Unofficial state bird of Alaska

Yesterday was a stunning day with warm temperatures and practically no wind. Unfortunately, that’s when all the mosquitoes decided to hatch out. Swarms of mosquitoes engulfed us as we attempted to nest search and band shorebirds. Here’s a short clip I took showing the hordes of them surrounding us as we banded an American Golden-Plover.

It’s hard to believe that just a few days ago there were practically no mosquitoes. Who wants to come and visit!?! As bad as it looks, the majority of them weren't biting.

Rope Dragging & Nalukataq

Rope Dragging Crew: L to R - Stephen Yezerinac, Ethan Kistler,
Charlie Governali and Fabrice Chevreux.

We finished rope dragging yesterday, discovering a lot of new nests. It was exhausting but rewarding at the same time. I think we had about 50 new nests in those 4 days. Today we returned to our normal schedule of plot searching. Even after rope dragging, we are still finding new nests.

Last Sunday was our day off so a few of us went to the second Nalukataq (Whale Festival) of the year. The Inupiaq Eskimos celebrate their successful whale hunts and during these gatherings they pass out the whale meat, dance, sing, tell stories and have a blanket toss. The blanket is made of several Bearded Seal skins sewn together. Locals gather around and toss people up in the air similar to a trampoline. Here are a few pictures from the festival.

Distributing the whale

Nalukataq Blanket for the Blanket Toss

Hunting boat

Finally – here’s my updated trip list. The arctic ice is really clearing up and pretty soon large numbers of alcids, loons, eiders and perhaps shearwaters will be migrating along the coast.

Red-throated Loon
Pacific Loon
Yellow-billed Loon
Red-necked Grebe
Tundra Swan
Greater White-fronted Goose
Snow Goose
Canada Goose
Brant
Northern Pintail
American Wigeon
Northern Shoveler
Green-winged Teal
Greater Scaup
Long-tailed Duck
King Eider
Common Eider
Spectacled Eider
Steller's Eider
Bald Eagle
Peregrine Falcon
Rock Ptarmigan
Sandhill Crane
American Golden-Plover
Killdeer
Semipalmated Plover
Buff-breasted Sandpiper
Lesser Yellowlegs
Ruddy Turnstone
Sanderling
Dunlin
White-rumped Sandpiper
Baird's Sandpiper
Semipalmated Sandpiper
Western Sandpiper
Pectoral Sandpiper
Ruff
Long-billed Dowitcher
Wilson's Snipe
Red-necked Phalarope
Red Phalarope
Pomarine Jaeger
Parasitic Jaeger
Long-tailed Jaeger
Sabine's Gull
Mew Gull
Herring Gull
Glaucous Gull
Slaty-backed Gull
Arctic Tern
Black Guillemot
Short-eared Owl
Snowy Owl
Common Raven
Bank Swallow
Varied Thrush
American Robin
Hermit Thrush
American Pipit
Blackpoll Warbler
Savannah Sparrow
Fox Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Lapland Longspur
Snow Bunting
Common Redpoll
Hoary Redpoll

Fraction of 850 Long-tailed Ducks

Update 6/23

Not too much to report on the past few days. Today I saw my first Arctic Fox while driving out to my plot. Tomorrow we begin rope dragging. It’s as simple as it sounds – two people drag a 30 meter rope across the tundra and flush shorebirds off their nests. This will help us find species that typically don’t flush easily such as Long-billed Dowitchers.

Northern Pintail nest

Polar Bears

Point Barrow, Alaska

Nine miles northeast of Barrow lies Point Barrow, the most northernmost point of the United States. This is where the locals dump whale bones to prevent Polar Bears from coming into town. After word of eight bears, four of us ventured out there. Right away we had two Polar Bears out on the ice and after a while, they came ashore to feed on the four whale carcasses.

Tomorrow will be the first whale festival of the year. I'm hoping to see some of it after nest searching. The blanket toss sounds interesting...

A Ruff Day

Yesterday was my day off from nest searching so I ventured around Barrow. Late morning I got news of two Ruffs being seen near the new landfill so a group of us drove out there. It wasn't long before we were standing there watching two Ruffs chase around female Pectorals.

Male with white ruff

Male with chestnut ruff

On our way back we scoped out a couple lakes adding Killdeer and American Wigeons to our trip list. Later, Charlie and I drove out to Nunavak Bay where we added a Yellow-billed Loon and Herring Gull. Vega Gulls can be found at Barrow but the Herring Gull was too far for varification. On our way back we stopped to snap a few photos of this nesting Rock Ptarmigan.

Female Rock Ptarmigan on nest

Trip list so far..

So far my Barrow list stands at 55 species for the past 10 days. Not too bad considering most of my time is spent nest searching – not birding. Hopefully I’ll run into some of the tour groups up here so that I can get some tips on what they are seeing. Here’s my list so far..

Red-throated Loon
Pacific Loon
Red-necked Grebe
Tundra Swan
Greater White-fronted Goose
Snow Goose
Brant
Northern Pintail
Green-winged Teal
Greater Scaup
Long-tailed Duck
King Eider
Common Eider
Spectacled Eider
Steller's Eider
Peregrine Falcon
Rock Ptarmigan
Sandhill Crane
American Golden-Plover
Semipalmated Plover
Buff-breasted Sandpiper
Ruddy Turnstone
Sanderling
Dunlin
White-rumped Sandpiper
Baird's Sandpiper
Semipalmated Sandpiper
Western Sandpiper
Pectoral Sandpiper
Long-billed Dowitcher
Wilson's Snipe
Red-necked Phalarope
Red Phalarope
Pomarine Jaeger
Parasitic Jaeger
Long-tailed Jaeger
Sabine's Gull
Mew Gull
Glaucous Gull
Slaty-backed Gull
Arctic Tern
Long-eared Owl
Snowy Owl
Common Raven
Bank Swallow
Varied Thrush
American Robin
Hermit Thrush
American Pipit
Blackpoll Warbler
Savannah Sparrow
Fox Sparrow
Lapland Longspur
Snow Bunting
Hoary Redpoll

Seen by others:
Yellow-billed Loon
Golden-crowned Sparrow
Red-necked Stint
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Lesser Yellowlegs
Mallard
Rough-legged Hawk
Bar-tailed Godwit
Orange-crowned Warbler
Ruff

Barrow Update - June 10th

Sorry for the lack of blog posts the past few days, I’ve been pretty busy now that nest searching started. I will do a separate post later on what exactly we are doing. I just thought I’d post a few pictures before you think a Polar Bear got me or something…

Red-necked Phalarope (male)

Red Phalarope (female)

Red Phalarope Eggs

Lapland Longspur Nest

Long-billed Dowitcher Distraction Display

Long-billed Dowitcher Nest

Dunlin Nest