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Meet Eddie Nickens
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His formal name, T. Edward Nickens sounds more like a high school principal's than the outdoorsman you find beneath the veneer of such a distinguished name.
"Eddie," as he prefers to be called has just completed a three-day Albany River canoe trip with Dr. Jeff Wells, Per Breiehagen and Tim Trudeau.
Eddie is a freelance journalist specializing in natural history environmental reporting, cultural travel, and outdoor adventure.
His award-winning articles and essays have appeared in Smithsonian, National Wildlife, National Geographic Adventure, Men's Journal, Backpacker, Audubon, Wildlife Conservation, Reader's Digest, and many other magazines.
He lives in Raleigh, North Carolina. And yes he has a website.
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He's for the Birds
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Dr. Jeff Wells
Dr. Jeff Wells is the Senior Scientist for the International Boreal Conservation Campaign and Boreal Songbird Initiative, non-profit organizations working for the conservation of North America's boreal forest. After receiving his Ph.D. and Master's degrees in avian ecology from Cornell University, he worked for the National Audubon Society, first as Bird Conservation Director for the New York State office, then as the National Director of Bird Conservation.
Dr. Wells completed the first book on Important Bird Areas in North America in 1998 when he published Important Bird Areas in New York State, a highly acclaimed handbook to help determine highest priority bird conservation areas for use by state and federal agencies, land trusts, and others. He has authored or co-authored hundreds of scientific papers, reports, and popular articles on birds and bird conservation.
He continues as a Visiting Fellow of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Dr. Wells moved from the Mohawk Valley in New York State, to Gardiner Maine, where he lives with his wife, also an avid birder, and six year old son, who is no stranger to a pair of binoculars. |
| John James Audubon
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For half a century Audubon was America's dominant wildlife artist. His seminal Birds of America, a collection of 435 life-size prints is considered a masterpiece of bird drawings and as a result the name Audubon remains synonymous with birds and bird conservation the world over. He traveled in Ohio and Kentucky, considered the edge of the western world, to find and draw the birds of the American frontier. He lived at Mill Grove, near Philadelphia, where he hunted, studied and drew birds, and met his wife, Lucy Bakewell. While there, he conducted the first known bird-banding experiment in North America, tying strings around the legs of Eastern Phoebes; he learned that the birds returned to the very same nesting sites each year.
Later in life, Audubon set up a dry-goods store in Henderson, KY. He continued to draw birds as a hobby, amassing an impressive portfolio. While in Kentucky, Lucy gave birth to two sons, Victor Gifford and John Woodhouse, as well as a daughter who died in infancy.
Audubon was quite successful in business for a while, but hard times hit, and in 1819 he was briefly jailed for bankruptcy.
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Countdown to
Project Healing Waters
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The details are falling into place. On July 12th the U.S. and Canadian Soldiers who have been invited to be our guests for "Healing on The Albany" will be here. Contributions from individuals and companies keep coming in and though we are still shy of our goal, the event will take place for 8 days in about a month. Information about the event, and how you can still contribute is just click away.
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Bird Bonus in the Boreal
...by Alan Cheeseman
A few months ago I received an e-mail from a guy named T. Edward Nickens. (See his bio on the left sidebar.) "Eddie" told me he was coming up to Ontario from North Carolina in the USA to write a story on the boreal forest and wanted to talk to conservationists, paper mill executives, MNR officials, First Nation leaders, and lodge operators. It was the Wildlife Conservation Society of Canada that suggested he contact us. His story, to be published in the Audubon Magazine in the fall of 2008, will be focused on the impact of man-made changes to bird populations and the boreal forest in general.
This past week Eddie was here with his gang: Dr. Jeff Wells, Senior Scientist of the International Boreal Conservation Campaign, photographer Per Breiehagen and his assistant Tim Trudeau. Their adventure was a three day canoe trip on the Albany, to count, log, and sound-record birds of the area.
We picked them up at Fort Hope on Monday, after their trip, and taped a podcast with Dr. Wells, considered one of the top ten birders of the world. You may listen to that chat now.
While we all enjoy the pleasure of seeing our aviary neighbours, we need to be aware that birds
are often the first to perish in a poorly managed environment. We
applaud these dedicated scientists, writers and photographers as they work to keep us informed of our aviary friends in the boreal forest. We learned alot from these gentlemen and look forward to the Audubon story in the fall.
Left to right : Per Breiehagen, Tim Trudeau, Dr. Jeff Wells, Eddie Nickens
Recap of last week: As you'll see from Tyler's report from Striker's Point Lodge giant Pike were nearly jumping in the boat up on Whitewater Lake. (See upper right hand header photo.) MacArthur, at Makokibatan Lodge introduces us to a woman angler who caught a 30 inch Walleye. And Dr. Saunders confirms that summer is here and the Summer Solstice has occurred at last!
Keep in touch. I welcome your e-mails to guide us in creating a report that works for you...you can send one now.
