Alaska: Barrow Extension: Jun 27—29, 2008

(to Grand Alaska or Alaska Mainland)

Register for WaitlistTour Details

Price: $1,850
Departs: Anchorage
Tour Limit: 9
Operations Manager: Erik Lindqvist
Download Itinerary: PDF (147.1 KB)

Tour Leaders

Kevin-zimmer

Kevin Zimmer

Kevin Zimmer has authored three books and numerous papers dealing with field identification and bird-finding in North America. ...


More Information

Register for the Waiting List

This departure is sold out! Add your name to the waiting list, or inquire about this tour by calling our office (1-800-328-VENT or 512-328-5221), or emailing us (info@ventbird.com).

Spectacled Eider

Spectacled Eider — Photo: Kevin Zimmer

This short tour, which can be taken by itself or as an optional extension to Grand Alaska or Alaska Mainland, will visit Barrow, the northernmost town on the North American continent.

In a setting of 24-hour sunlight, the bird life is unmistakably High Arctic. Three species of eiders nest here (the magnificent King, the beautiful Steller's, and the bizarre Spectacled) with the males resplendent in their breeding dress.

Displaying sandpipers are everywhere—Baird's turning circles with one wing stretched to the sky, Pectorals with their ruffs distended as they perform their strange hooting flights, dressy Dunlins singing shrill "songs" from atop moss-covered hummocks, and every pond alive with gorgeous Red Phalaropes. Yellow-billed Loon, Red-necked Stint, and Sabine's Gull are regular migrants that are seen in some years by our groups. If the lemming population is not in a crash year, we should be treated to the sight of Snowy Owls and Pomarine Jaegers cruising over the tundra. Even polar bear (seen by several of our past tours) is a possibility here!