Welcome to Alaska. Please schedule your flight to arrive before dinner. We will plan to meet for the first time in the lobby of the hotel at 615pm and then head to dinner. Upon arrival into Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (ANC), after collecting any checked luggage, please call the front desk at the Coast Inn at Lake Hood (907-243-2233), and let them know you are ready to be picked up. They have a free shuttle to/from the airport. Night in Anchorage.

Today we aim north for Utqiagvik, catching a flight aboard a 737 and arriving to a place that has almost 24 hours of daylight at this season. As soon as we are checked into our hotel and are fed, we’ll head out for our first birding excursion.

A town of just 21 square miles, with a population of about 5000 residents, that is only accessible by plane and at certain times by boat, we have just a few roads from which to search for birds, and yet our time here will be jam-packed. With endless tundra and daylight we’ll keep to the roadsides, examining the array of ponds, sloughs, the coastline and the tundra searching for shorebirds, waterfowl, Snowy Owls, and vagrants.

Snowy Owls can be absent or abundant depending on the year. Certain years you might see 30 or more in a day, while others we might struggle to find one.

We’ll spend a good amount of time watching the coast too. With luck Yellow-billed Loon is possible here, as are all four eider species, and we’ll need to be watchful of the gulls too. Rarely small arctic gull species are seen here, with Sabine’s quite regular, and in its breeding finery.

Out on the tundra all three jaeger species could be encountered, and a host of waterfowl species are in evidence, including breeding Greater White-fronted Geese, and again the much sought-after eiders, along with a remarkable array of shorebirds. The constellation of shorebird species varies annually somewhat, but often includes nesting Red Phalarope, and Pectoral, Baird’s and Buff-breasted Sandpipers, as well as rarities that could include Red-necked Stint, Lesser (Siberian) Sand-Plover, Ruff, Gray-tailed Tattler or others. If you think you know what a Pectoral Sandpiper is, trust us… until you’ve seen one on the breeding grounds, you don’t. They transform into an entirely different beast here when in courtship and establishing territories.

Nights at The Top of the World Hotel.

We’ll see what time our flight to Anchorage is, but we’ll squeeze every last minute of birding out of Utqiagvik, and try to mop up any last birds we might like to see, before heading back to Anchorage. The tour concludes upon arrival into the Anchorage Airport.