The blog for this trip is broken into three posts - the first covered the initial Anchorage portion of the trip, and the second summarized the Nome visit. This post addresses a short stopover back near Anchorage followed by the Barrow stop (9th through 12th days of the trip). A brief overall trip summary is at the end.
Nome to Anchorage – Day 9
We arrived back in Anchorage around noon in preparation for the next day’s flight to Barrow. Since we had quite a bit of time available between this afternoon and tomorrow’s flight, we had rented a car to be able to do some birding around Anchorage, and invited Zeke Cornell from our group to go along. We decided to head north to try for a couple statebirds, the first being Osprey. Although there are apparently a number of Osprey in Alaska, they are low in density, plus there are many possible nesting areas that are nowhere near roadways. So likely many can go undetected. But I had directions from a local birder to a nesting platform where a pair bred last year. The directions were perfect, and we quickly found the platform and an Osprey perched on the nest (statebird #36).
Next we headed toward Hatcher Pass for some alpine birding hoping for White-tailed Ptarmigan. Although the road over the pass was not yet open for the season, we spent quite a bit of time at 3,500 feet elevation at the Independence Mine State Historical Park – the site of a gold mine from the early 1900’s. Our best bird there was a very cooperative and singing Dipper. But the best memories from this site were of the tremendous scenery – rocky and snow-covered mountains above us and the beautiful valley below looking into Palmer. Just spectacular (even though we had no ptarmigans).
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| Independence Mine State Historical Park, Palmer in the Distance |
On the way back to Anchorage we made a small detour to pass through Wasilla – but we didn’t see Sarah.
Anchorage to Barrow – Day 10
Our free morning was rainy and foggy, but we again targeted a couple more possible statebirds. The first stop was in the Arctic Valley ski area in the fog and showers where White-tailed Ptarmigan had been reported. We hiked up above the parking lot for a while but never got out or Willow Ptarmigan habitat. At one point Zeke played a bit of Willow tape and a male came flying right in. It stayed within just 15 feet of us, calling the entire time. By far the best observation of the day. Two other stops to try for woodpeckers were unsuccessful and cut short by the rain and limited time.
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| Willow Ptarmigan calling |
We rejoined the group at the airport to await our flight to Barrow. The flight was delayed due to weather conditions somewhere along its route, and eventually took off about an hour late. After a quick stop in Fairbanks, we approached Barrow where the pilot mentioned the ceiling was only 300 feet. On our first approach the pilot aborted the landing at seemingly the last minute because of insufficient visibility. On our next approach our descent seemed to take forever. We finally broke through the fog just a few feet above the ground, at which time the pilot increased then decreased thrust, banked a bit left then right, then finally landed. Everyone on-board applauded the pilot and his fine work. We found out later that they had announced in the airport that if the plane couldn’t land on this approach it would have had to go back to Fairbanks for the night. Once we got our bags and got situated in the hotels it was too late (and too foggy!) to bird – though we briefly tried along the coast right outside our hotel. So we called it a night and waited to start the Barrow part of our birding adventure the next day.
Barrow – Day 11
A few of the birders in our group had arrived earlier in Barrow on Day 10 and had scoped things out a bit. One of the birds they spotted was a Spectacled Eider on the ice right outside our hotel. So the first thing David and I did that morning was to head out to look for the eider. Sure enough, through the fog, there was a male Spectacled Eider (lifebird #5, statebird #37) sitting on the ice along with several King Eiders. We tried to get the rest of the group on this bird a few minutes later, but the fog had gotten worse and the views were quite lousy.
We dropped off half of our group for their ride out to the tip of Point Barrow, and we went down Gas Well Road where a white Ruff had been reported the previous day. Along the way there were numerous Pectoral Sandpipers (statebird #38), including my first ever view of breeding males with “puffed-up” chests. Other nesting shorebirds were American Golden Plovers, Semi and Western Sandpipers, and Red-necked Phalaropes with a few Reds mixed in. Later we found the first of several Snowy Owls (#39), including some that were very white adult males.
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| Male Snowy Owl |
Passerines in the tundra grasses were common but limited to numerous Snow Buntings and Lapland Longspurs, along with a few Savannah Sparrows. Pomarine Jaegers were numerous, with a few Parasitic Jaegers mixed in for some diversity. Common nesting waterfowl were Long-tailed Ducks, Pintail, and White-fronted Geese.
