6/2/2024 - 6/6/2024
Alaska. I was not sure I would be back here so soon. Do not get me wrong. There was (still is) a lot of the state left to see. It is a big world, though. And, when you live in a house with someone who bitterly wants to see a polar bear like I did on my previous visit to the state... it can seem like a tiny house, at times. A plan was crafted. Once again, I reached out to my friends at Sabrewing Nature Tours and asked about pulling together a trip. We needed to squeeze the trip in prior to their regularly scheduled trips, but that did not seem like an issue. I wanted to visit Nome to do some photography. I had a lot of targets in the area and she wanted to see muskox. We would then slip up to Utqiagvik to, hopefully, see polar bears and get in some eider photos. I still dream of getting great Spectacled Eider shots. With schedules, etc. the plan worked out to where we would spend 4 nights in Nome before taking a day of travel to get up to Utqiagvik for 2 nights. It was risky, but it was the best we could work out. Carmen and I would be travelling with Jamie from Sabrewing. She is an great guide and a friend of mine.
6/2 -
We arrived in Nome early in the day. Unusually (or so I am told), the skies were clear and the winds were calm. Carmen had one major goal in Nome. She wanted to see muskox. It was middle-of-the day, and we could not really shoot with the high sun. Going to look for muskox was an easy decision. We drove just outside of town and immediately had several of the shaggy, bowl-cut looking, mini buffalo feeding in the willows. Things were off to a good start. We headed back, got into our rooms, and made a quick grocery run for water and snacks. We grabbed lunch and then headed out to shoot... in the wind. Our calm day had disappeared. Not only was it windy, it was very windy. In town, the winds were a sustained 30 mph or so. Outside of town, where we were heading, the winds were stronger with even stronger gusts.
I had several goals in Nome. At the top of that list, much like many others' lists, was Bluethroat. In the bird books I grew up with, this bird was the Siberian Bluethroat. It was a bird of wonder. Among US birds, it is a unique species. Formerly classified as a thrush, it now belongs to the family of Old World flycatchers. Yes, this bird is primarily a Eurasian species. Interestingly enough, it is also a mimic. A few of these birds had been reported along Teller Rd., and we headed out to try and knock my most-wanted off the list, too.
The wind was going to work against us, though. Nothing was perching up in this wind. Finding singing birds was almost impossible. We were not totally without luck. It was at least sunny, and there were tons of Willow Ptarmigan about. The Willow Ptarmigan is the state birds of Alaska. In the winter, this bird is pure white. The birds here had already transitioned to a mixed red and white. Their territorial call is amazingly humorous - kind of a mumbled gobble (?). They will perform this and then take off in a display flight. We found one close to the road and spent a while following it around and it displayed, called, and posed out on the tundra.
Willow Ptarmigan was not the ptarmigan I had on my list, though. Rock Ptarmigan calls this area home, too. This speices would be a lifer. As we headed out Teller Rd., we got a bit higher in elevation and the tundra gave way to rocky stubble in places. We took a short drive up Red Knot Hill to look for some, but the road was snowed over. The winds were even more fierce up there. A pair of Pacific Golden-Plover was about the only thing we had in the area. Photographing them was nearly impossible with the winds. We drove up the road a bit further and had a Rock Ptarmigan sheltering at the edge of a distant snow field. This would have to do. With the winds and cloud cover moving in, we called it a day. The day was not a total loss, and I did pick up a couple of lifers: Rock Ptarmigan and Pacific Golden-Plover. We also found a couple of Wandering Tattler and a Whimbrel. The hope was that tomorrow would be a better day.
6/3 -
Our hopes for a better day were quickly dashed. The winds were just as strong, and the forecast said they would last through the following day. There was not much to be done about it. We decided to drive out Council Rd.; hoping to check out birds along the coast. We did have a large muskox herd, but they were a bit distant.
We stopped at the top of a drive and watched them for a bit. The area turned out to be quite birdy. Nothing unusual, but there were White-crowned, Golden-crowned, Fox, and American Tree Sparrow there. Orange-crowned and Wilson's Warblers sang from nearby cover, and a Wilson's Snipe tried to look invisible while perched on a small ridge.
We ran across an area with more Golden-Plover and decided to try an approach. This failed miserably. They just kept moving further off no matter how carefully we tried to get close. What we had much better luck with was a Long-tailed Jaeger. The bird allowed a careful approach for some shots. It then flew up and circled us a few times before landing elsewhere. It, again, allowed a second approach before exhibiting the same behavior; landing in a different location. We started another approach but got the impression it might be on a nest and decided to back off. We checked for the bird again later in the trip, and it was not actually on nest. This was a species I was hoping to photograph, and this was the only chance we got this trip. I was happy to get some shots.
