Voices of Spring Solstice in Forest Ranch

I've been itching to start writing about birds again and the spring solstice seemed the perfect catalyst. To enjoy this post to it’s fullest, turn the volume up on your computer and click each link to visit sites where you can play the song of the bird referred to.

As soon as I walked out the door this morning to feed the goats I was struck by how much things have changed in just the past couple of weeks. I remember thinking how odd it was not hearing a single bird song or call in the morning as recently as last month. This morning I was greeted by a virtual ‘wall-of-sound’ (apologies to Phil Specter).

The first song to reach me was layer upon layer of American Robin’s voices – they moved in, in large numbers this past month and they begin to vocalize at first light. Resident birds – spotted towhee, Bewick’s wren and wrentit all joined the chorus, they were present all winter but remained silent for the most part. Hutton’s vireo’s repeated call, which was really the first song of spring - beginning in the middle of winter, was a predictable addition and will continue until the beginning of winter next. Purple finch and orange-crowned warbler both kicked into singing mode in the last three weeks. I believe the assertive drumming I heard from the vicinity of our large oak was hairy woodpecker, though I heard a Downy woodpecker’s whinny. Two Steller’s jays bounced in the trees overhead, hoping to steal some of the cracked corn that I threw to the chickens, soon they’ll be looking for Robin’s nestlings to kill – the bastards!

Now I’ll start listening and watching every day for new songs added to the harmony. I’m guessing the first neotrop song will be Bullock’s orioles ratcheting assemblage of notes. Also anticipated are black-headed grosbeak’s beautiful whistled tune and the sweet sound of black-throated gray warblers in the treetops. So much to look forward to!

A gray squirrel scampered off, never ceasing to find every last acorn strewn around the property, dashing my hopes for a large crop of new oak seedlings. The burro one-half mile away brayed his morning serenade, glad we don’t live any closer!

LIAM LOCATES BLACK-BACKED WOODPECKER

My son Liam is a terrific birder. We had camped the night at the Sardine Lake Campground, in the Gold Lakes district of the Sierra’s. By the time I woke up, which was still pretty early, Liam had already been prowling around the campground checking out calling birds. When he saw me up and around he motioned to me silently to come check out a bird.

At the head of a trail adjacent to campsite # 17, I could hear erratic drumming in a tall pine. Liam pointed but I had to go back to the car to get my binoculars. Upon my return I was treated to wonderful, close up views of a stunning black-backed woodpecker. The bird was not at all shy and gave us many great, long looks.

Liam informed me that there was another great bird sighting to be had on the ground. Backing the few feet down to the road we peered around the cars and tents in the site. There, picking around in the dust was a whole family of mountain quail, two adults and four young – looking (as we did) like they just rolled out of bed!

Standing around the morning fire a little while later we heard a long, lovely song which jumped out at us as one we don’t hear daily. Sure enough, we found a very assertive Townsend’s solitaire singing from the top of a nearby pine.

WESTERN ARCTIC GRAY-HEADED CHICKADEE EXPEDITION

In early August, 2009 I lead an ‘expedition’ in search of the bird called by some ‘North America’s most difficult species to find’ – the Gray-headed Chickadee. The following is my journal from the trip.

I flew by myself into Kotzebue, where I spent the night before the trip at Drake’s Camp, a boarding house for construction workers and travelers. The expedition officially began August 4.

August 4, 2009

Up @ 5 am – sneak out of Drake’s Camp to deliver gear to Northwestern Aviation. I meet the owner, Jim Kincaid, who allows me to store my gear there in preparation for our flights later this morning.

Meet my group at Alaska Airlines at 7:30am – all in upbeat moods. We take a taxi-van to Northwestern aviation for our bush plane charter to the Noatak River. We pack the first plane with gear, Walt (my cook and outfitter – owner of Northwestern Alaska Back-Country Rentals of Kotzebue) and I, and fly the 62 miles to Kelly Bar – an extensive gravel beach at the confluence of the Kelly and Noatak Rivers.

