2007 – Northern Tier Base
Bissett, Manitoba
Critters
This little guy crawled out the water as we were putting our canoes back in the water after a short portage. He came ashore right next to the canoe, walked right through a group of us standing there, and disappeared into the woods. We eventually decided he was probably a baby beaver, but he could have also been a baby otter. (We adults of both on the trip, but didn’t get any good photos–they were much shyer). If anyone knows for sure, email me and I will include the info.
We saw many bald eagles on the trip, but usually from so far away that they didn’t come out in the photos. The bird shown in this shot flew out of the trees just as we rounded a small bend. He was flying just above the water, probably no more than 25 feet away from the canoe. When he realized we were there, he spread his wings out, wheeled, and found a perch in a tree near the lake. It happened so fast I couldn’t get a real close up, but at least he was still visible.
We also saw plenty of beaver dams on the trip, including this one, which was scaled by our interpreter Blair. Ones like this we paddled around, but we also did our share of going over the top of some of them. We saw beavers swimming in some of the lakes, but never really up close.
And of course, no website about the Northern Tier would be complete without mentioning one other critter. We suggested to Northern Tier that they might want to make this the official mascot of the Northern Tier program (as shown at right), but they weren’t keen on it. I can’t understand why!!