Birding Nome, Alaska - spring in the US Arctic

This May we set out on a 4 week adventure to explore some of the top birding destinations of the North American Arctic. Birding the Alaskan tundra of the Seward Peninsula is strangely familiar to our own region, the Varanger Peninsula. The landscape, the birds and even the architecture is similar in many ways. The following is the last of a trio of blogposts from our recent Biotope Alaska birding trip. We arrived Nome on May 17th and spent 4 days birding the Seward Peninsula before we flew to Gambell, St.Lawrence island on the 21st of May. We spent 4 days on Gambell before returning to Nome where we spent our last 3 days of our Alaska adventure. The timing was brilliant as we got to experience the sudden arrival of spring. In just a few days Nome and the surrounding areas exploded with life. Nome´s Safety Sound instantly became our favourite hotspot for birding. The wetlands was packed with birds as this was one of few productive places with open water.

The below Biotope aerials are taken just 5 days apart! What an amazing speed of melting. The intensity of birdlife in the sound as ´spring breaks´ was unbelievable. Duck, geese, divers,  waders and passerines in thousands foraged in the melting wetlands. 

Safety Sound on May 20th

Birding Cape May - Chasing yanks in USA (pt 2/2)

Yanks and Sibes are words that will raise the pulse of any European birder. Maybe it is cheating, but after growing up with Alstrøm, Colston and Lewingtons ´Rare Birds in Europe´ book, I have always dreamt of seeing more of those exotic birds from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. To inform the non-birding reader of this post: Sibes and Yanks refer to rare birds found in Europe originating form Siberia and USA. When found as rare birds in Europe you know that these are birds that have travelled great distances and then being observed by a birder. It is the birder equivalent of finding the needle in a haystack. Like birders have a habit of doing, since they actually look for them. So going to USA to be flooded in Yanks is perhaps cheating a bit. But then again birders migrate too and Cape May seemed like a great place to visit, considering they run a very nice bird festival, there are loads of great sites to visit, good people to meet and Yanks everywhere! This is Cape May part 2 of 2 (check out 1/2)