Arriving at 9:30 am, Walt and I erect tents. Two more of our party and the remaining gear arrives in a second plane about 15 minutes later (Mark O. of Minneapolis and Todd of Ontario, Canada) and help with remaining tent and cot set-up.

After the remaining three arrive (David from North Caolina, Mark C. and Tim of California) Walt provides hoagie lunch and we hike to the Kelly River ½ mile distant to look for the gray-headed chickadee. The shore of the Noatak provides looks at common raven, mew and glaucous gull, osprey, red-throated and pacific loon and red-breasted merganser. Todd catches sight of a gyrfalcon. In the willows next to camp are blackpoll, Wilson’s and yellow warblers, yellow wagtails and common redpolls. Spotted sandpipers forage along backwater sloughs on the way to the Kelly.

Once at the Kelly River we spread out in the spruce dominated border and call regularly for the bird, finding instead: dark-eyed junco (slate-colored subspecies), pine grosbeak, yellow-rumped warblers and have a fly-by of app. 12 bohemian waxwings. Although this area is largely flat we find a wooded knoll in our path along the Alvin River (nearby tributary of the Kelly).

Climbing the knoll we find ourselves out of the prime spruce/poplar habitat and so turn east for a long, hot (80 degrees!) hike back to camp.

We take a break to have dinner and do a little fishing. I fished the wide Noatak and got bored quickly. Mark and Tim fish the Kelly River – Tim catching a 7 lb. Chum salmon and 2 grayling.

David, Todd and I meet Mark and Tim at the river and head up the Kelly/Alvin again, this time staying right along the rivers. Mark had only ankle high boots so I ended up carrying him across the river on my shoulder a total of six times.

We arrive back at camp still in sunshine at 10:45 pm and sleep hard until 5 am.

August 5, 2009

Walt had the coffee ready by 5:15 am on this 50 degree morning. After a hot sausage and egg breakfast we head east towards the unmanned Kelly Ranger station at the base of a wooded hill a mile distant, fording one of the braids of the Noatak on the way.

The group became excited when, approaching the wooded bench where the cabin sits chickadees were heard, then seen in the spruce between the river and the cabin. Despite the fact that they turned out to be boreal chickadees (the more common chickadee here)

rather than our target gray-headed variety – the find got everyone energized.

The cabin occupies an attractive site over-looking the Noatak

After finding American three-toed woodpecker on the hill above the cabin we take a four hour walk through excellent mixed habitat in the hills behind the cabin. Starting at a pond above the river we have a great assortment of birds, all the way up to the ridge and at the series of ponds along the way. At the lowest pond we found more boreal chickadees, orange-crowned warbler, arctic warbler (a lifer for Todd – hard to get at 728!), greater scaup hen with ducklings, and the first of many varied thrushes. Further up the hill are a variety of warblers, robin, hermit thrush, fox sparrow, more boreal chickadees and a huge shed moose horn

The group seemed happy walking back to camp after a full morning of hard birding.

Walt had chili, chips and PB&J sandwiches for Lunch. The guys were anxious to get back up and resume our search so our afternoon was spent on the wooded bench this time to the west of the ranger cabin. About ½ hour into the walk a good suspect – a chickadee with significantly more white on the cheek and a hoarser call was seen and heard by many in the group and the chase was on! We leap-frog up a boggy hillside for an hour hope for a diagnostic look but ended up agreeing that the bird – who was seen a number of times by various members of the group – was merely an aberrant boreal chickadee.

The mood was noticeably less carefree as we bird back towards camp – clearly the guys are starting to worry about the possibility of not finding our quarry. After a dinner of stuffed potatoes and Tim’s chum salmon we head to a heavily wooded and shrubby bench between the Kelly and Noatak – still no Siberian tit but we add olive-sided flycatcher and a pair of juvenile northern shrikes to our trip list. Back to camp by 9:45 pm for a restless nights sleep.

