Too cheap to rent an ATV, we trudged the round gravel paths across the village to the ‘far boneyard’ a large expanse of middens filled with walrus, seal and whale bones…

This and the other boneyards in town consistently produce rare bird sightings as vagrants are attracted to the nutrients in the disturbed soil. One of our best finds here were our friends from Chico Jay Bogiatto and Shelly Kirn, who helped us find some of our other finds: an immature black-headed gull, a female red-throated pipit and a colorful and rare female rustic bunting…

…also seen on this inland trek were northern wheatear, the first of over a dozen white wagtails (one was under the porch of our lodging!), bar-tailed godwits, western sandpiper and American robin.

An early start the next morning rewarded us with a fly-by yellow-billed loon. Next we headed for ‘the cliff’ about a mile distant. Here were perched auklets easily observed with the naked eye: least, parakeet and crested. Another birding group tipped us off to a pair of dovekies on the hillside, I was able to get a foggy look but Liam was getting chilled (about 24 degrees) and by the time he warmed enough to have a look they were gone.

At noon we broke down and rented a 4-wheeler for half day, which gave us access to areas a couple of miles away. At the west end of the lake we found wandering tattler, dunlin, northern pintail, greater scaup, red-necked phalaropes, semi-palmated plover and long-tailed jaeger. Because eye-browed thrush had been seen the previous day we got excited when a thrush popped out of the rocky tundra but the ‘rarity’ turned out to be Swainson’s thrush. At the ponds at the west end of the lake we found a most cooperative rock sandpiper.

Tomorrow is our last morning at Gambell then back to Nome to prepare for our group

Alaska - Let the Games Begin!

6/5/2009 - The adventure began before we even left Sacramento – an hour delay which made us miss our connection at Portland, a revised flight schedule via Seattle, running back and forth from terminal to terminal and finally arriving at Anchorage at 3:00 am (and hoping our bags make it to Nome)! A 3 hour sleep on the floor of the terminal found us anxious and enthusiastic to go find our target bird for the Anchorage area.

Catching a cab at 5:45 am to Westchester lagoon we were immediately greeted by mew gulls, Glaucous-winged gulls, greater scaup, mallard, American wigeon, Canada goose (either lesser or taverneri cackler), black-billed magpies and the calls of downy woodpecker, tree swallow and American robin. Dark-eyed juncos and orange-crowned warblers (and perhaps Myrtle warbler) called from the poplars.

Crossing to the western end of the lagoon we found a very close and unperturbed pair of red-necked grebes tending a nest.

Greater yellowlegs and a very black breeding plumaged common look patrolled nearby.

At the end of the lagoon against the Cook Inlet we followed to the Coastal Trail north through a tunnel that exits onto a view of the tidal flats of the inlet. The tide was moderately high (the condition we were hoping for) and so we glassed the flats optimistically for about 30 seconds before Liam called out “Hudsonian Godwit!” our target bird and a lifer for both of us. As it turned out there were 8 total, mostly males, feeding just 150 yards out from us. We spent about 20 minutes observing and photographing these lovely birds (though neither of our cameras were equipped to get decent photos at that distance).

Also on the flats were arctic terns, lots of Bonaparte’s gulls (many in breeding regalia) and a lone sandhill crane. A black-capped chickadee scolded up from 5 feet away on the walk back to meet our cab back to the airport. Next stop Nome and then Gambell by tonight!

Western Kingbird Nest: Sycamore and Star-thistle