Alaska: Barrow Extension: Jun 26—28, 2011

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Price: $1,995
Departs: Anchorage
Tour Limit: 9
Operations Manager: Erik Lindqvist
Download Itinerary: PDF (109.5 KB)

Tour Leaders

Barry-zimmer

Barry Zimmer

Barry Zimmer has been birding since the age of eight. His main areas of expertise lie in Nor...


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Register for this Tour

You can register for this tour by phone (800-328-VENT or 512-328-5221) or by downloading a printable file of our full tour registration form. Signed and completed forms can be faxed to 512-328-2919 or mailed to our office.

Steller's Eider

Steller's 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. Brilliant Snow Buntings and Lapland Longspurs are the common passerines! 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!