The Northwest Territories Travels | Part 2 of 3 | Kaija Savinainen
Summer travel to Yellowknife and Peninsula Lake, and a few more bird stories.
Recently when in Yellowknife in late August- their autumn was in the air. You could see the changes right before your eyes as the colours within the landscape moved toward a deeper, warmer palette. The rich brilliant reds as displayed by our hardwood trees are not present in the northern forests. Instead, the flora and fauna are clad in rich ochers, deep reds, vibrant yellows, offset by violets and dark purples. Add to that a deep blue sky filled with migrating birds, and you have autumn in the north. One afternoon at the cabin we heard a very different sound from what appeared to be migrating geese on their southward journey. Through-out the afternoon large groups flew overhead. There was something distinctly different about these migrating birds. After “consulting” our birding app we reasoned the large flocks to be Cackling Geese only found in very remote areas of northern Canada and Alaska. They are smaller in size, their flight pattern is different, and their call was not something I was familiar with. The geese flew not in the perfect long straight lines and V formation we associate with migrating Canada Geese but more in a gestural free flowing linear pattern. I would describe it as bunched up and every so often they would flow into a more linear format. Their call as they fly was a higher pitched softer melodic sing song sound. According to one source describing the cackling goose call during flight as “a high-pitched yelping that sounds utterly unlike the lower honking flight call of Canada Goose” www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Cackling_Goose/sounds. A sound I will never forget, living up to their descriptive name!
Can you see the eagle’s nest high in the tree on that small island? Look closely, it is there.
Penny, the little female resident raven at Lara’s cabin has now raised two families to date. On a small island each spring Penny builds a nest where she incubates her eggs and raises the chicks. I imagine the island provides some protection from predators. It is a mere stone’s throw away from the cabin. She and her offspring have become the subject of many of my recent paintings. I have spent hours observing and sketching her and her family. They are a funny, raucous family, with many endearing qualities.
Once the youngsters have learned to fly, they make daily visit to the cabin. Penny often can be found in the background watching over her brood. On occasion, Dwayne, her hubby, tags along. My oldest grandson rightly so calls them the “squackies”. They are loud, noisy, full of play and mischief harassing anyone and everyone. Sammi the watchdog, sleeps with one eye open guarding against raven intrusions involving his soup bones. One afternoon I observed a group of twelve ravens playing, flying high over the mountain on the other side of the lake. I heard them clearly squawking and shrieking with glee. Even the local eagle made hast to the other side of the lake.
This is the little island where Penny raises her family. It is very rocky, covered in lichens, some small shrubs and few tall scraggly black spruce.
