125 Species on this Custom List
To upload the attached Custom list and Quiz yourself on birds that may be seen on this VENT Tour, right-click HERE and select "Save Target As.." (You may want to rename the file Gambell.xml)
Jun. 5-Jun. 13, 2008
Bristle-thighed Curlew.
Photo: Kevin Zimmer Exciting birding for Bering Sea specialties and Siberian vagrants at two of western Alaska's outposts. Witness spectacular movements of seabirds, along with good chance of Asiatic rarities at Gambell; breeding Bluethroats, ptarmigan, Bristle-thighed Curlew, Gyrfalcon, and others, with musk ox, grizzly, and moose all possible at Nome.
When spring arrives on the shores of Alaska and Siberia and thousands of birds rush northward to claim their nesting territories, some of these small navigators make big mistakes. Every year a number of Asian migrants end up on North American soil. Birders have learned that they can intercept some of these strays by positioning themselves at strategic points in western Alaska. The Yup'ik village of Gambell on St. Lawrence Island is one such strategic point.
Gambell birding can be quite fabulous; remarkable strays that have occurred here include Black-tailed Gull, Oriental Pratincole, Green Sandpiper, Red-breasted Flycatcher, Stonechat, Dusky Thrush, Eurasian Bullfinch, and many others. Our 1989 tour discovered a Little Curlew here—a first record for Alaska and only the third ever for North America—and our 1995 tour found a Tree Pipit, only the second ever for North America. Regular here are Common Ringed Plover, Red-necked Stint, Bluethroat, and Red-throated Pipit. Even on days when no vagrants show up, the birding is exceptional. Tens of thousands of murres, puffins, and auklets that nest east of the village are constantly moving just offshore as are smaller flocks of loons, eiders, and Harlequin Ducks. Migrants passing the point often include Arctic, Pacific, and Yellow-billed loons, Emperor Goose, and Ivory Gull.
We'll also have three days to explore the area around Nome, looking for Bristle-thighed Curlew, Gyrfalcon, Aleutian Tern, Bluethroat, and others.
This trip may be taken alone or may be combined with Grand Alaska. Grand Alaska participants desiring more time in Alaska should consider joining the Barrow Extension.
At Gambell, simple accommodations with shared bathrooms; lots of hiking through loose gravel, but on flat terrain; ATV rides to and from birding sites are always available and are easily arranged on a pay-as-you-go basis at each participant's discretion (this option is much more flexible and less expensive to participants than including daily ATV rental in the cost of the tour); at Nome, good accommodations; most birding in-and-out of vans and along lightly traveled gravel roads, with short hikes onto tundra; one optional long hike over difficult terrain for Bristle-thighed Curlew; long birding days, with optional evening birding in this land of nearly 24-hour daylight; generally cold climate (temperatures usually 25-40 degrees Fahrenheit).
To Get (upload) a Custom List from this Forum and add it to your computer:
1. Open the Posting of the Custom List you want to upload to your computer.
2. Right-click on the word "Attachment" at the bottom of the post -- it will be a hyperlink and underlined.
3. Select "Save Target As..." and save to your desktop. (You may want to rename the file - but do not change the .xml file extension)
4. Open your Thayer Birding Software birding program version 3.5 or 3.9.
5. Click the Custom List icon
6. In the upper left corner of the Custom List screen, click on the word File.
7. Click Import. Select the file you just uploaded to your desktop. Click Open.
8. The Custom List will now appear on your computer with your other Custom Lists. (You may rename the Custom List if you like.)
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