St. Paul 1
I have had few opportunities recently to take new photos so I'm breaking into the vault for this post. Last summer I was fortunate to spend several months working as a guide in Alaska on St. Paul Island, the largest of the Pribilof Islands, in the midst of the Bering Sea. It was quite an experience to spent that period of time on a tiny island with fewer than 500 people where the temperature never exceeded 52 degrees and more regular hovered in the low thirties in the midst of summer. While St. Paul is no tropical island paradise, it is a paradise for a number of nesting seabirds and the occasional resting place of vagrant birds from the Old World. I will go into greater detail about St. Paul in another post but for the moment a photo gallery of some of my favorite St. Paul species will have to suffice.
Three species of auklets nest on St. Paul. All are a bit odd but the Crested Auklets, like the one above, seemed to have the most character. They stand on steep nesting cliffs in small groups craning their necks and bobbing their heads causing their crests to bounce around. They were easy to locate when they left their burrows and took flight as they gave a distinctive call, a shrill yapping sound, usually doubled that sounded very much like the barking of a small dog. Crested Auklets are by far the least common nesting auklet on St. Paul, but they are numerous on some of the Aleutian Islands. When they are close by you can detect their peculiar odor that is strikingly similar to the smell of citrus! This smell is compounded when they gather in large groups and can be detected, according to reports, over a mile from the largest breeding colonies.
Always a show-stopper, Tufted Puffins are regular though not abundant on St. Paul. Given that Tufted Puffins are larger and have all black bodies there is little confusing them with their cousin, the Horned Puffin. Both puffins nest in burrows on steep cliffs like the smaller alcids, while the larger alcids, Thick-billed and Common Murres, lay their eggs directly on small ledges on nesting cliffs. While near all the visitors to the island ewed-and-ahed over puffins, to illustrate that not everyone has the same taste, I had one client who on looking through my scope at her first Tufted Puffin exclaimed, "Oh, they're so ugly! I can't look at them!" I nearly fell of the cliff.
Horned Puffins also breed on St. Paul and were actually more numerous than Tufted Puffin, but tended to be less visible. Like all alcids puffins are have quite small wings for their weight. Because of this it was quite amusing to watch them take off from their nesting cliffs. They would emerge from their burrows and waddle to the very edge of the cliff and dive off head first and drop like a stone, all the while pumping their little wings as quickly as possible. Just before crashing into the water they would level off and buzz away just above the surface of the ocean.
Cute as they are these Arctic Foxes are the main reason why puffins and other alcids are not more numerous on St. Paul. Arctic Foxes are very common on St. Paul, but they are concentrated in town and near the seabird colonies. They are incredibly agile and can often be seen picking their way up and down the seabird nesting cliffs by hopping from ledge-to-ledge. You can easily tell which ledges the foxes can reach as they are completely bare while every square inch of cliff that foxes cannot reach is covered with nesting birds.
One of the specialties of the Pribilofs is Red-legged Kittiwake. Absolutely an incredible bird! Look at those feet! These birds bred almost exclusively in the Bering Sea, most in the Pribilofs. The second largest Pribilof Island, St George, has far more nesting Red-legged Kittiwakes than St. Paul which is dominated by nesting Black-legged Kittiwakes. Red-legged Kittiwake is slightly smaller than Black-legged but has a huskier build, darker grey mantle and larger head and eyes. The larger head and eyes are explained by the fact that Red-legged Kittiwake feeds largely nocturnally, while Black-legged Kittiwake feeds in the daylight and does not need to see in the dark.
Red-faced Cormorants are another Pribilofs specialty, though they can also be found at a few locations on the Alaskan mainlane. While the words "pretty" and "cormorant" rarely appear in the same sentence, Red-faced can be called a pretty cormorant without hesitation. This photo was taken in midsummer when the facial skin has already started to fade. Earlier in the season these colors are much more intense; the bright red above the bill is set off by an undescribable color of blue below the bill.
More to come on the Pribilofs...
All photos taken with a Nikon D40X and 300mm Nikkor lens.
Three species of auklets nest on St. Paul. All are a bit odd but the Crested Auklets, like the one above, seemed to have the most character. They stand on steep nesting cliffs in small groups craning their necks and bobbing their heads causing their crests to bounce around. They were easy to locate when they left their burrows and took flight as they gave a distinctive call, a shrill yapping sound, usually doubled that sounded very much like the barking of a small dog. Crested Auklets are by far the least common nesting auklet on St. Paul, but they are numerous on some of the Aleutian Islands. When they are close by you can detect their peculiar odor that is strikingly similar to the smell of citrus! This smell is compounded when they gather in large groups and can be detected, according to reports, over a mile from the largest breeding colonies. 
Always a show-stopper, Tufted Puffins are regular though not abundant on St. Paul. Given that Tufted Puffins are larger and have all black bodies there is little confusing them with their cousin, the Horned Puffin. Both puffins nest in burrows on steep cliffs like the smaller alcids, while the larger alcids, Thick-billed and Common Murres, lay their eggs directly on small ledges on nesting cliffs. While near all the visitors to the island ewed-and-ahed over puffins, to illustrate that not everyone has the same taste, I had one client who on looking through my scope at her first Tufted Puffin exclaimed, "Oh, they're so ugly! I can't look at them!" I nearly fell of the cliff.
Horned Puffins also breed on St. Paul and were actually more numerous than Tufted Puffin, but tended to be less visible. Like all alcids puffins are have quite small wings for their weight. Because of this it was quite amusing to watch them take off from their nesting cliffs. They would emerge from their burrows and waddle to the very edge of the cliff and dive off head first and drop like a stone, all the while pumping their little wings as quickly as possible. Just before crashing into the water they would level off and buzz away just above the surface of the ocean.
Cute as they are these Arctic Foxes are the main reason why puffins and other alcids are not more numerous on St. Paul. Arctic Foxes are very common on St. Paul, but they are concentrated in town and near the seabird colonies. They are incredibly agile and can often be seen picking their way up and down the seabird nesting cliffs by hopping from ledge-to-ledge. You can easily tell which ledges the foxes can reach as they are completely bare while every square inch of cliff that foxes cannot reach is covered with nesting birds.
One of the specialties of the Pribilofs is Red-legged Kittiwake. Absolutely an incredible bird! Look at those feet! These birds bred almost exclusively in the Bering Sea, most in the Pribilofs. The second largest Pribilof Island, St George, has far more nesting Red-legged Kittiwakes than St. Paul which is dominated by nesting Black-legged Kittiwakes. Red-legged Kittiwake is slightly smaller than Black-legged but has a huskier build, darker grey mantle and larger head and eyes. The larger head and eyes are explained by the fact that Red-legged Kittiwake feeds largely nocturnally, while Black-legged Kittiwake feeds in the daylight and does not need to see in the dark.
Red-faced Cormorants are another Pribilofs specialty, though they can also be found at a few locations on the Alaskan mainlane. While the words "pretty" and "cormorant" rarely appear in the same sentence, Red-faced can be called a pretty cormorant without hesitation. This photo was taken in midsummer when the facial skin has already started to fade. Earlier in the season these colors are much more intense; the bright red above the bill is set off by an undescribable color of blue below the bill.More to come on the Pribilofs...
All photos taken with a Nikon D40X and 300mm Nikkor lens.
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