Across the Continent (part 4 of 10)
Nome & the Seward Peninsula
2-4 June 2022
After dropping off my Xterra at the Nissan Dealer in Anchorage for a check-up, I Ubered to the airport to catch the Alaska Airlines flight to Nome, on the Seward Peninsula. I was headed to Nome on the advice of Alaska birding expert David Sonneborn, whom I had met in my 2020 visit to Alaska. In fact, I was one of many birders (and bird tours) headed to Nome for the height of the late spring birding season. Surprisingly, birders traipse to this isolated destination from all over the world.
My 2022 plan was to visit both Nome and Utqiagvik (Pt Barrow)--northern Alaskan coastal localities that are important breeding grounds for my beloved shorebirds. Neither location is accessible by road...
Long-tailed Jaeger on its single-egg nest in lowland tundra.
Of course, aside from loads of sandpipers, curlews, godwits, and phalaropes, these two locations featured lots of other tundra-breeding birds, many unfamiliar to me. The jaegers, typically only glimpsed at sea from a bobbing boat, could be found nesting and hunting in the roadside tundra. The wildlife around Nome was a feast for the eyes...
Nome is on the shores of the Bering Sea, which in early June was pretty much ice free, though big chunks of ice could be seen piles up on the sandy shoreline. The tundra was mainly snow-free as well, so the time was right for a storm of migrants from the south--birds headed here to breed and birds headed further north toward Utquiagvik and the Arctic Ocean.
The 90-minute flight to Nome is over a series of snowy mountain ranges and vast expanses of what looks like unpopulated wild land. I arrived in Nome, checked into my hotel (the Aurora Inn) and picked up my rental car. Nome offered nearly 200 miles of dirt roads to travel in search of birds and wildlife. This morning, a heavy fog lay on the coast and sea, but the interior was clear and sunny. The temperature on the coast was a brisk 39F.
Songbirds, such as this Orange-crowned Warbler, were abundant in roadside willow and alder thickets.
Breeding-plumaged Semipalmated Sandpiper, one of the show-boats of Nome roadside tundra.
In the afternoon of the 2nd of June, I drove south into Safety Sound, famous open and watery birding country, and then into the interior on the Council Road. I found Bar-tailed Godwits foraging in the delta of the Nome River and glimpse a pair of Emperor Geese on a grassy bank in Safety Sound.
I bumped into birding colleague Ben Barkley and his dad birding at Nome Point. They showed me a Pomarine Jaeger on the rocks--the only one I saw in Nome. And also a small flock of male Harlequin Ducks. The fog moved in and out along the coast....
Pomarine Jaeger. Saw this single adult pale morph bird near Nome Point.
Vans filled with birders passed me. If I saw one stopped with scopes out, I would stop and query them on what interesting birds they had seen (and where?).... I walked out onto a wide expense of coastal tundra to get a feel for this unique habitat. In the interior, roadside willow thickets rang out with the songs of Gray-cheeked Thrushes and Northern Waterthrushes.
A flock of small peeps over Safety Sound, south of Nome on the coast road. These are birds headed north of here to breed.
All along the road in Safety Sound, I bumped into Semipalmated Sandpipers in full display mode. Individuals would be skylarking in the air, giving their call, which sounded like a malfunctioning short-wave radio--a pulsing trill. They would hold their wings up at an angle and sail down to the ground with a flourish. Or males would chase each other, seeking to establish a breeding territory. The mix of Semipalmated Sandpipers and singing male Lapland Longspurs brought the tundra to life.
young calf Moose by the road in Safety Sound
cow Muskox with its calf
On 3 June I drove the Kougarok Road 82 miles into the very heart of the Seward Peninsula uplands. The rough dirt road took me over passes and through valleys surrounded by mountains. Taking off at 5am, the road was empty of cars--only me! Snowy ranges that could not be seen from the coast rose up on either side of the road. I flushed 20+ Snowshow Hares from the road as well a 3 Willow Ptarmigan.
solitary bull Muskox, foraging in the upland tundra
Crossing ahigh pass at milepost 49 I came up my first herd of Muskox. Seeing Muskx made me feel like I was well and truly in the Arctic. Talk about weird creatures! Some 25 of the beasts were foraging in the upland tundra--cows and calves together and the bulls separately... Whimbrels on territory flushed and whistled their musical alarm calls.
