It's Saturday 27th July 2024 and I have been back home for a week and at last I have some time to finish my record of this amazing adventure in Greenland and the Canadian Arctic.
This is an additional post to the one dated Thursday 11th July and entitled "Akpatok Canada: Mission Accomplished - Polar Bears Sighted". This post provides more details about the Island and a novel way of capturing a photo using a mobile phone and binoculars.
The Silver Endeavour Chronicle for today described Akpatok Island as 'a remote spot near the northernmost limits of the Labrador Peninsula. Steep and sheer limestone cliffs jut out of icy waters. Encased in snow and surrounded with sea ice in the winter months this uninhabited island lures huge amounts of wildlife most notably the world's largest population of breeding thick- billed murres (known as brünnich's guillemots in Europe) estimated at well over a million birds. These auks flock to the bare cliffs of the island between June and September and incubate their single pear-shaped egg on the cliff ledges. Glaucous gulls can be seen soaring above looking for unguarded eggs and chicks while Black Guillemots paddle around on the nearby sea. Akpatok Island is also a favourite summer home for polar ears as they wait for the winter ice to form."
Sea ice overnight had delayed our arrival at Akpatok Island but by midday the first of two polar bears had been spotted.
As you can see from the photo we were some distance offshore but with the help of the Expedition Team we were able to follow these two bears as they patrolled the cliff tops no doubt in search of guillemot eggs.
At first, I found these bears very difficult to spot but one member of the Expedition Team took the photo above by placing my phone camera up against a binolecular lens. I had seen this done before but good to be shown again how to capture a photo this way.
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