Utqiaġvik is all about the birds

Still Sunday. When our tour group finished its breakfast back at the Inn, we headed out to squeeze in some late-in-the-day birding around Utqiaġvik. One of our first stops was a cool little yard that served to feed the local birdies. There, photo shy Common Redpoll and photogenic male Snow Buntings were present. 

 

Someone's front side yard, for the birds

Your town have House Sparrows? 

Utqiaġvik has Snow Buntings in lieu thereof

Buntings are also cute from rear

Birders know that cemeteries, where-ever, are a great place to see birds. The Utqiaġvik cemetery is fascinating covered under in snow and ice, but birds... not so much. 

Both beautiful & spooky

All over Utqiaġvik caribou pelts, caribou skulls and antlers are evident. They seem to be a large part of local diets.  Bet their steaks are tasty as hell.

Tundra Swans... miss seeing these beauts winters in California's Central Valley

Beautiful Black-bellied Plover in its fancy 'Sunday-go-to-meeting' feathers

Pectoral Sandpiper

The high arctic is where all the swans, geese, ducks and shorebirds come to breed. So the big treat is seeing the birds in their best plumage. 

Long-billed Dowitcher

Greater White-fronted Geese

Red Phalarope

The Red Phalarope were everywhere! If there was a puddle - and there were thousands - there were Phalarope spinning in the puddles like tops. They spin to stir up their food in the murky water. 

American Golden-Plover

Then off in the distance, George spotted some ducks and there they were... Eiders! And it was the species that was the least expected to pop up so easily - Steller's Eiders. Lifers on the house, er in the puddle!

Male Stellar's Eider 

For this trip a new camera was bought, an updated version of my Panasonic Lumix. It was purchased a couple of months in advance of this trip, but still I really didn't get a whole lot of practice in. So due to my ignorance - or maybe I can blame the camera a bit - lots of my photos were not in total focus. Plus the new camera has extreme telephoto lens. I can shoot with optical power up to 1200 mm, and with digital up to heaven-only-knows. Optical means the camera is actually shooting true through glass, while digital means the camera 'fudges', i.e., fills in some of the photo The photo above was shot at the equivalent of  2640mm which means the bird was crazy far off. With a bit of luck maybe I'll get a chance of a closer shot before the trip ends, fingers crossed. 

Nevertheless, that's one of my target birds seen, and 2 or maybe 3 to go. 

Mr & Ms Steller's Eider

Covid Wanes, and I'm OFF!

Headed North 

However beautiful an airport may be, I hate them. Airports are uphill walks with Cinnabon booths to taunt you and TSA lines to aggravate.  TSA peels the shoes from your feet, make you pile your valuables (backpacks, laptops, credit cards, ID, etc.)into thief-tempting bins. You're stuffed into a body scanner, to suffer x-rays alloting under-paid agents a view of your naked body on the guise of searching for weaponry that is more likely to be nail clippers than an 44 Magnum. Then, if you're shaped like me, you are pulled aside for a 'pat down' and testing for ignitable powders. Why? Because the scanners unfailingly assume belly fat to be a Weapon of Mass destruction. It took me a year to finally realize that. To realize why every friggin' scan outlines my abdomen in yellow, signifying DANGER! Yellow used to be my favorite color. 

But where was I? Oh yeah, today I took off from Seattle Airport after only 3 gate changes - don't even ask - prior to boarding a 2nd and final jet to Anchorage Alaska. Once there, I met up with my fellow travelers, the 'Gang of Five Birders'. That is, trip leader Richard Cimino, plus George, Jim, and Sally. After spending the night in Anchorage, the following morning we took a not quite 3 hour flight north. It felt sort of like a miracle because the flight suffered cancelations and rescheduling for months, so we were just happy there was a flight. Most of our fellow passengers were Utqiaġvik locals on their way home. Bonus, it was a scant flight but dang it, I flew first class. Yeah baby, the price of 1st class on such a short hop on Alaska Air was within my budget so I went for it. I know. Spoiled. Nearly.

Arriving in the Utqiaġvik Airport was fun, because tiny airports are a kick. After yesterday's gate changes, one appreciates an airport one can traverse the breath of in say 100 yds, give or take. 

Rich, picked up our van for the next few days, then took our luggage to our digs, the King Eider Inn. We walked the one block over to the Inn.
 The King Eider is a cute Inn that ala Hawaii, asks patrons to leave their shoes in cute little cubby holes in the lobby. While in Hawaii it's all about not tracking in sand. In Utqiaġvik it's about not tracking snow and mud. The inn has lovely rustic looks - a big hit with all outdoor types. 

My favorite thing in the lobby was a cute hand made chess set composed of Raptors vs Ducks. The pawns on the left are Peregrine Falcons, facing off with King Eider pawns. So cool.

 There are many local examples of local art and curiosities in the lobby.

Caribou antlers which are uber common
in this neck of the woods

Bowhead Whale baleen hoovers
over the guest computer center

Though we had snacks on the flight in, we were ready for a late lunch. Once all our gear was stowed in our rooms, Rich took us to where he said we would probably get all our meals this week, to the Grocery Store. There are no farms in or anywhere near Utqiaġvik, and all food that isn't locally sourced (such as Bowhead Whales, Walrus, birds and Caribou to name a few ) must be either flown in. Non-perishables, say canned goods, can come in by barge, but only when the Chukchi Sea that borders the town isn't frozen over.  

The Grocery Store aka Stuaqpak 

Not much you could not find here so that's great

We did most of our shopping at the left, where hot deli food is displayed

See the veggie aisle above? That all had to be flown in, resulting in $3.59 for red or orange peppers, and $5.27 each for Napa Cabbage. Welcome to the land of the Midnight Sun, right?

 

We took our dinners back to the King Eider Inn lobby where we ate. Then we headed out for some sightseeing. I'll post that outing next!