As we ascended above the mountains outside of Anchorage in
our smallish plane (it seated 30-40 people), we were informed that we would
stop in Dillingham to refuel the plane (typical of many flights out to St.
Paul). Having never been to
Dillingham, I didn’t mind the idea of being somewhere new. Of course, once we landed, we weren’t
allowed off the plane so this was my view of Dillingham:
The first leg of the trip to Dillingham was probably about 1
hr 15 minutes. The second leg, the
one to St. Paul Island, would be about 1 hr 45 minutes. Of course, we learned otherwise when
the pilot informed us that airline made an audible and changed our route; we
were headed to St. George Island first.
From what I gathered, it’s not too common for them to do
that but I didn’t mind, it would be neat to see the second-biggest Pribilof
Island in person, after all. As we
finally descended, I craned my neck to see if/when the clouds would break and
I’d see some water, birds, or land.
Finally the clouds cleared and staring at me were huge cliffs teeming
with flushing murres and kittiwakes.
We were allowed off the plane during the 15-minute break on
St. George. Turns out that is just
enough time to hop out, see a distant flock of CACKLING GEESE with a larger
GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE mixed in, see our first GRAY-CROWNED ROSY-FINCHES,
snap a picture of the view from the runway:
I also snapped a picture of our Saab:
Our flight to St. Paul Island from St. George Island was
probably less than 20 minutes, just a quick jump from one Pribilof Island to
the next. We eventually landed,
got to meet a few TDX staff, gathered our bags, and headed to our house. Of course, we couldn’t even get
to town, a mile or two away from the airport, without finding something
rare. Glen, one of the other
guides, spotted a Eurasian (rustica)
BARN SWALLOW over Icehouse Lake.
Ahh, our first Asian stray.
In town, we stopped by the AC (THE store on the island) to
ensure we had some food on hand.
After that, though, it was time to check out the island a bit and see
what was around. It wasn’t long
before we found more rare birds.
First up was this “WHISTLING” TUNDRA SWAN on Antone Lake:
Of the three birded seasons here (spring, summer, fall),
they’re most-likely to be found in spring but even then they’re listed as rare.
We continued to Southwest Point, a good vantage point for
seawatching, etc. Apparently we
were so caught up in looking at what was offshore that we didn’t see what was
ON the shore, 3 BRISTLE-THIGHED CURLEWS:
They, too, are most-expected in spring compared to
summer/fall but they’re still considered rare and not necessarily annual. This was a long-awaited life bird for
me so I was mighty pleased. Of
course, this all goes without saying (until now) that new birds were flying all
around me all the time; swarms of LEAST and PARAKEET AUKLETS, RED-FACED
CORMORANTS, and RED-LEGGED KITTIWAKES were swirling offshore.
So far, so good.