Just a short one today as we are in library and have just a few minutes left on the computer before the session runs out.

We survived and greatly enjoyed our birding ordeal at St. Paul Island. We birded through mist, fog, rain, freezing rain, sleet, and snow with temperatures never exceeding 40 degrees and the wind chill 10 to 15 degrees colder. There is nothing like the sound of ice coated grass crinkling under your feet as you walk toward the sea cliffs.

We saw a number of extremely rare birds including a great knot and smew on this patch of tundra in the Bering Sea. Also cliff nesting species including puffin and auklets.

The accomodations were comfortable though the hotel and airport complex resembled the artic facility in the old movie "The Thing." Birding guides drove us in vans or the tired old bus from place to place in search of various wayward fowl, some from our continent, others from Asia.

Resident landbirds are few (winter wren, Lapland longspur, gray-crowned rosy finch, and snow bunting) but almost any northern migratory bird lost up there may find and set down on this island. That is what generates so much excitement. Sea birds gather by the thousand to nest on the barren but relatively safe sea cliffs.

Today we recover, do laundry, and shop. Tomorrow we fly to Nome to see the tundra birds arriving at their breeding grounds. We will stay in a bed-n-breakfast (a private home) and rent a car there. It should seem warm compared to St. Paul with lows in the 30s and highs in the 40s and 50s.

We'll be back in Anchorage a week from Sunday.