August 6, 2009

A cooler 40 degree wakeup but less windy so the mosquitos have increased noticeably. Pancakes and bacon for breakfast. A repeat trip to the ranger station and the hills behind it seem our most promising plan of action but it turns out to be less birdy than the previous morning. We were able to add merlin and belted kingfisher at the productive pond beyond the station but the long morning walk results in not even a boreal chickadee.

The slow mornings yield decides our afternoon plan, so after a quick and early lunch we borrow the beached National Park Service canoe we located half hidden in some willows and I do a test paddle across the swift and wide Noatak. I then shuttle the whole group in just two trips to the south shore – to bird the last unexplored patch of deciduous riparian habitat in the area.

The south side of the Noatak is immediately birdier than our earlier spots with many northern waterthrushes, myrtle, blackpoll, orange-crowned and yellow warblers. At 3:25 pm we walk up a dry river channel and I hear a chickadee call. We stop and play the recording. A pair of boreal chickadees are spotted as well as a third, bright-faced chickadee seen well by four of the six of us (but not me or Tim). The four are elated as they all agree that the bird is gray-headed chickadee. The next hour is spent trying to refind this individual for Tim.

After an exhaustive effort without repeating the observation, we shuttle back across the Noatak for dinner and an abbreviated search near the ranger station from 7-9. Although Tim is not happy missing the bird, all of the others are ecstatic and it makes for an enjoyable evening.

August 7, 2009

Up at 5 with all of my gear out of the tent (that I shared with Mark C. and Tim) and all my gear packed by 6. Breakfast of pancakes and coffee then a chilly set of shuttles across the river for an intense three hour search for the chickadee. Large flocks of boreal chickadess in association with large numbers of ruby-crowned kinglets fails to produce a gray-headed. The highlight of the morning is two begging fledgling northern hawk owls who practically follow us around the thicket, accompanied by one or two adult NHOW’s.

Back to camp by noon where we have lunch and a rock-throwing contest while waiting for our pick-up.

We bid good-by to Walt and fly to Nome where we part company with Mark C., Mark O., Tim and David. Todd and I stay to bird Nome for the 36 hours. Check into the Nugget and have a beer at Airport Pizza.

August 8, 2009

I wake up and sneak downstairs for coffee and a short walk before rousing Todd. We breakfast at the Polar Café then rent a Toyota Forerunner at Stampede Rentals. We bird the Nome River Mouth and Nome River Bridge thoroughly but not much action – mew, glaucous, slaty-backed gulls and black-legged kittiwakes, arctic and Aleutian terns, whimbrels, bar-tailed godwits, western and Semipalmated sandpipers.

At point Nome we find wandering tattler and in the ponds leading up to Safety sound semi-palmated plovers and others. We have lunch at the picnic tables at the Safety Roadhouse – this is the first time I’ve ever seen it open – usually closed when I’m here in late May/early June. Bird as far as mile 29, finding a variety of ducks, black turnstone, common eider, pacific and red-throated loon, savannah sparrows and now drab Lapland longspurs. Our best birds are three juvenile plumaged rock sandpipers.

This evening after dinner at Airport Pizza we bird the slopes of Anvil mountain for a big surprise – Nashville warbler – a casual species here in western Alaska!

August 9, 2009

After a quick last glance at Nome River Bridge we depart Nome for home.

PILEATED WOODPECKER IN FOREST RANCH

PILEATED WOODPECKER IN FOREST RANCH

PILEATED WOODPECKER IN FOREST RANCH

For the second time this week a pileated woodpecker has been heard calling and has been seen in the pines and cedars along our road. Initially detected by it's call the bird was located when it replied to a recorded call on birdjam. It does not sit long for observers and flies about 150-200 yards once it becomes annoyed with our attention. The bird was seen at about 8:20 am on Sunday morning and 7:20 am this morning. Liam was able to get a couple of distant but diagnostic photos (see above or below this post.)

