remains to tend the chicks, while the other deserts the area; in most species, such as the Least Sandpiper, the attending parent is the male.
The waders don’t have a monopoly on odd breeding systems. Recently another tundra bird, Smith’s Longspur, has given up a few secrets of its own. These birds effectively live in small breeding groups, with females copulating with two or three males and the males copulating in turn with several females, a system known as polygynandry. When a female is most fertile she may copulate 350 times in a single week, and the males repay the favour by helping to feed her offspring at the nest.
Churchill lies in the transition zone between the open tundra and the dominant vegetation further south, the taiga; this is, in fact, the core habitat of the longspur. At Twin Lakes, within reach of town, are mixed spruce and larch forests that house more waders, including the Solitary Sandpiper, a wader that has the rare habit of laying its eggs above ground-level, in the abandoned nests of American Robins and other breeding birds such as Bohemian Waxwing and Grey Jay, which, incidentally, are both easy to see. The forest here also holds Spruce Grouse and, in some years, Great Grey Owls.
Although it has a fine range of breeding birds, Churchill’s position at the western side of Hudson Bay and at the outflow of the large south-to-north flowing Churchill River places it on one of the major flyways used by true Arctic species on their way farther north. Thus, from early June, any day can bring flocks of such birds as White-rumped Sandpiper, Red Knot and Sanderling, which are simply passing through. This is also the favoured time for Churchill’s most famous species, Ross’s Gull. When this graceful, delicately-hued gull nested here in 1980 it was the first breeding record for the North American continent. However, there was only one further breeding attempt, and since the late 1980s this bird has only been seen passing through at Churchill, often only a few times each year. It is usually seen out on the bay, dipping to catch marine invertebrates among the melting icebergs, occasionally in the presence of a group of snow-white Beluga Whales.
The birding season carries on into July but, by early August, most visitors have left. When the tourists return, in October and November, it is for quite a different reason. Churchill is simply the best place in the world to see Polar Bears, and visitors come in their thousands to take a ‘tundra buggy’ for virtually guaranteed sightings of these superb animals. As a bonus, they almost always see the Aurora Borealis, too; Churchill is also apparently the best place in the world to see this phenomenon, which occurs on 300 nights a year. Not many birds are found around this time, but it is well worth looking out for the Snowy Owl, if you can tear yourself away from watching all these other wonders.
Ross’s Gull is a rare spring migrant to Churchill, although it has bred there twice in the past.
After breeding at Churchill, the Hudsonian Godwit makes a 3,700 km journey to winter in South America; this is often undertaken as a single, non-stop flight.
Churchill lies in the transition zone between tundra and taiga.