We were out at
7am, travelling the short network of roads that are open due to the snow and
ice covering most of the surrounding tundra. As yesterday Red Phalaropes were amazing and everywhere, often beside the road
and gave excellent photographic opportunities. The standout sighting was the 3
pairs of Steller’s Eiders loafing
around one of the few roadside pools. We watched the males giving a short
display, bobbing their heads and swimming around the females. The views in the
scope were awesome! Later in the day we saw a group of 10 on a distant lake… Will post some reasonable eider photos at a later date....
Our day comprised
checking all the open roads where the tundra or pools were visible and we
enjoyed fine looks at Snow Buntings,
numerous Semipalmated and Pectoral Sandpipers, Sanderlings in breeding finery etc
Sanderling
Dunlin in breeding plumage - stunning
Red Phalarope
Semipalmated Sandpiper
Greater Scaup - female
Greater Scaup - drake
A walk across the
tundra produced a single Buff-breasted
Sandpiper that fed totally oblivious to our presence some 20 metres away.
Buff-breasted Sandpiper
After lunch we
had a siesta before venturing out both sides of dinner and returned to the
hotel again at 11pm. There was another flight view of Snowy Owl, some showy Short-eared
Owls (at least 9 sightings), a distant Bearded
Seal, Long-billed Dowitcher, a
fine White-rumped Sandpiper, some Red-necked Phalaropes, and several Pomarine and Arctic Skuas amongst others.
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….
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.
Rock Ptarmigan
We saw
all the usual suspects such as many Willow Grouse, Pacific Golden Plover, Wilson’s
Warbler, Golden-crowned Sparrow etc………
Willow Grouse or Willow Ptarmigan
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.
Northern Wheatear
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…
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!
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.
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…
An early start
saw us driving 72 miles along the Kougarok Road towards Coffee Dome and the
displaying grounds of Bristle-thighed
Curlew. Along the way we stopped to watch a couple displaying Bluethroats, and watched them song-flighting
high into the air before parachuting down to land in the dwarf willow scrub. We
were also able to watch some close Willow
Grouse beside the road, followed by Greater
White-fronted Goose, Tundra Swans,
and a pair of Pacific Divers on a
picturesque lake. The scenery was again outstanding, with snow-capped
mountains, tundra, rivers, lakes – all bathed in sunshine. Oh and a Moose was pretty cool too!
Moose
A picture postcard scene en-route to see the curlew...
We’d almost
arrived when a Long-tailed Skua was
spotted close to the road, so we jumped out and soaked up yet more awesome
views of this wonderful bird.
Long-tailed Skua
On arrival at the
required spot we donned wellington boots and walked up the hill in bright
sunshine, getting detained by a calling American
Golden Plover doing its distraction display.
American Golden Plover
Once near the top we were
lucky to firstly hear and then see a displaying Bristle-thighed Curlew. It took another hour but we eventually
tracked one down feeding on the moorland and then watched it for a good 45
minutes. Just as we were about to leave another bird began displaying, which
prompted the bird we were watching to soar into the sky, calling and circled a
few times high above us before dropping down just over the brow of the hill.
Wow!
Leaving here we
drove back along the road, this time seeing Snowshoe Hair, Alaskan Hare
and Arctic Ground Squirrel. More Bluethroats were seen, a Rough-legged Hawk was sat on a nest, Cliff Swallows were nesting under a
bridge, and there was also Northern
Harrier, American Tree Sparrow, Grey-cheeked Thrush, and a few Wilson’s Warblers.
Grey-cheeked Thrush is a common bird here
American Tree Sparrow
At a river bridge
a flock of Red-necked Phalaropes
were feeding below us, and we watched them sail along with the tide under the
bridge before flying back under us and upstream a ways before drifting back
under the bridge again – just like avian Pooh Sticks!
Red-necked Phalarope
Wandering Tattler
A pair of Wandering Tattlers were also present
here and one began feeding on a snow bank below us where the above photo was taken. And that was our day...
We returned to
Council Road this morning and headed some 45 miles out into the wilderness.
Things were much quieter this time and the first couple of hours were spent
driving, scanning and driving. We made frequent stops to peruse good areas
without turning up anything new, except a distant White-billed Diver (Yellow-billed Loon). There were lots of Red-throated Divers, Black Scoters, Glaucous Gulls, a few Sabine’s
Gulls, a close Arctic Redpoll, Lapland Longspurs and more of the same species
we saw yesterday.
Lapland Longspur
The scenery was stunning with the open tundra dotted with
small lakes and snow-capped hills dominating the horizon, and the sound of waves
crashing onto the shore from the Bering Sea. We were hoping for Emperor Goose along here, but alas we
had no such luck, and had to content ourselves with quite a few Aleutian Terns flying around and over
the road. We came across a few Cackling
Geese, some Snow Geese, many Tundra Swans, SandhillCranes and a
most unexpected drake Spectacled Eider.
Holy cow! What an adrenaline rush that one gave everybody! It’s a rare bird
here at Nome and not something I’ve seen reported in other trip reports. You
expect it at Barrow but not here. This sighting even eclipsed the stunning
grey-morph Gyrfalcon perched on a
rocky crag high above the road. So by now it was well past 1pm and we had to
return to Nome for lunch, so off we drove passing a distant herd of Musk Ox along the way.
The tundra near Nome
Teller Road was
our destination this afternoon. We checked a few migrant spots around town
before heading out into the bleak landscape, where we enjoyed amazing close
views of a singing Blackpoll Warbler,
as well as Grey-cheeked Thrush, Northern Shrike, Common Redpolls and some closer Harlequin Ducks along a fast-flowing river.
Blackpoll Warbler
Moving on we saw Yellow, Orange-crowned and Wilson’s
Warblers, Golden-crowned and Red Fox Sparrows, and a perched Rough-legged Hawk.
We ended the day at
Nome rivermouth where we were treated to our best views of Aleutian Terns perched on a sandbank before flying overhead after
being disturbed by an Arctic Skua
(Parasitic Jaeger).
