Trailwood Films and Videos: One Arctic Summer

Seventy miles from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, in the midst of a road-less wilderness, the arctic coast of Alaska goes through a special time of year. Birds, animals and land celebrate the coming of warmer weather. We follow the season of summer in this wilderness.

In June, the birds establish territories and try to attract a mate. Across the tundra, while the grip of winter seems to hold on, the persistent sun softens the snowpack. We watch this tundra, always an arid region with permanently frozen ground just beneath the surface, as the moisture accumulates in ponds and lakes.

As the whistling swans return to the waters and the willow ptarmigan tries to stay hidden from the fox, the delicate buds burst open. Plover

Hundreds of species of flowers pulse into life. A pair of oldsquaw ducks claim another pond, to feed on the small crustaceans and aquatic insects from the bottom.

Centuries-old driftwood slowly decays, providing vegetation for the brown lemming. The fox, caribou and ravens all benefit by the cycle of life and death of other animals. Carcasses and bones provide nutrients so important on which to feed. The mating ritual of the buff-breasted sandpiper and the nesting of eiders and dunlins and phalaropes are explored.

Summer storms rejuvenate the sparse soil. Prowling fox and jaegers hunt for food. Birds' eggs are a feast to the predators. A rare peregrine falcon comes in to investigate the meal.

In the first week of July, eggs are hatching across the tundra. The snow bunting is busy feeding his young hungry family with the millions of insects that have appeared. He may bring in hundreds in his beak to stuff down the open mouths. The dunlin, sandpipers and Lapland longspur chicks also explore the new world.

From ground squirrels to foxes to caribou — all are searching for meals and playing during the heat of the summer.

Once fall's warning signals appear, Arctic Fox

the birds and animals react with haste to complete their destiny. Eagerly, the ground squirrel devours a few more bites, the restless birds feel a distant call and leave for warmer climates, and the stinging wind promises the rapid onslaught of the dominant cold for yet another season.

But underneath the frozen exterior, life lies hidden, waiting for the return of another arctic summer.

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