[mou] Alaskan birding trip, YDNWR

[Jim Williams]

I recently returned from eight days in the Yukon Delta National 
Wildlife Refuge, birding an area previously visited by very few 
birders, according to our contacts. We used Bethel as jumping off point 
for visits to the villages of Chevac (on the Ninglikfak River) and St. 
Mary's (Yukon River), birding tundra in both places. We were there the 
last week of June, late for prime birding conditions, but the best 
timing our group of four could arrange among its members.

Most of the nesting Emperor Geese were gone, and shorebird nesting was 
near its end. The three days spent in the field out of Chevac, however, 
offered the most intense birding photo opportunities I've enjoyed ever. 
Birds were available in numbers and at close range. I can only imagine 
what it must have been like two weeks earlier.

We did see nesting Emperor Geese and Spectacled Eider (several), 
nesting Pacific Loon, plus many flybys of both Pacific and 
Red-throated. We found nesting Western, Semi-palmated, and Least 
sandpipers, Dunlin, Black Turnstone, yellowlegs, Black-bellied and 
American Golden Plover, Sabine's Gull, Arctic Tern, Lapland Longspur, 
Willow Ptarmigan, and Yellow Wagtail. Parasitic and Long-tailed Jaegers 
were seen, the latter common. Bartailed Godwit were seen, along with 
Cackling Geese, Black Brant, Glaucous and Mew gulls, Red-necked 
Phalaropes (everywhere), ravens, redpolls, Rusty Blackbirds, Northern 
Shrike juvenile, Common Snipe, Tundra Swan, miscellaneous sparrows and 
warblers, Gray-Cheeked and Varied thrush, and Pine Grosbeak. 
Miscellaneous ducks and grebes were seen in or near Bethel and St. 
Mary's.

We also birded the road between St. Mary's and Mountain Village where 
Bristle-thighed Curlew have been recorded on bird counts. The birds, 
juveniles and adults, were seen the days we were there, but the 
location was 25 miles north and found by banders accessing the area by 
helicopter. We found none along the road we searched, but believe had 
we been present before the birds left their nests we could have had 
much better chances. The conditions here, 12 miles out of town on a 
good gravel road, tundra walking possibly not necessary (and more 
walkable tundra, at that) certainly beat those at Coffee Dome out of 
Nome.

We stayed in a comfortable b&b in Bethel and a comfortable apartment in 
St. Mary's.

Our Chevac guide and outfitter, Ulric Ulroan, is attempting to build a 
birding tourism business there. He knows his birds, knows his land. His 
camp was more than adequate. His email address is 
kash44ulroan at yahoo.com. (I also have postal address and telephone 
number.) All in all, it was an exceptional trip. I had no lifers, but 
expected none. Instead, I had life looks several times a day at a 
number of species, and never went without birds to enjoy. it was my 
sixth visit to Alaska (multiple visits to Anchorage, Seward, Nome, St. 
Lawrence Island, plus the Pribs and Attu (two days; don't ask), and I 
consider it my most enjoyable trip.

Jim Williams
Wayzata, Minnesota