Across the Continent (part 6 of 10)
Utqiagvik (Point Barrow), Alaska
8-11 June 2022
On the 7th of June I flew from Nome to Anchorage. After a night spent back in the Eagle River Campground I boarded an Alaska Airlines plane for the 90-minute flight to Utqiagvik (Pt. Barrow)--the northernmost point on mainland North America. It was warm and summery in Anchorage. Utqiagvik was in full-winter mode. The first three days I was there the high temperature was 32F and the low was 28F. The shoreline was stacked with ice. Most of the landscape was snow-covered. For a birder, this was a shock to the system that required some adjustment... and it makes one wonder why the migrant shorebirds and waterfowl would wish to arrive here so early in the season!
downtown Utqiagvik
Dave Powell and Clive Harris, birders from Maryland, birding the gasfield road.
As with Nome, Utqiagvik in early June is a Mecca for birders. I bumped into two fellow Montgomery Bird Club members on the flight up--Clive Harris and Dave Powell. I spent much of the first several days birding with them. I also bumped into a colleague from West Virginia who was here birding with friends--LeJay Graffious. Small world!
Greater White-fronted Goose--the most common species of waterfowl in Utqiagvik
The weather on arrival was rather gloomy--heavy overcast with occasional snow flurries. In spite of this, the Snow Buntings in town were in maximum display mode, and the White-fronted Geese were already paired and spending time mainly in town hanging out in those people's yards that were free of snow.
Seeing the four eider species was an objective of this visit--here are a pair of King Eiders (drake on the right)
Birding highlights of the first day were the commonplace and confiding Red Phalaropes (a Lifer for me) and the Pomarine Jaegers, patrolling the snowy tundra. And of course in June in Utqiagviak it never gets dark. Welcome to the land of the Midnight Sun!
male Lapland Longspur
The songbirds are few (longspur, bunting, redpolls). Instead, the shorebirds and waterfowl are here in abundance. The featured ducks, of course, are the eiders. Here one can find all four of the Earth's eiders. We glimpsed all four on Day Two, but Steller's was the most accessible, and King was around in small numbers. Spectacled was the elusive one (I saw it once on this visit). Common Eiders flew over in flocks in the morning, heading eartward up along the north coast.
pair of Long-tailed Duck, a very common duck in Utqiagvik
Long-tailed Ducks were quite common here, often in flocks. This is one of the few ducks in which the winter plumage of the drake is more striking than the summer plumage. Still (see above) the male was quite handsome in black rather than white...
Pectoral Sandpiper male in partial display
Pectoral Sandpipers were present in good numbers already, and were starting to display and chase about. The male puffed up and looked quite strange when displaying on the ground. Certainly not the prettiest of the shorebirds in display!
The shoreline of the Chukchi Sea was frozen during my stay. Good for Polar Bear travel...
We were lucky enough to see a Polar Bear on Day Two. It was out on the shore ice, foraging on some Caribou parts that someone had put out there... The presence of Polar Bears here meant one had to be careful when wandering about on foot. But when a bear was feeding out on the ice it quickly drew a crow of admirers...
Pomarine Jaeger adult pale morph--rather common here in Utqiagvik
The jaegers I never tired of. One day we watched a pair of Parasitic Jaegers have a long chase of a Semipalmated Sandpiper. They finally captured it and consumed the poor little thing...
a single lonely Red Knot, hugging the road because there was snow-free ground on which to forage
It seemed as is we were still a bit early for the bulk of the breeding shorebirds. We saw singleton Red Knots but no Buff-breasted Sandpipers... Dunlins, Pectorals, and Semipalmated Sandpipers were the main show here... No godwits and no curlews...
Red-necked Stint is one of the Siberian strays birders hunt for in Utqiagvik
Sabine's Gull is high on the list for most visiting birders from the Lower 48
Getting to spend some quality time with Sabine's Gull was a treat. I had seen a small flock of the species in Nome, but they were quite distant. Here I could walk up to several for a photograph.
As with Nome, here the Semipalmated Sandpiper was abundant and on territory...
Semipalmated Sandpipers were busy in display here, just like they were in Nome.
The commonplace town bird in Utqiagvik was the Snow Bunting
The male Snow Buntings, in the crisp spring plumage, love to perch atop the roofs of the houses in town. They also would do display flights out in the tundra. This is the songbird of Utqiagvik.
The most elusive of the eiders was the Spectacled. Here is a distant pair...
Flocks of eiders would migrate past the town each morning, headed who knows where... The flocks were dominated by Common Eiders, but included small numbers of the other three species. Loons also migrated past, but I never was able to pick out a Yellow-billed--that was a disappointment.
Steller's Eider was the most accessible of the eiders here.
two male Steller's Eiders
dark morph Pomarine Jaeger
Arctic Fox in its rather drab spring pelage on a snowy morning
Seeing Arctic Fox was a treat. We encounter two individuals on two different days. They are very shy and mainly seen on the run... Their drab spring pelage made them difficult to pick out on the mottled tundra.
Caribou pelts out for curing
Part 2 of my visit to Utqiagvik will be presented in the next blog.
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