Here we are on the shore of an island on Toolik Lake, a kettle lake complex on the North Slope of Alaska. Toolik Lake is home to five species of fish, muskrats, and many species of migratory birds, seasonally. The name Toolik in Iñupiaq means Yellow-Billed Loon, and a pair of loons nest on the lake every year. The lake varies in depth from 65 feet deep to just below the shoreline. The lake is frozen from October to June annually with ice that can get up to 5 feet deep at the end of winter.