We went down to the area where the Ruff was reported the previous day with no luck, so we turned around to head back. Shortly afterwards David and I noticed 4 shorebirds flying together over the road – 1 bigger bird and 3 smaller ones. As they turned I noticed the larger one had a bright white chest and realized it was the Ruff (statebird #40). The flock circled a bit, and amazingly landed right next to the van. We then spent the next 30 minutes no more than 10 yards from the Ruff as it walked and fed in the wet grasses. At one point it preened and puffed its white ruff – what an amazing bird!
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| Remarkable White Ruff |
After lunch the entire group went back to the Spectacled Eider spot, and this time, the fog had lifted sufficiently to see the Eider. And while we were watching this bird it was joined by 2 pairs of Steller’s Eiders (only my second Steller’s), and the ever-present King Eiders. These would turn out to be the only Spectacled and Steller’s Eiders that I saw in Barrow. A bit later I saw a group of 3 Black Guillemots fly by farther out over a lead in the ice (statebird #41). Other flybys were King Eiders and Brant.
Our next stop was along Dew Line Road to see if Yellow-billed Loons that had been seen the previous day were still on the North Salt Lagoon. Soon after we arrived we found two Yellow-billeds in beautiful breeding plumage (statebird #42) – I’ve only seen this species one twice before and never before in breeding plumage.
The group then went southwest of Barrow to Freshwater Lake. The tundra in the area was full of Pectoral and Semipalmated Sandpipers and American Golden Plovers, with a few Dunlins as well. The lake was still pretty well iced over, though there must have been open water out on the lake since there were a number of Long-tailed Ducks flying low over the ice that then disappeared as they dropped in.
The last trip of the day was our 3-hour trek out the sand spit to Point Barrow using a local tour company. Birding highlights were a flyover Yellow-billed Loon nearly directly over our heads, close views of a nesting Semipalmated Plover, close views of Black Guillemots on the water near their nests under a sheet of plywood of all things, some flyby flocks of Common Eiders, and a distant flock of all dark small Crested Auklets. We also got views of an area where the local residents pile remnants of the seals and whales that they caught in spring. These carcasses are left out on the spit so that if any Polar Bears are around during summer, they will hopefully feed on these carcasses instead of coming into town. Although we didn’t see any bears during our trip, a group the next day saw a Polar Bear at this spot.
Barrow to Anchorage – Day 12
Since we got all our target birds the previous day, the goal of our last day in Barrow was to try to get better views of these targets. In the morning we took another trip down Gas Well Road and had the white Ruff again – at the same location and time as the previous day. We also had additional Snowy Owls along Gas Well Road. Another stop at North Salt Lagoon did not yield loons of any type. On the way back to Barrow we stopped at NARL and found the resident Barn Swallow colony along with baby Snow Buntings being fed by the parents. By the afternoon the low clouds and fog broke and the sun came out with a beautiful blue sky. We took that opportunity to do a seawatch at the place where the Spectacled Eider had been (yes the Spectacled was still there). During the seawatch we saw another Yellow-billed Loon fly overhead, a few distant Sabine’s Gulls mixed in with Black-Legged Kittiwakes, a few murres, and a couple Horned Puffins. The common birds were flocks of Common Eiders and Brant, and Glaucous Gulls of all ages. I love seawatches! With the sun shining on the crystal blue water and snow white ice, we called it a day and headed to the tiny Barrow airport for the trip back to Anchorage.
We got all the Barrow target birds, though I only saw one Spectacled Eider and one observation of the 2 pairs of Steller’s Eiders. Numbers of both species have dropped in recent years, and Bill reported that numbers of birds in general were way down from his previous trips.
The Trip by the Numbers
Here are a few summary numbers -
· 164 - total number of species for the trip
· 42 – number of new Alaska statebirds – my statelist is now at 209. It’s remarkable that I’m still 44 birds short of the ABA reportable threshold in AK even though I’ve birded there for nearly 50 days and have been to the Pribilofs, Nome, and Barrow. Just shows you how many diverse habitats there are in AK plus the number of rarities and vagrants that show up both from Asia and the Lower 48.
· 5 - new lifebirds – that gives me 729 on my ABA list (and 730 if last month’s Tropical Mockingbird in Texas is accepted)
I can’t say enough positive things about Bill Drummond and his leadership and organizational skills, and his ability to set up all the logistics for this complex trip. It was truly a great trip all around.
Alaska is now my 40th state with over 200 species. The map showing my statelists and reportable states is inserted below.
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