June 7, 2007 – Seward, AK

Rain falls this afternoon. Our friend Ed and Chuck work on chores in the motor home. Nancy and Anne are visiting the Sea Life Center in town. The Bear Creek RV Park is a small one about five miles out of town in the small community of Bear Creek along a stream of that name. It is not fancy, but has the necessary utilities and wireless internet. Varied thrushes chime in the surrounding woods. That is good enough for us.

We were happy to leave the Mid-town RV Park in downtown Anchorage. The location was great tactically and the price was good for a three week park during which time we flew to both St. Paul and Nome. The spaces however were too narrow and most of them were filled with folks who were barely making it in Alaska’s biggest City. We left our space much cleaner than when we found it. We could not do much to improve the rest rooms that could stand a good demolition and replacement.

[img_assist|fid=1107|thumb=1|alt=St. Paul Birding|caption=Carrying his telescoope, Chuck headed over rocks to the shore on St. Paul Island]

Time went by quickly with our two flights to far reaches of the state. St. Paul is a cold and misty place of grassy tundra and ponds, sea bird cliffs, and seal covered beaches. Considered uninhabitable by the Aleuts, the Russians forced settlement to harvest the otters and fur seals. The otters were wiped out and have yet to recolonize, though some have started to return to nearby St. George Island. The fur seal populations rebounded but are now in decline here for a reason not clearly known. Most likely it is the steep decline in their favorite food source, the result of commercial fishing.

The Russians left when the United States purchased the territory but some of the Aleuts, many bearing Russian names, stayed. Today the island serves as a base for king crabbing and fishing. There is a fish factory and lots of stacks of crab pots. Some of the pots made appearances on a show called “The Most Dangerous Catch.” The island also is home for government weather, wildlife, and postal agents and various state agents. There is also a small medical center. TDX, a native corporation, operates the “tourist” business that brings in mostly birders to seek both northern alcids and off-course Asian migrants. The population is about 500 and falling.

The airport and King Eider Hotel structure includes a hanger, an entrance hall, a buffet dining hall, and two wings of rooms. The rooms are small and simple with bunk beds, but comfortable enough, and the men’s and ladies’ bathrooms are at the end of each wing.

Twin prop planes conveyed us across the Bering Sea. Upon our arrival the steps to the tarmac glowed under hazy sunshine. A stiff breeze reminded us to zip up our jackets. Gavin, the chief guide met us and escorted us into the hall where we received our room assignments and keys. He told us to meet back out in an hour to begin our tour. We were assigned to an eight-person group called the “indies” because we were not associated with one of the commercial birding tour groups. Three guides made three trips a day in two vans and a small bus to take us birders to various parts of the islands. These were the sea bird cliffs, rocky shores, stone beaches, interior tundra dune lands, stark snow covered hills, and the southwest and northeast points of the twenty some mile long island. Perhaps most important were the scattered ponds and fresh water marshes.

[img_assist|fid=1110|thumb=1|alt=Tour Bus, St. Paul Island|caption=TDX, a Native Corporation, provided us with a tour bus and bird guide for the 5 days we were in St. Paul. Without that we would not haave been able to get around in the environment of this far away island in the middle of the Bering Sea.]

We woke, ate, and slept in accordance with the clock, but the time there is highly unusual. The sun sets about three a.m. and rises about five a.m. The island time should be about three hours earlier than it is, but it must have been someone’s preference that St. Paul have the same time as Anchorage, and it operates on Alaska time even though it is some 800 miles further west.

A blue sky greeted us on our first full day and no precipitation fell on that day. Every kind of precipitation fell on the next three days and the wind howled too. The temperature never reached 50.

We dressed warmly and placed little chemical heaters under our toes. Our teams appeared to be army squads dressed in green and black rain suits with troopers carrying spotting scopes on tripods over their shoulders. We carefully cleaned and dried our binoculars to keep them operational in spite of rain and condensation. We spread out to flush snipes from marshes and songbirds from rocky meadows.

