Flyways and byways: Great birding in arctic Canada

Each spring, I face the same dilemma: Stay in Richmond and revisit the tried-and-true sites along the James River to enjoy songbird migration, or discover and explore a new migratory site far from home.

Despite the usual misgivings before such a trip, I traveled in June to Churchill, Manitoba, in arctic Canada, a popular site among birders, to find birds returning to their boreal nesting grounds. The high point is finding birds decked out in the full splendor of their breeding plumage.

The small town of Churchill is on the Hudson Bay, more than 1,000 miles from Winnipeg, the provincial capital of Manitoba, just north of North Dakota and Minnesota. There are no highways into the town, so visitors either fly or take the train into this northern outpost.

The scheduled train ride from Winnipeg to Churchill is 36 to 38 hours, and our small tour group hoped to halve the time by boarding at Thompson. Our train left well before dark, scheduled to arrive by early afternoon of the next day. Unfortunately, a heavy early spring snow blanketed the northern tier, and the melting snow had begun to flood the boreal landscape that the train would cross.

The slow journey gave us ample time to savor the boreal habitats that we passed through.

Our slow trek through the tundra brought a number of wonderful surprises right beside the train tracks. Small flocks of snow buntings, with gleaming white feathers and charcoal mantles, foraged among the grasses and icy patches. Pairs of willow ptarmigans, males with chocolate necks and backs and broad flame-colored eyebrows, stood like statues as we slowly passed while furiously taking photos of these chicken-sized birds.

We arrived at our destination in the late afternoon, a bleak northern town of about 1,000 year-round residents.

During our stay, the early blossoming willow thickets teemed with yellow warblers and northern waterthrushes, despite a blanket of snow across the landscape. The Churchill environs had patches of evergreen trees much taller than found in the tundra; on one trip through the forest, we spied a spruce grouse, usually shy and secretive, foraging along the roadside.

The most rewarding experience was identifying different species that arrived to their breeding grounds during our stay. New species suddenly appeared on the surface of ponds and small lakes that we revisited numerous times. Overnight, red-necked, -eared and -horned grebes flew in, donned in their best plumage.

During the day, red and red-necked grebes foraged along the water's edge within arm's length, and Pacific and red-throated loons lazily fished less than 50 feet from the lakeshore.

Luckily, our visit was sandwiched between Churchill's legendary late-winter and early spring storms, and as the sunny days waned, we departed in a foggy drizzle. You can explore this boreal environment from your armchair by visiting Churchill's Web site at http://www.churchill.ca.

Contact Jerry Uhlman at .