600!!

Getting to the Pribilofs is half the fun. After an early morning flight from Homer, the agonizing wait at Anchorage airport finally ended when they called my name and presented me with a ticket. I felt like I'd won the lottery! What they'd actually given me was a ride in this twin-prop...

...which would take us 750 miles and out into the middle of the Bering Sea. A fog-laden Bering Sea. Yikes.

The Pribilofs were discovered in 1786 by Gavriil Pribilof. The two main islands (of the 4) are St. Paul (on whose feast day the island was discovered) and St. George (named after Pribilof's ship.) Like the rest of Alaska, this was Russian territory until the Alaska purchase in 1867. St. Paul has a population of around 530, which is seasonally supplemented by workers at the Trident fish cannery (more on this later.) St. George has 150 residents - which are, like the other island, mostly native Aleut. 

We made a quick stop at St George first, while there was a break in the fog...

Arriving at St. Paul. 

It's an optical illusion - one of the propellors really isn't falling off!

St. George Airport. A latte-free zone.

And then on to St. Paul...

The arrivals lounge - St. Paul

Once you're into the main airport, you discover that it's also the main "hotel" (The King Eider). More on this in a later post where I'll cover the fine dining options and luxury accommodation that is St. Paul.

The first thing to note about the Pribilofs is that they're cold. Bloody cold. It's the end of May, and it's barely in the 30s, with a biting cold wind. I am wearing all the clothes I packed, and I'm still freezing. If I could find some way to wear my backpack too, I would. But the birds don't seem to mind...

No prizes for spotting the Red-legged Kittiwake.

It's good to know the common stuff that you're likely to see as you drive and walk over the tundra. It's not hard - there are 4 breeding land birds: Rock Sandpiper (the larger Pribilofs subspecies), Gray-crowned Rosy-finch (again, a larger island subspecies), Lapland Longspur and Snow Bunting. After seeing these birds elsewhere, it's really great to see them in their nesting habitat - or, to be more accurate, in a barren, treeless, godforsaken place where breeding would be the last thing on my mind.

There's no food available on St. Paul. Mainly because there isn't really a shop to buy any from. Instead, we have a deal with the canteen at the fish cannery. There are 3 meals a day for the workers, and this is where we will be eating our meals. To simplify the primitive yet further, they had a fire in the cannery this week, which knocked out the electricity supply. The back-up generator is sufficient to still cook the food, but not enough to keep it warm, or us warm. So, like the rest of my Pribilofs experience so far, tonight's dinner was eaten while wearing all the clothes I brought.

But wait - I forgot to mention. As we're heading to dinner, we get a call from Scott (one of the birders on the island) to inform us that he's on a White-tailed Eagle. We turn around, race to the coast, and arrive just in time to see this...

White-tailed Eagle. Woo-hoo!

This is the bird we've all been hoping for - and we get it in the first 2 hours of arrival! This is likely a 4th or 5th year bird (almost an adult) that's been returning to the island for the past few years. A fantastic start to the trip!

After dinner, we check out the harbor, which is full of Least Auklets, a drake King Eider, a pair of Ancient Murrelets, Red-faced Cormorants, and this very cute Horned Puffin...

Horned Puffin.

And from the cliffs we spot a few Crested Auklets - which, although not photographed, are notable for being #600 for my big year! It's taken me less than 5 months to see 600 species, and I'll be very, very lucky if I see another 100 in the next 7 months. Adding new species is about to get much, much harder.

The last bird of the day is one I'm excited to find myself. A beautiful summer-plumaged Brambling - a Eurasian vagrant, likely recently arrived from Russia.

Brambling - taking shelter from the wind.

Wow - what a day! I'm writing this at 11:30 at night, and it's still light enough outside my window to watch the Lapland Longspurs and Gray-crownded Rosy-finches flitting about.

Outside my window. 11:30 pm. The Pribilofs.

+ + +

BIG YEAR LIST: 603

NEW YEAR BIRDS (5): Red-legged Kittiwake, Least Auklet, Red-faced Cormorant, White-tailed Eagle, Crested Auklet.

