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Churchill Trip : June 23 - July 11, 2019

Part 4 - Fort Smith and Peace River

July 5: Churchill by air

Once it cleared out, I was able to check out the area by air before following the coastline down to York Factory. You can see a pair of the red Adirondack chairs there.

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Port of Churchill and granary

Cape Merry

Prince of Wales Fort

Knife River Delta

Ice out on the Hudson Bay.

Seal River Heritage Lodge

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The Aurora Inn

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Churchill Town Centre Complex

Looking north beyond Launch Road and Ithaca

Halfway Point

The Ithaca

Churchill Rocket Range

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Churchill Northern Studies Centre

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Cape Churchill

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Broad River

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Near Owl River

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Owl River

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Near Marsh Point

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York Factory

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Port Nelson

near Amery MB

Some serious power lines near Sundance

The dam near Long Spruce

July 5: Gillam MB to Fort Smith NT

After a fuel stop at Gillam and another at Lynn Lake, it was west to Fort Smith

Opachuanau Lake

Lynn Lake

A Linn tractor

Leblanc Island

Boland Lake and an esker

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Le Blanc Lake and Tazin Lake

Pelican Rapids near Fort Smith

Fort Smith

Final approach

July 6: Wood Buffalo NP

West of Fort Smith along Hwy 5

Sandhill Crane and chick

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Red squirrel

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Sharp-tailed Grouse chick (?)

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Salt crystals near salt mound

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Saline spring and salt mound

Another pair of Adirondack chairs

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Damselfly

Thread-waisted wasp

Tailed Blue

White Admiral

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Salt Plains

Sharp-tailed Grouse

Sulfur butterfly

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Little Buffalo River Falls

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Ruffed Grouse with chicks

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Black Bear

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July 7: Slave River and Wood Buffalo NP

South of Fort Smith along Pine Lake Rd.

American White Pelican

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Rapids of the Drowned

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Pelican rookery at Mountain Portage Rapids

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Bufflehead female

Pine Lake

Spotted Sandpiper

Common Loon

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Salt River near Karstland Trailhead

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Red-tailed Hawk

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July 8: Wood Buffalo by air

There were showers in the area, but I managed to take an aerial tour of Wood Buffalo and Slave River before heading south towards a planned visit to Jasper. After a couple tries to get past the higher terrain towards Jasper, the weather finally defeated me, and I wound up in Peace River instead.

Near the Salt Plains Overlook

Some pelicans

Salt Plains Overlook and Access Trail

Muskeg habitat of the Whooping Crane

Pelicans again

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Slave River

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Oxbow near Garden Creek

Donnelly Airport, after waiting out some weather

Heading back to Peace River

July 9: Peace River, Alberta

The weather further south was no better the next day, so I explored the Peace River area.

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Bufflehead with chicks

Red-winged Blackbird (female)

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Black-capped Chickadee

Red-breasted Nuthatch

Grebe chicks

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Red-winged Blackbird with a dragonfly

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Great Blue Heron

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(?) Warbler

American Robin

Start of the Mackenzie Highway in Grimshaw

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Red-tailed Hawk

Cedar Waxwing

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The Shaftesbury Ferry