Like most Alaskans, Kelley Weaverling looks forward to spring with enthusiasm every year: the snow begins to melt and the temperatures warm up; the days become longer and cabin weariness gives way to a season of outdoor activity.
But for Weaverling, an avid birder and former president of the Prince William Sound chapter of the Audubon Society, spring means migration. And on a typical spring day in Cordova, he can watch a variety of shorebirds pass over his community by the thousands. It is a spectacle like none other in the world.
“It’s the big event here as far as birds go ... and it is the largest accumulation of shorebirds in the world,” Weaverling said. “The Copper River delta is the largest contiguous wetlands on the Pacific coast. The birds migrate in a corridor along it. It’s kind of like being on a turnpike, where there are only so many places to stop off to rest. It’s our equivalent of looking for the biggest Ho Jo.”
Weaverling said the annual migration is an even more important event, given that such “rest-stop” corridors in the Lower 48 states are being lost to coastal development. So birding enthusiasts are particularly impressed with the sheer volume of birds in the sky at one time.
“The delta itself is also very shallow, and the tidal range is great,” Weaverling said. “So when the tide is out there is a lot of mud, which is great for the shorebirds because what they like to eat is there. Fifteen million birds pass by here in a week and a half. And they come by in these huge flocks that look like giant, dark clouds. It is just fascinating to see.”
Visitors to Alaska with a weakness for birding will be wowed not just by Prince William Sound but by the entire state. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game reports that 468 species of birds have been identified in the state, and the department’s new Wings Over Alaska program encourages birders to seek out as many of them as possible.
The program includes four levels of certification that birders can earn by recording the species they identify. Alaska’s governor will sign the highest-level certificate, which is earned after identifying at least 275 avian species.
Birding has been on the rise in popularity for years. According to a National Survey on Recreation and the Environment from 2001, some 33 percent of Americans are interested in birding, which represents an increase of 232 percent since 1983.
Dale Fox, owner of Bird Watching Tours of Anchorage, says: “Birding is a great market for Alaska tourism, and Alaska is ready. There are great guided options all over the state, and several terrific birding festivals. Alaska offers an incredible diversity of species and habitats, and that’s what’s bringing people north.”
To start on your own quest, visit the Alaska Bird Observatory in Fairbanks. Andrea Swingley, an employee of the observatory, said the nonprofit organization’s newly opened visitor center has been a real eye-opener for her because she sees firsthand the intense public interest in Alaska’s birds.
“People do come to Alaska for the wildlife and certainly birds are a part of that,” she said. “Alaska’s got some incredible birds and some birds that you can’t see anywhere else in America. ... Weget a lot of people wandering in or contacting us, and we offer local walks weekly in the summer that can help them get started.”
The observatory is a statewide bird education and learning center, and a great resource for visitors who want tips on where to find the best birding.
“The people who want to see exotic birds will go to the (Pribilof Islands), the Aleutians and Nome and Gambell,” Swingley said. “Those are the really unusual-type places. But we also tell people that you will find great birding at places like the Denali Highway and Denali National Park.”
The Denali Highway, for instance, is a great place to seek out unique species like the Smith’s long spur or arctic warbler. Denali National Park, just a short drive to the north, offers countless opportunities. Made up of nearly 6 million acres of sub arctic wilderness, the park is home to such avifauna as the long-tailed Jaegar, northern wheat ear and two varieties of Alaska’s state bird, the ptarmigan. Gyrfalcons, gray-crowned rosy finches and golden eagles can be spotted as well. And that is just the beginning.
Swingley said a must-have resource for visiting birders is a newly published book by the American Birding Association called “A birder’s Guide to Alaska,” by George West. The publication tells visitors exactly whereto go to spot their birds of choice.
“The serious bird watchers are going to have more of a generic field guide already, so the West book is good because it talks about whereto find the birds, and it lists what you might see in a given area,” Swingley said.
Gail Mayo, a birder and Arctic Audubon Society member in Fairbanks, said Interior Alaska is a wonderful place to watch Sandhill cranes and a variety of duck species. Terns, gulls, swallows and several types of warblers are also abundant. She recommends Creamer’s Field Migratory Waterfowl Refuge, any of the many ponds near the Fairbanks International Airport and 12-Mile and Eagle summits near Fairbanks.
