Road Trip Reports

Alaska 2008
By Jimmy Woodard

Max Fuller, Nealnd Hill, Esther Key, Jerry Vanbebber and I left Oklahoma City on Saturday, June 7, 2008 for a birding trip to Alaska. Around noon Alaska time (which is three hours earlier than OKC), we arrived in Anchorage and then headed south toward Seward. Just outside of town we stopped at Potter Marsh for the first lifer of the trip, an Arctic Tern for Jerry.

Several birding and sightseeing stops produced Common Loon, Trumpeter Swan, Magpie, Red-necked Grebe, and Tree and Violet-green Swallows. Along Resurrection Bay in Seward we found Harlequin Ducks, Barrow’s Goldeneye, Wandering Tattler, Northwestern Crow, Glacous-winged Gull, and Steller’s Jay. A female Varied Thrush on a bright green lawn made a beautiful contrast in colors. We rounded out our first day in Alaska with a nice halibut dinner.

On Sunday, June 8, we were up early and out to the boat docks for a pelagic trip. We were joined by Sheila Edgmon, Dan and Ann Farrell, and Berlin and Bucky Heck. We were together on the same boat with six other passengers and two crew members. We left the dock at 8:30 a.m. on a perfect day with a calm wind, clear sky and small waves.

Soon we came across a group of at least 50 sea otters – an impressive sight! Nearby we saw several humpback whales and three orcas (a most-wanted life mammal for me!). A visit to several islands for nesting seabirds produced hundreds of Mew Gulls, Black-legged Kittiwakes, Horned and Tufted Puffins, Common Murre, Red-faced Cormorant, and Marbled Murrelet.

We ate lunch in Cataract Cove. The boat was nestled near a cliff with a waterfall above us. What a breathtakingly beautiful spot! Lunch was interrupted by several Kittlitz’s Murrelets surfacing near the boat.

We cruised into Northwest Fjord and through the ice chocked blue-green waters to the face of Northwest Glacier. A mountain goat with a small baby walked across a rocky slope.

The eerie silence was broken periodically by the gunshot-like noise of ice breaking off the glacier. We saw several relatively small ice chunks crash into the sea. There was one large snow slide which rumbled from high up in the snowfield and flowed into the water similar to an avalanche. It was quite impressive.

The frigid air and water were absolutely still. The sunshine blazed off the snow-covered mountains on either side of us in start contrast to the deep blue sky. It was a view unsurpassed in my experiences.

In the afternoon, we skirted past several more islands. Most were covered with seabirds and sea lions. Several harbor seals poked their heads out of the water to check us out.

After the cruise and dinner we drove back to Anchorage. A somewhat tired and sunburned group arrived at 10 p.m. which seemed more like the middle of the day with Anchorage receiving more than 20 hours of sunshine.

Monday morning we met the rest of our birding group at the airport. Joining us were Lou and Mary Truex, along with Kurt and Sharon Meisenzahl. We exchanged greetings and bird stories before leaving Anchorage about 11 a.m.

We hit the ground running in Nome and met our birding guides, Dave McKay and Scott Huber. They fed us a quick lunch of Subway sandwiches before taking us out birding in two vans.

We headed inland to bird along Kougarak Road. We quickly found Golden Eagles and Rough-legged Hawks on nests. A frenetic Arctic Warbler (#707 for me) circled around us several times. Its subdued colors were in contrast to the beautiful blue and red of a nearby displaying Bluethroat. Competing for attention were displaying Golden-crowned and Tree Sparrows and several Gray-cheeked Thrushes. Further up the road we enjoyed finding a Gyrfalcon on a nest. Returning to town that evening, we stopped at the Nome dump. Our guides found us  1^st and 2^nd year Slaty-backed Gulls.

We visited a bridge south of town where the Nome River dumps into the Bering Sea. Birds were plentiful and included Long-tailed Duck, Aleutian and Arctic Tern, Long-tailed Jaeger, Bar-tailed Godwit, Ruddy Turnstone, Pacific and American Golden-Plover, Western Sandpiper, and Common Redpoll. Back in town, one van headed to the motel and the second continued birding. They were rewarded with a White Wagtail. 

We had dinner at Milano’s, a Chinese-Italian restaurant, and then went back out to look for the wagtail. We didn’t find it but were rewarded with a pair of Willow Ptarmigan. We finally quit birding at 11 p.m. but the sunshine was still bright – like the middle of the day.

Tuesday was our first full day in Nome and it began cold and snowy. It snowed three inches in a couple of hours. We went inland on Kougarak Road and found several Rock and Willow Ptarmigan. We made a pit stop at Summit Lake and then walked a rocky hill and found a Surfbird in breeding plumage. A male Surf Scoter paddled around in a nearby pond.

A stop at a river produced a pair of Goshawks on a nest. A Blackpoll Warbler sang from the willows. Up the road we found a cute short-tailed weasel carrying a vole almost as big as itself.