Anybody wanting pileated for their Butte County list is welcome to visit - if the bird is present it can be seen and heard from the road in front of our home: 15611 Nopel Ave., Forest Ranch, Ca. From hwy 99 take hwy 32 east approx 16 miles to Nopel, make a left and we're about 1/3 mile - look for the giant oak on the left side of the road.

Bird well

Scott and Liam Huber
Forest Ranch, Ca.

Book Review: BIRDWATCHER The Life of Roger Tory Peterson

I was invited to write a review of this book for Altacal Audubon Society- here it is:


Birders as readers are generally pretty easy to please. A book with nothing more than the phyllogenetic ranking of bird species will occupy a coveted spot on our nightstand for months. Give us a tale of derring-do in the New Guinea highlands, a reckless cat-food eating bird-search across the continent or a comedic country-wide counting competition and we’re enraptured. There are but three requirements for a book to be successful among birders: 1. It must be about birds, or 2. It must be about birders or 3. a combination of the first two. With these lofty requirements in mind, Elizabeth J. Rosenthal’s biography entitled BIRDWATCHER The Life of Roger Tory Peterson definitely satisfies.

BIRDWATCHER takes us on a long, well-researched journey through the life of one of birdings most revered icons. As Ms. Rosenthal attests, Roger was not the sort of flamboyant character whose exploits keep you on the edge of your seat. Cited by most as a “nice quiet person, always willing to help” the narrative maintains the same low-key approach to describing his life and career. For regular readers of historical biographies this style provides for an unemotional and detailed profile of the man. For those looking for more excitement it may make for slow-reading.

The idea that if one scratches the surface of a celebrity that their many facets will be revealed is not necessarily true of Roger Peterson. RTP developed an early and intense focus on birds that was an obvious blessing and a not-so obvious curse. The same uber-focus that gave us the first and what many consider the finest field-guides ever produced, is alternately described as being “shortsighted about the entire world”, “obsessed with birds to the exclusion of all else” and “a monomaniac”. These traits at the very least made Roger something of a bore to non - birders “birds, birds, birds! He was a bit boring in that way.” and at it’s worst created significant disharmony in his personal and family life. Like sausage being made, one should not peer too closely into the personal life of their heroes, and for those who prefer only the heroic exploits of their icons this book may dwell on Peterson’s marital and family issues more than we would prefer. Roger’s legendary association with James Fisher, with whom he birded for one-hundred days around the U.S., set an early big-year record and co-wrote the story of that trip entitled Wild America provides a look at one of Roger’s more successful and harmonious relationships.

A positive quality that is seemingly shared by many of birdings best-known spokesmen is their humility. Like Kaufmann, Sibley, Dunn and others that were spawned from Roger’s success, Peterson was nearly always accessible and available to aspiring birders and peers seeking information. The same qualities that made Roger a challenging individual to spend time with for those who did not share his passion for birds, made him a joy to those who did. Countless examples of his collegiality and approachability paint a picture of a man who loved to share his love. “All the participants were thrilled….to be in his presence. He was genuine. There was nothing highfalutin or anything like that. He was just one of the crowd…It was in the evening that he really shone. He was able to relate his experiences and answer questions.”

Those of us who prefer our heroes without flaws or foibles might be best served by the fiction and fantasy genre. For any serious student of birds, or for those who have long been inspired by the combination of artistic genius and efficient identification tool that the Peterson Guides provide, BIRDWATCHER gives us a greater understanding of how a lifetime spent in high-focus created not only a lasting reference tool but the catalyst for an outdoor past-time now enjoyed by millions.

Spring Sprang - the Dog Days are Here

Spring is now long past and the exuberant singing and displaying of my avian gender mates has vanished like the cool evenings. The most dramatic change is the absence of the black-throated gray’s hoarse melody greeting me before dawn. Gone too are the impetuous flutings of black-headed grosbeak. Even Bewick’s wren has fallen silent here in the midst of the hundred degree dog days.

