Nome is Where the Heart is

Nap Time on the Tundra for moms & their calves

No - not done with the puns yet. And Nome may be where the heart is, but it is also where the interesting lifers are, particularly those with long distance flight stats. We started the day where the road crossed by a fogged in estuary of sorts where gulls and terns accumulated. We looked for Aleutian Terns that migrate as far as 44K miles, from north to south pole. 

A different tern... Arctic terns and one flashy, black hooded Sabine's Gull.

A Parasitic Jaeger did a fly-by

Took a while but we finally spotted a small group of - LIFER FER ME - Aleutian Terns sitting on a gravel bar. They are the three birds in the foreground with the white area just above their bills.

Fun fact:  Aleutian terns do not defend their nests, they just fly away when trouble hits. It's theorized Aleutians nest among Arctics because Arctics vigorously defend their nests, and Aleutians may benefit by nesting alongside their feistier cousins.

So what? We can always try our nesting luck again next year.

After a bit we headed out, traveling east, our eyes open for spotting critters, winged & unwinged.  On the unwinged sort, we found a cow moose with a calf. Everyone saw the calf but me. It's there but its below the tops of the scrub.

Moose in the Mist

I wasn't too bothered by the fog really - that is, until a rare opportunity popped up on the Bering Sea. A flock of full-on breeding plumaged Red Phalarope!  I mean, Jiminy Christmas!  I sometimes see these fascinating teeny-wienie birds way the hell out on the Pacific Ocean.  So on this extremely rare occasion, we saw them in a fairly large group with the weather too foggy for clear pix. RATS! Oh well. The females are colorful, with rust feathering and yellow bills. Hey, just enjoy.

Red Phalaropes: Just imagining this had been taken on a sunny morning makes my head ache!

Oh, and this Lapland Longspur, a species I last saw in the year 2000.

Male Lapland Longspur surveying his kingdom

Common Eider out for a swim - here's to seeing Spectacled, King and Stellar's Eiders this week too, 

Then, HERE COMES THE SUN!

Two Laplanders!

Pacific Loons, one on nest, the other on patrol

Common Redpoll, looking all blushed and stuff

But enough peripheral birdies and such. We were after lifers (for 'moi') after all. We headed up into the foothills.  Our target birdie - the Northern Wheatear - another long distance flyer that gives the Aleutian Tern a run for the birdseed. Richard took us to an area where the Northern Wheatears are known to hang. We looked and looked, and finding some obvious birders along the roadway, we asked if they had spotted the Wheatears. There were satisfied nods, Minutes later I was happily shooting a zillion photos of this fellow.

Make Northern Wheatear looking kind of like a Mockingbird, but sooo much cooler!

Richard looking all happy that we got our bird!

Honestly, never in a zillion years thought I'd ever get to see a Northern Wheatear.

You mean Lil' ole me? Aw shucks M'am...

With the big Bird of the day, there was nothing left but for us to sit on our laurels and enjoy all the other creatures.

Lapland Hopping Lessons

I dun good, 

Lovely Tundra Swan

Late in the afternoon we walked along a wooden boardwalk, and what popped out from under it? This sleepy, scratchy & weary looking Red Fox. Not my best sighting or the best fox poses, but better than the old poke in the eye.