Once a flushed bird flew to the edge of the sea and our fearless (or crazy) guide picked up a large piece of driftwood before walking to the edge of the sea to push the bird back up to where we could see it. His appearance caused much consternation among three beachmaster fur seals, which were setting up their territories there. Being early in the season, he thought they would retreat, and they did, but only after considering a charge. We more expected to see our guide come running back up over the edge than to see the bird, a brambling, again. But the bird flew up and we all got great views. The guide, no longer so fearless, may never again challenge beachmasters. The stick would have been a weak weapon against one of the five hundred pound bulls.

At meals on St. Paul there was talk of birds. We chatted of birds on this island and other remote places, on mainland Alaska, and near the homes of our worldwide contingent of serious birders. Only serious birders come to St. Paul, but for the effort and cost they get the chance to see birds that seldom reach even the Alaska mainland and may never reach any of the lower forty eight states. Our group was rewarded with sightings of smew, great knot, and lesser sand plover as well as many more regular appearing Asian birds such as common pochard and black-headed gull. Anne and I each recorded about a dozen “life birds” there.

The appearance of the great knot at eleven thirty p.m. prompted a general alarm; and most of us, already showered and in night clothes, changed again and rode to the salt lagoon to stand in the wind, the rain, and the thirty five degree temperature to make out field marks of a bird standing across the water a couple of hundred yards away in fading light. We returned to bed among the privileged few ever to have seen this bird in North America. Our midnight run seemed a bit silly the next morning when we found that the bird had stayed overnight and had come to our side of the bay where we could enjoy much better views in much less bitter weather. As indicated above, only serious birders go to St. Paul.

Everyone dined in the cafeteria. We had packed our own breakfasts and lunches and bought only dinners. We were concerned how this would be received, but the Aleut woman who operated the register thought our approach was marvelous. She knew how expensive the tours were and supported our approach to reducing the cost of the trip. At $10 for breakfast and $12 for lunch, packing meals saved our group of four some $88 on each of our five days on the island. She insisted we dine in the cafeteria and when she found we had brought only powdered milk to use with our cereal she brought us a pitcher of milk each morning and told us that coffee too was for all guests at no charge.

The dinners were more filling than elegant and homemade. The chef complained that supplies had been delayed and apologized that substitutions had to be made. We simply enjoyed the hot soup and dinners made available to us at this far outpost of civilization.

There is little law on the island. It seems the police chief had ticketed the mayor for speeding and was fired. The state police visit if there are incidents, but we noticed that no one bothered to renew their auto registrations. It is doubtful that any of the “roads” on the island are actually legislative routes. Gasoline was cheap, possibly because it is only delivered once a year and so reflects last year’s price. It may also be cheap because no road tax is applied because there are no roads to drive on.

We will always remember St. Paul for the puffins and murres on the sea cliffs and the tundra and marsh grasses shaking in the wet wind. We have already romanticized the dilapidated town with harbor and stacks of crab pots. These are places where we found extremely rare and handsome birds.

We left St. Paul in good spirits and reorganized to go to Nome. The flight there was in a 737. Unfortunately clouds kept us from scanning much of the land below. We found Nome to be a small, busy, and very dusty frontier town. Here ATVs and “snow machines” are king of the road. The sea ice was leaving as we were arriving and the weather seemed warm after St. Paul. The Bearing Sea was calm during much of our stay and was clear. It seemed very inviting except for the patches of ice floating off the shore.

We rented a Ford Explorer. We found that its windows didn’t work and managed after much discussion to switch it for one with functional windows. This, we were told, would have to be returned after three days, and they would then give us the one with windows that would not open. As it turned out, three days later they told us to keep the car we had. Yes!

The bed and breakfast turned out to be great and was a true refuge for us in this land of the midnight sun. The days started out chilly but became almost balmy (60 degrees) by the end of the week. The mostly clear days were great except the sun dried out the town streets and back roads turning them into dust machines. The residents ignored this fact and raced about leaving great tails of dust behind them. Parked on a road and watching birds we would race to the upwind side of the road whenever a car or truck approached to avoid getting dusted.
[img_assist|fid=1119|thumb=1|alt=Gold Mine Dredge, Nome, AK|caption=Remnants of a previous time, old dredges like this one are seen along the rivers. There is still some active gold mining done on the beach in Nome and other places in Alaska]

[img_assist|fid=1116|thumb=1|alt=Caribou Antlers|caption=Chuck tried these on for size and decided they would be too heavy to carry all the time]

The town included more than enough down-on-their-luck native Americans and others who gathered at the small waterfront park downtown near the liquor and grocery stores. We can’t imagine what these people do or where they go in the winter. One old man asked Chuck to buy him some cigarettes. We declined and concluded that the shopkeeper would not allow him in the store.

