Gambelling on Rare Birds

We’ve just completed our 2015 trip to Gambell, on St. Lawrence Island (August 31-September 11). At just 36 miles from the Chuckchi Peninsula in the Russian Far East, Gambell is known for it’s combination of Bering Sea specialties, trans-Beringian migrants and the possibility of finding wayward migrants from Asia.

Looking for vagrants is dependent on a number of factors, including weather, effort,  and luck. This year, however, our trip started off with a bang–fair weather, sunny skies, and a Little Bunting and Gray-tailed Tattler were there to greet our group when they arrived on the island. We’d barely recovered from the excitement when the following day we added Chiffchaff! With persistence we all managed good looks at this shy and subtly drab (yet incredibly exciting) vagrant from the east.

The winds shifted to the north after our first few days and we spent more time on the seawatch working on the alcids, loons, and eiders. Between these beach side sessions we continued to search for rarities and enjoyed a number of regular trans-Beringian migrants, including Red-throated Pipit, Bluethroat, Arctic Warbler, Eastern Yellow Wagtail, White Wagtail, Northern Wheatear, and Gray-cheeked Thrush. A confiding young Snowy Owl joined us in the boneyards for the last few days of the main tour and continued through the extension.

Those staying on for the extension added fantastic looks of Yellow-billed Loon at the seawatch and got to see another mega-rarity–Brown Shrike! Of the now five fall records for Gambell we’ve enjoyed four of them on our tours! The Brown Shrike was sneaky and elusive, but during it’s week-long stay everyone ultimately got views of it.

Throughout the stay we enjoyed getting to know our host family and through them caught a few glimpses of what life must be like at one of America’s most remote towns, and birding destinations.

Information on our next fall tour, as well as past bird lists can be found here.