PRIBILOFS...

...are go!!

STANDBY IN ANCHORAGE...

Well - I'm back in Anchorage. The volcano has abated, and flights to St. Paul have resumed. That's the good news. The bad news is that I don't have a confirmation on a flight until Sunday. That's *another* 2 days. In a desperate attempt to reduce the misery, I flew from Homer to Anchorage this morning just so I can be on the standby list for today's flight to St. P (flights are Weds, Fri and Sun.) It's fully-booked (of course), and chances are not looking good (of course)...

So - to stop myself pulling all my hair out I thought I'd write an update.

I've had a good time in Homer - trying to ignore the photos of White-tailed Eagle and Ross's Gull (!) coming from St. Paul, and the Common Ringed Plover (!) back home in MA. On Weds, we took a boat trip around Kachemak Bay to find some alcids, including the Kittlitz's Murrelet. This is where the Time Bandit lives - the ship from the TV show "The World's Deadliest Catch" which goes out fishing for Alaskan King Crab. Allegedly. I've never seen the show, so don't write in with complaints if I'm wrong!

Homer Harbor

Surrounded by snow-clad mountains.

It was a beautiful day - thankfully not the World's Deadliest Catch weather. The water was like a mirror - perfect conditions for finding distant tiny seabirds. The only decent photo I managed to get was of some very close Surf Scoters..

Skunk-heads.

...but we also got good views of Aleutian Tern, Marbled Murrelet, Pelagic Cormorant, Black-legged Kittiwake - and the star of the day, the Kittlitz's Murrelet. Our captain, Carl, found one in breeding plumage - they're pale chocolatey brown, with an obviously larger eye than the similar Marbled Murrelets. It's proposed that Kittlitz's are adapted for more turbid water, and require better vision than the Marbled which feeds in clearer water - hence the huge eyes!

We then headed for Gull Island - which should more properly be called Common Murre Island (or even better, "No Red-faced Cormorant Island) - there were probably at least 10,000 of those guys.

Gull Island. The clouds of birds are Kittiwakes and Common Murres.

We had great views of Tufted Puffin near the island, as well as the dizzying clouds of Murres. We missed a few birds - Red-faced Cormorant, Horned Puffin (of which I later got unsatisfactory views from the shore) and Yellow-billed Loon - but with the unforgettable spectacle of all those noisy, whirling birds it was hard to feel cheated.

Thursday, we went back to Anchor River and got even better views of the Bristle-thighed Curlews (still there.)

Bristle-thighed Curlew (plus Dunlin)

We've also had amazing views of American Golden-plover, which we never see in breeding plumage on the east coast...

American Golden-plover.

It's great seeing shorebirds like this in their summer garb, and on breeding territory, like this Greater Yellowlegs...

Hey - I'm up here!

And - we found this...

which comes from this...

Moose!

It was a great Plan B trip. Thanks to the group for making it such fun...

John, Aaron (guide), Alex, Laurie, Bob, Me, Bill and Guy.

OK - back to pulling my hair out. Still waiting on standby...

+ + +

BIG YEAR LIST: 598

NEW YEAR BIRDS (4): Aleutian Tern, Kittlitz's Murrelet, Tufted Puffin, Horned Puffin. 

HOMER

So - I didn't make it to St. Paul in the Pribilofs. The volcano effectively grounded all regional flights in the Aleutians and South Bering Sea. Although St Paul is much further north, and out of the ash cloud, the plane needs to refuel further south which is where all the ash problems are.

So - I'm birding Homer for a few days hoping to get to St. Paul at the end of the week. Homer is on the western end of the Kenai (pronounced Keen-eye) Peninsula, and is a place I wanted to visit anyway at some point - it's one of the best places to find the elusive Kittlitz's Murrelet. And some of the best scenery in Alaska.

My visit to St. Paul was organized with Wilderness Birding - it's not really possible to get there and do the island on your own. So, this Plan B - the Kenai Peninsula - is with 6 other birders from that tour, plus our guide, Aaron. It's a great group, and Aaron - who lives in Homer and knows the area well - is an awesome guide.