One invariably sees Muskox in groups out in the tundra.
I drove to milepost 82 in order to get top Bristle-thigh Ridge, just north of the road from Coffee Dome. This is where one hoped to glimpse the elusive Bristle-thighed Curlew. I got up onto that rounded ridge of low tundra by 7am. Mine was the only car parked in the pass. Walking the tundra here was magical--it is unlike any place in the Lower 48. Wall-to-wall tundra... The tundra is not a grassland, but a dwarf forest only a few inches high, made up of birch, willow, sphagnum moss, rhododendron, raindeer lichens, vaccinium, and many and diverse alpine flowering plants.
The glory of the Alaska tundra--a forest in miniature, with birch, rhododendrons, blueberries, and other woody species.
The commonplace birds were Lapland Longspur, Willow Ptarmigan, Savannah Sparrow, Wilson's Snipe, Whimbrel, Long-tailed Jaeger, and more.... But in general it is quiet and seemed empty. The vast expanse of habitat means the breeding birds have plenty of space to spread out... And they do!
I walked for three hours through this mountain tundra, every now and then coming upon some avian surprise... Greater White-fronted Geese, Cackling Geese, and Sandhill Cranes passed by... The Bristle-thighed Curlew was remarkably recondite. I heard the Curlew give its bubbling song once in the distance, but never glimpsed it. I found several Whimbrels on territory, but of course I was not there to look for that rather common species (on a typical birding day back home, Whimbrel would be a prized species).
At Milepost 35 on the Kougarok Road, Snowshow Hares were abundant along the roadside...
For most meals I frequented Marino's Restaurant, downtown Nome, with an eclectic selection of food--Italian, Philippine, Chinese, and more. Birders piled in here at the end of the day. It was fun to compare notes on birds seen and not seen... More on Nome and its wildlife next, in Blog 5.
A confiding Willow Ptarmigan on the Bristle-thigh ridge, Kougarok Road
High on this hill, nearly 100 miles from town, all alone, I was in a sort of birding nirvana--mysterious and empty and yet filled with promise. No biting insects. Temperature 45-50F. Tundra dry and friendly for walking. I was exactly where I wanted to be!
Breeding Whimbrels infested the Bristle-thigh Ridge on the Kougarok Road, making it difficult to find the rarer species.
I was disappointed by my inability to see the Bristle-thighed Curlew, but the experience was sublime. Nothing else like it. I am a tundra-lover... As I loaded up the car for the long and slow drive back to town, I was already thinking, perhaps I should come back here...
Highlight on the bird front up on the Bristle-thigh hill was American Golden-Plover. I spent time with two different breeding pairs in the tundra.
On my first visit to the Bristle-thigh Ridge, American Golden-Plover on territory was the prize encounter.
American Golden-Plover in the low vegetation of the upland tundra of Bristle-thigh Ridge.
On the 4th of June I headed south on the Council Road. I drove 45 miles to a high pass and walked more upland tundra. I cannot get enough of it. It had not been raining. One could simply drop onto the tundra and take a nap it was so spongy and comfortable. The birds I was looking for--Bluethroat and Arctic Warbler and Northern Wheatear, were all hidden from view on this day...
Arctic Poppies in the upland tundra
The tundra wildflowers were fantastic and so accessible. I could photograph them with my iPhone.
One never tired of spending time with a breeding pair of Red-throated Loons
In the afternoon of the 3rd of June, Safety Sound continued to be productive--lots of Pintails, Shovelers, Green-winged Teal, Red-breasted Mergansers, Brant, and swans. An Eastern Yellow Wagtail flitted up from the edge of the water--a life bird for me. This is a bird I had written about for my work in New Guinea... This Asian species breeds sparingly in Alaska, but winters in Australasia....
Better look at the spring Snowshoe Hare...
More surprises--a dark morph Parasitic Jaeger passed me by as I drove north. The American Robins were singing their hearts out at 7am in town.
One last look at the Muskoxen.
Fox Sparrows and American Tree Sparrows, wintering birds in Maryland, are spring breeders here, singing like crazy along the roadside thickets. Here's is a strange thing: a gallon of gasoline was only $4.77 in Nome but $5.22 in Anchorage...
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