There is no place like Nome

Nome is my favorite birding spot in Alaska. It once was a bustling metropolis, the largest city in Alaska during the Gold Rush. It is located on the south shore of the Seward peninsula  along Alaska’s West coast. I first visited Nome in June 2021 with my son Nick, Cliff Hendrick and Robert Raker. We spent 6 long days there. Long because it stays light enough for birding 24 hrs per day, and it seems like rarities are everywhere. The phrase “rare birds are common“ does not apply to Nome. In Nome, rarities are abundant! Ah yes, there is no place like Nome.

Where there are rare birds there are birders. Mid-May to mid-June is birding season in Nome. Hotels and rental cars are booked a year in advance. All the major birding  companies have guided tours there. These companies typically spend three days in Nome en route to another destination like Gambell or Point Barrow. I should have planned to spend more time in Nome this year as well but I only scheduled two days thinking that Adak and Gambell would supply enough excitement. 

Because Nome was not a formal destination of my Adak trip or my Gambell tour, I made reservations for lodging and car rental late. There would be seven of us and I found rooms for us spread all over town. Tom Hall and Michael Costello shared a room at the Golden Sands Guest house in downtown Nome. My brother and I were in a room down the hall from them. Sue Riffe was in the Dredge 7 Inn a mile west from downtown on the Nome-Teller highway. I found a room for Lori Pivonka and Sandy Winkler at the Aurora Hotel a mile east on the Nome-Council Road. Both these roads are roughly 75 miles long. A third road heads north from Nome about the same distance to Kougarok. The road system ends at those three towns. From Anchorage, one cannot reach Nome by road. Only by plane, boat or dog sled. Nome is the finish line of the famous Iditarod dog sled race that retraces the route of Balto and Togo for delivering Penicillin to the desperate gold miners of Nome. 

Upon arrival in Nome just before noon on Saturday, June 1, 2023, we discovered that one of the two vehicles we rented was busted. Fortunately, Stampede car rental had a vehicle available for the first of the two days we planned to be in Nome. My brother Oliver was scheduled to arrive the next day so for our first 24 hrs in Nome, we had two vehicles for the six of us. Once settled at our three different lodgings, we met for lunch at Subway across the street from the Aurora Hotel at 1 PM. At 1:30, we were birding. 

My first year bird — Rusty Blackbird (682) — flew by at Cemetery Pond, which hosted breeding Short-billed Gull, Arctic Tern, Red-necked Grebe and breeding plumaged Long-tailed Duck, Pacific Golden-Plover and Long-tailed Jaeger (683). We headed east on the Nome-Council Rd. in our two rented jeeps. Next stop was Lands End Park. All the common land birds of Nome were singing from the willows here: American Robin, Gray-cheeked Thrush, American Tree Sparrow, Red Fox Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow, Orange-crowned Warbler, Wilson’s Warbler, Northern Waterthrush, Hoary Redpoll (684). On our way to the landfill about a mile away, a kiting Long-tailed Jaeger posed for photos. The landfill hosted dozens of pallid Glaucous Gull (the largest and palest of the Glaucous Gulls, subspecies pallidisimus) and darker Vega Herring Gull (considered a unique species in Eurasia!) and a couple petite Short-billed Gull. An Eastern Yellow Wagtail (685) foraging in the dirt was novel for my year list.  

Next stop was a short distance to the east along the Nome-Council Rd. We received a text message from Aaron Lang, our Gambell guide who had been on the plane with us that morning, informing us that a Gray-tailed Tattler was foraging on the beach just west of the Nome River mouth. Sure enough we found the Old World tattler (686) working the same stretch of beach, a lifer for all of us!

At the Nome River mouth, I added Red Phalarope (687) and another Asian stray, Red-necked Stint (688). Other birds here were Red-necked Phalarope, Western Sandpiper, Semipalmated Plover, Red Knot, Arctic Tern, Aleutian Tern and Short-billed Gull. After dinner at a waterfront restaurant in downtown Nome, we headed east again on the Nome - Council Rd. I suggested that we try to reach a bridge about 45 miles east where Gyrfalcon had nested a couple years earlier. Presumably they use the site annually. This would take us across the Safety Sound bridge where Slaty-backed Gull had been recently reported (about 15 miles east of Nome). 

Indeed after crossing the Safety Sound inlet, we could see dozens of Glaucous Gulls with some dark birds among them near the entrance to the sound. Most were Vega Herring Gull. I began to sort through these darker gulls searching for a Slaty-backed Gull but was frequently distracted. First it was Jaegers. All three species were present sitting on the ice shelf on the Sound. Then it was waterfowl. There was an impressive variety of sea ducks and bay ducks, as well as a large number of Tundra Swans. Then Sue Riffe exclaimed, “Whoa, I’ve got something good. Nick, come look through my scope, now!” She had her spotting scope trained on a medium-sized plover with an orange breast contrasting with a bright white throat. “What the heck is this?” She asked. “That is a Lesser Sand-plover!” I confirmed. I snapped off some distant documentary photos of the vagrant plover (689). We decided to try to get closer for better photographs. After hiking what seemed like forever through marsh grass to get close to the shore line near the Asian vagrant, we could not find the bird. It was close to midnight so we curtailed the Gyrfalcon hunt and retraced our path back to Nome for a few hours of sleep.    

The next morning we assembled for birding around 8 AM. We restarted our track towards the Gyrfalcon knowing we were short on time. The second rental Jeep was due back to Stampede Car Rental at 1 PM and my brother Oliver would be landing in Nome around noon. 

