2008 Tour Narrative
In Brief: Our June 2008 Alaska tour had it all—fabulous birding, excellent food, incredible scenery, and even a longer-than-expected visit to Nome. While our extended time in Nome may have been frustrating, the extra birding time there also produced some great new birds! The highlights of the trip were many, and included seeing most of the regular Alaska specialties, visiting the seabird cliffs at Saint Paul Island, hiking in the stunning tundra for Bristle-thighed Curlew, seeing all those Grizzly Bears and Muskoxen, and taking a very productive boat trip to the Chiswell Islands.
In Detail: We began with a pre-tour extension to Saint Paul Island in the famous Pribilof Islands. A visit to Saint Paul is always fun, even if there are no rarities around. We visited the seabird cliffs along Ridge Wall, where we encountered all the nesting alcids such as Horned and Tufted Puffins, Crested, Least, and Parakeet Auklets, and Common and Thick-billed Murres, as well as Red-legged Kittiwake and Red-faced Cormorant. Some of the better rarities that were present during our stay included a beautiful Snowy Owl, an alternate-plumaged Yellow-billed Loon, a high total of more than 30 Ancient Murrelets, and both Common Snipe and a variegatus Whimbrel from Asia. Without a doubt, though, the rarest bird was a Rufous-tailed Robin that we were lucky enough to have remain long enough for the group to see—a first for Saint Paul, and only the second or third record for North America!
The main portion of the tour began with a visit to Nome on the Bering Sea. Nome has always been my favorite location on the tour, and it was very productive as usual. Nome has a lot to offer, and we were successful in finding virtually all of the expected specialties. Our trip out the Kougarok Road for Bristle-thighed Curlew could not have been better: we had glorious weather, and our views of Bristle-thighed with a stunning backdrop of snow-covered peaks were magical. Along with the curlew, we saw other incredible birds including several Willow Ptarmigans, Gyrfalcon on a nest, Bluethroat, Northern Wheatear, both Pacific and American Golden-Plovers, a Northern Goshawk nest, a Northern Shrike, Golden Eagle, and several Grizzly Bears to round out a fantastic day.
Safety Lagoon is always a lot of fun as well. Aleutian Terns were present in excellent numbers this year, and we were successful in finding Arctic Loon. Safety Lagoon also produced Red-throated and Pacific Loons, Long-tailed and Parasitic Jaegers, Common Eider, Tundra Swan, hundreds of Brant, Sabine’s and Slaty-backed Gulls, Black Turnstone, Bar-tailed Godwit, and a Red Knot. Our trek out the Teller Road was also productive, turning up Rock Ptarmigan, American Dipper, Wandering Tattler, and some very close Muskoxen. We just kept on gathering some very fond memories of Nome until the fog rolled in: in 23 years of leading tours to Alaska, I had never experienced fog and canceled flights to the extent that we did this year. Pretty unbelievable!
We finally escaped Nome, and spent much of a day driving to the Talkeetna area for views of Mount McKinley. The mountain was visible, and we managed to see a few fun birds such as Solitary Sandpiper, Alder Flycatcher, and Blackpoll Warbler. Around Anchorage we saw an active American Three-toed Woodpecker nest, along with Boreal and Black-capped Chickadees, Western Wood-Pewee, and Olive-sided Flycatcher. We then drove to Seward for a two-night stay. Our main activity in Seward was an all-day boat trip to the Kenai Fjords National Park and Chiswell Islands. The trip was very good, and we saw all of the birds we were seeking, including Horned and Tufted Puffins, Pigeon Guillemot, Black Oystercatcher, and Marbled and Kittlitz’s Murrelets. Along with the fantastic birds, we saw several Humpback Whales and Steller’s Sea Lions, and our views of Aialik Glacier were incredible. Perhaps the best part of visiting Seward were the two wonderful dinners: King Crab and fresh Halibut went a long ways towards erasing the memories of fog in Nome!
- Gary Rosenberg
Updated: July 2008