VENTURE TO ALASKA

Birds and other wildlife seen on our Venture
to the Pribilofs and mainland Alaska

Here is a link to Kent Fiala's website on this trip:  http://www.ipass.net/fiala/alaska.html

a) Pribilofs: May 28 - June 2, 2006

A trip to the Pribilofs is a must on every birder's dream list, and despite missing a storm system with associated migrants the week before, we had a very successful 4 days on St Paul. Our Peninsula Air jet from Anchorage flew at a fairly low altitude over the snowy peaks of the Alaska Range - quite a show of mountains on our way to King Salmon and subsequently St Paul. As this was all out first visit to the Pribilofs I did not know quite what to expect of the scenery, so an island of brown grass was quite a surprise. There are no trees on St Paul, so most migrant passerines have to shelter behind rocks, buildings, crab-pots and in weedy gullies, while shorebirds can frequent the shallow pools of water that dot the rolling volcanic landscape. Steep seacliffs and boulder-strewn beaches make up a good portion of the coastline and these provide sanctuary for many species of alcids during the breeding season.

Red-legged and Black-legged Kittiwakes thronged the seacliffs along with Common and Thick-billed Murres, Parakeet, Least and Crested Auklets - quite a sight. Add to this sight Northern Fulmars gliding along the cliff edges and groups of King Eiders and Harlequin Ducks offshore and you get an image of what the local tourist board calls the "Galapagos of the North". This parade of seabirds is enough on its own, but spring is the time for rarities and casual Asian migrants to come ashore on the way north. We had missed some of the earlier spring action, but many birds were still around. 3 Wood Sandpipers were in the shallow pools in the northeast, a Common Sandpiper took us some time to re-find near Reef Wall, while small numbers of Pacific Golden-Plover were regular in the northern part of St Paul. Our best shorebird had to be the Lesser Sand-Plover or as it used to be called, Mongolian Plover, that Andy saw flying towards a distant beach. We then relocated it before calling other birders to see the bird. Geese were also coming through the Pribilofs and a Bean Goose was a great find in Fantasy Wetlands. Add to this Cackling, Greater White-fronted and Emperor Goose for a 4-goose trip! Eurasian Teal, Eurasian Wigeon and Tufted Duck were present in small numbers, along with the more abundant Long-tailed Duck, Northern Pintail and Great Scaup.

Passerines were far harder to find and our list totaled 16 species in our 4 day stay. Best of these were the male Bluethroat that we found along the base of Polovina Hill, the flock of 7 Brambling feeding on insects in the seaweed wrack lines and the splendid Eyebrowed Thrush that allowed us to take plenty of photographs. Add to these the Pribilof and Aleutian races of Winter Wren, Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch, and Song Sparrow to round out the selection. All in all, we had a great few days with an excellent variety of resident and migrant birds.

b) Mainland Alaska: June 3-17, 2006

Alaska is a huge country! As I said before we left about our last Venture there, the birds were good, mammals better, but the scenery is outstanding. I gather we felt the same about this trip. After a day in Anchorage and recovering from the various "cattle carts" we arrived in, it was off to Nome - a somewhat strange Alaskan backwater that was not without a certain charm. Birding was pretty good with highlights of Red-necked Stint, Wheatear, Eastern Yellow Wagtail and displaying Bluethroat. A real surprise was the quantity of birders in town. From big tour companies to independent birders, every room and every rental vehicle was in use. Hopefully this meant that no bird got by this large net! What was also nice to see was the friendliness and willingness to share information from everyone present. If only all birding was like this!! And then it snowed for 2 days, but this did not slow us down. From birding the coastal lagoons to climbing "Curlew Mountain", we saw most birds that Nome had to offer. Seward, on the other hand, was not as friendly as the weather was simply horrible. Eight foot seas and 40 knot winds made our boat trip more than memorable (especially for some) but despite not being able to get the Kittlitz's Murrelet, we did see most of our target species and the pod of Orca was wonderful! The rain mucked us up a little the next day and trying to see Varied Thrush in the rain was not a good experience. Little did we know that we would see them time and time again in Barrow - of all places? The weather forecast was dire, but thankfully, like in most places, they were wrong and blue sky appeared as we reached Sheep Mountain Lodge along the Glenn Highway. With a staked-out nesting Boreal Owl (thanks to the folks at SML) followed by Northern Hawk-Owl (thanks VENT) and a family of Great Gray Owls (thanks, Tolsona Campground) we hit the owl jackpot in less than 24 hours. If only all owling was so easy! The spectacular mountains of Wrangell-St Elias National Park watched over us as we drove north, passing mile after mile of spruce forest on the way. Trumpeter Swans, Long-tailed Ducks and White-winged Scoter were on roadside pools, but the Smith's Longspurs were nowhere to be seen. A Gray-cheeked Thrush sang from the television aerial, Cliff Swallows nested under the eaves and we eventually got great views of a newly-arrived Arctic Warbler. That was a relief! Denali National Park was indeed impressive, but to be honest, all of Alaska is impressive - at least we had great views of several grizzlies! Yes, it was not really a birding day at all.

Thanks to Alaska Airlines, we had to spend the night in Fairbanks, but there's always a silver lining and ours was a roadside pond with Bohemian Waxwing, Rusty Blackbird and Three-toed Woodpecker! And we got to enjoy a real Alaskan salmon-bake! Barrow was another world and initial impressions were just that. A somewhat derelict appearing town surrounded by dead and dying cars, trucks and miscellaneous construction vehicles, but the people were very nice, the food excellent and the lodging so comfortable - if we could only remember to take our boots off! How often does one see nothing but Glaucous Gulls at the landfill? Well, aside from a couple of mystery dark backed gulls? A clean sweep of all four species of eiders in one day was outstanding. Plus vagrant Dusky Thrush and Red-throated Pipit, breeding plumaged Ruff and 16 Snowy Owls in view at one time. Not bad at all for an outpost - Now when is the next trip?