Photo Gallery
Photos by Jon Dunn and Michael O’Brien
If Boreal Owls are present in the Anchorage area, we’ll look for them on our first evening.
We often we see nesting Northern Saw-whet Owls, too.
A view of Gambell, a native village of some 600 people at the northwest tip of St. Lawrence Island; Siberia is visible in the background.
Sea-watching at Gambell is exceptional and is one of the highlights of a Gambell visit. Four species of loons, four species of eiders, up to five species of geese, and many other waterbirds are all regularly noted from the Point.
Every day hundreds of thousands of alcids of up to 13 species pass by the Point. Some, such as this Crested Auklet, feed just offshore.
With Siberia roughly 40 miles away, it’s not surprising that the birdlife at Gambell has a distinctly Palearctic flavor. In North America, Common Ringed Plover is regular only at Gambell and some remote areas in Arctic northeastern Canada.
In most years we see one or more Red-necked Stints, an Asian species which is an uncommon migrant in the Bering Sea region and an occasional breeder on the mainland of western Alaska.
Resembling a pale Wandering Tattler, Gray-tailed Tattler from Asia occurs on a little more than half of our visits.
In addition to Red-necked Stint, other Palearctic stints turn up from time to time. This resting Long-toed Stint is one of about a half dozen of this species we have seen here in spring.
Although a familiar species over much of western North America, the breeding range of Western Sandpiper is limited to northwest Alaska and northeastern Siberia. At Gambell the species is numerous and can be watched giving their display flights and uttering a song not heard away from the breeding grounds.
In addition to Eurasian shorebirds, a wide variety of passerines have occurred over the years. One of the rarer ones was this male Eurasian Bullfinch of the northeast Asian subspecies, cassinii, identified by the extensive bright pink underparts.
Accommodation at Gambell is now more than adequate. Here our group devours some of Louise Zemaitis’s nourishing and tasty preparations.
After experiencing often frigid weather at Gambell, it can be surprisingly warm upon returning to Nome. In early June 2004 it reached the mid 70’s on the evening of our return from Gambell, so we celebrated and had a barbecue at a friend’s yurt along the Snake River.
Birding the high tundra near Nome.
…and the Teller Road west of Nome.
The hike up to look for Bristle-thighed Curlew is one of the high points of a Nome visit although in some years access is blocked by snow…
…but if conditions permit, we’re often successful in finding a Bristle-thigh, certainly one of the world’s rarest shorebirds.
A frequent sight along the roads is Willow Ptarmigan (usually males), the state bird of Alaska. By early June the males already have the rufous-brown head and neck.
Rock Ptarmigan is more localized but still numerous most springs. Overall smaller in size and with a smaller bill than the Willow Ptarmigan, the male is still largely white in early June. Note the black lore-line which is for the males diagnostic year round.
In the Nome area we occasionally see Northern Shrike, a scarce summer resident of the Seward Peninsula.
Along the way to Pilgrim Hot Springs off the Kougarok Road we pass a rocky outcropping where…
Northern Wheatears regularly nest. This is the nominate race, which breeds in northwestern North America and winters primarily in eastern Africa.
Birding at Safety Sound just east of Nome.
We should see Aleutian Tern, a local breeder in western and southern Alaska as well as in Russia on the Kamchatka Peninsula and Sakhalin. Until recently it was largely unknown away from its breeding grounds. But in recent years it was found to be regular in migration in the South China Sea (e.g. off Hong Kong) and in winter in the waters off Singapore. Safety Sound is a favored breeding location.
This 2nd calendar-year Ivory Gull was a surprise at Safety Sound. We used to see the species more regularly, especially at Gambell, but with global warming and the disappearance of ice earlier in the spring, our sightings now are infrequent and there are now global concerns for the species.
On the east side of Safety Sound near Solomon is the “Train to nowhere,” a by-product of the gold rush in the Nome region in the first decade of the 20th century. Here our group in 2005 relaxes on this relic before a final dinner in Nome and our evening flight back to Anchorage.