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.