Also worth seeing while in Fairbanks is the University of Alaska Museum’s ornithology collection, curated by Daniel Gibson.
There is also great birding in Alaska’s coastal communities, which are incredibly diverse due to plenty of shorebirds and seabirds. As birder and Juneau Audubon Society member Mary Lou King likes to point out, the birding is good year-round.
“We have Vancouver and Canada geese around almost all year in Juneau and of course we have lots of eagles,” she said. ”On the Mendenhall wetlands, we have a lot of migratory shorebirds and geese and ducks, and we have mallards here year-round, too. There is always some sort of activity, and the birds are always fun to watch.”
The Mendenhall Wetlands State Game Refuge is one of King’s favorite places, and she recommends it to anyone visiting the area. There are nearly 280 species of birds in the Juneau area, so the possibilities are nearly endless.
“The mouth of the Eagle River delta is a good place for the shorebirds, and riding up in the (Mt. Roberts) tram and hiking up in alpine areas is a good place to see birds, too,” she said.
King said Juneau is a good place to spot harlequin ducks. Also, look for red-breasted sapsucker, brown creeper and winter wren in old-growth forests. And a rare viewing of the Steller’s Sea Eagle is a possibility, though sightings of the bird have diminished since the late ‘90s.
If you plan to visit Southeast in November, head to Haines for the annual Alaska Bald Eagle Festival. The sight of thousands of America’s national symbol, the bald eagle, feeding on late-run salmon in the Chilkat River (part of the Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve) is breathtaking, and there are several good tour companies in Haines that can provide transportation to the area, which is just a few miles from downtown. The festival is a photographer’s paradise, and photography workshops are part of the schedule of events; participants may also take part in slide shows, lectures and other community events.
Some of the best birding in Alaska can be difficult to reach, but Kodiak Island is a great compromise between access and abundance. A short flight from Anchorage, Kodiak Island offers access to some more remote villages and outlying areas, where winter birding is particularly spectacular. Tundra swans, shorebirds and bald eagles are abundant. Emperor geese, Steller’s eiders and a variety of ducks mark the arrival of winter as well.
World-class birding can also be had on St. Paul and St. George islands in the Pribilofs and St. Lawrence Island west of the Seward Peninsula. The Pribilof Islands support the largest populations of nesting alcids and seabirds in the world, and their sheer numbers make birding a real treat for the serious aficionado. But in both locations, be prepared for unpredictable weather that can cause travel delays. Also, amenities are few and far between, and although independent birding expeditions can be arranged, it is often worth the cost to go with a tour that can arrange the logistics.
In the Pribilofs, look for murres, auklets, gulls, kittiwakes, cormorants and puffins, among other species. Occasionally a rare Asian species may blow in — a wood sand- piper among the better possibilities — according to Swingley of Fairbanks’ bird observatory.
Just a stone’s throw from Siberia, St. Lawrence Island offers a greater chance of collecting a rare bird for your checklist. Possibilities include long-billed dowitchers, common-ringed plovers, black-tailed godwits and common greenshanks.
If you’re short on time or resources to get to some of the more remote locales listed here, there’s also some great “urban” birding opportunities right in Alaska’s largest city, Anchorage. Because of its unique location, Anchorage offers a unique diversity of species.
To see them with the experts, consider booking with Bird Watching Tours of Anchorage. Owner and guide Fox and his team of birding experts offer three tours daily and will pick up visitors at their downtown Anchorage hotels in 14-passenger mini-coaches. Within minutes of downtown, birders will be exposed to no less than six completely different habitats – marshes, lagoons, woodlands, lakes, rivers and coastline. Expert guides help lead birders to the best spots, and visitors on Fox’s tour last year logged 115 species of birds over the course of the summer.
“When (people) hire a guide, the guide can help put them on those great local places where the birding is hot,” Fox said. “Often, if you do it on your own, you won’t find those places. ... We probably see double the number of birds as people stumbling around on their own, and that’s true of not just my company but others.”
As for the rest of Alaska, diverse avifauna from shorebirds to boreal birds and more welcome the birding enthusiast.
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