Now I give thanks for the more common vocalizations, last night a handful of western screech owls conversed from the tall oaks and pines just at dusk. The past few mornings wrentits have chattered and sang from the shaded manzanita – perhaps driven uphill from the scorching slopes below us. Western wood peewees repeat their simple refrain and western tanagers call from the conifers. Even the incessant r-i-i-i-i-ng of the spotted towhees has diminished. The only constant is the ubiquitous shrieking of Hutton’s vireo.

Western Yellow-billed Cuckoo

I had the privilege of leading a group of birders to the Rio Vista Unit of the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge Complex on an Altacal Audubon field trip last Saturday.

We started walking at 6:30 am. At 8:30 we stopped in a moderately dense riparian reforestation area and immediately heard a cuckoo 'cooing'. Sneaking back into the vegetation we saw the bird flush from the top of a 50' cottonwood, fly to the other side of the gravel access road into another cottonwood and again start cooing. The whole group of app. a dozen participants were able to quietly assemble under the tree and get sensational looks at the perched, calling cuckoo for about ten minutes.

It was quite birdy on the way out and we enjoyed terrific looks at lazuli buntings, blue grosbeaks and many others including a somewhat unexpected (for the valley floor in July) pacific slope flycatcher.

Two weeks ago Liam and I counted more than two dozen Bullock's orioles at Rio Vista (many family groups with juveniles), Saturday morning our group had but one, it would seem they've started migrating out. There were also fewer male black-headed grosbeaks.

Leave For Two Weeks and All The Babies Show Up!

After a week or so of recovering from our Alaska trip (trip species list to follow I promise) it’s time to announce the arrival of all the new babies at our feeders.

The juvenile spotted towhees seem to be so much more drab than their parents but the more cryptic coloration creates much better camouflage than the bold rufous, white and black (and bright red eye) of the grown-ups. This may be the same little fledgling I photographed hopping away from the gopher snake a month ago.

The consolation to having never been able to find the black-headed grosbeaks nest is the three juveniles that now fight over our seed feeders each day. Mom and dad still show up too but I suspect they’ll be heading south before too long. Their singing has diminished greatly since the kids came along!

The Fairbanks Loop and Visiting Audubon in Paxson

6/15/2009 – We left Denali to make a loop through Fairbanks and down Hwy 4 to Paxson. Our first stop on the Stampede Trail (the site of the book and film ‘Into The Wild’) provided us with nice looks at Great Horned Owl, Boreal Chickadee found by Liam

and app. six upland sandpipers – initially found flying by eagle-eye Mauricio Schraeder.

A stop to look for white-tailed ptarmigan found instead 3-toed woodpecker

Lots of beautiful scenery and wildlife along Hwy 4 including a fox den and bull moose

We spent the night at the lovely cabins of Audubon Bakewell on the Gulkana River. The cabins and setting were lovely

6/16/2009 - Audie took our group out for early morning looks at the specialty bird for this area – Smith’s longspur. We had wonderful views of a breeding plumaged male on tundra that was filled with calling Whimbrel, jaegers and American golden plovers.

Goodbye Nome, Hello Denali

6/12/2009 – abbreviated version.
We said a fond farewell to Nome and flew back to Anchorage.
There we picked up our two vans and drove to Hatchet Pass where the road was closed but saw some beautiful beaver dams and moose. We then tried the Petersville Road out of Trapper Creek but it was not very birdy. We arrived at Denali Perch resort about 11 pm and checked into our cabins. Mauricio and Bill Frey graciously gave their cabin to Tim so he didn’t have to walk so far to the facilities.

6/13/2009 – The group enjoyed a great breakfast at Denali Perch. We drove into Denali National Park and first birded the Riley Creek Campground, which was fairly quiet until Jennifer found a very cooperative flock of white-winged crossbills

Next we drove to Savage River where we took a 5 hour hike toward Primrose Ridge.
We didn’t get high enough on the ridge for white-tailed ptarmigan but did get scope views of a dall sheep Ram, merlin and numerous golden eagles.
On the drive out had long, stunning looks at northern hawk owls preening atop a tall spindly spruce.

