Nome is situated on the south side of the Seward peninsula halfway up the west coast of Alaska. Gold was discovered there in 1898 and Nome quickly became the largest city in Alaska. Since then the population has shrunk to a quarter of its former size. Gold mining continues to attract new residents, and is a nice sideline for the cab driver who took us to the airport today. At $50 a gram, he can make $200 an hour on a good day.
Nome is also a great place for birding. You cannot drive there from Anchorage, but once you fly in, you can spend time driving on the three dirt roads that branch out from the city. Each road is 60 to 70 miles long. We spent a full day on each road.
Teller Road The road to Teller is about 70 miles long, and the last half was not in good shape. We drove all the way to the end to see a White Wagtail.
After a bit of searching and playing recordings of its song, we were rewarded with nice looks at the White Wagtail.
The town and its people made a lasting impression. The population of 225 depends on subsistence hunting and fishing. The homes seemed ill equipped to shelter these hardy people from the brutal weather.
Abandoned home in Teller
Teller Road is much more attractive than its namesake town. From a distance it looks desolate.
But up close, the tundra is full of beautiful flowers.
A pair of Rough-legged Hawks have a nest on the far side of this cliff. I crawled the last few feet because I did not trust my balance. Looking down I could see four eggs in a nicely constructed nest.
Rough-legged hawk encouraging us not to linger at nest site
The Willow Ptarmigan is Alaska's state bird. We saw a handful in the Nome area.
We saw just one Rock Ptarmigan
Northern Wheatear
We stopped to check the river for birds -
- and also found some salmon (unless this is a trout)
American Golden Plover
Musk Ox
There were very few buildings along the road, and we did not get too close to them for obvious reasons.
Council Road leads towards the town of Council. Near the end of the road is a small boreal forest - the first trees we had seen in a few days.
Unlike Teller Road, Council Road does not quite reach its namesake town.
Council lies on the other side of a river and must be reached by boat. It was a booming gold rush town in the late 1800's but now is a summer fish camp. The Council Road is closed in winter.
Early morning birding makes for long shadows
Beavers have been busy damming this river
Long=tailed Jaeger
Gray-cheeked Thrush
Cackling Geese- formerly a subspecies of Canada Goose
Tundra Swans
Gyrfalcons have built a nest on a bridge along Council road.
Gyrfalcon babies
It took a while to locate a parent. We found one high on a ridge where it was eating.
The leg feathers help keep this raptor of the north warm in the winter.
On our return trip we saw an adult on the nest
Safety Sound and the Nome River mouth are great spots for birding along Council Road.
Hudsonian Godwit
Bar=tailed Godwit
Western Sandpiper
Red-throated loon preening
Red-necked Phalarope
Aleutian Terns with their distinctive white foreheads
This Brambling (with its head in the shade) was one of the rarest birds we found
A group of three Emperor Geese were very hard to find in the tall grass across a small body of water. The long search was well worth the effort.
Krogurak Road is best known for the bristle-thighed curlews that can be found at the end of the road. The walk can be treacherous and the birds are not always easy to find. I had already seen them in Hawaii. Doug and Betty, the other two birders on the trip, will see them in Hawaii next year. So we didn't go to the end of the road, but we still saw some interesting things.
Salmon Lake
Red Fox
Snowshoe Hare
There are no direct flight to Barrow, so we fly back to Anchorage, spend the night, and then head north of the Arctic Circle.