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Gambell: The Auklet Extravaganza and Rare Migrants

  Gambell lies at the western tip of Saint Lawrence Island and is only 40 miles from the coast of Russa. We were fortunate to have a couple of days where the weather was nice enough for the snow-covered mountains along the Russian coast to be visible from the island. As much as I was looking forward to a return visit to the Arctic at Barrow (now Utqiagvik), Gambell was the most anticipated segment of our Alaska trip for me as I had never previously visited this fabled location. Gambell is well known as an excellent location for vagrants and for spectacular seawatches, involving tens of thousands of alcids streaming by. Since we had all birded extensively in the Old World, the vagrants took a back seat to the breeding seabirds from our perspective. In addition, after our failure in Nome, Rock Sandpiper was now a major priority. After arriving at midday and settling into our rooms, we decided to head out to the south end of Troutman Lake, where a couple of displaying Rock Sandpip...
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The Teller Highway

  The third ‘major highway’ out of Nome leads northwest towards Teller. A major attraction of this road is that it passes through alpine tundra and allows easy access to a couple of higher ridges. We headed out here early on the morning of June 5 with the goal of finding Red Knot, Surfbird, Ruddy Turnstone and Rock Sandpiper on their breeding grounds. In addition, there were several other breeding shorebird species along the highway. We kept an eye open for raptors, as we had yet to see Rough-legged Hawk on the trip, and were rewarded with two different birds soon after getting started. Crossing the wet tundra prior to reaching the higher ridges, we found a number of breeding shorebirds, with both American and Pacific Golden-Plovers, Whimbrel and Bar-tailed Godwit being seen. We had a brief flight view of the only Eastern Yellow Wagtail of the trip. Pacific Golden-plover We got a bit concerned when the rear passenger-side wheel began to make some pretty horrible noises. However, ...
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Gyrfalcons

 One of our top four targets to see well in the Nome area was Gyrfalcon as it was unlikely we would see it elsewhere. Due to various circumstances, our views on the second day in Nome hadn’t been that good, so it was a priority to head back up the Council road to see the birds again. Red-necked Stint Since this route took us past Cape Nome and Safety Sound, we spent a significant amount of time checking the sea, the lagoon and a couple of suitable shorebird spots on the way. We did a bit better for seaducks and saw all thee of the regular scoters, with Black being the commonest, but had no luck with any of the rarer loons or eiders. Along the south shore of Safety Sound, Andy found three Red-necked Stints that posed well for photographs. Further along the lagoon we found a couple of Emperor Geese and while looking at these, I noticed two Pale-bellied Brants, which are very rare in this area. Interestingly they were feeding apart from the nearby Black Brant flock. We were able to ge...
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The Kougarok Highway

  On June 3, we headed up the Kougarok Highway to Coffee Dome, the classic site for breeding Bristle-thighed Curlew. Since the birds were more likely to display early in the morning, we made an early start just after 5.00 AM and arrived at the base of the dome by 7 AM, despite a few photo stops for Musk Ox. The walk up the dome was uneventful but as we approached the top, we began to see Whimbrels. At the top, we noticed an American Golden-Plover and headed towards the area it was in as several of the recent ebird lists that had successfully recorded the curlew had also seen a pair of plovers. As we approached, we heard a displaying Bristle-thighed Curlew that then obligingly flew in and landed near to the plover. The curlew remained there and allowed a fairly close approach for great photographs. Given that this species can be tricky to see, we were delighted to see it so well with relatively little effort and descended back towards the car in good spirits, safe in the knowledge...
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There’s No Place Like Nome

 The afternoon of June 1 we flew to Nome for 6 days of birding prior to heading out to Gambell. After picking up our vehicle and settling into our accommodation, we had a couple of hours of daylight to head out to the nearby Nome River Mouth, where a Red-necked Stint had been reported the previous day. As we were driving along the coast road, Andy noticed a flock of geese heading west over the ocean. These were mostly Brant but contained seven Emperor Geese, one of our key targets for the Nome Area. On arrival at the river mouth, we saw another goose flock coming into land there, which included two Emperor Geese. These gave excellent views and ended any concerns about not getting good enough looks. Emperor Goose There was a small mudflat exposed in the river mouth with a good selection of shorebirds. A couple of Bar-tailed Godwits were immediately obvious and scanning through a flock of about 80 peeps quickly revealed the Red-necked Stint – a very bright alternate-plumaged bird – a...
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Return to the 49th State

  Over 30 years ago, I made my first visit to Alaska. Several more followed over the next few years and culminated in me publishing the state’s first bird-finding guide. I eventually sold 3000 copies before passing the rights on to the American Birding Association as the basis for a new guide. Since the mid-90s, I have only visited the state once, with my family in 2008. That trip was memorable for the wrong reasons as young son and daughter spent the long drives to Denali and the Seward Peninsula constantly fighting and bickering in the back of the car. Fortunately, they grew out of this after that. A return visit was always in my plans because of my goal to see again the great majority of western USA and European bird species. Two of my old UK birding friends, Paul Thompson and Andy Silcocks, were keen to join as they had never been to the Arctic or the Bering Sea area. After a fair amount of planning and booking, we arranged to meet up in Anchorage on May 30 and from there mak...
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