Spring is late this year in AK - the mountains around Anchorage are still covered in snow (and the city had another 3 inches at the weekend), and many of the lakes are still frozen. As we headed down towards Homer, we stopped at some recently-thawed tundra pools...

Did I mention how beautiful Alaska is?

Arctic Terns are the common terns here.

Arctic Tern

And the shorebird variety was pretty impressive - including my first of year Wandering Tattler and Red-necked Phalarope.

We made it to Anchor River by early evening. Yesterday there was an incredible record of 9 Bristle-thighed Curlew, one of the few spring migration records of this rare Alaskan breeding shorebird. These birds would be returning from a winter spent in Oceania (after which the birds gets its the Latin name, Numenius tahitiensis) to the tundra of the Seward peninsula. Many of the birds make the final 4,000 km Laysan to Alaska leg nonstop.

As we headed down the beach, we found a flock of 6 birds flying towards us. As they banked, they showed off their diagnostic buff-colored rump and tail - Bristle-thighed Curlew!

Bristle-thighed Curlew.

Note the rich color, curve of the bill. 

Even the "bristles" between the legs are just about visible.

This was an important target in Nome - and by no means guaranteed - so it was great to see these birds here - and to see them well. The warm buffy coloration is very different from the much grayer Whimbrel - of which we had one for close comparison. On standing birds, we were able to see the fine feathers - bristles - that project down around the legs. The upperparts are more spotty than Whimbrel, and the bill decurved more uniformly.

It may not be the Pribilofs, but today was a good second best!

+ + +

BIG YEAR LIST: 594

NEW YEAR BIRDS (4): Arctic Tern, Red-necked Phalarope, Wandering Tattler, Bristle-thighed Curlew.

GROUNDED IN ALASKA

I've been Alaska for 2 days now and my year list has increased by exactly zero birds.

I'm stuck in Anchorage waiting for a flight to St. Paul in the Pribilofs. All the flights to the Aleutians and South Bering Sea were cancelled yesterday due to fog, which is fairly common, and volcano ash - which isn't. Pavlof Volcano, in the eastern Aleutians, has erupted with incredibly poor timing and started spewing lava and ash and creating a nasty flight path for anything flying below 30,000 feet - i.e. the small regional planes going to St. Paul.

I have no idea how long I'll be here, and whether I'll even get to my destination. Even without a volcano there's only 3 flights a week to St. Paul, with none scheduled for today. And of course - while I'm sitting here, there's a Common Ringed Plover on Plum Island in MA - which is a joint ABA life / year / state bird.

What have I been doing while I've been waiting? Well - I've seen the sights of Anchorage. And now, after those first 15 minutes, I've run out of options. Once I finish reading Wolf Hall I think I'll slowly go mad. Anchorage is beautiful to fly into...

But the architecture is a little uninspiring - it reminds me a lot of Swindon, near which I had the unenviable task of growing up.

Downtown Anchorage. (Imagine wasteland on either side.)

Hey - at least I have a new animal species...

My first ever Moose. I think it was sleeping...

HOME!

I've enjoyed a wonderful couple of days back home in MA before my next trip - to Alaska on Sunday.

Between laundry, spending time with Gerri and the cats, catching up with friends, eating properly, drinking proper coffee (!) I've managed to sneak in some local birding. The Little Gull at Newburyport Harbor continued long enough for me to see it, but the Ruff (state bird) just couldn't wait.

Little Gull - a nice surprise. A bird I thought I'd miss this year.

As for summer breeders and migrants - I caught up with Black-billed Cuckoo, Whippoorwill and Blue-winged Warbler, while Canada Warbler and Least Flycatcher remained elusive.

