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Field Report Wild Alaska July 6 - 20, 2017 A R C T I C C I R C L E RUSSIA CHUKCHI PENINSULA Little Nome Provideniya Diomede ST. LAWRENCE ISLAND ALASKA Anchorage Hall Island St. Matthew Island Seward Geographic Harbor PACIFIC KATMAI Kodiak NATIONAL PARK OCEAN & PRESERVE KODIAK ISLAND St. Paul PRIBILOF Island ISLANDS SEMIDI Otter Cove ISLANDS St. George SHUMIGAN Island UNIMAK ISLANDS ISLAND Unga Island Dutch Harbor High Island Baby Islands UNALASKA INTERNATIONAL DATE LINE ISLAND Thursday, July 6, 2017 Home / Anchorage, Alaska Following our independent arrival, we transfered to the Anchorage Marriott Hotel. There, we gathered with our fellow travelers for cocktails and a welcome dinner. Expedition Leader Michael Moore, affectionately referred to as MiMo, introduced us to the team accompanying us throughout our journey, and gave us our first briefing about our exciting Wild Alaska voyage ahead, around the Bering Sea from Nome to Seward. Friday, July 7 Anchorage / Nome / Embark Silver Discoverer A short flight this morning took us from Anchorage to Nome, where we set off on tour—the birders headed out with a picnic lunch for the lagoons along the coast, for sightings of musk ox and Aleutian and Arctic terns, while the rest of us boarded our large yellow school buses and traveled into Nome for lunch at St. Joe’s, the old church in the center of town. We visited around the town, panned for gold, and met a team of sled dogs, before we boarded the Silver Discoverer in the late afternoon and were introduced to the ship by Cruise Director Kelsey Simmons. A splendid male spectacled eider, a much sought-after avian species, just off the stern of the ship was a wonderful farewell gift from Nome. Saturday, July 8 Little Diomede / Arctic Circle Our goal this morning was to go ashore at the tiny Inupiaq community clinging to the flank of Little Diomede, a small island in the Bering Strait; you really can see Russia from here! Little Diomede is situated a mere two nautical miles from its Russian counterpart, Big Diomede, which looms just across the dateline in tomorrow. Even before we landed we could see the bee-like swarms of auklets in the air over the island; once ashore the background noise of the birds was astonishing. Endless flocks of birds were swirling round and passing overhead, the sound of their calls and their wings provided a constant rush and roar, and we all marveled at their extraordinary numbers, making this colony of least, crested, and parakeet auklets one of the greatest natural spectacles on Earth. With time to explore the small village of Ignaluk—a subsistence community relying on walrus, seal, and bird hunting, as well as egg gathering—and to visit the talus slopes where thousands of birds were gathering, we were able to soak up this marvel. Our friendly hosts also introduced us to a range of Inupiaq songs and dances, with the rhythm provided by the traditional sealskin hand drums known around the Arctic. Our Zodiac ride along the coast back to the ship gave us a very different perspective, allowing us to see just how precariously the village is built on the steep slope of the island, and once more to marvel at the insect-like swarms of birds. Continuing northwards, between the western point of North America and the eastern point of Asia, we were bound for the intersection of the international dateline and the Arctic Circle at 66°33’N, along the way seeing a small group of walrus in the water. Before reaching this memorable spot in the ocean, historian T.H. Baughman gave his presentation, Roald Amundsen: Man of Both Poles; then, after celebrating with our group photograph, drinks, and blini with salmon caviar on the Lido deck, we turned south, bound for our next port. Along the way, ornithologist Mark Brazil gave his presentation, What it Means to be a Seabird: Seabirds of the Bering Sea. This evening we enjoyed welcome cocktails and dinner hosted by Captain Tomasz Kulas. Sunday, July 9 The Day That Might Never Have Happened Following a traditional gift of chum and vodka, we experienced the thrills of Russian medical inspections and were entertained by T.H. with his marina deck exposé, Everything You Need to Know About the Digestive System of Kittiwakes, But Didn’t Want to Hear. We then gathered for an experimental workshop with our resident comedian, MiMo, for, Lessons in How to Shrink Heads Using Only Easily Purchased Household Items. From relay semaphore lessons with communications specialist Bob Quaccia and our very own IT chief John Buchanan, to our Root Vegetable Buffet in celebration of Tuberüberalles Day, our July 9 disappeared so quickly in fun, that it was almost as if it had never happened at all... Monday, July 