Next morning we had a wonderful breakfast and headed out "Fresh Lake Road" first (I believe). The Sabine's Gull was gone, but we got good looks at our old friends the phalaropes, and a lot more Dunlin seemed to be around than the day before. Cruising along the beach we found a knockout Pacific Loon pretty close to the road, and down one little road a couple of Baird's Sandpipers were much more cooperative than the flighty one we had the previous day, the male doing his "wing-pit" display and the female following him around like a puppy!
Pacific Loons Dunlin
It was pretty bleak along Gaswell, although Kevin did manage to find a pair of King Eiders fairly close, the male with a shield that actually rose above his head! But we dipped on any other eiders; in fact, we ran into a biologist who had been surveying for the airport expansion project for the last two weeks, and the only Steller's Eider she saw was a flyover! That led to a discussion about why they may have crashed (in Alaska, around 10,000 in the early 70s and only 2500 20 years later), but nobody seems to know why, exactly, as they have plenty of good habitat to breed in and relatively little human interference. One theory is that they eat the same mollusks that Walrus do, and after a ban was placed on hunting the Walrus, the population skyrocketed, and they simply could have been too much competition. In the case of the Spectacled Eider, they winter in huge rafts in the Bering Sea, enough to keep just a patch of water open, and should anything catastrophic happen to that wintering group, there would go a big chunk of the population right there. (That also led to the story of the Inuit woman and her pet female Spectacled Eider named Pookie…)
Another King Eider, with a rather large shield! Sign educating the locals on
the plight of their endangered
Steller's Eiders
Cruising back along the beach we ran into a big flock of Arctic Terns with a few Sabine's Gulls thrown in, and I guess this is where we turned down Gaswell, because we were actually able to refind the Snowy Owl! He was still way the heck out there, but he was a little closer and eating something, so it was actually a better look. We also had three Parasitic Jaegers together: two dark morphs and a light morph, and the one dark one was chowing down on something while the other dark one seemed to be saying, "Hey! Give me some!" The light morph just stood there watching us.
Parasitic Jaegers (two chocolates and a vanilla) chow down on some hapless bird...
Headed back for lunch, where we had some interesting political conversation, and afterwards we went out again but it was pretty quiet, even though it was a much nicer day and the wind had died down tremendously. We actually got past the pile of snow on Gaswell, but didn't get far because the road was still snowed over in spots, which really disappointed Kevin because the end of the spur roads are often good for eiders, he said. After getting around the pile again we headed back, turned down a native who wanted a ride but we suspected may have been drinking, and continued to poke. Had a nice Pomarine Jaeger flying around as well as another Parasitic (Poms are usually the dominant jaeger, but not this year), pretty Tundra Swans, and at the end of Fresh Water Lake Road a pair of Arctic Terns were very cooperative for pictures! We also milked our last day to the hilt as tourists, having our pictures taken next to the Bowhead Whale skulls and shooting the old DEW line and lines of satellite dishes!
Puffed-up Pectoral Sandpiper More Red Phalaropes (female left, male right)
The low-profile goose has been Long-billed Dowitchers
joined by her mate!
This jaeger looked suspiciously like a Tundra Swans
Long-tailed until it took off, revealing it to
be a Parasitic!
Arctic Tern Playing tourist next to the bowhead skulls
Headed back for dinner after that, where we shared "tame wild bird" stories (Kevin had some great ones, but the only ones I could recall involved semi-tame aviary birds at the zoo...)! After that we readied ourselves for the big Polar Bear quest! (I almost didn't go because it was going to be a late night, but Sue talked me into it… J) Shortly Frank, a Yugoslavian (I forget whether he was the Serb or the Croat: he was one and his friend and business partner was the other, until the fighting over there broke out...) showed up in his Hummer; his new partner had wheeled in earlier with a very disappointed Australian lady as they hadn't seen any bears. But that didn't mean we wouldn't (he had had some the day before), so we all piled in and headed out. This area had the fame of being the northernmost point of land on the North American continent, and it was certainly like another world! It was Gambell all over again so far as the soft gravel went (thankfully we didn't have to walk in it), but the shore ice was eerily beautiful, and it was cold to boot! We did have some interesting birds: a flock of mostly King Eiders had a token Common in with them (ironically the least common of the four, although certainly not this trip), a dark morph Pomarine Jaeger, some Red-throated Loons, a flock of Brant (including one with a broken wing), and of course the ever-present Arctic Terns and Glaucous Gulls. But alas, no Polar Bear, so that was a disappointment (Frank's consolation prize was pictures of bears he has had on the beach)! But it was still a great night out; everyone had such a wonderful spirit (especially Sue, having to ride in the back) that it helped to make the trip a happy occasion anyway!
We all pile into Frank's Hummer for the trek out to North Point!
(It really looks like a tank inside!) Sue hangs over the back seat in anticipation!
We arrive at the northernmost spot on the North American continent! Looking for Polar Bears
It wasn't unusual for the bears to come right up on the beach from the shore ice, but not this time!
We saw old familiar birds, however...
1st year Glaucous Gulls Arctic Terns
Despite the no-show on the Polar Bears, we had a great night Shot from our hotel of the streets of
out (yes, it's almost midnight)! Barrow, at midnight sharp!
We kissed Frank goodbye, hit the sack, had breakfast the next morning, then headed to the airport where we snuck in ahead of the tour group and watched the staff joke around (Kevin said TSA was in a squirrelly mood that day), but once they started screening they were all business (I even thought the guy might have been serious when he made a reference to taking all the pins off my vest, but I assumed he was kidding and told him he was getting said vest with the pins)! We had a rocky flight into Anchorage but landed fine, made it to the hotel, and kissed everyone goodbye before retreating to my room, doing laundry, and having one last dinner at the Millennium (unfortunately I wasn't impressed with the Cedar Plank Salmon everyone was raving about)! Made it to the airport fine and dandy the next morning, made the connection in Seattle with no problem whatsoever, met my friends in San Diego, and headed home!