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Alaska 2015: Kenai Fjords and Denali National Park

Posted in Travel for Birding, tagged Alaska, Arctic Ground Squirrel, Birding, Birds, Black-billed Magpie, Caribou, Denali National Park, Fireweed, Gray Jay, Kenai Fjords, Mew Gull, Northern Flicker, Northwestern Glacier, Pine Grosbeak, Steller's Sea Lion, Willow Ptarmigan, Wolf on September 13, 2015| 3 Comments »

After returning from St. Paul Island, we stayed within driving distance of Anchorage for the next week. On June 18, most of our group drove 175 miles up Glenn Highway to the Tolsona Wilderness Campground where a family of Great Gray Owls had been observed for several weeks. I would have liked to see the owls, but I opted to go with my roommate, Ellen, to retrieve her car from a friend’s house in Wasilla. Ellen’s car would be part of the caravan transporting our 22 birders for this part of the trip.

We got the car and then headed on up the highway to meet the others. Ellen and I found the only Northern Flickers of the trip while searching for a Northern Hawk Owl. The flickers were the yellow-shafted sub-species rather than the red-shafted form of Northern Flicker found in the west. The photo below was shot by wildlife photographer Michael Quinton in Alaska. For more of Michael’s beautiful work, see his blog, Journal of a Wildlife Photographer.

Yellow-shafted Northern Flicker

I was surprised to see the yellow-shafted form of the Flicker, but trip co-leader, Dave Hursh, explained that many birds in Alaska are the eastern sub-species. The eBird map below for Yellow-shafted Northern Flicker shows how the range sweeps west and north. The red-shafted form occurs in the west and does not go as far north as Alaska. Yellow-rumped Warblers show similar range patterns with our eastern “Myrtle” warblers common in Alaska and their western “Audubon’s” counterparts staying farther south.

Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted) eBird range map

We met the rest of our group a little later just after they had found the Northern Hawk Owl sitting on a telephone wire and everyone got great looks. The day ended with a delicious dinner at Sheep Mountain Lodge and the drive back to Anchorage.

The next day we drove to Seward, birding along the way. One of my favorite stops was just outside of Seward at Ava’s Place, a yard with numerous feeders and an owner who welcomes birders. There was constant activity in the yard with an estimated 30 Pine Siskins and about a dozen other species. I especially enjoyed the Pine Grosbeaks – males, females, and juveniles.

Pine Grosbeak (male)

Pine Grosbeak (female)

The reason for our visit to Seward was to take the 9-hour Northwestern Fjord tour. It was a wonderful cruise, 150 miles round trip that went deep into Kenai Fjords National Park. I have to confess, though, that the Northwestern Glacier itself was underwhelming, even downright disappointing. I think that I had expected it to look like it did 100 years ago, but the glacier has retreated over 6 miles in the last century. The photos below show the view in 1909 and again in 2005. Most other glaciers in Alaska and elsewhere are also rapidly melting, evidence of global warming accelerated by human activities.

Northwestern Glacier in 1909 and 2005

The day was very overcast and I had visual difficulty with my transitions lenses that darkened too much. But, I couldn’t see well without them either because they had the prisms that corrected my double vision. Even so, I enjoyed the wildlife and beautiful landscape.

The highlight for me was a Humpback Whale that we observed “pec slapping.” We speculated about the behavior, but back home a little research suggests that it’s a form of communication. The whale swam on the surface of the water slowly and repeatedly lifting and slapping it’s massive 15-foot pectoral fin on the surface of the water. It was quite impressive! We also observed the whale breech, almost completely clearing the water, for a thrilling finale.

Unfortunately, I did not get a photo of the whale, but I did get a photo of the Steller’s Sea Lions below.

Steller’s Sea Lions

After Seward we made the long drive to Healy, our base for exploring Denali National Park for two full days.

Denali National Park

Wolves in Denali National Park

We saw birds in Denali, but the highlights there were mammals. We saw all of the “Big 5” – grizzly bear, caribou, moose, Dall sheep, and wolf. Four of the five are pretty reliable, but we were very lucky that most of us saw two wolves right on the road. The wolf population has declined in Denali in recent years. Numbers reached a record low this spring with an estimated population of just 48 in the park’s 18,820 square kilometers of wolf population area.

We saw several caribou, most scruffy like the one in the photo below.

Caribou

Arctic Ground Squirrel

I also enjoyed seeing smaller mammals like the Arctic Ground Squirrel. I asked the bus driver to stop so that I could get this photo. He seemed to think that I was the only one who was interested, but I saw several other cameras come out for this cute little rodent.

Wildflowers in Nome and the Pribolof Islands had been mostly small tundra species except for the lupine and wild celery. Larger showier flowers were common around Denali and on the Kenai Peninsula. I loved the beautiful Fireweed.

Flower Fly on Fireweed

I never got tired of Ptarmigans. We watched this female Willow Ptarmigan scramble up a hill followed by several small chicks.

Willow Ptarmigan (female)

Mew Gulls were very cooperative photographic subjects. This one perched atop a car in a parking lot and I was able to walk right up to it.

Mew Gull

And, here is a female Mew Gull on her nest by the side of a river.

Mew Gull

Black-billed Magpies were big bold subjects for the camera. This one was in a parking lot. They were rather common, but they were always fun to see.

Black-billed Magpie

Gray Jays were bold, too, and we enjoyed several near a picnic area at one of the stops on our all-day bus ride in Denali National Park. It is illegal to feed the birds, but based upon the way they were looking for handouts, I’m sure that they had previous experience with snack-sharing law-breaking visitors.

Gray Jay

As in every part of the trip, it was over all too soon and we drove back to Anchorage. In the photo below, taken on that drive, you can see the ubiquitous wild celery in the foreground.

