We began birding on the morning of Jan 14.  Our first target was Gray Partridge, and we stopped at a grain elevator along Highway 2 east of Waterville.  No go on the Partridges, but we saw our first Rough-legged Hawk and a fly-by Prairie Falcon.  Moving on, we found Gray Partridges at our second stop, a grain elevator in the hamlet of Withrow.

Partridges hiding under the sage

Our next target was a Snowy Owl east of Mansfield.  We drove through Mansfield along the way, and found a big gathering of California Quail:

Just a portion of the covey

Moving on, the Snowy Owl was waiting for us when we got there.  We got good looks through the scope, but it was too far away for photos.  Maybe if you look very closely you can see it as a white speck in this photo:

The owl is out there on that ridge

Another target in the bag, we headed to Bridgeport State Park for another owl: Northern Saw-whet Owl.  It took a little while, but we found one hiding in a conifer.

Like the Snowy Owl, the Saw-whet wasn't exactly photo-cooperative

By now, it was lunchtime, so we drove into Brewster to find a place to eat, along the way we past a small flock of Trumpeter Swans and a Harlan’s Hawk.  After lunch, we headed to Omak, our base for the next couple of days, by way of Cameron Lake Road, which wasn’t very birdy.

Day 2 of the tour was devoted to the Okanogan Highlands northeast of the Tonasket.  We started early to look for Great Gray Owl.  No luck with that, so we moved on to look for Sharp-tailed Grouse.  Along the way, I spotted a “softball with a tail” sitting on a utility wire — a Northern Pygmy-Owl.  Continuing the theme, this small owl was too far away for a decent photo, but we still had an awesome look at it in the scope as it sat in the sun, looking for breakfast.

We got to the Sharp-tailed Grouse spot, but the first birds we saw were a flock of Pine Grosbeaks.  Then we found the grouse a little further down the road.

Sharp-tailed Grouse

We went back to Tonasket for lunch.  We took a side road near town and scored another target: Chukar.  There was a large group feeding around a corral, along with an even larger group of California Quail.

Chukar

After lunch, we found a single Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch in a tree.  They’re normally around in large flocks at feeders, but the main feeding station wasn’t being maintained as in previous years.  While looking at the Rosy-Finch, Mike, one of the tour participants, spotted a Great Horned Owl sitting in the window of a barn near the Rosy-Finch tree.  Yep — again no photos of the owl.  It was dark and distant.  At dusk, we tried again for Great Gray Owl, but again, no success.

We started Day 3 back on Cameron Lake Road, but it was socked in with fog.  Not much to see except Mountain Chickadees and Pygmy Nuthatches.  Our next stop was Central Ferry Canyon Road.  Here we encountered a large flock of Bohemian Waxwings (the reason for coming here), plus several Great Blue Herons standing in the middle of a snowy field (always an odd sight no matter how many times you see it) and a male Varied Thrush.  From here, we headed back to Seattle and the end of the tour, with a few stops along the way for waterfowl and raptors.

Adult Thayer's Gull (immature Glaucous Gull in back)

Immature Thayer's Gull

After lunch, we returned to where the gulls were gathering for whale scraps.  While scanning through the flock for something different, hoping for an Ivory Gull, we noticed that other birders (Steve Heinl, Jerry Koerner, and Andy Piston) were waving at us from further down the road.  Steve had found a gull that at first didn’t impress me.  Sitting on the water, it didn’t look like anything too out of the ordinary for Barrow.  But then it flew, and it was clearly a big gull.  I asked Steve what they were thinking it was.  He was reluctant to answer, so I said, “You’re thinking it’s a Great Black-backed, aren’t you?”  I should mention that Steve was reluctant because there has been only one record of Great Black-backed Gull, a species normally found in the North Atlantic and Great Lakes, in Alaska.

The big guy -- Click on the photo to see a gallery of more photos

It isn’t a “classic” Great Black-backed Gull, for example, the greater secondary coverts on the upperwing are darker than those of a typical Great Black-backed.  It’s also on the small side for a Great Black-backed — it was the same size as the large Glaucous Gulls — but not outside the normal range.  Its size and somewhat rounded head and smaller bill indicates that it’s likely a female.  There’s been some behind-the-scenes discussion with gull experts, and the consensus is that it is a Great Black-backed Gull.

