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Parakeet Auklets

….Passengers arriving back from the first zodiac cruise as we are about to set out describe the experience as the best hour of the tour, both for birds and scenery. Sure enough, our zodiac cruise is magnificent, with many of the seabirds swimming alongside each boat, especially Pigeon Guillemots. They occupy the boulders near the shore in their hundreds. Above them are Tufted Puffins, burrowing in grassy slopes. There are tens of thousands of pale morph Fulmars too, wheeling around the sky and nesting, with Glaucous Gulls in among them. McKay's Buntings fly over the slopes like snowflakes, whiter still than Snow Buntings. They are endemic breeders to four Bering Sea islands, and migrate to Alaska in the winter. The cliff scenery is just as impressive as the birds. The vast cliffs by Elephant Rock have ledges of guillemots (Common and Brunnich’s), packed against each other like sardines. ….During lunch we move round to nearby St Matthew Island and anchor off a large bay, with a tundra hinterland behind. The island is 30 miles long but uninhabited, and is the headquarters for the McKay’s Bunting. As soon as we land we see plenty of them, pure white males and females with streaked backs ….We find Grey-crowned Rosy Finches, and come across a series of small pools where phalaropes are swimming. There are five Red-necked, and a single male Grey, in its red breeding plumage. It would have been good to see its much brighter red partner, who initiates courtship and has nothing to do with family duties after egg-laying. It is wonderful to watch both species together, only a few feet from us as we lie on the grassy bank. A pair of Long-tailed Skuas fly over, and have a nest in the tundra beyond the phalarope pools. Long-tailed Duck are establishing territory on other small ponds, and allow a close approach. Rock Sandpipers are nesting all over the tundra, with males display-flighting and raising a single wing. ….Suddenly on the marine band radios which we carry comes a call that an Emperor Goose has been seen on a lake, an hour’s walk beyond where we are. A twitch! Yomping over spongy tundra and bog, we just have time. The goose is swimming on the lake, showing grey body and pale neck: a rare bird, here seen in a wonderfully remote spot. Friday, 13 June ….we anchor off Gambell, the Yupik settlement at the north-west corner of St Lawrence Island. After early fog, we have a superb sunny day, and clear views over to the snowy Siberian Chukchi Peninsula, 38 miles away. It is a tough walk over shingle to the northwest point of the island, a renowned sea-watching spot. Auklets are streaming north in flocks, mostly Crested, with many guillemots in with them - both Common and Brunnich’s. This is the only place where we have seen more Horned than Tufted Puffins. Five Sandhill Cranes fly right over us, heading directly for Siberia. A friendly Grey Whale comes drifting past us, only a few metres offshore. Ducks are represented by Goosander and Common Eider; and before we left the ship King Eiders too. After an hour or so, Lars shouts "Spectacled Eider!" as a young male flies past, and quickly out of sight. Luckily it is soon relocated at the landing site, and many passengers hire the quad-bikes which the Yupiks use as taxis to reach the bird more quickly. Luckily it gives lengthy views - a rare and declining bird with a restricted range. ….Many people take a walk or ride round the village, with its grim boneyards, of Bowhead Whale and Walrus. The Yupiks are closer relatives of the Chukchis than the Aleuts. Most of their protein comes from whale, walrus and seal meat. Cruise days must be important for the local economy. The American passengers are seeking Siberian vagrants to add to their U.S. lists, but not much is about: only White and Yellow Wagtails. As we set off for Nome, on a beautiful sunny and calm evening, Grey Whales appear around the ship.

Crested Auklets and Least Auklet

….We arrive at Nome Port at 06.30, while we are having a final breakfast on board. Since Kushiro, we have voyaged 3,988 statute miles. Soon afterwards, with many fond farewells to crew and staff, we disembark, to spend a day in Nome. A big yellow school-bus is home for the day, driven by Warren, who is a mine of information about this unusual place. It is a remote gold-rush town, where gold was first discovered in 1898, on the beach and inland. After two or three years, Nome had a population of 25,000. It is a great place for coastal and tundra birding too, with an emphasis on waders. ….on the Safety Sound road, we make a first stop at an old gold-dredge that has been preserved. Western Sandpipers feed almost at our feet, and three American sparrow species sing in the low willow and birch scrub: White-crowned, Savannah and the less expected Tree. Brian, searching for raptors, finds a Moose with two calves. At the bridge over the Nome River, a lone Snow Goose is a good find: it is far west of its usual migration routes. Red-throated Divers swim in the estuary and fly over cackling. Waders here range in size from Least Sandpiper to Bar-tailed Godwit. ….We are scanning pools (finding Red Fox, Tundra Swan and American Wigeon), when our mammal-spotter Brian scores again: this time with a herd of Musk Oxen up on a hillside. There are seven lying down, and a fine old male with shaggy coat and pale, spindly legs. A little further on, Sandhill Cranes graze on the left, while on the right is a close Long-tailed Skua. An Arctic Redpoll perches on a rock in the tundra: its Common cousin is also here, mostly in more scrubby habitats. ….A Pacific Diver in full summer plumage is out on the lagoon, and looks exquisite in the scopes. A pair of Arctic Skuas are on territory too, one dark and one of the pale morph. ….At 17.00 we meet up in town to drive the short distance to the airport to check in for the Anchorage flight. Sunday, 15 June …Three shuttle buses take us to the airport for the 12.06 Alaskan Airlines flight to Seattle. Luggage is x-rayed and tagged directly through to London. We land 20 minutes early, in good time to collect boarding passes for the British Airways flight to Heathrow. The London flight is full, and takes off at 18.40. With the eight-hour time-change to BST, we are immediately into....... Monday, 16 June ....It is almost a nine-hour flight to Heathrow, over Churchill and endless expanses of magnificent North Canadian tundra in the half-light between day and night. The routing is over Southern Greenland, Kintyre and Manchester: we land at a hot and sunny Heathrow 20 minutes early. And so we complete our amazing journey round the Northern Hemisphere.

Laysan Albatross