Well, it has been a long time that I have been able to travel and run trips but slowly but surely things started to open up and one of the trips that Natures Images was able to get off the ground was our trip to Churchill in Canada. Churchill is without a doubt one of the best places in the world to see and photograph Polar Bears. Churchill is situated on the southern shores of the Hudson Bay and each autumn sees the arrival of this iconic arctic predator. The Ice in the Hudson Bay starts to break up in the late spring and by the height of the summer the Bears are forced onto land. During the summer and into the autumn Polar Bears make they way back to the tundra surrounding the town of Churchill. The reason they head to this area is because as winter approaches the first place that the ice starts to reform is along the coast of the Churchill River and this is what the Bears have been waiting for.
As the season progresses more and more bears start to turn up and it gets to a point where the numbers of bears are just incredible and so that is why it is just the best for seeing and photographing them. In other places that I have been to in search for Bears like Svalbard, sometimes it really feels like you are looking for a needle in haystack, as the distances are huge, and the bears are very spread out. I always run my trips around the start of the second week of November and it can be very tricky in getting your timings right in Churchill, if you go too early you run the risk of having no snow as the first winter storms have not arrived, lots of Bears but the images are just not that exciting as you really need snow. Go later and you run the risk of it being really cold and once the ice starts to form on the Hudson Bay the Bears are quickly gone.
Now for this blog I have put together a selection of images from two trips as when it’s put together the images really explain the reason to get the right balance or timing of this trip. Also, it kind of sums up my tardiness in my processing and sometimes I just never get round to looking at my images properly. I always have good intentions of doing so straight after a trip but just get distracted. So, these images are a small selection from this year’s trip and my last visit back in 2018, I know that’s long ago.
The two weeks leading up to my trips to Churchill I am constantly checking the weather forecasts on a daily basis. I don’t know why as there is nothing, I can do about it, but I become obsessed with checking. Hoping for winter to start with the first snow fall but never getting too cold so the ice has started to form. On the trip back in 2018 the week leading up to me going, a big storm had hit the Churchill area and dumped a load of snow. The conditions were looking perfect but then the temperatures started to drop, and I knew the Ice was starting to form on the Bay. The ice forms very quickly and in a matter of days most of the Bears are gone, out on the Ice hunting for Seals, great news for them but not for photographers.
As soon as the ice starts to form in the shallow parts of the Bay you then get a rapid forming of the ice and overnight another mile can be added. That’s what happened on our first few days out in Churchill, most of the large males had headed out on to the ice but as they move out the Females with cubs and younger Bears start to turn up, so although we didn’t have so many Bears the ones we did find where excellent because the landscape was so beautiful with all the fresh snow. I took some of my favourite female and Cub shots on this trip as we found a female with a large cub in the most beautiful of settings.
We also came across some younger Bears on their own and as the winter conditions had settled in, we got some great opportunities to photograph them with all this fresh snow. Fresh snow is just great for producing such simple images. Those first three days out on the Tundra were just so special but each day the ice was forming and the last part of our trip, we only saw Bears moving out on to the ice, just too far for us to get close enough to get pictures of them.
The conditions I experienced in 2018 were the complete opposite to ones I experienced in November this year. The week leading up to the trip was just so mild and there was no fresh snow lying on the tundra. There were lots of bears around, but the conditions were not great. The day before I arrived there had been a dusting of snow and snow was in the forecast whilst we were out there. This fresh snow was a welcome addition though and throughout the trip it slowly started to build up. No ice was forming on the Bay as it just wasn’t cold enough, so the Bears stuck around.
What happens in Churchill when the conditions are like this is the large dominant males are right by the coast and the females hang around further in land to avoid any contact with them. When you find four or five males together in Churchill then something special can happen as these large males then start to play fight or spar. This Sparring of the males is kind of unique to the Churchill area and is one of the best things to witness in the natural world. I am sure it can happen elsewhere, but Churchill really is the place to witness it and is one of the highlights of every trip. Two of the largest predators on earth just messing around and having fun. Or is it as Scientists studying Polar Bears say there is an underlying reason for them to participate which is to test each other’s strength so when they get down to the business end of fighting for the right to breed, they can then avoid the males they know they can’t compete with. I personally think it is just a great bit of fun for them to pass the time away as they wait for the ice to form and after so many visits and witnessing it, I think the activity peaks as it gets colder, and the males know that the ice is just around the corner.
This year’s trip was so good with lots of bears offering great opportunities in very nice settings and we had a few really good bouts of sparring activity between the large males, the only thing missing was to find a mother and cubs. This we did on our very last day of the trip which just takes it from a good one to a great one. We spent the best part of the afternoon with this female and her two COYS, cubs of the year. It was just a magical afternoon.
We mainly work from a special vehicle called a Tundra Buggy to see and photograph the bears as it is the safest option but part way through, I hire some 4×4 trucks so we can explore other parts of the Churchill area. In the past these vehicles are great at finding some of the smaller species of the Arctic Tundra like Arctic and Red Foxes, Ptarmigan and Arctic Hares. I have found Bears in the past, but this is quite rare, but this year’s trip was very productive as we found quite a few bears along our travels. The shots of this young male were my favourite as I really like the blue/grey background of the ocean.
So, there you go just a small selection of images of Polar Bears from this wonderful place. I always get asked the question as to where the best place is to see Polar Bears and if I am honest, it is such a difficult one to answer. Svalbard is a stunning location for Polar Bears, but it can be so difficult to find them, or Churchill has no problem on that front because they are in a relatively small area, you just need the right conditions. Tough one but it really is a trip of a lifetime then I would say Churchill, what a place.
