Updates from Alaska: Majesty of the North

Our trip started out in Nome where three roads lead out of town. Along the Kougarok Road we successfully searched for the Bristle-thighed Curlew. This species breeds on the remote interior hilltops of the Seward Peninsula before migrating to the south Pacific for the winter. We had an amazing encounter with a displaying male that strutted right by us. 

At Salmon Lake there was barely any open water. On the edge of the ice-choked lake we watched a Yellow-billed Loon feed along the icy edge. Eventually we watched in awe as it took off running across the water right before our eyes. 

This year we encountered more Red Phalaropes and Sabine’s Gulls than any other year, by far. At the Safety Sound Bridge hundreds of Red Phalaropes were feeding along the shorelines, and assembled en mass in the small ponds surrounding the outlet. Sabine’s Gulls were counted by the dozens, and one in particular at the Nome River mouth kept us taking photos for a good half hour in the perfect end of day light.

A top contender for bird of the trip was undoubtedly the Bluethroat. We got to observe multiple males in display mode, flying sky high while swirling around in full song. There’s only a couple of weeks during the spring/summer one can catch this phenomenon, and our timing couldn’t have been better.

We traveled out into the middle of nowhere in central Alaska to the Denali region and spent a night at a remote Lodge surrounded by tundra, glaciers, and the great Alaska Range. On the way we had one of the most exciting birds of the trip sitting right next to the road on a powerline. We were able to follow this Northern Hawk Owl as it searched for prey from prominent perches, occasionally coming down to the ground to try to catch small mammals. At one point the bird took off right towards us, hence the head on photo here:

In Seward our luck with weather continued. As a result we had an extremely calm, smooth boat trip through stunning fjords seeking auklets, and out to the Chiswell Islands where thousands of seabirds breed.