Great Black-backed Gull with Thayer's Gull

After thoroughly photographing this gull, we all continued on our separate ways, with our group heading northeast along the coast.  Steve’s group went in the opposite direction and looked through the gulls feeding on the whales.  As we turned around, we saw them coming back towards us.  Andy was driving and let us know that they had just found an Ivory Gull.  We got back there ASAP.

There was a snow squall moving through, so it was a little dark, and as you can see, the gull almost disappears in these conditions.  Here are a few more shots:

Ivory Gull and Glaucous Gull

Ivory Gull on right side of Glaucous Gull flock

All those cars in the background are line up because another bowhead whale was being hauled onto shore.  The Ivory Gull was a little jumpy and moving around a lot, probably due to all of the activity associated with the whale.

On the 9th, the final full day of the tour, the Great Black-backed was still around but the Ivory Gull had moved on.  Ross’s Gulls were still moving through, surprisingly moving east-to-west like the previous day (at this date, I would expect them to still be migrating in the opposite direction), but not in big numbers and many were far offshore.  We also watched another fox-and-owl dance, probably featuring the same individuals as the previous day and with the same outcome.  Overall, it felt like a quiet day until later in the afternoon.  There were many King and Common Eiders around every day, but we had not yet seen a Spectacled Eider, so that became our focus.  After looking at many eiders, we finally spotted a Spectacled among a flock of Kings at the end of the road along the coast.  It was difficult at first, as it was far away and would only pop up momentarily from behind the waves, and then a heavy snow squall moved in, making it impossible to see the flock.  Finally it cleared and everyone got on it, and after a wait, the flock drifted back towards us, and we all got to see it fairly close in sunlight.

We had only an hour to bird on the final morning of the tour.  Nothing new was added to the trip list, but we got to see the Great Black-backed one more time before returning to the airport.  We finished with 19 species, one fewer than last year, but this tour is all about quality, not quantity.  Ross’s Gulls, an adult Ivory Gull, Spectacled Eider: can’t complain about that.

Other birders had a couple of days with big numbers of Ross’s Gulls (the main target of this tour) nearly a week ago, but numbers had dropped off dramatically.  Things picked up a little today, and we had 100+.  It’s difficult to say just how many we saw today because some of them were circling around and feeding.

Early in the morning, Ross’ses were noted flying west to east, the expected direction.  At first they were only specks in the distance, but then some came closer, close enough for everyone to tick their lifer Ross’s.  After a short bit, we noticed that there were a number of birds circling and feeding up the coast (northeast) of our position, so we drove towards them.  Soon we had some gulls flying right past us along the shoreline.  A few flew right over our heads, perhaps only 20 or 30 feet high, such as this bird (this is an uncropped photo):

We braved the cold to enjoy the show for the next 30-60 minutes.  Every few minutes, another small group of gulls would fly down the shore and pass by very close.  One gull dropped down to pick up some food item no more than 40 feet away.  This isn’t that bird, but it’s another one that wasn’t much further away doing the same thing:

I forgot to mention that after the first push of birds in the morning, all the others were moving east to west.  You would think it’s too early for that, but maybe it’s just a local, temporary thing.  There were fewer gulls moving after 10:30 or so, but we did see some more in the afternoon (again, moving east to west).  Here’s a few more shots from this morning:

One thing that made today so good was that the birds were close despite the lack of high winds stirring up the surf (the Ross’s like to feed close to shore in those conditions).  The calm conditions also meant the gulls weren’t zooming by or moving erratically, good for photography.  On the other hand, the low light and mostly cloudy skies weren’t great for photography, but it’s expected.

Of course, there were some other birds to be seen, such as Red Phalaropes:

…and Long-tailed Ducks:

Other species seen today were King and Common Eider, White-winged Scoter, a loon sp., Glaucous Gull, Black-legged Kittiwake, Short-tailed Shearwater (some close to shore and a flock of about 50 in Elson Lagoon), Common Raven, and from an Alaskan rarity perspective the best bird of the day, a possible Palm Warbler.  We also saw a few Arctic foxes today.

I arrived at Barrow, Alaska on the evening of October 5. Denny Hodsdon picked me up at the airport and said he had seen about 25 Ross’s Gulls earlier that day, a relief to hear. While I was mostly confident our timing was good—the Ross’s Gull migration here usually begins in the latter half of September—I had a nagging worry that maybe they’d be late this year.

