A Yellow-browed Warbler, one of several North American firsts from Gambell in fall. Photo: Paul Lehman
Birding at Gambell during the early autumn provides the opportunity to see a good variety of western Alaska specialties, an incredible seabird spectacle, southbound shorebirds that include small numbers of Old World species, and a good chance of finding one or more Asian landbird strays. The fall migration is protracted and full of glorious uncertainty, but some of the species and plumages seen are unique among North American birding tours. Although rare passerines can be expected to occur between late August and early October, the number, composition, and timing of their occurrence vary from year to year, depending on such factors as the weather, that year’s nesting success, and just dumb luck! The species that have occurred to date at Gambell, however, include a sizable list of “mega-rarities” with at most a handful of records in North America; few or none of these autumn “megas” have ever been recorded in spring. Mainland North American strays also occur regularly in small numbers. You can read Paul’s detailed analysis of fall birding at Gambell originally as published in Western Birds, Vol 36, No 1, and informally updated annually since then, as a PDF file here.
This tour allows for two different options at Gambell, as well as an optional post-tour extension to the Pribilofs.
Pre-Tour Gambell Extension
Day 1: Pre-tour Gambell extension participants should arrive in Gambell today. Night in Gambell.
Days 2-4: Why arrive for these extra three early days at Gambell? Rarities are likely at Gambell any time from the last several days of August through early October; so the longer a birder stays, the better their chances of seeing such species. A few shorebird species have departed by the beginning of September—including the rare Common Ringed Plover and Red-necked Stint. Most auklets leave the breeding cliffs by the end of the month (though they can still be seen just offshore from the Point). And the largest numbers of most of the regular “trans-Beringian” passerines, Arctic Warbler, Bluethroat, Northern Wheatear, Eastern Yellow Wagtail, and Red-throated Pipit for example, occur in late August (although smaller numbers typically continue through the first week of September). Nights in Gambell.
Main Tour
Day 4 (Sept. 1): Participants on the main tour should arrive in Gambell today. Gambell is a Yupik village at the northwest tip of St. Lawrence Island. Our quarters will be in the simple-but-comfortable Sivuqaq Inn, which offers private rooms, toilets, showers, and a large kitchen. Weather is always a factor in this part of the world. Early fall temperatures at Gambell are normally milder than in the spring with highs in the high 30s to low 40s F. It is common, though, for wind, fog, and drizzle to occur in rapidly changing combinations, so a certain amount of flexibility has been programmed into our schedule.. Night in Gambell.
Days 5-10: In early September, there are still hundreds of thousands of alcids of eight species flying by the point: Thick-billed and Common Murres, Pigeon Guillemot, Parakeet, Least, and Crested Auklets, and Horned and Tufted Puffins. These birds are joined by hundreds of thousands of Short-tailed Shearwaters and numbers of loons, eiders, phalaropes, jaegers (including Long-tailed), and other migrants. We should see Yellow-billed Loon, Emperor Goose, and Steller’s Eider, and we have a good chance of seeing Spectacled Eider and Ancient Murrelet. Migrant shorebirds (including good numbers of Pacific Golden-Plovers, Red Phalarope, and a few Rock Sandpipers) usually include one or more Lesser Sand-Plovers and Gray-tailed Tattlers, and small numbers of Sharp-tailed Sandpipers. Other Old World species are always possible. White Wagtail breeds most years at Gambell. Although the bulk of “trans-Beringian” passerine migrants move through in August, there are usually a few of the following: Arctic Warbler, Bluethroat, Northern Wheatear, Gray-cheeked Thrush, Eastern Yellow Wagtail, and Red-throated Pipit. Other landbirds include many Snow Buntings and at least a few Hoary Redpolls.