We drove further out Council Rd. For the past several years, a pair of Gyrfalcon had nested at a bridge along this road. We were going to check it. Along the way, we found a small pond next to the road that was filled with Semipalmated Sandpiper, Western Sandpiper, and Red-necked Phalarope. The winds were intense, but we got out to do some shooting, anyway. I setup on the wrong light angle for some reason. I kept expecting the birds to walk into position, but, once they did, they were then too for in front of me. I needed to move but did not; so, the shots are a bit messy.
We got out to the nesting location, but the site was either abandoned this year, or we were too early. It was a bit disappointing. This is not an easy species to find. Due to their popularity with falconers, their locations are always kept secret. It has made it difficult to actually see one. We drove back to town. As we were hitting the coastal area, a pale sandpiper flew up over the road and then landed back down in the grasses. A quick look confirmed our suspicions. It was a Buff-breasted Sandpiper. This is a beautiful species. Its coloration and large eye give it a "cute" look and really separate it from the other sandpipers. We got out and circled the bird to get on the light angle. Unfortunately, it was frantically feeding. This meant it was not paying much attention to us, but it also was not staying put in an area. It was a constant game of trying to get a bit ahead of it. The bird eventually flew up across the road and disappeared on the wind.
We took a small break for lunch and then headed back out in the afternoon. We were hitting Teller again. We were still looking for a Bluethroat. Along this road is a rather large mount with a rocky outcrop. The previous day, I spotted a Rock Ptarmigan perched atop this outcrop as we drove back to town. The bird was there again. With not much else going on, I decided to make the hike up the mount to try and shoot it. I would not be able to get super close. The outcrop and steep drop-off assured that. It looked like it would be an interesting shot, though. I just needed to get up there. I switchbacked my way up the mount until I could get around a rocky crevice and get within shooting distance of the bird. This is about the time we lost cloud cover. We sat up here for a while hoping to work out a better shot or more cloud cover. It did not pan out, and we eventually called it good enough.
We checked the road out for a small distance but did not have much else. We had a few Golden-crowned Sparrow near the Rock Ptarmigan location and a lone Arctic Tern flying around some nearby ponds.
Carmen was happy that we also ran across a small heard of muskox that included a few young running around.
We got back into town and drove around checking a few places. We did not have a 4x4 vehicle. Heading out onto the sand road to get to the mouth of the river was not a possibility. Instead, we parked near the bridge and scouted the mudflats there. While the birds were distant, I was happy to spot several Bar-tailed Godwit. This was my last godwit I needed to see. We did a small seawatch at an are I believe is called Safety Sound. There were a lot of Glaucous-winged and Short-billed Gulls sheltering in the lee of the point. A lone Red Phalarope and some distant Harlequin were in the area, too. There were some Arctic Terns, but, sadly, there were not any Aleutian Terns. We had a number of Black Scoter fly by with a few Pacific Loons here and there. We stopped at the dredge ponds and looked around for wagtails, but there were only some Red-throated Loon. We had plans to photograph loons later in the week, but I could not resist shooting the one sitting nearby on a nest.
We were heading back to the hotel when I asked about checking the harbor to look for shorebirds. We did not have much in the area, but, as we drove down the road a bit, a white bird suddenly flew over the car and landed along the shore. Jamie and I both yelled out "wagtail!". The winds, again, did not make this easy. Like everything else, the bird was basically in survival mode. It is just moving and feeding as fast as it could to stay stay warm and cope with the weather. It would fly, and we would try to get in position to let the bird walk toward us. It was very erratic in its feeding, and the area was not really optimal for shooting. I managed a few shots. Definitely my best White Wagtail shots, but that is not saying much. It was also an ABA-area life bird for me. It was a good way to end the day.
A lifer and a new ABA-area bird would have to be good enough for the day. The winds were really making things tough for us. By all reports, we had one more day of wind ahead of us.
6/4 -
Still windy, but a little bit less than the previous day. Birds are still sheltering down out of the wind, and it is still difficult to get shots. We are driving out Teller Rd., again. The plan is to hit up Red Knot Hill, where Rock Sandpiper had been reported, and then drive on out to Teller to see what we could find. The good news is that we found a couple of Bluethroat this morning. Unfortunately, I missed the first one. A little further up the road, we had a second one that perched up for a minute before diving back down into cover. Mission somewhat accomplished. I saw my bird. Now, I just needed to get photos. That was definitely not going to happen this morning. I had looks at a Bluethroat in India, but they were far from satisfactory. This was my ABA-area life bird, and the looks were definitely a lot better.
As we drove the road, we noted the amazingly large number of Willow Ptarmigan. We did not count, but we were conservatively guessing that we had around 60 birds. We also saw our first female of the trip.
