Talk:Dewey Soper Migratory Bird Sanctuary

References and Chronology for this article

1929

July-August, J. Dewey Soper discovered the breeding grounds for the Blue Goose at Bowman Bay on Baffin Island.

• Dalton, Anthony (2010). Arctic Naturalist: The Life of J. Dewey Soper (Google eBook). Toronto, ON: Dundurn Press Ltd. p. 271. ISBN 978-1-55488-746-0.

1957

"The Canadian Government established the Dewey Soper Migratory Bird Sanctuary, a preserve of 3150 square miles whose international significance has been recognized by UNESCO. Biography Joseph Dewey Soper was born on May 5, ...

• Encyclopedia of the Arctic: Volume 3 by Mark Nuttall - 2005 - 2278 pages, Routledge, 2005

Ottawa Citizen chronicles the creation of the sanctuary

• "Bird sanctuary in the far north". Ottawa Citizen, p. 6. Aug 27, 1957. Retrieved 2012-07-03.

Facts from the citizen article

1. The first bird sanctuary in the far north
2. Its chief purpose is to preserve the nesting grounds of four kinds of geese, i.e. the Blue, Snow, Hutchins, and American Brant

Soper discovers the nesting grounds

p. 64

Echoing Silence: Essays on Arctic Narrative John George Moss

University of Ottawa Press, 1997-10-17 - 232 pages

The North has always had, and still has, an irresistible attraction. This fascination is made up of a mixture of perspectives, among these, the various explorations of the Arctic itself and the Inuk cultural heritage found in the elders' and contemporary stories. This book discusses the different generations of explorers and writers and illustrates how the sounds of a landscape are inseparable from the stories of its inhabitants.

"The blue goose search took Soper and his Inuit assistants thousands of miles, but it was not until August 1926, just before Soper's return to Ottawa, that there was a crack in the mystery. An old Inuit hunter from Tikoot Islands, off the southwest coast of Baffin, told them that they would find the blue goose in Bowman Bay--northest of Foxe Peninsula. Too late to confirm the information that year, Soper had to wait until a return voyage in 1928. This time based on the southwest coast of Baffin Island at Cape Dorset, Soper met an Nuwata Inuk named Salia who drew him a free-hand map pointing again to Bowman Bay (Salia, 15).

"Using Saila's map, Soper in mid-May, with a party of five Inuit and sledges pulled by forty-two dogs, set out for Bowman Bay to confirm the information. Camping near the bank of a stream, they awaited. On June 2, a single flock of mixed snow and blue geese flew honking over the camp, and, on June 6, flock after flock winged their way into the distrivt, birds by the thousands. Soper wrote, "Spring had come at last. My Eskimo informers were proved right and I blessed them for it" pp. 63,64