Alan
Alan@wildernessnorth.com 1-888-465-FISH (3474)
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Summer Brings Lots of Daylight
and Warm Temperatures
...Dr. Graham Saunders 
Although there is a slight chance of afternoon pop-up thunderstorms, temps in the mid- seventies and overnights around 50 create that Canadian comfort every weatherman loves to talk about. Breezes should be moderate except in the brief but breezy t-storms.
Last Friday, we celebrated the longest day of the year - and while days start getting shorter from this point forward, for the next couple of weeks we should have sunlight from about 5:30 am to 10:30 pm and our forests and fauna will show it. I'll tell you more in my podcast about the light at the Artic circle, and about the Spring lake turnovers. Listen Now
Graham Saunders, is professor of meteorology at Lakehead University here in Thunder Bay, and weather commentator for the Thunder Bay Chronicle Journal and for Wilderness North.
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The One That Got Away
and Those That Didn't
...Mark Prokopchuk
 The Ogoki Reservoir is that long narrow body of water just north of Mojikit Channel. Our remote cabin destination there is called Moose Crossing. Over the years big Moose have been seen there, and plenty of big Pike. None, however, as big as last week. The podcast has the details, and reports of high water at Ogoki Lake, and low water at Zig Zag and trophy year like no other. Listen Now |
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Season Confusion !
...Katelyn Johnson
Was it Winter? - Yes.
Was it Spring? - Mostly.
Was it Summer? - Well for two days it was.
It seems Dr. Saunders' forecast for a mixed bag of weather proved true, but here at the 51st Parallel, it really is warming up. No really it is! The soft woods, like birch and aspen are still minty green, but filling in a little more each day and the fishing, wouldn't you know it, the rough weather days proved to be the best fishing days.
On the first official day of summer, June 21 - it was summer and most anglers came in with a little sunburn, and less fish than from those cold and rainy days. But hey, we tell guests: never leave the dock without your raingear and your sun block.
The "Honey Hole" is now more "off and on" than always on. So fishing is a little unpredictable. One guest caught a 19 inch Walleye fishing a Zara Spook at one PM in four feet of water on Howell's Lake, just off the river on the way to Snake Falls. We're used to Walleye anglers catching Pike, but the opposite - go figure. The bigger Pike are now a little harder to locate, and have likely headed to their summer depths, at least during the day. Although Jeff Teleford, of Ottawa did catch and release this handsome 36 inch Northern.
Don't forget, Miminiska Lodge on Miminska Lake continues to be a designated Gulp VS Live test sight and based on 66 angler hours of the test so far - it is a dead heat.
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Eight Pike over 40" on Whitewater ! WOW!
...Tyler Lancaster
It was an outstanding week of fishing at Striker's Point Lodge on Whitewater Lake. A special award should be given to the Rader group on their accomplishments. Over the week they managed to land and release 10 trophy Pike and many more on the verge of 40 inches. Scott Rader's 45.5", 23.2 lb slob topped the list. Greg Law put on quite the clinic with 43.5", 43", 40.5", and 39" brutes. Sean Deneen had a strong week with 41.5", and 40.5" Northerns. Mike Ratliff managed a 43.5", Ken Rader a 41.5", and Ron Mahrt a 40". Robert McLennan could have taken the title with a huge specimen lost in the cradle at the side of the boat, estimated at well over 45". And lest we forget, Tim Bradley's twin 39" beauties and plentiful amounts of Walleye. The trophies were taken from various locations including the narrows, the Ogoki outflow, Best Island, and Gull Island, just out from the Red Roof Cabins. Half of them were caught while jigging for Walleye, and the rest while trolling medium depth divers, like shad raps in about 20 to 25 feet of water.
The Shiree group whom are strictly Walleye anglers showed their prowess by boating Walleye of Biblical proportions. They tangled with a few large Pike as well.
Tom Hickey and Bob Tweedy had a great, relaxing getaway, and despite vicious colds, managed to get out and catch plenty of fish.
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She Caught a 30" Walleye? - Yes She Did!
...MacArthur Hobson
Hey everyone, MacArthur here with this week's fishing report from Makokibatan Lodge on Makokibatan Lake. This past week's weather has been a mixture of both nice warm sunny days in the high 70's and cold, windy and rainy days with the temperature dipping to the low 60's.
Fishing has been mixed as well, one day the action has been hot in Walleye alley then the next day, the alley has been dead and the majority of the fish are being caught in the cut. Most fish are coming on either a jig and twister tail both tipped with live bait and plain. Fish are being caught in water anywhere from 5 feet up to 20 feet. With each passing day the fish seem to be moving into their summer waters with a couple good sized Walleye being caught off of Roger's reef and sand point. The Pike seem to be everywhere this year with many reports of decent sized Pike around the 35 inch mark being caught while our guests have been fishing for Walleye.
So far we have one Master Angler with a 30 inch Walleye. The lucky angler was Elaine Dawson from Bel Air, Michigan. The Walleye was caught in 6 feet of water on a Chartreuse twister tail tipped with a worm.
Weather for the next week looks the same as we have been getting the past week with a mixture of nice days and some rain in the forecast as well.
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