St. Paul Island

Have you ever walked into a place and found someone talking loudly on their Nextel? I hate that. I don't want to listen to their private conversation, especially if they're arguing. That's why I'd like people to restrict comments here to topics that might be of interest to anyone reading the blog. If you have something you want to say to one particular person try emailing them, or call them on your Nextel if you must, but that's not what this blog is for. If you don't know who they are, email me and I'll contact them for you. Of course I can't help much if I don't know who they are, so from now please sign your comments at least with your initials or a pseudonym that I would recognise. OK, so there's the rules. Let's get back to my wanderings.

It seems like a long time ago that I was in Tok. A lot has happen since then. I left Tok right after church Sunday. Tok Baptist Church was a nice surprise by the way. I'd recommend it if you ever get out that way. I planned on flying to St. Paul out of Anchorage on Wednesday so took a short side trip down to Valdez. It was interesting to see Prince William Sound and a lot of the drive in was very scenic but that's about it. It also didn't help that it rained much of the time I was there.

I got into Anchorage Tuesday morning right after I had the accident with my camera. I ended up buying a new one but the old one is still working for now as long as I don't mind the fact that the rear panel will only light up for a fraction of a second before going dim. I basically use it as a backup.

Wednesday didn't turn out the way I expected either. I'm going to let you read my comment on my last posting to see what happened then. Reader's Digest version, I didn't make it. I ended up sleeping in a parking lot that night. The next day I made arrangements to fly out on Friday.

Thursday night I stayed at a campground near Anchorage. It was right next to Bird Creek, where the salmon were running. The salmon attract fishermen.

And the salmon attract bears. The fishermen didn't seem to mind.

Friday I finally got to St. Paul! You get off the plane there and walk right into the Hotel. The restaurant is right there as well. It's nothing fancy. The bathrooms are down the hall from the rooms, but it's clean and comfortable. It was like luxury for me. I got to sleep in a real bed and take a shower every day!

I had signed up for a package that included the flight, hotel and guide service. I guess it would be possible to go without a guide but then I would have to rent a vehicle which would not be easy and I would be on my own to find the birds. The guides were well worth the money. If I had gotten there on Wednesday, like I had planned to do in the first place, I would have been there with one other photographer and another visitor. On Friday I flew in with the one other photographer, a group of Thirteen photographers, and a family group that came for a funeral. A guy from Austria came in a day later. I had to share the two and a half guides (one had a second job) with all of them.

The one photographer came on his own from Japan. Nice enough guy but his english was a little weak. I felt like I could relate to him though, being all by himself. There were some nice folks in the group of thirteen too. They were from all over the continent plus one guy from England. The Japanese guy, Isao, and I generally traveled along them. These guys were serious about their photography. I haven't been with many groups that make my 500mm lens seem small.

The guides were great. The two regulars were wild and crazy birding nomads in their early twenties. They were very accommodating, a lot of fun and they could bird circles around me. There's probably no need to worry about me getting a job there any time soon.

Here's a shot of the cemetary I took on one of the days I got fogged in.

St. Paul is known for it's birds. They have a lot of nesting seabirds nesting on cliffs by the ocean. There were a lot of photographers there too at times.

Like these Thick-billed Murres. Common Murres as well.

Least Auklets.

Crested Auklets.

Parakeet Auklets.

And of course, Puffins. These are Tufted Puffins. I love the head shot. It looks like it's on black velvet.

And here's a Horned Puffin.

Red-faced Cormorant.

Red-legged Kittiwakes breed only on St. Paul, St. George (the other large Pribilof Island) and in small numbers on other island in the area. Most of the birds in the background are Black-legged Kittiwakes.

Birders also like this place for the rare birds that sometimes show up here from Asia. This is a Gray-tailed Tattler. The Japanese photographer got bored with this one pretty quickly. They're common in Japan.

The British Photographer didn't give this Little Stint much thought. They're common in England.

These Rock Sandpipers were everywhere. They aren't exactly rare but it was a first for me.

Gray-crowned Rosy-Finches were everywhere as well. They're like House Sparrows back home. The strange thing is that the birds here are about 30% bigger than they are elsewhere.

Lapland Longspurs like this one, along with Snow Buntings and a few Winter Wrens, make up the rest of the perching birds that breed on the island.

The island is also known for it's Fur Seals. This is one of the few breeding grounds for them. The big ones are the males, the tiny black ones could be days or hours old, and the others are females.

Arctic Foxes were everywhere. They're considered pests around town, but they were a lot of fun to photograph, especially the young kits.

I was having so much fun there I decided to extend for another day. That was great, but it turned out that the island was fogged in for the next two days, so my one extra day stretched into three! It's a good thing I didn't have to be anywhere. It actually would have been kind of nice if it weren't for the fact that the weather wasn't great for photography either. It all turned out alright though. It was actually a great trip. I'm glad I went. Sorry about all the whining I did about it earlier.

I started this post a couple days ago. I was in Homer then and now I'm in Soldotna on my way north. I could go on to tell you about Homer but I'm tired and I think I've written enough. You've probably read enough too, so I'll have to tell you about Homer next time. Take care.

Steve