We reached Coffee Dome Hill, some 70 miles from Nome, about 1 p.m. This is the famous spot where Bristle-thighed Curlew nests. We ate our sandwiches in the van since it was cold and windy. Afterward, everyone except Nealand, Esther and I took the hike up the hill. They found the bird and were back in the van in about an hour.

On the return trip, we saw a huge bull moose standing belly-deep in a pond. We also found a Whimbrel, Merlin, and one Rusty Blackbird. We got to Nome around 5:30 p.m. and birded the river where we saw Red Phalarope and Ruddy Turnstones. An Arctic Warbler at a nearby marsh gave us a close look. We went to dinner at Milano’s again and turned in at 9 p.m.

A cold and snowy day greeted us for our 6:30 breakfast on Wednesday. A low tire slowed our departure to the Nome River but we found a pair of Tundra Swans, Brant, and a Red Knot to start the morning. Further south we stopped at Cape Nome and birded on a rock jetty. We found a female King Eider among the rafts of murres and gulls. A Peregrine Falcon perched on a cliff above us.

We stopped along the road at the Safety Sound to check the marshes and the inland bay.  The clouds cleared as we searched the shoreline. Two Black Turnstones were a nice find in addition to Dunlin and Common Eider. Kurt noticed activity on the seaside which turned in to a pair of breeding-plumaged Arctic Loons (#708 for me!).

The gravel road veered away from the sea and we began to gain elevation into the interior hills and mountains. On a rocky hillside we observed a pair of Northern Wheatears. A mustard white butterfly was an unexpected find. A Say’s Phoebe along a ridgeline was another surprise.

Later in the afternoon we entered a boreal forest near the end of the road at Council, about 70 miles from Nome. A stop at a river crossing produced a pair of Bohemian Waxwings. In the forest we saw Pine Grosbeak, Blackpoll and several Snowshoe Hares. We tried to call up a Boreal Chickadee but had no luck.

We had to hustle back to Nome to make our 8 p.m. dinner reservation at Airport Pizza. Along the way some of the group in the front van got brief looks at two Snow Buntings. After dinner we celebrated the day with chocolate tower cake for the whole group. We finished our long day at 10 p.m.

Thursday the 12^th began clear and cold. We ventured north of Nome making several stops along the way. At the Penny River we saw an American Dipper darting under a bridge. We also saw a Short-eared Owl flying over a grassy hillside. Another Arctic Warbler made a close approach. We enjoyed several more ptarmigan and lots of reindeer.

Our van got a flat and luckily it was time for lunch so we stopped at the Wooly Lagoon turnoff. We sat on the rocks eating our sandwiches and enjoying a Northern Wheatear bouncing close by. Scott walked us up the road to check on a Common Redpoll nest with eggs. We didn’t see any adults. On Wooly Road we located Pacific Golden-Plover and Black-bellied Plover.

We made it to Teller about 3 p.m. and split up to search for the White Wagtail pair that usually nests there. We were unsuccessful but enjoyed the walk through the Inuit village. We watched seals riding the ice floes into Brantley Harbor on the tides. There were Pigeon Guillemots in the harbor.

We headed straight back to Nome with only a few stops but we did find a Northern Shrike. Dinner was again at Airport Pizza. Dave had to fly out so we said our goodbyes and thanked him for all his hard work. Scott took us back out to look for rarities (Red-necked Stint and Little Ringed Plover) but again no luck. We returned to our rooms at 10:30 p.m.

On Friday the 13^th we spent our last hours in Nome checking in bags at the airport then having a big farewell breakfast at Airport Pizza. We left Nome about 9:50 a.m. and enroute to Anchorage we got a spectacular view of snow-covered Mt. McKinley, majestically towering through a low cloud deck.

In Anchorage, about noon, we parted company with Sheila, Ann, Dan, and Scott. The rest of us had late night flights so we rented cars and birded the rest of the day.

Lou and Mary, Kurt and Sharon, Esther, Jerry, Max, Nealand, and I headed south of town to Potter Marsh. We didn’t find anything new but did run into Berlin and Bucky.

Next we went north of town to the Eagle River Nature Center. The visitor center was great and there were many trails to hike. We took a trail and boardwalk into the river valley.

We saw many birds including Alder Flycatacher, Brown Creeper, Hairy Woodpecker and Black-capped Chickadee. We also found both Three-toed and Downy Woodpeckers on nests. The mosquitoes were active so we went back to the center and had ice cream treats. We spotted 23 Dall Sheep on the mountainside across the valley.

It was time to leave Alaska. My group (Esther, Jerry, Max, Nealand) flew out at 11 p.m. on the red-eye to Denver. We got home about 12:30 p.m. on Saturday the 14^th.

Addendum: Lou & Mary Truex and Sharon & Kurt Meisenzahl went to Alaska on June 1st and birded Anchorage, Denali and Seward areas before joining Jimmy Woodard's tour group in Nome on June 9th.  In addition to seeing spectacular wildlife, including lynx, black bear and a grizzly with 3 cubs, Kurt added 20 bird species to his North American life list; Sharon added 24.

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