Barrow

With just a couple of hours spare before we had to drive to the small airport for our flight to Barrow via Anchorage, we headed off along the coast road back to Safety Lagoon. A stop at Nome Point to do a short sea-watch resulted in 5 King Eiders, including a superb full adult male, 8 Horned Puffins, Pelagic Cormorants, Arctic Skua and a number of Brunnich’s Guillemots. At Safety Bridge we picked up the reported Common Sandpiper, as well as a pair of really close Harlequin Ducks that Chris initially spotted perched on the rocks right below the road. 

Harlequin Ducks

Soaking up the views as they slowly drift away and with camera shutters clicking away, it’s hard to find a better duck than this. Yet we might well have done, with the reappearance of the rare (in this area) Spectacled Eider, albeit this time two drakes are sleeping on one of the islands in the lagoon. But the early morning light makes viewing them through the scope a supreme experience and we soak up every aspect of their immaculate and rather sexy plumage. There are plenty of other birds to see that help while away our time such as Sandhill Cranes, Tundra Swans, Red-throated Divers, Cackling Goose, a flyover Aleutian Tern, close singing Lapland Longspurs and more.

Red-throated Diver

Our flight to Barrow via Anchorage was painless and at 6pm we had arrived. After checking into our rooms we headed out into the snowy wilderness that is Barrow at this time of year, and it was totally amazing to see the Arctic Ocean under several metres of ice and snow. In fact the whole area was under a blanket of thick snow with some roads closed and I was a tad afraid we had arrived a few days too early as the thaw had yet to begin. However, there were a few open areas of marsh and water, and the ones we did find were full of Greater White-fronted Geese, as well as loads of shorebirds such as Pectoral Sandpipers, Semipalmated Sandpipers, Dunlins in fine breeding plumage, American Golden Plovers etc. 

Pectoral Sandpiper

Greater White-fronted Goose - the most here for many years

But the Red Phalaropes completely stole the show and seeing them for the first time resplendent in breeding finery was like ticking a new bird. 

Red Phalarope - wow!!!

We saw many of them and had our first stab at getting some photos. We also found a Tundra Bean Goose – a very rare bird in Alaska. 

Tundra Bean Goose

Oh and a male Snowy Owl flew by, briefly joining a high flying Short-eared Owl before alighting on a wall of ice where I managed to fire off a few quick shots.  

Snowy Owl

It was 11pm by the time we returned to the hotel in broad daylight….