Trip
Information
Date: TBA
Duration: 5
days (12 days total when combined with the Dalton Highway)
Leader: Dan
Wetzel
Limit: 15
people
Cost*: TBA
From: Anchorage,
Alaska
Featured
Birds and Mammals:
• Bristle-thighed Curlew
• Slaty-backed Gull
• Aleutian Tern
• Arctic Warbler
• Emperor Goose
• Rock Ptarmigan
• Bluethroat
• Mongolian Plover
• Red-necked Stint
Trip
Summary
• Weather
from warm to cold, sunny to rain, calm to windy.
• Magnificent scenery, exceptional grandeur and wildness
• Several highly sought-after birds
• Includes flights Anchorage and Nome
• Lunches included throughout
* deposits
on this tour are non-refundable and payments are 100% non-refundable
90 days or less before departure
|
Nome
enjoys a well-deserved reputation as Alaska’s oldest birding
destination. Taiga, tundra and marine biomes create 21 major avian habitats.
Nome sits astride a strategic location with the Bering Sea and Asia west,
and interior forest mountains east. This rich avifauna of resident shorebirds
and tundra species, Asiatic vagrants and migrants are some of the North
America's rarest birds. There’s no place like Nome for birdwatching.
See detailed itinerary
below.
Click on the links
for a checklist of birds from the most recent Nome
tour.
This
tour can only be taken in combination with our Dalton
Highway tour.
Click
here to download a registration form
|
Itinerary
Day
1 -
Birds of Beringia
Birds of Nome begins with late afternoon departure of Alaska Airlines
jet to Nome: a 500-mile flight across western Alaska to the Seward
Peninsula. Nome has the longest history and most deserved reputation
of any birding destination in Alaska. There’s no place like
Nome. We’ll pickup our vehicles and check in at Nanuaq Manor,
our familiar, comfortable home of many birding trips, for three nights.
With the sun up all night, we’ll stow our bags in our apartments,
gather our birding gear and head out of town: tundra on the north
and ocean on the south.
The Seward Peninsula offers a good mix of Asiatic vagrants, migrants
and resident coastal tundra nesting birds. Seward Peninsula biogeography
occupies a unique position between Eurasia and North America, a pathway
for species of special interest.
Day 2 – “up the Kougarok”
The northern Kuzitrin uplands are a rolling topography of mesic tundra.
The Taylor Highway follows the Nome River before crossing the Kigluaik
Mountains, and onto the historic Taylor River gold mining region.
This grand, wide-open country with a variety tundra habitats from
river bottom to upland offers fun birding and plenty of elbow room
while we look for Bluethroat, Pacific Golden Plover, Northern Wheatear,
Willow Ptarmigan, Rough-legged Hawk, Gray-cheeked Thrush, Arctic
Warbler and if we’re lucky, Bristle-thighed Curlew.
The Curlew is the rarest shorebird in the world. The Kougarok Road
is open all winter on the lower reaches where Nome residents live,
but beyond Alaska Department of Transportation opens the road in
the spring only when snow conditions allow. Usually by the end of
first week in June, the road is open all the way to Coffee Dome.
Here, Bristle-thighed Curlews usually nest. Bar-tailed Godwit, Whimbrel
and Curlews – all large shorebirds - nest side-by-side on the
same tundra ridge. Thus, we need to keep our ears open, and carefully
evaluate plumage and other field marks to ensure what we say we see
is what we see.
Day 3 – Out to Safety
We’ll spend a full, fun day “out to Safety” - Safety
Lagoon that is, just east of Nome. One of the most popular, productive
and fun days in our Bering Sea adventure. Birding at Safety is great
fun in an exciting, dynamic setting. The Bering Sea is on one side
of the road and the Safety Lagoon on the other side. We’ll
look to land, sea and air for a wide variety of birds. Those include
Bar-tailed Godwit, Black Turnstone, Aleutian Tern, Red-necked Stint,
Red Knot, Slaty-backed Gull, Emperor Goose and Mongolian Plover.
“
Safety” is the last checkpoint on the world-famous Iditarod
Sled Dog Race, 1,049 miles standing on a 20”-wide dog sled
from Anchorage to Nome. For us, a two-hour flight, but for these
rugged mushers and dogs, two cold weeks on the trail. If the Roadhouse
is open, we’ll belly-up to one of Alaska’s most famous
landmarks.
Day 4 – Beringia, our Asian connection
With a late evening departure from Nome back to Anchorage, we’ll
have the entire day to repeat the day to Safety, or drive up the
Teller Road. In late afternoon we’ll visit the Bering Land
Bridge Preserve headquarters and visitor center in Nome. This 2.5
million-acre unit of the National Park System is located on the north
side of the Seward Peninsula. It is unique as it preserves ecological,
geological, anthropological and historical processes rather than
specific places.
Back to Nanuaq Manor for dinner, to finish laundry and packing clothes
as well as lasting memories of the Seward Peninsula’s birds,
people, landscapes, history and sled dog trails.
A late flight on Alaska Airlines to Anchorage. Night at hotel included.
Day 5 – Departure or connection to the Dalton Highway
tour
Our tour concludes in the morning. Those people connecting to the
Dalton Highway tour will fly to Prudhoe Bay to continue on their
Alaskan adventure! The others will head home after two very rewarding
tours.
What to expect
The
schedule is centered around the best time for finding not only resident
breeding
birds of the North Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea, but migrating and
vagrant species as well. Expect warm to cold weather. It may snow
or rain and blow, so participants should layer their clothing as conditions
can
change quickly while we are in the field. A thorough and useful pre-departure
packet of clothing and equipment, contact information, etc. will
be sent upon final payment.
|