The list of landbird strays recorded at Gambell in late August and the first half of September is a heady one, although any one visit may produce from only one or two upwards to a nice haul, depending on the year. The list compiled between 1996 and 2011 includes two Oriental Cuckoos, Fork-tailed Swift, Eurasian Wryneck, two Brown Shrikes, Blythe’s Reed Warbler, three Middendorff’s Grasshopper-Warblers, fifteen Dusky Warblers, nine Willow Warblers, two Yellow-browed Warblers, Lesser Whitethroat, Spotted Flycatcher, three “Siberian” Stonechats, six Siberian Accentors, ten Pechora Pipits, Olive-backed Pipit, Rustic Bunting, eleven Little Buntings, Yellow-breasted Bunting, Reed Bunting, two Pallas’s Buntings, nine Bramblings, and six Common Rosefinches. Other possibilities include Gyrfalcon, Snowy Owl, and McKay’s Bunting (more likely in late September). For those interested in taking advantage of our “Leader in Residence” program into the latter half of September, Asian strays recorded then during visits in 1999 and 2001-2011 include Oriental Turtle-Dove, three Sky Larks, Sedge Warbler, three additional Dusky Warblers, another Yellow-browed Warbler, Taiga Flycatcher, three Siberian Rubythroats, Red-flanked Bluetail, another nine Siberian Accentors, Dusky Thrush, two Eye-browed Thrushes, another four Pechora Pipits, another Rustic Bunting, Yellow-browed Bunting, another twelve Little Buntings, another two Pallas’s Buntings, and another nineteen Bramblings. We will hope for winds from the west or southwest, and at least some rain, to increase our chances at Asian vagrants. A variety of far-flung North American strays have turned up during this entire period as well.
Day 11: The main tour concludes today in Gambell.
Pribilofs Post-Tour Extension
Day 11 (Sept. 8): The post-tour extension begins this evening in Anchorage.
Day 12: We’ll fly this morning to Saint Paul Island, in the central Bering Sea. After ten days at Gambell the relatively lush tundra, myriad wetlands, cliffsides, and sandy beaches will provide a very different backdrop to our daily birding. We’ll spend the first afternoon here searching for any known rarities and also watching at close range Red-legged Kittiwake and Red-faced Cormorant, two species that do not occur on Saint Lawrence Island.
Day 13-14: In mid-September the Pribilofs are still mostly green, and often a good diversity of shorebirds can be found on their southbound passage. We’ll spend some time sifting though the throngs of Rock Sandpipers (a larger and paler subspecies than that occurring at Gambell) and Ruddy Turnstones for rarer shorebirds. Gray-tailed Tattler, Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, Red-necked Stint, and Common Snipe are all regular migrants in early September, and species such as Lesser Sand-Plover, Wood Sandpiper, Little Stint, and Ruff are possible. Waterbird mega-rarities at this season have included Black-tailed Gull, Jack Snipe, and North America’s first Solitary Snipe. The seabird cliffs will be less crowded than in the summer, but we’ll be treated to very close eye-level views of Horned and Tufted Puffins and Common and Thick-billed Murres. The cacophonous Northern Fur Seal rookeries will be overflowing with masses of pups, and spending time with these remarkable pinnipeds gives credence to Saint Paul’s title of the “Galapagos of the North.” Landbird vagrants are irregular here, but mid-September has produced such Asiatic vagrants as Sky Lark, Dusky and Yellow-browed Warblers, Dark-sided, Gray-streaked and Taiga Flycatchers, Red-flanked Bluetail, Olive-backed Pipit, Siberian Accentor, and Brambling.
Day 15: The post-tour extension concludes with an early afternoon flight back to Anchorage.
Updated: 03 November 2011
Prices
- 2012 Tour Price : $3,450*
- Single Occupancy Supplement : $210
- Pre-Tour Gambell Extension : $1,050
- Single Occupancy Supplement : $110
- Post-Tour Pribilofs Extension Price Not Yet Available :
Notes
This tour is limited to 10 participants with one leader.
All-terrain vehicles (ATVs) will be available at Gambell for use during the tour.
Note that participants will travel unescorted all the way to Gambell where they will be met on arrival by the WINGS leaders. Anyone with questions about this journey should contact the WINGS office.
* Gambell pre-tour extension price valid only for main tour registrants.
* Tour invoices paid by check carry a modest discount. Details here.