Headed along Teller
Road this morning and into yet more wilderness areas with fantastic vistas. The
highlight was a close male Rock
Ptarmigan that was sat close beside the road and totally ignored us.
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| Rock Ptarmigan |
We saw
all the usual suspects such as many Willow Grouse, Pacific Golden Plover, Wilson’s
Warbler, Golden-crowned Sparrow etc………
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| Willow Grouse or Willow Ptarmigan |
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| Pacific Golden Plover |
 |
| Golden-crowned Sparrow |
We turned off to Woolley Lagoon and found a
male Northern Wheatear perched on
one of the boulders - this is rare breeding bird in the USA and only breeds here in Alaska.
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| Northern Wheatear |
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| Northern Wheatear hunting...! |
There was also a pair of Wandering Tattlers, Ruddy
Turnstone and Black-bellied Plovers
here as well.
 |
| Black-bellied or Grey Plover |
Then we hotfooted it back to town for a Subway lunch before
setting off along the Council Road and our goose quest…
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| Brunnich's Guillemot, also known as Thick-billed Murre |
We birded our way along
Safety Lagoon, finding a pair of Eurasian
Wigeon, Brunnich’s Guillemot,
and a Pectoral Sandpiper until the
end and then headed inland, where in the first drizzle of the trip we found a Golden Eagle sitting on a nest just 10
feet up from the road on a small cliff! Wow!
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| Golden Eagle |
We followed that with a perched Gyrfalcon before heading back up to
Safety Lagoon. Our first Snow Bunting
was nice, and we sifted through the shorebirds seeing lots of Western Sandpipers, as well as the
common Semipalmated Sandpipers.
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| Red Knot in breeding plumage - stunning! |
A couple
Red Knots were on the beach, with a
loafing drake Common Merganser (Goosander), and lots of commoner
species. We eventually reached the hotel at 9.30pm for dinner…
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