Nice dinner at the Perch restaurant for most of the group, a few of us had pizza at the tavern.

6/14/2009

Dawn, Raina, Liam and Scott woke at 3:50 to wander the campground playing a boreal owl recording. No owls heard but new for the trip were singing varied thrushes.
We made our shuttle bus bound for Wonder Lake in Denali Park at 6:15 am.
The ride in was fairly quiet as far as large animal sightings until just before our scheduled stop to hike. Two young grizzlies provided great 20 foot photo opps. from the bus.
Park policy dictates that hikers cannot get off within ½ mile of an animal so we went a half mile, de-bussed and headed right back to where the bears had been. A heavy fog cloaked their presence but when it lifted slightly one of the bears was wandering towards us so we waved our arms and spoke loudly and it turned away.

Tim, Raina and Frances continued onto Wonder Lake, as did Warren, Bill and Liam a little later. Mike, Dawn, Jennifer, Skip, Pam and Scott stayed to explore further.

We spent the next few hours wandering high meadows and waterways looking for upland sandpiper and white-tailed ptarmigan, which we did not find.

The hiking was lovely in the cool moist air. On our return bus trip we saw five more grizzlies including a sow digging for a ground squirrel with her two cubs watching her.
We all reassembled at the wilderness access Center and had a fun dinner at the Salmon Bake Café.

Clean-up Day in Nome

6/11/2009 – Today was ‘clean-up day’ for finding birds of Nome. In this regard we were victims of our own early success – we had found so many of our target species on the first four days that our target list was down to only four: white wagtail, red phalarope, black guillemot and horned or tufted puffin. Our plan to locate these hard-to-find species was to first check out the Nome River Bridge then drive to Teller Village.

We were lucky at the bridge, the mud-flats below it held an unplanned lifer for the group – slaty-backed gull. We then travelled the road to Teller at a casual speed. About 15 miles from town we were thrilled to find a large gray wolf on the slope just above the road. The wolf was in the company of a black and white dog giving us reason to believe that it was not a wild wolf but perhaps someone’s pet. Nevertheless this sighting was very exciting for the group.

We stopped at the Penny River bridge to look for American Dipper but instead found a seemingly abandoned baby moose. After a couple of minutes momma was located nearby in thick willows so we were all relieved.

A stop at the Bluestone river provided wonderful looks at a pair of rough-legged hawks tending a nest. The willows below the bridge provided looks at an active yellow warbler nest.

At the end of the road was the village of Teller, where we wondered at the harshness of the cold and windy weather. We first spent about an hour on the long sand-spit watching for seabirds and were provided with fly-by looks at horned puffins. Many looks at guillemots, including an incredible aerial mating display never produced diagnostic looks at black guillemot – only pigeon guillemots. A long walk across the peat-like bluff behind the Teller cemetery likewise failed to produce white wagtail, but the group enjoyed close-up looks at a vole handled by Dawn Garcia.

On the ride back to Nome we sopped briefly to look for black-bellied plover and instead had stunning up-close looks at long-tailed jaeger. At mile 23 we obtained distant views of a golden blonde grizzly on the opposite hillside.

Taking Nome by Storm

6/09/2009 – The group was clearly a little worn out after all the travelling and a marathon first day so we altered our plans for day 2 to allow for a little more sleep time. We decided to bird the Council road thoroughly, at least the portion fronting safety sound. Heavy fog limited our visibility for the first 15-20 miles, but when it finally lifted we quickly began to rack up the birds. Starting with nice views of yellow wagtail we proceeded to the Nome River Bridge where Raina found what turned out to be a pair of rare red-necked stints.

