We still have a few spaces left on our Alaska tour visiting Nome, Barrow, Kenai Peninsula and Denali National Park. Tour dates are 2nd - 16th June with an optional extension to the Pribiloffs 17th - 21st June. See www.zootherabirding.com for info.
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Alaska's wild and beautiful spaces have long captivated birders and naturalists alike, with miles of unspoiled wilderness, unending layers of snow-covered peaks, rugged hillsides and tundra landscapes aside the Bering Sea, magnificent fjords of the craggy Kenai Peninsula, islands draped with seabirds of all shapes and sizes, glaciers calving into dark blue waters, impenetrable boreal forests and rolling tundra under the mammoth backdrop of North America's tallest mountain peak, it's easy to see why! Our 'Birding the Outposts' tour of Alaska offers a complete sampling of Alaska's birdlife by visiting four distinctive areas: Northwest Alaska's Seward Peninsula and historic Nome; remote Arctic outpost of Barrow, exhilarating Kenai Peninsula and neighboring Kenai Fjords National Park; and extensive forests, taiga and tundra beneath the gaze of Denali (Mt. McKinley).
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| Spectacled Eider |
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| Bristle-thighed Curlew |
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| King Eider |
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| Red Phalarope |
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| Rock Ptarmigan |
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| Sabine's Gull |
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| Sea Otters |
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| Willow Ptarmigan |
A post tour extension to the spectacular Pribiloff Islands will be offered for those interested in visiting St. Paul Island's impressive seabird cliffs teeming with puffins, auklets and kittiwakes and we will have a 3-night stay here so we can fully appreciate the extraordinary birding opportunities that this island provides.
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| Least Auklet |
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| Parakeet Auklet |
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| Least Auklet |
Birding the land of the midnight sun falls into several broad categories: spectacular movements of migrants, Alaska's colorful breeding birds and the anticipation of finding an Asiatic stray. Just a few highlights of breeding species would include: Pacific, Red-throated and Arctic Loons, four eider species topped by the spectacular Spectacled and Steller's, Pacific Golden-Plover, Bristle-thighed Curlew, Red-necked Stint, Ivory Gull, Ross's Gull, Arctic and Aleutian Terns, Arctic Warbler, Bluethroat, plus seabird cliffs with literally millions of murres, guillemots, auklets and puffins. Even the most ardent birder's appetite is satisfied by visiting many of the best birding and scenic areas in the country. A hearty menu composed of: Northern forest species (Northern Hawk Owl, Boreal Owl, Boreal Chickadee, Bohemian Waxwing, Varied Thrush, crossbills, finches and more); tundra species (nesting loons, shorebirds and jaegers, Rock and Willow Ptarmigan, Bluethroat etc); colonial seabirds (Common & Thick-billed Murres, Black & Pigeon Guillemots, Marbled, Kittlitz's and Ancient Murrelets, Cassin's, Parakeet, Crested, Rhinoceros and Least Auklets & Horned and Tufted Puffins); western Alaska nesters (Bar-tailed Godwit, Bristle-thighed Curlew, Red-necked Stint, Red-throated Pipit and McKay's Bunting) can all be expected.
This tour is making an extra effort to find all of Western Alaska's breeding birds and to increase our chances of finding Asiatic vagrants. Accordingly, we're spending seven days in Nome and Barrow during the prime migration period to maximize our chances of observing Alaska's migrants from Asia/Siberia and those fantastic Arctic breeders.
All photographs copyright tour leader Kim Risen
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