Birder’s Notebook

Short-tailed Shearwater–– a tube-nosed seabird that connects Australia and the Bering Sea

Flying fast on long slender wings over the rich, cold waters of the Bering Sea, hundreds of thousands of short-tailed shearwaters are fattening up for a marathon trans-equatorial migration to their...

Barn Swallow––nesting success at Gambell spotlights a regional rarity

Barn swallows are the world’s most widespread and abundant swallow, but here in the Bering Strait region they are a rarity. Recent photos on eBird showing a clutch of bright-eyed, soon-to-fledge barn...

Northern Shoveler––the big-billed duck

The male northern shoveler is unmistakable. With handsome, richly colored plumage and a hugely oversized bill, this duck has an elegant, yet goofy look. Bird bills come in all shapes and sizes to...

Arctic Warbler––a long-haul, transcontinental traveler

Long ago, before sea level rise and then politics intervened, man and other animals moved freely through the Bering Strait region between Asia and North America. Today there are still a handful of...

Least Sandpipers - Our tiniest shorebird

Least sandpipers might be tiny, but they are spunky, spirited sprites worth getting to know. Barely larger than a sparrow and weighing only about an ounce, the least is North America’s smallest...

American Pipit––Tougher than they look

*/ American pipits are delicate-looking songbirds that defy their appearance to buck strong winds and endure the harsh condition of their alpine breeding grounds. This slender, fairy-like bird...

Buff-breasted Sandpiper––an elegant visitor delights observers

Every spring during migration, I keep a sharp eye out for a special shorebird–the elegant and charismatic buff-breasted sandpiper. In many years “buffys” are not even reported in the region, and...

BOUND FOR WRANGEL ISLAND – A flock of dazzling white snow geese with black-tipped wings takes off from Safety Sound after a brief layover for food and rest en route to their breeding grounds on Wrangel Island, Russia.

Snow Goose – here today, gone tomorrow

Sometimes spring migration begins with a tantalizing trickle of birds, and sometimes there is an overwhelming but welcome deluge. This year the flood gates opened in mid-May. Among the many species...

MALE SPRUCE GROUSE – A male spruce grouse walks over the snow in late spring. Spruce grouse spend the winter feeding in the upper branches of spruce trees. As spring comes, they spend more time foraging on the ground. They seldom fly unless flushed into a nearby tree, or when males perform short courtship displays.

Spruce Grouse — A bird of the boreal forest

The Seward Peninsula’s spruce forests are home to another well-adapted winter resident, the aptly named spruce grouse. These handsome and hardy grouse are found throughout the boreal and montane...

CANADA JAY AT A CACHE – A Canada jay is fluffed up on a winter day, eating meat it previously cached in the fork of a branch. Canada jays spend summer and fall gathering and storing thousands of bits of food, and use their sticky saliva to glue it to hiding places under bark, beneath lichens, or in forked branches. They scatter their secret stashes throughout their territory in preparation for winter scarcity, and remember where to find them.

Tricks of the trade for some of Nome’s overwintering birds -- Part 2

With temperatures hovering around 30 below zero over the snowy, windswept landscape, early January seemed an uninviting time to be a bird in Nome. While the winter scene appeared devoid of food or...