We then birded the Safety Sound lagoon extensively, finding pacific and arctic loons, emperor goose, common eiders, black-legged kittiwake and numerous other shorebirds and waterfowl.

The day ended on a high note with the observation of a pair of Gyrfalcons on a rocky out-cropping 43 miles from Nome, thanks to information provided us by Jon Dunn.

6/10/2009 – Today was our early day with a 5 am departure to seek the bristle Thighed curlew at mile 72 of the Kougarok road. A heavy fog and a flat tire slowed us down a little, but the group was enthusiastic to find this very localized species and after a 3 hour hike…

We were successful at obtaining great views of both flying, singing and walking bristle Thighed curlews. The group posed atop ‘curlew hill’ before hitting the road back toward Nome.

A lunch stop at the Kuzitrin River bridge was filled with bird song, as close up views of northern Waterthrush, yellow warbler, orange-crowned warbler, myrtle warbler, Wilson’s warbler and great looks at blackpoll warbler were enjoyed.

Stops on the way home provided views of black scoter on Salmon Lake,

golden eagle and northern shrike, both on nests.

Final Morning on Gambell

6/7/2009 Our last morning in Gambell was spent watching the sea. Gray whales fed less than 100 feet from shore. An iceberg hosting black-legged kittiwakes floated past and our first flock of common eiders for the trip flew overhead.

Our flight back to Nome was quick and we wasted no time getting a little birding in. At the Nome River mouth we found numerous western and semi-palmated sandpipers, arctic terns, bar-tailed godwits, long-tailed ducks and a few Aleutian terns. At 9:30 pm we picked up the first of our guests - Dawn, Raina, Frances and Bill and shuttled them to their accommodations.

What a Way to Start a Bird Tour

6/8/2009 Liam, Bill and I wedged in birding at Nome River mouth, picking up a black-tailed godwit in the process. Our remaining guests: Tim, Mike, Mauricio, Skip, Pam, Bill and Veronika and Warren and Jennifer arrived at 10:30 and 1:30 and we were on the birding trail by 2:00. Our objective was mile 40 of the Teller Road where a rare hawfinch had been seen for the past three days. Upon arriving we were told that all of the other groups that had searched for it in the last 24 hours had not found it, but we put in an attempt anyway. Although we were not able to re-find the bird we had many looks at numerous other species including long-tailed ducks, arctic warblers, American and pacific golden plovers, northern wheatear, yellow wagtail, long-tailed and parasitic jaegers, common and hoary redpolls. We chased a displaying Bluethroat across the tundra without ever securing a decent look at it, but we did have some nice looks at a flying American golden plover.

Ten miles further down the road we came upon a much more cooperative Bluethroat who posed for many pictures. A red fox carrying a squirrel across a snowy hillside capped a wonderful and warm (60+ degrees) Nome day.

Gambling on Gambell...CHA-CHING!

6/5/2009 – Liam looked a little nervous as we took off in the twin prop beechcraft bound for Gambell. Our 2 hours stopover in Nome had produced a number of fine birds within a mile of the airport, including a few lifers for Liam: gray-cheeked thrush, yellow wagtail and northern Waterthrush. Now we were making the short flight to the largest of two villages on St. Lawrence Island, Gambell – a whaling and walrus hunting outpost.

Because the Sivuqaq Inn had been sold out we had posted a ‘rental wanted’ sign at the store a couple of months prior and so our host Daniel picked us and our bags up at the airstrip. He and his wife Suzanne and there two children got us settled into their home and then they went about two hundred yards away to stay with relatives.

As soon as possible we ventured out to look for birds. Out our door were snow buntings, Lapland longspurs, and common and hoary redpolls. Observed from ‘the point’ just steps from our lodgings were northern fulmar, common and thick-billed murre, pigeon and black guillemot, horned and tufted puffin, pomarine jaeger, mew, Glaucous and slaty-backed gulls. Literally thousands of alcids flew by in non-stop flocks. Least auklets were easily ID’d foraging in the water nearshore