First blogspot from Churchill

Hey there, thought I would start posting my polar bear blog on blogspot. Not sure why I am doing it but i suppose a book will magically appear from all of this by January. My other postings are at www.polarbearalley.com because I am not sure how to post them over here in any way that makes sense.

Polar Bear Blog - July 17, 2006

The return of northeast winds has also brought the Churchill's last icefloe into sight. The last remaining ice has long since packed up along the southern coast of Hudson Bay and there is really just one little hunting platform along this side of the bay, likely with a few bears hanging on.
While there are still some bears on the ice, many have come ashore. Usually how this whole thing works is that bears with higher energy demands and/or less fat tend to come ashore first. This includes pregnant females, mothers with young cubs or subadult (3-5 year old) bears.
Pregnant females swim ashore as the ice floats south from Churchill to York Factory. One of the largest denning areas is close to Churchill, lying about 30 kilometres south. Females are pretty site specific, as in they like to hang out in familiar territory and even den quite close to where they were first born.

So, they swim ashore up to two weeks before the last polar bears come off the ice. And, of course, these are the big fat boars, lumbering around at 700-800 kilograms plus right now. They stay on the ice to the bitter end, swimming ashore, somewhere east of York Factory this year. With no particular place to go, they simply hang out on beach ridges and slowly walk north along the coast until some of them end up at Cape Churchill in November.

Sea ice map of southern Hudson Bay (from York Factory east)