When I return from the Pribilofs I'll be starting the summer tracking down all those migrants that I missed. Here's what I've missed so far and ideas for where I might get them:

1.  Olive-sided Flycatcher - MA?

2.  Least Flycatcher - MA?

3.  Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher - AZ (Chiricahuas)

4.  Thick-billed Kingbird - AZ (Patagonia)

5.  Bicknell's Thrush - ME?

6.  Golden-winged Warbler - Tamarac NWR, MN (thanks Liz!)

7.  Kirtland's Warbler - MI

8.  Cerulean Warbler - MA?

9.  Swainson's Warbler - ???

10. Kentucky Warbler - ???

11. Connecticut Warbler - Sax-Zim or the UP in MI

12. Mourning Warbler - MA?

13. Canada Warbler - MA?

14. Henslow's Sparrow - MN (Murphy-Hanrahan Park - thanks Hans!)

15. Saltmarsh Sparrow - MA

16. Nelson's Sparrow - ME

I'd love to hear from anyone with suggestions on the above - especially Kentucky and Swainson's.

I also need to go back to AZ for Mexican Chickadee (grrrr...), Northern Pygmy-owl and Common Poorwill which I missed last time. And I still need Sharp-tailed Grouse - which should be doable up in the UP.

So - lots still to see! And - I still haven't been to California yet, where's there's a whole bunch of new birds waiting for me. If I have time, I'd like to fit in a pelagic trip as well, sometime in June.

I should creep over 600 by the end of May, which is already 50 more than I'd ever imagined getting. Suddenly 650, or even 675, seems possible. But first - getting to Alaska...

+ + +

BIG YEAR LIST: 590

NEW YEAR BIRDS (4): Little Gull, Blue-winged Warbler, Black-billed Cuckoo, Eastern Whip-poor-will.

KING RANCH, TX

A large part of south Texas is, seemingly, owned by the King Ranch - one of the largest, and most historic ranches in the world. It attracts a fair number of tourists from around the world. It also attracts birders - it's famous as the only easily accessible site in the US for Ferruginous Pygmy-owl. This diurnal (active during the day) diminutive owl is a cousin to the very similar Northern Pygmy-owl, with the Ferruginous preferring lower altitudes.  Both have "eye-spots" on the back of their heads, so they can be menacing in a full 360 degrees! And both have a similar tooting call.

The good news about the King Ranch, is that they have tours to see the owl. The bad news is that it's a full-day tour showing you everything else that's there too (which is a lot - including breeding Tropical Parulas and Northern Beardless Tyranulets) - with a price that reflects that. Fortunately, I was the only birder on the tour today, which meant I could focus only on the birds I wanted to see - and leave early with enough time to get back to Austin for my flight tomorrow.

I've had such luck with the weather recently - except the wind storms in AZ - that I'd forgotten it can rain. And in Texas it can really rain! My hour and half drive to the Norias division of the ranch this morning was in almost zero visibility - the rain forming a solid curtain around the car. The tour guide who met me there, Barbara, said she'd never seen rain like this in 2 years - and that it was badly needed. Not by me! Thankfully, and exactly on cue, as soon as we started birding, it stopped. Leaving a muddy ground, and an overcast sky, it would thankfully be the only rain we'd see for the rest of the day. 

We started with a search for the owl. The ranch has over 300 pairs of Ferruginous Pygmy-owls - with one pair conveniently located near the entrance gate. The only clue to their presence, among the still leafless knotted oaks, is a tall nest box, sitting on the top of a post about 12 feet high. We quietly circled the tree next to the box - looking for a tiny fluffy ball of a bird. If it was sitting out there, we didn't see it. We did however find a Lesser Nighthawk, cryptically perched on a dead snag…

Lesser Nighthawk - can you see me?

We continued into the main ranch-lands, a patchwork of subleased land, mainly used for hunting. After a brief flirtation with exotic animals last century, most of today's hunting is deer, some Nilgai antelope (imported from India) as well as "quail" (Northern Bobwhite - a bird that I would be hunting today - for my year list.)

Mississippi Kite! Barbara slams on the brakes, and we pile out of the van. A single bird is kiting off to our left, showing a banded tail, and the characteristic wing profile, where the second flight feather (P2) is longer than the first (P1) - which, like the Lesser Nighthawk, gives it a more rounded wing shape. This is a good bird! As I'm enjoying it, I'm thankful that I don't have to track these down in the summer - somewhere in the hot south. 