Along the dirt “highway”, we spied a well camouflaged female Willow Ptarmigan (690) hunkered among the dwarf willows along the roadside. At the cape, we added Stejneger’s Scoter (691) and a migrating Northern Wheatear (692). The scoter is a recent taxonomic split from our familiar White-winged Scoter, which were also present. The Stejneger’s Scoter is from the Northwest Pacific region and differs most notably in the shape and color of its bill. We pushed eastward but did not get very far, stopping frequently for birds. We never even got beyond Safety Sound when it was time to return to town to pick up Oliver. 

Oliver’s arrival flight was on time. This was a minor miracle as he originated his flight in the Galápagos Islands of Ecuador where he was on assignment teaching students from Zamorano University in Honduras. Oliver has been a professor at Zamorano for more than ten years. His flight itinerary took him to Guayaquil, Quito, San Francisco, Anchorage and finally Nome. After dropping his suitcase we met the rest of the group for lunch at Subway and learned that we were indeed unable to rent the second vehicle for the second day. So we would need to fit seven of us in the one jeep, a 5-seater. We packed in and drove two miles to the Nome Landfill.  No Slaty-backed Gull.  Rather than birding like sardines I suggested that Ollie and I be dropped off at the Nome River mouth while the rest of the group searches for Bluethroat and Arctic Warbler along the Nome-Teller highway. 

Five hours later Ollie and I had tallied 5 Red-necked Stints and 4 Red Knots. Then it was our turn to use the vehicle. Tom Hall agreed to show us where they had successfully found their targets several miles west of Nome. Unfortunately we were unable to refind these birds. We did find a different Bluethroat (693). 

After we dropped off Tom at 10 pm or so, we returned to the Nome River Mouth hoping to find more shorebirds at low tide. We found one Bar-tailed godwit (694) with a small flock of Long-billed Dowitcher. We pushed onward eastbound. Oliver fell asleep in the front seat but I was determined to reach the Gyrfalcon nest 20 miles beyond Safety Sound. Once I passed the sound, the dim light of the Nome night grew even dimmer as I entered a fog bank. The dirt road was becoming slick with light precipitation. I advanced slowly, imagining the consequences of sliding into a ditch. It was about 2 AM when I reached the bridge. No Gyr after all. Two ravens occupied the nest! Disappointed I returned to Safety Sound where a Wolverine was a welcome sight. That woke Ollie up and he got a great photo with his higher quality camera. A River Otter joined the show. It was now 4:15 AM and we made birding stops along the 15-mile stretch of Safety Sound. The highlight was a flock of a dozen Bar-tailed Godwit. We tried to relocate the Lesser Sandplover and Gray-tailed Tattler for Ollie’s benefit but struck out. 

By 8 AM June 3, 2023, we had picked up the others and like sardines headed to the sea at Cape Nome for our final Nome sea watch. As we arrived a tour group was leaving. Colorado birder Edie Israel was in the van and she jumped out to greet us. She reported that they hadn’t seen much in an hour at the Cape. We had better luck though as the birds had begun to move and we would call out a variety of flyby alcids (Horned and Tufted Puffins, Common Murre), sea ducks (Common Eider, Harlequin Duck, Long-tailed Duck, Red-breasted Merganser, four species of scoter), as well as numerous Black-legged Kittiwake and Pelagic Cormorant, and four species of loon including Yellow-billed Loon (695). Most exciting for me was a flock of 13 Emperor Goose (696) that floated by the cape on an iceberg! 

Our time in Nome was coming to an end. Ollie was on the morning flight to Gambell. He wasn’t able to get a seat on our Gambell flight in the afternoon. When we dropped him off we learned that his Bering Air flight was on a weather hold and that our afternoon flight would likely be delayed. We used the delay to track down a White Wagtail (697) in downtown Nome. 

When we returned to the airport we met Steve Heinl, one of our guides in Gambell. He lives in Ketchikan, AK, and had just arrived from Anchorage. He was on our Bering Air flight as well. He informed us that Ollie had arrived safely in Gambell. Our flight was still delayed due to low cloud cover in Gambell. Then the flight was postponed until 10 AM the next day. Steve arranged for us to have lodging and wheels for our additional night in Nome. While disappointed that our Gambell time would be cut short, I saw this as an opportunity to see more of the bird species that Nome hosts, such as Arctic Warbler, Gyrfalcon, Slaty-backed Gull. Also we had heard that the Kougarok Rd. had just opened beyond Mile Marker 60 giving us access to the breeding location for Bristle-thighed Curlew at mile marker 72. Over dinner we convinced Steve to take us on a hunt for the Curlew. This would also be an opportunity to find Gyrfalcon for the group and for me to add Arctic Warbler to my list. 

Again we were packed like Sardines. Steve had a rented double cabin pickup truck with three people up front and four of us squeezed in the back seat. It was about 10 PM when we arrived at the Gyrfalcon nest site. Unfortunately the only raptor we could find was a Rough-legged Hawk. A Northern Wheatear on the cliff face was a consolation but too far for photographs. Additional stops en route to the Curlew location yielded Bluethroat and both Rock and Willow Ptarmigans. At MM 72, we began our forced march up the Coffee Dome. Almost immediately, a Curlew was heard calling but we could only find Whimbrel on the hillside. An hour later, around midnight, a Bristle-thighed Curlew (698) flew over our heads giving its unique flight song which I documented with an audio recording. Returning to Nome, we were amazed by the high number of rabbits (Snowshoe hare?) along the road. A couple of stops at traditional Arctic Warbler breeding sites confirmed that most had not yet arrived on breeding territories from their East Asian wintering grounds. It was close to 3 AM when we got to bed back in Nome. By 11 AM, June 4, 2023, the clouds had lifted over Gambell and we were on our way to our next adventure. During just three days in Nome, I had added 17 species to my Year List. The full species list for my Nome visit from June 1-4, 2023, along with photos and audio files can be viewed here: https://ebird.org/tripreport/141195?welcome=true.