The second half of my trip to Alaska this June was spent on the little rock called Saint Paul Island. A small (very small) Saab aircraft took us from Anchorage on a 3-4 hour flight (air travel like other things is flexible in non-urban Alaska) to this small island. There was some excitement as tsunami warnings were out while we were in the air due to an earthquake in the Aleutians. But everyone and their bags made it ok (again – a noteworthy event).
Saint Paul Island is the largest of the Pribilof Islands, a group of five Alaskan volcanic islands located in the Bering Sea between the United States and Russia. The city of St. Paul is the only residential area on the island. The two nearest islands to Saint Paul Island are Otter Island to the southwest, and Walrus Island to the east. St. Paul Island has a land area of 40 square miles. St. Paul Island currently has one school (K-12, 100 students), one post office, one bar, one small store, and one church (the Russian Orthodox Sts. Peter and Paul Church). The church is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. (Wikipedia)
St. Paul is revered as a mecca for Asian vagrants during migration, but the timing of this trip meant that I was aiming for local breeding species. The most colorful of which are the Puffins – Horned and Tufted. Most of the bird colonies on the island are on sheer cliffs populated by dozens to thousands of birds of various species – the Puffins are no different. The Horned Puffins outnumber the Tufted, but seem harder to see.
The other seabirds in quantity are the Auklets – Least, Crested and Parakeet. The Least Auklets are present by the thousands at certain spots in vast noisy colonies. The Crested Auklets in particular are visually striking with their forehead crests.
Also omnipresent are Thick-billed and Common Murres which often seem to outnumber all other birds on the cliffs. Since the extinction of the great auk in the mid-19th century, the murres are the largest living members of the Alcidae. They tend to create a lot of cackling noises at the nesting sites which combined with their numbers can make those areas quite noisy. They lay eggs directly on bare rock which can be an interesting sight.
Kittiwake deserve their own section (I think). I was as excited as you can imagine about the Red-legged Kittiwake and made a special trip out specifically to get some photos of the species. Black-legged were seen often and a few times actively feeding young. Red-legged were still on the eggs at the time.
Some of the other birds of note were the Northern Fulmar, Rock Sandpiper (Pribilof ssp) and Red-faced Cormorants. One of the other common birds that remained unphotographed was the Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch.
Some other unphotographed birds included Ancient Murrelet, Harlequin Duck, Surf Scoter, Mallard (a rarity), Bald Eagle (also a rarity), Short-tailed Shearwater, Pelagic Cormorant, Short-billed Dowitcher, Glaucous-winged Gull and Pacific Wren.
Of course, photos would be incomplete without some of the famous Northern Fur Seal and the adorable Arctic Fox.
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