Larry Hoelzeman scans the boreal forest for moose and polar bears from a helicopter over Wapusk National Park, and Cape Churchill.
I recently finished guiding my first Ultimate Churchill Expedition, which includes a helicopter excursion to view polar bears, moose, and the subarctic landscape from a raven’s perspective. Here are some unique images that I was able to capture. First, check some footage I shot with my canon 7D and 16-35f2.8
As we cruised over Cape Churchill we came upon a group of very large males hanging out together peacefully. Two of the bears had blood on their heads and necks, indicating that they had recently fed on a seal.
I had previously thought that photographing from a helicopter would be difficult, but I was pleasantly surprised to learn that we could shoot out of an open window. Photographing with my 16-35 wide angle was very easy, and perfect for getting the wide landscape shots, but I was also able to get some good stuff of wildlife with my fixed 300 f4.
Wide angle view of the tundra s we headed north to Cape Churchill. Canon 7D, 16-35mm lens.
We counted a total of 28 different moose from the air in the boreal forest of Wapusk National Park, about 4 miles south of the coast. This is a very large bull in rut. Canon 7d, 300 f4 prime lens
View of a lone male polar bear on the beach near Cape Churchill.
Canon 7D 300 f4 prime
A huge highlight for the group was landing at an unattended female polar bear maternity den above the Deer River. This region of boreal forest in Wapusk National Park is the densest polar bear denning area on earth. Only the pregnant female polar bears use dens like this, so they can have their cubs in a warm, safe environment. Pregnant females will arrive in this area in November to choose a den site, as the other bears head onto Hudson Bay to hunt seals for the winter. Cubs are born around the New Year.
View of Ms. Piggy, a cargo plane that crashed after losing an oil pressure to one of its engines upon take off on November 13, 1979. It was operated by Lamb Air, and was bound for Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut with cases of soft drinks and one snowmachine. All crew members survived the crash, as power lines helped to slow the plane’s momentum.
Rare view of a polar bear swimming offshore in Hudson Bay off Cape Churchill. Polar bears can swim 60 miles at sea without any problems on their search for seals.
Our helicopter pilot Derek stands in front of his Jet Ranger after landing in the boreal forest of Wapusk National Park, Manitoba.
A few hours after our trip, they used one of the helicopters to airlift a mother and cub of the year from the polar bear jail, where they were being detained after being captured near town, to a location about 60 miles north, near the Seal River. They hauled the immobilized mother with a cargo net, and they cub rode in the cockpit with the pilot (also immobilized). Luckily the cub didn’t wake up during the flight!
No Comments