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, we were only three miles from our ultimate destination, so we decided to carry on. Fortunately, on the return journey, the noise ceased. We started at the Mile 37 ridge where there had been a couple of reports of both Surfbird and Red Knot at this location. We were fortunate to find a Surfbird almost immediately, quickly followed by a Red Knot. We ascended a fair bit higher up the ridge, but the only shorebird addition was an American Golden-Plover. A few Horned Larks were new for the trip. Descending back down, we had decent looks at a Rock Ptarmigan and near the car, we discovered a mixed flock of two Red Knots and five Surfbirds, which showed really well. On arrival back at the car, a Bluethroat made a song flight and gave brief, but good, looks.

Surfbird on the tundra

We then proceeded back to the Mile 34 ridge, where we began a fruitless search for breeding Rock Sandpipers. We did get great looks at a stunning alternate-plumaged Ruddy Turnstone and a male Snow Bunting. It was fun to watch the turnstone feeding on the alpine tundra, flicking over small stones as if it was on a pebble beach. We also found a few Western Sandpipers and, frustratingly, had a probable Baird’s Sandpiper fly by calling.

On the return trip, we made several stops looking for Wandering Tattler on gravel banks in the rivers. We failed to see any, setting a pattern for pretty much the rest of the trip. Later in the trip, I finally did investigation of tattler breeding habits and discovered that the species does not nest on gravel banks in rivers. They nest in shrubby tundra, often a mile or two away from the rivers or lake where they feed.

After a stop in our rental studios for some food and rest, we popped over to the Nome River mouth, where a Red-necked Stint and a pair of Eurasian Wigeon had been reported. We quickly found these along with a Pacific Golden-plover, a close Parasitic Jaeger and four Aleutian Terns, which gave good looks. There were a few Semipalmated Plovers around. I gave these a close look and noticed a bird with rather prominent white supercilium. Further inspection showed it to be a little larger than the adjacent Semipalmated Plovers. We started to give it serious consideration as a Common Ringed Plover and after a couple of minutes it flew off and passed close enough to hear the diagnostic ‘too-it’ call two or three times. This continued the pattern of short-staying rarities at the Nome River Mouth, where we ended up missing Gray-tailed Tattler, Great Knot and Fork-tailed Swift.

Common Ringed Plover

A final run up the Kougarok failed to find a Wandering Tattler but did net us our first Northern Shrike of the trip, along with some good looks at Arctic Warblers.

We decided to dedicate the next day, our final full day around Nome prior to leaving for Gambell, to some offshore scoping as we had not seen either Stejneger’s Scoter, Arctic Loon or any of the rarer eiders. We were also short of both Vega and Slaty-backed Gulls, although apparently numbers of large gulls in the north Bering Sea were well below normal during our visit.

We were blessed with glassy sea conditions and, after a quick stop off at the Nome River mouth, commenced ocean scoping at Cape Nome. We quickly found a number of loons and small groups of White-winged and Black Scoters. One group of White-winged Scoters was not too far out and we soon noticed a male bird that appeared to show a prominent knob on the bill base as well as a more pear-shaped head – both key field marks for a Stejneger’s. Closer examination confirmed these field marks, as well as indicating that the bird had black flanks, unlike the brown flanks that were visible on the nearby White-winged Scoters. A final difference was the more pinkish-orange, rather than yellow-orange, coloration of part of the bill.

Stejneger's Scoter

We proceeded eastward, picking up more scoters, including a second male Stejneger’s, loons, Long-tailed Ducks and eiders, as well as a distant stream of murres heading west towards their breeding colony on an offshore island. Eventually, I picked up a reasonably close-in Yellow-billed Loon. Although the views hardly compared with those of the pair on Salmon Lake, it was still nice to see one under more typical conditions. Shortly afterwards, we picked up four more distant Yellow-billed Loons as well as several Red-necked Grebes, which we had not seen previously around Nome. We had no luck with any eiders other than Common. A single distant Surfbird on a rocky jetty was another example of a species in its typical (non-breeding) habitat.

At the mouth of Safety Sound, we finally found a first-year Glaucous-winged Gull in the Glaucous Gull flock, but a darker-winged immature gull was too far for specific identification. While on the bridge, we heard a Common Ringed Plover calling and picked it up flying east. We were confident that we had seen it go down just a couple of hundred yards east, but a thorough search failed to find it. Otherwise, shorebird numbers were definitely down and after lunchtime, we decided to head back to our accommodation. This proved a decent decision as we found a White Wagtail (later a pair) hanging around there – our first and only ones during our stay at Nome.

The mandatory evening trip out to the Nome River just had the usual suspects, although nice looks at 10 Aleutian Terns made it worthwhile.