The Deskbound Birder: Alaska - 30th May (Day 3)

Monday 30 May 2016

Alaska - 30th May (Day 3)

We were up at 06:30 and headed down into town for breakfast at the galley in the fish packing factory. After breakfast we headed west along the coast to Ridge Wall, located in the south-west of the island. These are higher cliffs than at Reef Cliff and far more extensive and we spent much of the morning enjoying the diversity of Alcids here with good views again of Parakeet Auklet, Least Auklet, Tufted Puffin, Horned Puffin, Brunnich’s Guillemot and Common Guillemot. We saw Crested Auklet on the cliffs but these were a little distant and we hoped for better views. Also here were Black-legged Kittiwake, one or two Red-legged Kittiwake and Red-faced Cormorant. Unfortunately at the time of year we were on the island the Red-legged Kittiwake had not yet returned to their nest sites and therefore there were no birds on the cliffs. However, the coming and going of auks and the hustle and bustle of the cliffs was mezmerising and we probably could have spent all day here in various precipitous positions hanging over the cliffs photographing and simply enjoying the birds.

Parakeet Auklet - St Paul Island

Parakeet Auklet with Least Auklet - St Paul Island

Parakeet Auklet - St Paul Island

Parakeet Auklet with Least Auklet - St Paul Island

Parakeet Auklet - St Paul Island

Parakeet Auklet, the bill of this species is said to be adapted for catching jellyfish - St Paul Island

Brunnich's Guillemot - St. Paul Island

Red-faced Cormorant - St Paul Island

Northern Fulmar of race rodgersii, this race has wide plumage variation, the top bird being roughly intermediate while the lower, very striking bird, is at the darker end of the scale - St. Paul Island.

Black-legged Kittiwake of race pollicaris and sometimes split as Pacific Kittiwake - St. Paul Island

Red-legged Kittiwake - St. Paul Island

We then headed out to the south-west point of the island where we wandered out onto the rocky, wave-cut headland to try and get closer views of Harlequin Duck, however, the birds were remarkably skittish and flew at considerable range. Still, we had reasonable scope views and got nice views of Red-legged Kittiwake, Grey-crowned Rosy-finch and a more distant Short-tailed Shearwater off shore while Northern Fur-seals frolicked in the surf.

Andy Bunting, Martin Kennewell and I - Fairly happy with the birding to date

Harlequin Duck - St Paul Island

Glaucous-winged Gull (1st winter) - St Paul Island

Glaucous-winged Gull (2nd winter birds) - St Paul Island

Red-legged Kittiwake - St. Paul Island

Glaucous-winged Gull (2nd winter) - St Paul Island

Grey-crowned Rosy-finch

Map of St. Paul Island. Salt Lagoon is in the south at the base of the peninsula, Reef Cliffs to the south, Ridge Wall to on the south coast to the east of Salt Lagoon, the main town is just to the south of Salt Lagoon. The island is 7.66 miles east to west and 13.5 miles from the north-east to the southern most point. The highest point is Rush Hill at 203m. It is the largest of the Pribilof Islands and has a population of 532 people. A Wikipedia article can be viewed here.

We stopped at a small rocky beach on the way back for lunch where around 100 Harlequin Duck were off shore although these showed better they were still a little distant for photography and were incredibly wary. But the stars of the show here were the hundreds of Least Auklet that were breeding amongst the boulders on the beach, we had a very enjoyable hour or so sat on the beach watching these birds come and go, socialise and create mischief.

Harlequin Duck - St. Paul Island

Least Auklet - St Paul Island

Snow Bunting - St Paul Island

After lunch we headed north up the island stopping at Salt Lagoon for some confiding Red-necked Phalarope. We then birded an area of marsh in the north-east of the island where Wood Sandpiper, Barn Swallow and a fairly showy Least Sandpiper were the highlights.

Red-necked Phalarope - St Paul Island

Lupin, a common species on St Paul

I initially took this to be a Primula species but now think it to be a

Stellaria or something similar

Red-necked Phalarope on the Salt Lagoon

Least Sandpiper - St Paul Island

We heard that the Ancient Murrelet had been seen at Town Bay so made a dash down the island and scanned the bay from the seal blind on the east shore picking up Red-breasted Merganser, Red-necked Grebe, White-winged Scoter and White-billed Diver but no Ancient Murrelet. There were around 20 Fur Seal on the beach below the blind, quite vulgar animals, and a scraggy Arctic Fox sniffed around their poo - lovely. After around an hour of scanning the bay with no luck we spent a further hour or so on Reef Cliff enjoying the auks although numbers were much lower than yesterday we enjoyed some fine views of Parakeet Auklet. Finally, news broke of a Cackling Goose near to the King Eider Hotel so we headed off to look at this, the bird was very wary and flew some distance as we got out of the car even though at this stage the bird was at least 200m away - I guess they are hunted here and so are wary of humans.