Adak, Alaska May 16—24, 2007
Posted by Kevin Zimmer
Kevin Zimmer
Kevin Zimmer has authored three books and numerous papers dealing with field identification and bird-finding in North America. His book, Birding in the American West: A Han...Related Trips
Our second joint foray to Adak was another success! There were no weather delays in getting to the island. In fact, if anything, the weather was too good (meaning no westerly winds). Once again, the infrastructure was every bit as good as advertised: comfortable lodging in former Navy housing (two-bedroom/two-and-a-half bathroom apartments with full kitchen, living room, solarium, and satellite TV), good meals, and vans for transport. Habitat for birds was plentiful, and a nice road system with virtually no other traffic made it easy to get around. All that was left for us was to find the birds!
Our most exciting find was a female Smew, which was a new bird for almost everyone in the group. This bird had been reported by other birders a few days prior to our arrival, but it had not been seen for 24 hours before we arrived. Worse yet, despite repeated daily checks, it was not seen by anyone in our first couple of days on the island. We began our third day with another stop by the airport ponds, and there it was! We enjoyed scope views of this dainty duck at some length, reveling in our good fortune. And it did prove to be most fortunate, since we never encountered the bird again!
The Smew was hands-down the top waterfowl highlight, but certainly not the only one. This turned out to be the year of the Tufted Duck. We were treated to these Eurasian visitors on a daily basis, with up to six males seen at the airport ponds. A female at another location made for a total of at least seven individuals. We also found at least two pairs of Eurasian Wigeon, as well as a totally unexpected Barrow's Goldeneye. Other vagrants included a cooperative Wood Sandpiper, displaying Common Snipe, a last-minute Bristle-thighed Curlew, a White Wagtail, Black-headed Gull, a Common Greenshank that flew right past my van and disappeared along the beach, a most uncooperative Brambling that flew as soon as I announced that it was "in the scope," and an even more wretched Dusky Thrush that was seen by the folks in Dan's van, but which flushed before the rest of us could arrive.
Vagrants aside, there were a number of other interesting things to look at. Bald Eagles were more common and approachable (to the delight of photographers in the group) than anywhere I have ever been. Rock Ptarmigan were also exceptionally common, here represented by an endemic subspecies that is considerably darker and less variegated in plumage than individuals from the mainland. The number of alcids seen from shore was impressive. Ancient Murrelets were a common sight in Sweeper Cove and offshore from the beaches, as were Pigeon Guillemots. I particularly enjoyed the scope studies of both Kittlitz's and Marbled murrelets on Clam Lagoon. Arctic Loon, Red-faced Cormorant, Bar-tailed Godwit, Black Oystercatcher, Aleutian Tern, and Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch are just a few of the other "normal" species that we saw during our stay. And of course, how many places can you hope to see Laysan Albatross from shore? We saw at least three from the cliffs at the old Loran Station.
For all of this, if I had to pick a single highlight, it would have been our half-day boat trip to Little Tanaga Straight. By having a week on the island, we are able to pick the best weather day for our trip, and this year we needed every one of those days. In spite of the fact that the weather was pretty good (by Aleutian standards!) throughout our stay, persistent winds kept the seas whipped up to the point that a boat trip would have been uncomfortable. We decided to keep waiting for a good day, and finally, on our last full day, the seas laid down enough for us to go. We still had to take the back way into Little Tanaga, and rough waters wouldn't allow us to cruise the length of the straight. But conditions were good enough for us to get into the tidal rips that concentrate the Whiskered Auklets, and we saw several small groups totaling more than 150 birds. A couple of groups allowed us to approach closely, and, in spite of the boat motion, we could see the whiskers, bill color, and other details nicely. It was a far cry from the 1,500+ birds and flat-calm seas that we enjoyed in 2006, but we weren't in a position to be picky. After all, Whiskered Auklet is one of the most localized and difficult to see of all North American breeding birds, so any day you see one is a great day! As bonuses, we had close looks at numbers of Ancient Murrelets, and Horned and Tufted puffins, as well as an impressive colony of Steller's sea lions.