The next morning, we started birding at the old runway beyond the old U. S. Naval Arctic Research Laboratory (the main building is now Ilisagvik College). Several whales had been harvested and then butchered at this site. The carcasses were stored in dumpsters here before transport to Point Barrow. We figured this was the most likely location for an Ivory Gull to appear. As we started birding, we began to notice several flocks of Ross’s Gulls flying fairly high, coming in from the Chukchi Sea and then flying east-northeastward across some of the inland lakes, presumably taking a shortcut to the Beaufort Sea. Most flocks had from 20 to 40 individuals, but one had about 100. By the end of the day, we had seen about 250.

This following day, we saw similar flocks overhead, though some Ross’s Gulls were seen flying over the sea and following the coastline as well, some fairly far offshore. One such flock, flying fairly quickly and low over the water, contained an adult Ivory Gull. A few Ross’s also stopped briefly on the frozen lake next to the runway. Though the passage had not yet approached the mega-flights recorded in some years, we saw about 300 Ross’s on October 7.

During my discussions with some of the local biologists, I learned that high winds bring the gulls close to shore, as these winds create breakers at the coast, and the gulls feed in the turbulent water. (The direction of the wind is apparently not critical, as wind from several directions can create breakers.)  Up to this point, the weather had been mild.

As luck would have it, we awoke to howling easterly winds and relatively large breakers on the morning of October 8. A few other birders had joined us this day, and as we were getting gas, a few flocks of Ross’s Gulls could be seen flying along the shoreline in the predawn light. We raced down the road to get ahead of a flock so the new arrivals could get their lifer looks at the gulls, then proceeded back to our usual spot at the old runway. Some other birders and biologists also soon arrived.

Ross’s Gulls began to pour by, flying right along the shoreline and feeding in the surf. Many were rocketing by in the high winds, making photography difficult. Some passed by no more than five feet above our heads. Over the next hour or so, my companions made three one-minute counts that indicated the gulls were passing at a rate over 7000 per hour. Of course, a more rigorous protocol should have been followed to obtain a more reliable estimate, but there were obviously thousands of Ross’s Gulls. For several hours, they flew by us at seemingly the same rate.

Later in the morning, there seemed to be fewer gulls, but they may have just been more spread out. We made a trip to the point in the afternoon, and Ross’s Gulls were still flying by the point in a continuous stream, though the point appeared to be a bottleneck. A group of about 500 were continuously in view, with apparently equal numbers flying into the west end and out of the east end of the flock. Given our counting methodology, we were not able to arrive at a reliable estimate of the number of gulls we saw that day, but it may well have been over 10,000, with a higher proportion of first-cycle Ross’s than we had seen in the previous two days.

The next day, winds had calmed again, and the gulls had resumed the behavior we witnessed during the earlier days of our visit, flying by at higher elevations in discrete flocks. Numbers may have been higher though, with about 200 seen in 20 minutes, but we departed that morning, so we don’t know if that rate continued throughout the day. It had been a spectacular experience.

The trip is now finished.  Check back in a few days for a photo gallery…and of course keep an eye on the website or e-mail me for info if you’re interested in coming along next year.

There was a small fishing boat on the horizon, so we switched course to see if there were any birds around it.  There wasn’t, but in the course of a radio conversation, that boat’s captain said we weren’t in a good area for Short-taileds.  We knew we were in a good area — we were approaching Seguam Pass, a hotspot for them — so it was a nice ‘I told you so’ when we spotted the next Short-tailed within sight of that boat.

Over the next several hours, we encountered more Short-taileds.  As we passed through the west side of Seguam Pass, the Short-tailed count approached 10.

A little while later, a small pod of Orca along with many albatrosses were ahead of us.  As we approached, an adult Short-tailed Albatross suddenly appeared on our port side (and yes, I was sitting on the starboard side).  It flew ahead of us but then sat on the water.  It then started flying again and we lost it, but then I started chumming.  Soon we had about 20 Laysans and one Black-footed behind the boat.  Then Rich spotted the Short-tailed coming into the ship’s wake.  Some of us had all three species in one binocular field of view.  The Short-tailed never came close enough to grab some chum, but it did follow the boat for about 10 minutes.  It was certainly the bird of the day.