Before I get ahead of myself, though, I should probably start at the beginning of the day. Like I said, the winds were a little calmer this morning. While most things were not perched, they were at least singing. We pulled up to a small creek, and I could hear a 4-beat, thin tweet coming from nearby. I knew I had listened to this song recently, but I could not place it. I made some pishing noises, and the bird flew up out of a small ravine and perched in a bush across the road. I had just found my lifer Eastern Yellow Wagtail. This bird had previously been known as Yellow Wagtail but had been split into Eastern and Western species. We got out and took a few shots of the bird as it flew around, made floating display flights, and perched/foraged in the grasses.
We drove out to Red Knot Hill and checked around again. The road was still snowed in, but the Rock Ptarmigan were out. We got out to try and photograph two that were close by, but they flew. One flew downhill and landed next to the road; so, we got in the car and used it as a blind to shoot the bird. I got out and circled behind the car to get a better angle on the bird.
Just up the road a little bit, we had another group of Pacific Golden-Plover. Of course, they were not interested in pictures, but the Northern Wheatear did not mind. This was another bird that was difficult to shoot. It is moving quick and sheltering out of the wind. Luckily, this is a species that is more likely to run from location to location instead of flying off. We slowly worked to get ahead of the birds (there were two males and a female) and got some shots of them. There was also a beautiful Lapland Longspur in the area, and I could not resist a couple of shots.
We eventually pulled onto the road to Wooley Lagoon and looked around. Here, we finally found a couple of plovers that were interested in being photographed; except that they were American Golden-Plover and Semipalmated Plover. Not the species I was hoping for, but I was happy to get some shots.
The most interesting experience here was the Rock Ptarmigan. This species stays white longer than the Willow Ptarmigan does. This is, apparently, more attractive to the females, but it draws attention from predators. Once the bird has finished courting a female, the male will intentionally dirty its feathers to better blend in until it molts to its brown plumage. We found a male wallowing in the dirt to do exactly that.
Here is a better shot that shows the wind blowing the dirt over the bird.
And a shot of the finished product.
We left here and drove on out to Teller. There was not a lot to shoot out this way. We had a few interesting birds along the way. The biggest surprise was a Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch. We had our first Rough-legged Hawk and a very exciting Peregrine Falcon that I really wanted to be a Gyr. In Teller, we drove out onto a spit that lead to an area where boats were beached on the shore. We stopped for an informal lunch of PB&J and did some birding from the car. There were Black Scoter, Harlequin Duck, Sabine's Gull, Red-breasted Merganser, and Common Eider out on the water. We had a puffin species of some sort bullet its way past the car. Unfortunately, we did not get on it quick enough to ID the bird.
We called it a morning and headed back to Nome. Our intention was to count the Willow Ptarmigan on the way back, but they had all disappeared. We stopped at Red Knot Hill once again, and discovered where all our ptarmigan had gotten to. Apparently, there was a meeting of ptarmigans on the hill. There were around 25 in a large covey skulking around in the brush along the road. It was quite the funny sight, and they looked a bit indignant to have been interrupted.
This morning was also one of our best mammal mornings. We had several moose sightings; including a mother and a young calf that never quite cooperated for photos. We had muskox, of course. We also had our first red fox of the trip.
That afternoon, we got a bit of a late start, having spent a good portion of the day driving out to Teller. We drove out Kougarok Rd to look for Bluethroat. We finally found one that was perched up, and I got some photos. It only came decently close once, though. Here is the best of what I got.
I was extremely happy to get this shot, but it chewed up our time, and it was the only thing we shot this evening. While is stays light until about 1 AM when the sun sets (and then rises around 5 AM), the birds still quiet down for the evening around 10/11 PM. This was shot around 9:30 PM. By the time we got elsewhere to look for something to shoot, it was pretty quiet.
6/5 -
This day was a taste of what our entire time in Nome could have been like. The winds had finally died down. It was cloudy, but it was not too bad to shoot. It was frigid, though. All the layers went on this morning. The plan was simple. Head back out Teller to the places where we had Bluethroat and shoot our way back to town. It was nice to see birds perched up and singing on the drive out. We were not the only one that were happy to have the winds clear out.
