Welcome to Alaska. Please schedule your flight to arrive before dinner. We will plan to meet for the first time in the lobby of the hotel at 615pm and then head to dinner. Upon arrival into Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (ANC), after collecting any checked luggage, please call the front desk at the Coast Inn at Lake Hood (907-243-2233), and let them know you are ready to be picked up. They have a free shuttle to/from the airport. Night in Anchorage.

Today we plan to depart from Anchorage and to fly to the archipelago of the Pribilof Islands, landing in St. Paul Island. Smack in the middle of the Bering Sea, these volcanic islands provide cliff faces for nesting seabirds with nearby rich waters nearby for provisioning their nestlings. The same waters provide similar sustenance for the large (albeit declining) colony of Northern Fur Seals here. These are at times joined by the endangered Steller’s Sea Lion.

Weather is a factor always in Alaska, but typically upon departing from Anchorage, our flight should reach the island after about 4 hours of flying time, touching down sometime mid-late afternoon. This should leave us at least a couple hours to bird our first day here. Night at the King Eider Hotel, on St. Paul Island.

Though it looks just a speck of land, this is the top eBird hotspot in Alaska. We have 42 sq. miles to cover as we seek our target birds on St. Paul. We’ll see what the weather serves up and plot a plan based in part on that, and also in part on what is being seen. The rocky shores are good for large numbers of Least Auklets, while the cliffs provide nesting areas for Parakeet Auklet, Crested Auklet, two puffins, Red-faced Cormorants, and the speciality here, the Red-legged Kittiwake. Over 75% of the population breeds in the Pribilofs, and it is seldom seen elsewhere by birders. We’ll also check ponds and ravines for migrants/vagrants and see what we can turn up.

We’ll enjoy a final morning out in the field trying to mop up any last birds we might like to see, and then we are headed back to Anchorage. Night in Anchorage.

Today we set off for the Seward Peninsula. We’ll look to catch our flight to Nome and after about 3.5 hours of flying should touch down in Nome either mid-day or in the afternoon sometime. After getting settled at our hotel, we’ll head out in search of birds.

Nome is truly a unique place. Situated on the southernmost point of the Seward Peninsula, it faces south out into the Bering Sea. Currently the population of the town is under 4000 people, but it is famous as the finish line for the Iditarod, as a gold rush town (esp. late 1800s), and also as a place where pilot Jimmy Doolittle spent a chunk of his youth. All of that provides an interesting backdrop, but we will aim to spend most of our time outside of town. Typically we begin our time here with a look around the Nome River mouth, and peeking out to sea from Cape Nome. Night in Nome.

Every day is an adventure in Nome. The Teller Road runs northwest from Nome & we could encounter Gyrfalcon, Northern Wheatear, Rock Ptarmigan, Bluethroat, Eastern Yellow Wagtail, and Bar-tailed Godwit. This is also one of the best roads for encountering Muskox.

The gravel Kougarok Road is perhaps the most famous in the Nome area and where there is a decent chance to find Bristle-thighed Curlew. Along the way we’ll pass through habitats that host  Arctic Warblers, Bluethroats, and Golden-crowned Sparrows, Long-tailed Jaegers, Golden Eagles, Rough-legged Hawks, and more. This road can be good for mammals too.

The Council Road, runs east from town & along the coast to Safety Lagoon. This is probably the best area on the continent for detecting Arctic Loon. As we search and pick our way through the loons , we should see abundant Lapland Longspurs, Common (“Pacific”) Eiders, and the coast and shorelines can host specials like Aleutian Tern, Slaty-backed Gull, and even rare waterfowl species and odd shorebirds.

After a final morning birding the outshirts of town, we’ll board our flight back to Anchorage. The tour concludes upon arrival at the Anchorage airport; unless you continue on to the extension to Utqiagvik.