Alaska June 1, 2011

Join us for this adventure to one of North America's premier birding and natural history destinations. We will experience thousands of migrating and breeding birds, marvel at the glaciers, fjords and mountain scenery, admire the hardy native Aleuts in the Pribilof's, and witness iconic mammals in the wild - musk ox, grizzly bear, killer whales, Dall sheep, and reindeer. We will fly in and out of Anchorage and do some local birding in the area including Westchester Lagoon, the best birding spot in Anchorage for waterfowl, shorebirds and gulls. We will spend three days on Saint Paul Island in the Pribilof's. This treeless, volcanic island consists mostly of windswept tundra and supports the largest number of nesting alcids and seabirds in Alaska as well as the largest population of native Aleuts. Along with the thousands of auklets, murres, puffins, fulmars, cormorants and kittiwakes, many rarities and Siberian vagrants occur each spring as well as a large fur seal roookery. Returning from St Paul, we will drive up the Glenn highway through boreal forest, lakes, willows and meadows searching for boreal specialties - Pine Grosbeak, Three-toed Woodpecker, Dipper, Great Gray, Northern Hawk, and Boreal Owls. We will spend the night at a mountain lodge where we should see Dall sheep and reindeer. Our next stop will be Nome - the gold rush city set on the edge of the Bering Sea and home to three different groups of Eskimos. We will spend four days traveling to remote sections of the tundra, waterways and willow/alder thickets for a host of rarities like Bristle-thighed Curlew, Bluethroat, Yellow Wagtail, Gyrfalcon, Arctic Warbler, Aleutian Tern, Arctic Loon, Bar-tailed Godwit, Emperor Goose, Rock and Willow Ptarmigan and Northern Wheatear. We should also see some large mammals like Grizzly Bears, Reindeer, Musk Ox and Moose. From Nome we fly back to Anchorage and drive to the Kenai Peninsula for the conclusion of our amazing journey. We will bird areas around Seward looking for new species like Northwestern Crow, Rufous Hummingbird, Chestnut-backed Chickadee, and Townsend's Warbler. We have an all-day cruise through Resurrection Bay to the Northwestern Fjord sailing by glaciers and rocky islands where we will see volumes of seabirds - auklets, jaegers, gulls, murres, murrelets, shearwaters, puffins, and a wealth of mammals - Sea Otter, Killer Whale, Steller Sea Lion, and Dall's Porpoise. This will be the trip of a lifetime - northern wilderness, glaciers, indigenous cultures, mammals and scores of bird species that can only be found in our northernmost state. And there are no House Sparrows and Starlings are rare - every bird we see during our 13 days will be one to get excited by!! - - This trip is currently full, but for a complete itinerary or to be placed on the waitlist, - call 781-259-2206 or email jriley@massaudubon.org. Registration is required. Call 781-259-2200 for details. See http://www.massaudubon.org/catalog/listing.php?program_code=1659-DFP11SP1 for more information.