Trip
Information
Date: TBA
Duration: 9
days
Leader: Dan
Wetzel
Limit: 16
people
Cost*: TBA
From: Anchorage,
Alaska
Featured
Birds and Mammals:
• Whiskered Auklet
•
Red-faced Cormorant
•
Bar-tailed Godwit
•
Arctic Loon
•
Aleutian Tern
•
Crested Auklet
•
Emperor Goose
•
Wood Sandpiper
•
Asiatic strays - could include Hawfinch, Rustic Bunting, Eurasian Cuckoo, Common
Rosefinch, the possibilities are seemingly endless!
Trip
Summary
• weather
- cool to warm, wet to windy
• accommodations are fully furnished two-bedroom homes
• Boat trip to see Whiskered Auklets not included in price
• Several highly sought-after birds
• Prospects for Asiatic strays seem endless!
• Begins and ends in Anchorage
• Travel on the island by various types of vehicle
• Includes flight from Anchorage to Adak, and Adak back to
Anchorage
• Up to 16 participants with three leaders
• Includes all meals
* deposits
on this tour are non-refundable and payments are 100% non-refundable
90 days or less before departure |
The
Aleutian Islands are known world-wide as the premier place for Asiatic
species, migrants and vagrants. With its close proximity to Asia, geographic
connection to North America and unique ocean currents and weather patterns,
the Aleutians are an ideal setting to see birds not likely elsewhere in
North America. Adak is the only island in the Aleutian Chain accessible
for birding, and with suitable infrastructure, facilities and vehicles
to support remote field operations. The likelihood of finding Asiatics
on Adak is far more likely than Gambell and the Pribilofs. Adak is closer
by hundreds of miles to Asia, Japan and the Russian Far East.
Spring migration typically peaks the last two weeks in May. We keep overall
group size manageable at 16 with three leaders. Our leaders are Alaskans,
chosen for their experience in Alaska’s varied ecosystems, expertise
with specific groups of Alaska birds, wilderness travel skills and their
good nature. Join us at this very unique location for some very special
birds!
See detailed itinerary
below.
For a checklist of birds from the most recent Adak tour, click here.
For other Alaska
tours, see our Dalton
Highway tours and the extensions to Nome or the Kenai
Peninsula.
Click
here to download a registration form
Photos:
Dan Wetzel
|
Itinerary
Day
1 -
Arrival in Anchorage
Our tour begins in Anchorage. We meet to discuss the upcoming adventure. Night
in Anchorage.
Day 2 - Arrive Adak
We leave Anchorage in the morning, arriving Adak in the afternoon and check into
our lodgings. These are two-bedroom, two-bath homes, one each for three persons:
one single and one double. They were Naval personnel housing when Adak was operational.
They are complete with kitchen, living room, laundry, TV and linen. Each unit
has refrigerator, coffee pot, dishes, etc. to heat tea, coffee, microwave a cup
of soup or toast a bagel at any time.
Days 3 to 8 - Birding Adak
Birding at Adak is very much weather-dependent, both on what birds are around
and on our own birding activities. During May 20-24, 2003, the island was relatively
wind-free, moderately overcast with some sunny days: hardly typical Aleutian
weather, or “good” weather for birding in the Bering Sea, where low
pressure “westerlies,” bring birds otherwise found only on mainland
Asia. Daily, we scanned the barometer and skies. The last day we skirted the
front edge of bad weather. Then quickly found Ruff, Wood Sandpiper and Emperor
Goose. Weather for flying and for birding can be of consequence. It can keep
us hunkered-down in the house, or shine on our trail with a silver lining.
Getting
around is easy – no beach gravel, bicycles or four-wheelers. We
use an assortment of left-over Navy vans, mini-vans and crew cab trucks to
get around. With 60 years of military occupation, there are roads everywhere,
from
beach to mountain top. Some dead-end, some circle back only to reconnect in
a spider-web, some go seemingly nowhere. There are buildings of every description
and every condition.
The general
mode of birding will be familiar. We drive. Stop: look & listen.
Walk from the vehicles, look & listen. Just walk: look & listen. Sometimes
along a road. Sometimes on a promontory by the beach, overlooking the ocean,
a pond or lagoon. Sometimes an isolated marsh. Sometimes by the boat harbor.
The places we go actually are fairly close together. However, they do represent
different habitat. We cover about 100 square miles. Not much, just a wide range
of geography. We keep track of birds at Clam Lagoon, Sweeper Cover, Kuluk Bay,
Andrew Bay and the other sites time and again.
Whiskered Auklets…putting to sea
The silver lining to good weather is that we better able to put to sea in
a charter boat to look for Whiskered Auklet. The high winds and rough seas
of
typical Aleutian
weather can make a journey in a small fishing boat unsafe. When the weather
is good enough to put to sea, we search Kagalaska Straits, Little Tanaga
and Great
Sitkin Island. With such uncertain weather, it may take some time to simply
find Whiskered Auklets. Thus, there is no way to accurately predict the cost
per person
so the cost of the charter boat is NOT included. When we can go, it’s pay
as we go. In May 2003, not only did we find an estimated 15,000 Whiskered Auklets,
they were within easier reach than if we had to go to Great Sitkin Island for
example. The cost may range from $150-$300 per person. With a full week on Adak,
we hope to have a good day to put to sea to look for Whiskered Auklets.
15,000 Whiskered Auklets and one Emperor Goose
Taking advantage of a good weather day and good planning, our good luck was
buoyed.
On a huge rip tide off Little Tanaga Straits, we found about 15,000 Whiskered
Auklets. According to Jeff Williams, the refuge biologist the past 13 years,
the second largest concentration of Whiskered Auklets ever seen. There were
six to eight groups in and out of the water at one time. Pete estimated 1,500-2,000
Auklets in each.
First, we found nothing, then a few, then they were everywhere. The sea was
dead calm, the sky flat and gray, the Auklets black as coal. Between the
three of
us we had more than 100 birding seasons in every nook and cranny of Alaska.
This was a rare sight even for us. We were grateful, indeed, for our good
fortune."
Day 9 - Leave Adak
After a final morning, we return to Anchorage in the afternoon to catch connecting
flights south.
What
to expect
The
tour starts in Anchorage with an Alaskan Airline flight
to Adak, and ends with a flight back to Anchorage.
Adak is
the Aleutian field office for the US Fish & Wildlife Service.
All meals are included during the scheduled tour dates. We eat
together in the home of the leaders, where they will prepare
meals. A
small
restaurant, the only one in town, is nearby. As well, a grocery
store for food, drinks and personal items. Our lodgings are two-bedroom,
two-bath
homes, one each for three persons: one single and one double. They
were Naval personnel housing when Adak was operational. They are
complete with kitchen, living room, laundry, TV and linen. Each
unit
has refrigerator,
coffee pot, dishes, etc. to heat tea, coffee, microwave a cup of
soup or toast a bagel at any time.
Getting around – no beach gravel, bicycles or four-wheelers.
We use an assortment of left-over Navy vans, mini-vans and crew
cab trucks
to get around. Pre-departure materials will include a complete
list of suggested clothing and gear, medical questionnaire, helpful
birding
info,
etc. Expect warm to cold weather. It will rain and blow at times.
A thorough and useful pre-departure packet of clothing and equipment,
contact information,
etc. will be sent upon final payment.
|
