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Our group (flanked by St. Paul Island Tour guides Phil Chaon and Cameron Cox) celebrates the remarkable sighting of a Short-tailed Albatross circling Killer Whales. Happy birders! Photo by guide Tom Johnson.
The call of the far north led us back to Alaska for this adventurous fall tour. For the first time, we combined our tried-and-true Barrow Ross's Gull tour with a fall migration trip to St. Paul Island in the Bering Sea.
After meeting in Anchorage, we went to bed and then woke up a short time later to enjoy a show from the Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights! After returning to bed and getting some aurora-induced sleep, we flew to St. Paul Island where we spent three nights. Birding here in fall entails a combination of seawatching and methodically checking sheltered sites like rock quarries and patches of summer-nourished vegetation called "putchkie". We came here to search for migrants, and with some effort, we ended up with an excellent haul. The Asian birds that we found included Eurasian Wigeon, Gray-tailed Tattler, Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, Eurasian Skylark, Dusky Thrush, and Red-flanked Bluetail - the latter two are particularly rare. Additionally, we had daily sightings of a roving Gyrfalcon, and also spotted a female Steller's Eider mixed in with Harlequin Ducks. One sighting in particular stood out and needs to be explained a bit further: one afternoon, as we were about to leave Reef Point after viewing Northern Fur Seals up close, we turned around and saw Killer Whales splashing around in the distance offshore. The whales (large, ocean dolphins, actually!) had just made a kill of a fur seal and they were tearing it apart. Focusing on the animals in our scopes, we then noticed a huge dark bird circling the mayhem; with some study, it became clear that this was not only an albatross, but the rare and highly prized SHORT-TAILED ALBATROSS! We spent a while watching this immature bird fly around and occasionally settle on the water, and some frantic cell phone messages allowed the other birders on the island to gather to share the find. We were extremely lucky to witness this rare interaction from shore.
After our great time on St. Paul, we had a day back in Anchorage before flying north to Barrow. Though rainy conditions prevailed for much of the day, we had close views of a Spruce Grouse, an American Three-toed Woodpecker, and Trumpeter Swans, among others. We ended the day with a tasty dinner at an Anchorage restaurant called "Fat Ptarmigan".
Barrow was our final destination on the tour, and we spent our time in this amazing northern outpost combining birding with an extraordinary cultural experience. Not only did we see ~800 migrating Ross's Gulls (seen on each day of our stay!), but Spectacled Eiders, Yellow-billed Loons, and a Gyrfalcon also livened up the party. The flocks of fast but delicate and oh-so-pink Ross's Gulls were the main draw for most people on this tour, and we were able to spend hours watching them. The breezy conditions created a fury of waves breaking on Barrow's beaches, and the Ross's Gulls would occasionally take a break from migrating and pause to forage along the beaches, giving us some jaw-dropping views.
While the birding was amazing at Barrow, we also bore witness to a few memorable cultural events during our stay. First, we watched part of a high school football game on America's northernmost football field - Barrow defeated Nikiski in the Alaska small-school state semifinals while half the town showed up to cheer them on, bundled up in winter clothing. Later, the team would go on to win the state championship! Additionally, our visit overlapped with the fall whaling season for Barrow's native community, and Inupiat whaling crews brought in three Bowhead Whales one day. We were in a position to see the whole process as the community gathered to celebrate the whale and divide up their sustainable harvest. It was astonishing to see Ross's Gulls and Yellow-billed Loons flying over the whale butchering site!
Our journey was a true adventure in some of Alaska's most remote outposts, with some really excellent birding along the way. Thank you for joining me, and I hope you'll always remember this amazing trip.
Tom
KEYS FOR THIS LIST
One of the following keys may be shown in brackets for individual species as appropriate: * = heard only, I = introduced, E = endemic, N = nesting, a = austral migrant, b = boreal migrant
BIRDS
Though many of our Ross's Gulls were seen as they passed by us in fast-flying flocks, others paused alongside us to forage in the waves breaking on the beach. Photo by guide Tom Johnson.
This Gyrfalcon was one of two amazing individuals that we enjoyed repeatedly on this tour. Photo by guide Tom Johnson
This Red-flanked Bluetail, a migrant from Asia, was one of the rarest birds of the tour. The possibility of seeing vagrants from Asia was one of the reasons we were excited about adding the St. Paul Island portion of the trip this year! Photo by participant Lyle Hamilton.
Participant Mary Trombley captured this image of the Northern Lights outside our hotel in Anchorage on the first night of the tour, a fun experience for those of us who got out of bed.
This vagrant Dusky Thrush was a wonderful sighting on St. Paul Island, and it was kind enough to sit out on top of an exposed rock so that we could enjoy it in the scope and take photos. Photo by participant Nancy Buck.
Thanks to Mary's sharp eyes, we all got to enjoy this Spruce Grouse on the outskirts of Anchorage. Photo by guide Tom Johnson.
Just moments before we saw the Killer Whales and Short-tailed Albatross from St. Paul Island, we were admiring Northern Fur Seals up close. The breeding colony of fur seals here plays a huge role in the ecology of the island as well as its human history. Photo by participant Lyle Hamilton.
The sight of these Spectacled Eiders migrating past Barrow meant that we had found all four of the world's eider species in our short time together. Spectacular! Photo by guide Tom Johnson.
On our rainy day birding the Anchorage area, we had the good fortune to find this lovely American Three-toed Woodpecker. Photo by participant Lyle Hamilton.
While birding along the coast in Barrow, we used our van as a windblock to keep from being blown around. At times, the wind dropped off and conditions were perfectly lovely, too! Photo by participant Lyle Hamilton.
The views were better in the scope, but I wanted to include this image since it shows our Short-tailed Albatross wheeling up and to the right of two Killer Whale dorsal fins! We were standing at Reef Point on St. Paul Island. Photo by guide Tom Johnson.
MAMMALS
During our visit to Barrow, we caught part of a high school football game on America's northernmost football field - oh, and Ross's Gulls flew by while we were there! Barrow's team defeated Nikiski in this game, and then went on to win the small-school state championship with their next game. The kids here are tough! Photo by guide Tom Johnson.
This juvenile Gray-tailed Tattler walked around in front of us at close range at Marunich on St. Paul Island. Photo by guide Tom Johnson.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS
Totals for the tour: 94 bird taxa and 9 mammal taxa