We got to our first location and had a brief look at a Bluethroat. It was still a little windy here, and it was very cold; so, we moved up the road to another location. We found a bird doing long, floating display calls not far from the road. We setup more-or-less in the center of where the bird was active and waited. We spent about an hour here working on shots. In the meantime, we shot other birds in the area. We left here to check one more spot before the lighting got too bad. At this spot, we had another active bird. As I mentioned earlier, this bird is a mimic. Aside from its normal calls, which includes a call that sound like a cricket chirping, it will imitate other birds. This second bird not only did an American Golden-Plover call, it did a really impressive Mallard quack. It was funny to watch this little bird open its beak and the quack of a Mallard come out. Aside from the Bluethroat, we had a mix of birds at the various stops. We finally had a Northern Waterthrush that perched up; same for a Gray-cheeked Thrush. Both birds were very common but hard to get shots of with the winds. The surprise is that I did not get any decent Orange-crowned Warbler shots. These birds were everywhere, as well. They were just hard to photograph, or I did not pay them that much attention. The curse of being common. It was also nice to photograph a number of Common and Hoary Redpoll. These birds are super pish responsive. I had one land on my hat briefly one day.
It was a good morning and a taste of what every day up here could have been like. As good as this was, I was really looking forward to the afternoon.
That afternoon, we headed out with waders. The plan was to shoot loons, grebes, and whatever other waterfowl we could find. It started out as a simple plan, but it complicated quickly. We pulled up at a known location for photographing Red-throated Loon. There was a nest here, but the plan was to photograph the mate on the water. We arrived to a rather upsetting scene. I am not here to cast judgement on the various rights, etc. of Alaska's native populations. And, because it upset me does not necessarily mean it is wrong. I am just saying I wish that I had not witnessed it. When we arrived, a person in waders was leaving the water quite obviously clutching something in his hands. The loon was off its nest, and it was pretty easy to figure out what had just happened. They had taken the eggs. Jamie had a short conversation with the person, and they admitted they had just taken them. They then drove off. We sat there in shock for a bit. There was nothing to be done but to reformulate the plan. We would not be shooting here. The birds had been through enough without us getting into the water with them.
We drove around a bit and scouted out another location. There was a pair of Red-throated Loon on the water, and it was a place we could get into. We got in and got setup and then started waiting. Like other times I have been in the water, the birds largely ignored us. They were aware of us, but they did not seem intimidated by our presence. At one point, the pair, circling a large grassy area in the middle of the pond, swam directly in front of us as they fed.
We got out and was walking the shore line back towards the car when we came across a pair of American Wigeon. We attempted to shoot them, but they swam off, keeping their backsides to us. At least the Red-necked Phalarope did not mind being photographed.
We spent a lot of the rest of the afternoon driving around looking for loons or grebes. Most of what we found were in areas we were not allowed to enter. We did run across a herd of muskox that was fairly open and close to the road.
We headed out Council Rd. to the coastal pond area, but it turns out that it is all marked as private property, too. With light starting to fail, we hit up the active spot we had earlier in the week and focused on shooting a few more songbirds.
The birds seemed to love this broken off tree as a perch. The funny thing is that Jamie mentioned that she had had a Wilson's Snipe perch there in the past. I said that would be pretty cool. Not 5 minutes later, a Wilson's Snipe flew in and perched there.
This pretty much wrapped up the day. As good as the morning was, the afternoon was definitely marred by the activity we witnessed. It was a shame that it had to happen at all.
6/6 -
We did not have a lot of time this morning, but we had some. Carmen had stayed behind the previous afternoon and, therefore, missed out on the muskox. Instead of heading out to bird, I said we should go look for some more muskox for her. We drove out Kougarok Rd and easily found a few more for her. We also had a cooperative moose feeding across the river.
We heard a report of a Eastern Yellow Wagtail singing on territory near the hospital and made a final chase for it. The bird was doing a display flight when we arrived. We had to walk out onto the tundra and into a ravine to get close enough to shoot. With the clouds, it was a little dark for shooting, but I got a few shots in. I tried to get some display flight shots but failed.
This wrapped up our time in Nome. It was great to be here and get shots of so many exciting birds. Of course, it was disappointing to have such bad winds the first few days. It was also disappointing to miss a number of my targets. I had hoped to pick up Rock Sandpiper, Aleutian Tern, Arctic Loon, Arctic Warbler, Bristle-thighed Curlew, and Gyrfalcon on this trip. Part of this was just me not realizing that Arctic Warbler is a late migrant. This birds winters in the Phillipines and has a long trip north. The curlew area was snowed over, and Rock Sandpiper is far from a given. Arctic Loon was always going to be tough; as was Gyrfalcon, but I had hope. Aleutian Tern seems to be the big miss. We should have had one somewhere. Not having a 4x4 kept us from checking the river mouth area for rarities, but this was a photography trip. We were not really scouting for every rarity we could find. Maybe I will make it back someday. I have at least one more trip planned for Alaska. We, of course, need to return to visit all the National Parks, too. It is hard to tell what the future holds, but it was great to make it here and experience the place.
We flew out without any issues and even made it to Utqiagvik without any problems. The latter is always potentially problematic. We had a lot planned for our short time there. You can read about it in my next post.
Thanks for reading,
Mike
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