"Bob-whek" - a Bobwhite calling. I've missed this bird on so many trips this year. We follow the calls (there are two of them, calling and responding to each other) through the tall grass, but the pair remain hidden. Thankfully, later in the day, we almost run over one, which then stands on the side of the "road" affording us great views. 

We arrive at the second owl location. This site is less exposed, sited in a much denser stand of oak trees. There are 3 next boxes in the center, only one of which is being used. The sky is heavily overcast, giving us little light as we carefully scan the trees. Again, we come up short - no fluffy owls. Barbara starts playing a recording of the owl - "toot toot toot toot ...", and almost immediately a red, fluffy head appears from the next box.

What's going on out there? 

Ferruginous Pygmy-owl.

The owl watches us for several minutes before flying out - captured in this video...

With the main target of the day seen, we proceed to a small wetland area near the gulf coast. This small puddle is host to a teeming assembly of shorebirds, as well as a much-needed Gull-billed Tern.

Hudsonian Godwits, Blue-winged Teal, and a Laughing Gull.

I left the King Ranch at 1pm, which would give me enough time to try (again) for Ringed Kingfisher. This is a bird I'd love to get, otherwise I'd have to make another trip out here before the end of the year. Having tried all the reliable spots for this bird in the Rio Grande Valley, I decided to head back to the Hill Country - to Uvalde, where a pair has been seen regularly feeding at the boat ramp at Chalk Bluffs Park. (This park has hosted a pair of Rufous-capped Warblers, attracting lots of visiting birds, who've noted the Kingfishers in their checklists.)

Chalk Bluffs

Ninety-eight degrees and four hours later I finally pulled up at the park. It's a lovely spot - the Nueces river carved out from the overlooking cliffs. I had the place to myself - and a small flock of Painted Bunting scavenging on the ground. A few trees on the bank provided some welcome shade in which to sit and wait. The silence was punctuated with tantalizing outbursts of "chack-ack-ack-ack" - which sounded exactly like a Ringed Kingfisher. It was coming from the other side of the river - a dense, thin strip of trees sandwiched between the water and the base of the cliffs. But, I couldn't see a bird. After 90 minutes, I heard the sound again, much nearer - and this time accompanied by a giant kingfisher flying along the middle of the river. Ringed Kingfisher! It turned and landed on the opposite bank. This south Texan specialty is considerably bigger than the widespread Belted Kingfisher - with a much larger bill, and entirely red underparts.

The collar on this bird identifies it as a female.

This would be the last bird on a spectacular foray through Texas that had taken me to the dusty Hill Country, the deserts of West Texas, and the lush forests of the Rio Grande. I'd got an amazing 23 year birds here. As the park ranger at Resaca de la Palma noted about migration, "once you see American Redstarts, it's over."  And, for Texas, it pretty much was. The country was almost full - all the new faces were in, summer migrants here for the short breeding season before heading back "home" for the winter. I'd caught up with a lot of these guys as they migrated through, but, had some misses. Fortunately, migration was still happening further north, giving me a chance to pick up some of these back home in MA: Least Flycatcher, Eastern Whip-poor-will, Olive-sided Flycatcher, Black-billed Cuckoo, Blue-winged Warbler, Cerulean Warbler, Canada Warbler, Mourning Warbler and maybe a stray Kentucky Warbler if I'm lucky. 

After arriving in Texas from Florida, I hadn't been home for over a week. I'd covered well over 2,000 miles in 4 days, had hiked up Big Bend, and was completely shattered. I was looking forward to getting home, and spending some time relaxing and catching my breath. But not for long. On Sunday, I'm off to the most remote place I'll have seen this year: the Pribilofs, the far-flung islands in the Bering Sea, off the west coast of Alaska.

+ + +

BIG YEAR LIST: 586

NEW YEAR BIRDS (7): Mississippi Kite, Northern Bobwhite, Ferruginous Pygmy-owl, Dickcissel, Gull-billed Tern, Hudsonian Godwit, Ringed Kingfisher.