• Meet the couple that turned their honeymoon into an epic canoe journey from the Atlantic to the Arctic
• Learn about how the Arctic fox's “green thumb” effect on the tundra can be seen from space
• Discover the history of the ham radio and the world of amateur radio operators
• Interested in travelling with Canadian Geographic?  Read about an Eagle-Eye Tours adventure in southern Saskatchewan 
• Meet the two Michelin-starred chefs onboard Cunard's newest ship, Queen Anne®

We’re thrilled that Gary and Joanie McGuffin are joining us for this last episode of our 2023 Summer Canoe series. Be sure to check out the previous two, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and RCGS Explorer-in-Residence Adam Shoalts. 

Arguably no couple has paddled more of Canada’s waterways than Gary and Joanie have together, and it all started just over 40 years ago when, as newlyweds, they turned their honeymoon into a canoe trip from the Atlantic Ocean, across Canada and up into the Arctic Ocean. That trip inspired the best-selling memoir Where Rivers Run, which was followed by many more paddling adventures and best-sellers. Their documentary, Painted Land: In Search of the Group of Seven, about their efforts to track down, by canoe, the exact sites of famous Group of Seven paintings in Northern Ontario, won a Canadian Screen Award. They are the founders of the Lake Superior Watershed Conservancy and their current project is a Smithsonian exhibit, traveling through Canada and the U.S., called Stories of the Boreal Forest.

Arctic foxes are ecosystem engineers that have a green thumb effect on the tundra ​​— and their influence can be seen from space.

According to biologists at the University of Manitoba, Arctic foxes benefit plants in the Arctic tundra ecosystem due to their denning activity. The researchers ascertained this by spying on Arctic foxes around Churchill, Man., (the southern range of Arctic fox habitat, where they occasionally choose to den) using high-resolution satellites. These areas are nutrient poor and without much vegetation — until the foxes move in. Their dens become a nutrient sink in an otherwise barren landscape as the foxes drag in their kills, often snow geese or lemmings, leaving behind piles of bones, feathers and leftover flesh. Lush grasses and other vegetation sprout up around the den over time, boosted by fertilization from fox urination and defecation.

A dive into the fascinating evolution of radio, starting from the first received message at Signal Hill, Newfoundland

By Lola Augustine Brown

My hand is shaking as I press the button on the side of the radio mic. I’m nervous, scared of screwing something up the first time I try. “CQCQ, this is VD1M, QRZ?”

Through a rash of static, a voice responds with something I can’t quite make out, but Chris Hillier, at the time president of the Society of Newfoundland Radio Amateurs, guides me through what to say next: “This is Victor Alpha Three Echo Alpha Mike; you’re five by nine. My name is Lola; what’s my report?”

“Thank you for the five nine. You’re very weak here in Sarnia, Ontario. You’re about three by three, but thank you for the report,” the voice replies.

“Thank you, seven three, QRZ,” I read from the script Hillier scribbled down for me a few moments before I sat down in front of the radio at Signal Hill National Historic Site in St. John’s, just metres away from the spot where inventor and electrical engineer Guglielmo Marconi received the first-ever wireless transatlantic radio signal in 1901.

We have a good chance of finding whooping cranes on our birding tour as there is a fine network of field observers scouting the area for these legendary birds. Along with cranes, tens of thousands of snow geese and Canada geese, with lesser numbers of Ross’s, greater white-fronted and cackling geese, are pouring through, as well as other waterfowl, shorebirds, raptors and passerines, especially large flocks of lapland longspurs with snow buntings and possibly northern shrikes.

If time permits and we have seen whooping cranes well, we will venture to Prince Albert National Park and the boreal forest, where we will have chances for boreal specialties like spruce grouse, pileated, black-backed and American three-toed woodpecker, Canada jay, boreal chickadee, bohemian waxwing, and occasionally pine or evening grosbeak, or white-winged crossbill. We also have the possibility to see moose, elk and sometimes river otter.

Meet your ambassador: Carol Patterson

Check out these other upcoming trips:

- Patagonia Birds and Wildlife with Kim Gray
- Grizzly bears of Toba Inlet with Paul Zizka 
- Costa Rica birding with Marina Jimenez