Tourists in Nome in June are mostly birders. Except for the Iditarod finish there is not much to look for around Nome other than birds and tundra. Spectacular mountain scenery is only thirty miles away, but one has to drive the awful gravel roads to see it.

[img_assist|fid=1125|thumb=1|alt=The Iditarod Trail, The Last Great Race|caption=Nome is the trail's end for the Iditarod. The finish line is movable so it can be moved to the center of the street. Lots of sled dogs and kennels are around. There are many heartwarming stories involving the race.]

We enjoyed the drives immensely for the birds, the vegetation and flowers, and the caribou and musk ox. The ox is perhaps the most impressive of North America’s large mammals. They are cutie pie fussy giants that enjoy butting heads as they walk across the tundra or down the roads. We admired them greatly and let them remove themselves from the road before proceeding. We were not about to challenge their right of way.
[img_assist|fid=1113|thumb=1|alt=Musk Ox Herd, Nome, AK|caption=Several herds of these unusual and rustic animals were visible from the road in Nome. We even had to stop twice while they monopolized the road. 2 large males butted heads a number of times.]

Our accommodations included a kitchen and we prepared all but one meal at home. We took a recommendation from a friend and former Nome resident and enjoyed a fine pizza in town on our last evening. We enjoyed one round of drinks looking over the ocean (from inside the restaurant).

Our return flight took us above the Arctic Circle to Kotzebue and gave us fabulous views of a still frozen bay. Spring was just starting on June 3 in this part of the world.

We took one day in Anchorage to recover and then drove here near Seward on the Kenai Peninsula famous for its mountain lined bays and tidewater glaciers. Based on the weather forecast, we scheduled our boat tour ride for yesterday. As it was the wind picked up in the afternoon and our Aleut skipper weaved through the waves to give us a somewhat comfortable ride home.

Whereas we admired bull fur seals on St. Paul Island, here we were dazzled by harbor seals lounging on glacial ice and sea otters floating lazily in the frigid water. The weather in Seward was mostly drippy and clouds obsured views of the surrounding mountains.

June 11, 2007 – Homer, AK

After three days we drove west to Kenai and found sunshine and sandy woods on another corner of the Kenai Peninsula. A short-eared owl flew into view in bright sunshine at 10:30 p.m.

This morning we turned south again and drove here to Homer at the southwest part of the Kenai. This town is famous for fishing and a sand spit that reaches five miles out into Kachemak Bay. Across the bay from horizon to horizon runs the Alaska Aleutian range of snow and glacier covered pointy mountains. Round volcanic peaks, some active, are scattered among the jagged tilt mountains. The line of snow capped mountains across the wide bay makes for a spectacular vista and Homer is a popular, if windy and chilly, place. The tourist season begins in mid-June and we are here just ahead of the crowds. We will stay four days and make one boat ride to gull island and other “hot spots” around the bay.

A bright morning gave us wonderful views as we drove south along the coast. Then we entered a fog bank and drove for miles through a cloud before breaking clear just as we arrived at the lookout north of town. Then bright sunshine caused the mountains to glisten above the low clouds over the bay. We stayed for more than an hour watching mountains, eagles, and waves on the bay. One could not but be happy under such conditions. The day was beautiful for March and gave a hint of spring. The fact that it is mid June makes no difference.
[img_assist|fid=1122|thumb=1|alt=Frozen River, Nome AK|caption=June 1, 2007 many of the rivers still had significant ice. This photo was taken at about 2500ft. The road also had snow banks. The state has signs on all the roads "This road is not maintained from October 1 through June 1".]