Kodiak Island for the Win!

Picture this…it’s early spring. Okay, it’s still sort of late winterish, but anyway, you’re itching to get out birding somewhere new in Alaska. You want to go on a trip with great birds and photo opportunities, and a laid-back pace to dust off the binoculars and ease into the spring birding season. Where do you go? Kodiak Island!

Our short trip to Kodiak Island with an extension to Nome offers the best of Alaska’s wintering birds and a sneak peek at spring migration. Despite a little rain, sleet, snow, slush, wind, and cold, our 2025 tour produced good times and great birds with a fun group of just four participants. Highlights included hundreds of Emperor Geese, Steller’s and Common Eiders, Yellow-billed Loon, a brief encounter with a very vocal Boreal Owl, several American Goshawks, an American Three-toed Woodpecker, and a massive flock of Bohemian Waxwings. For those keen on their Alaska lists, one of Kodiak Island’s few Wood Duck records was around for our trip. This species is rare anywhere in the state! The short extension to Nome provided 40 McKay’s Buntings with a couple of Snow Buntings trying to blend in. A group of Muskox, flocks of Willow Ptarmigan, a single Rock Ptarmigan, and beautiful sunny skies over the frozen tundra put the icing on the cake.

This was our sixth time running this tour, and we’re already looking forward to next year!