10 Provideniya, Russia Once alongside in post-Soviet Provideniya, the officials came on board and, while awaiting their clearance to go ashore, Conrad Field spoke on Marine Mammals of the North, followed by Rich Pagen’s Color in the Arctic Landscape. Our afternoon ashore in the partly-derelict-and-decaying, and partly- brightly-colored, town of Provideniya allowed us to walk to the best local viewpoint—the sobering cemetery, where almost all of the monuments seemed to be to those who had died before reaching the age of 60—to the small but fascinating regional museum dedicated to life in remote Chukotka. We also visited the extraordinary House of Culture, where we were entertained with snacks, drinks, and a colorful medley of Russian and Siberian Yupik songs and dances performed by an energetic group of local youths. Perhaps the most astonishing was that of throat-singing and dancing, depicting life in a seabird colony, by a mother and son duo. On a lovely sunlit evening we were treated to spectacular scenery as we passed along the Russian coast before heading back out into the Bering Sea, bound for St. Lawrence Island. Monday, July 10 St. Lawrence Island, Alaska Our plan this morning was to go ashore and visit the Siberian Yupik community of Savoonga, but the weather forced a change of plans. A heavy swell onto the only landing beaches precluded that option, so we continued around the island’s coast searching for a sheltered landing site. In the meantime, geologist John Buchanan entertained us with his presentation, Plates in Collision: the Northern Ring of Fire, followed by Caitlin Hedberg and Brooke Wood of the Nature Conservancy on, ShoreZone: Exploring the Natural Wonders of Alaska’s Coasts. Eager to go ashore despite the rain, we disembarked this after- noon onto short coastal tundra and for several hours explored a rarely visited region of the island, wandering to nearby lagoons and a ruined fishing and bone-yard excavation camp. The naturalists were delighted with their sightings of tundra flowers and a star bird in the form of an emperor goose. Tuesday, July 11 Hall & St. Matthew Islands Our field staff put their portable GPS units to great use this morning as we made our Zodiac cruise along the rocky crags of Hall Island in thick fog. Undeterred, we hugged the shoreline in our little Zodiac fleet, enjoying the atmospheric looming foggy scenery, the sounds of the sea, the smell of the bird colonies, and the sights of seabirds buzzing back and forth above our heads to their nesting ledges. We spotted hordes of thick-billed and common murres, horned and tufted puffins, and pigeon guillemots, as well as flocks of cryptic harlequin ducks swimming through the surf. Above us, a massive fox-shaped rock rose from the fog, and for those who reached the far end of the island, a treat was in store with a rock arch or two to boot. Returning to the ship in dense fog seemed to be a leap of faith, but those GPS units were wonderful and left us wondering how we ever managed before they were invented! After lunch and a brief re-positioning, we went ashore, once more in thick fog, on St. Matthew Island. The fog eventually drifted clear, giving us wonderful views across this remote and uninhabited island. We found (and heard) the endemic insular, or St. Matthew Island singing, vole and saw several of the extremely local almost snow-white McKay’s bunting—in the entire world, this bunting breeds only on St. Matthew and Hall Islands! Ashore on the most remote island in the middle of the Bering Sea, we set off on a range of walks along the beach and across the tundra where we enjoyed the profusion of tundra flowers, including the most wonder- fully named Weasel’s snout, and made sightings and listened to the chorusing voles. A red fox, benefiting no doubt from this being a boom year for the local rodents, gave us a lengthy and very informative opportunity for observation. Wednesday, July 12 St. Paul Island, Pribilof Islands In the midst of the Bering Sea lies the tiny archipelago comprising the five Pribilof Islands discovered in 1786 by the Russian explorer, Gerassim Pribilof. There he successfully located his goal: thousands of fur seals at their rookeries. Tragically, the Russians enslaved the Aleuts pushing them to harvest the seals nearly to the extinction of both seals and Aleuts. The Aleut population dwindled from about 25,000 on first contact to just 2,000 survivors. Today, St. Paul is home to only 400 Aleuts, yet it is the largest such community in the world. On our route south towards the islands this morning, we continued our lecture sea series with Conrad’s presentation, Spineless Wonders of the Bering Sea, followed by T.H.
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