This is the third of six posts about my month in Alaska. Next – Alaska 2015: To the Top of the World

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Alaska 2015: “There’s no place like Nome”

Posted in Travel for Birding, tagged Alaska, Anchorage, Arctic Loon, Arctic Tern, Arctic Warbler, Birding, Birds, Bristle-thighed Curlew, Glaucous Gull, Lake Hood, Lapland Longspur, Moose, Musk Ox, Nome, Red-necked Grebe, Red-throated Loon, Slaty-backed Gull, Willow Ptarmigan on August 4, 2015| 1 Comment »

I don’t remember a time that I didn’t want to visit Alaska. It’s a big expensive trip, though, so it had not risen to top of my travel plans until Bill Drummond wrote last year inviting me to go on his 23^rd and last trip to Alaska. I wanted to go with Bill because of his extensive experience in Alaska, so I signed up for the 3-week birding trip. And, I would have a bonus. My friend, Diane, wanted to go on the trip, but could not get the time off from work, so we decided that I would stay another week after Bill’s trip and she would fly out to meet me. The two of us would spend a week on the Kenai Peninsula. Nearly a year after committing to the trip, I flew to Anchorage on June 7. The next morning I flew to Nome to meet Bill, co-leader Dave Hursh, and the rest of our group. Nome was much smaller than I’d expected with a population under 4,000. It seemed that all the visitors to the town were birders, some with organized groups and some on their own. There are three main roads leading out from Nome, each about 75 miles long, but no roads or railways connect Nome to other major Alaskan cities. Birding in Nome consists of driving these three roads. Birds are spread out in breeding season, with large groups only along the coast of the Bering Sea. The appeal to birders isn’t numbers, though, but birds that are found nowhere else.

Male Willow Ptarmigan on the Kougarok Road

The avian star of Nome is the Bristle-thighed Curlew (click link for fantastic photo and info), a shorebird that looks a lot like a Whimbrel. This rare bird with a population well under 10,000 is known to breed only on inland tundra in the steep hills of western Alaska. Nests are frequently placed directly beneath dwarf willow shrubs. Two sites near Nome are the only places where birders can see the curlew on its breeding grounds. On our first full day in Nome, June 9, our goal was to see this bird, Bill’s favorite. We choose the easier site, at mile 72 on Kougarok Road, as most birders do, but it still took several hours to climb the hill on the spongy and uneven tundra. There were interesting sights on our way up the hill, though – tiny tundra flowers, nesting Long-tailed Jaegers, Willow Ptarmigan. I did not get the close look at the curlews that I’d hoped for, but just as exciting was a bird that flew directly overhead uttering its distinctive call.

A female Willow Ptarmigan, part way up the hill to the curlews.

On June 10, we spent the day closer to Nome where we found Musk Oxen not far from town. As rough looking as they are, underneath that tangled mess is an undercoat of fine wool that is eight times warmer than sheep wool and softer than cashmere. Musk Ox are not sheared; the fine wool is collected by hand combing or picking from bushes the animals rub against during molt. As you can guess, it is highly prized and very expensive.

Musk Oxen

Lapland Longspurs are common breeding birds in Alaska. We saw them everywhere except around Anchorage and on the Kenai Peninsula.

Lapland Longspur

We drove to Teller on June 11. One of our target birds was Arctic Warbler, a regular breeder near Nome. Our caravan of cars carrying our 22 birders stayed in close contact via 2-way radios. This day, I was riding in the same car with Bill. When we reached an area with willows where we expected to find the warblers, the others started down a side road. Bill said, “We usually see them right here,” so our car stopped and we got out. Immediately, I heard Pete say “I’m on it” and my binoculars were soon on it, too. Everyone else came to where we were and all had good views.

Arctic Warbler

Another pleasant stop that day was at the bridge over the Sinuk River. It was a gorgeous day and some beautiful birds cooperated for photographs. I had seen Red-throated Loons before – in winter. Seeing their glowing red throats in breeding plumage was almost like getting a life bird.

Red-throated Loon

The lovely and amazing Arctic Terns really were life birds. They have the longest annual migration of any animal on earth. Recent studies that placed geolocators on Arctic Terns discovered that their zigzag flights between their tundra breeding grounds and their wintering grounds off of Antarctica average 44,000 miles annually!

Arctic Tern

We spent most of June 12^th birding the first 20 miles of the Council Road between Nome and Safety Sound. We were lucky to see another of our targets, Arctic Loon. We found two birds close to shore and I was able to get a photo before we watched them swim farther out into the sea.

Arctic Loons

As expected, we saw lots of gulls along the coast. Glaucous Gulls were common in Nome.

Glaucous Gull (first summer/2nd cycle?)

Another fun sighting was not a bird, but a female Moose who had just given birth on the opposite side of the river along the road. The first group to arrive saw the baby stand on wobbly legs and nurse. By the time that I got there, the baby had lain down close to mom. The next day we flew back to Anchorage, but not before a little more birding along the coast. We had good looks at a first summer Slaty-backed Gull feeding with other gulls on the washed-up carcass of a walrus.

Slaty-backed Gull (2nd cycle)

Back in Anchorage that afternoon, we had time to check out Lake Hood right behind the Coast International Hotel where we were staying. Lake Hood is the busiest seaplane base in the world, so I was surprised to see birds there at all. But, apparently they love this lake, so much so that they have been a continuous problem there. In an effort to reduce Lake Hood’s bird population in the early 1990s, officials released three female pigs named Larry, Curly, and Moe on the island that separates the takeoff and taxi lanes. The plan was for the pigs to rototill nest spots and eat eggs that the birds managed to lay. The pigs were effective for a while, but the effort ultimately failed. There are no longer pigs at Lake Hood, but birds remain, including beautiful Red-necked Grebes.