Epic voyage - the birds

In Nome, we boarded the Silver Explorer to ply the Bering and Chukchi Seas. We cruised along the northern shores of the Siberian Peninsula in search of both wildlife and the farthest eastern Russian settlements, most of which were simply very small subsistence communities, living off the land and the bounty of the sea. Our itinerary included visits to Provideniya, Yttygran Island, Proliv Senyavina, Cape Dezhnev, Uelen Village, Kolyuchin Bay and Island, Vankarem, Krasin Bay off Wrangel Island, Penkigney Bay, Arakamchechen Island, Cape Kuvyeem, Enmelen, and finally Anadyr, all in eastern Russia.

We literally had a wildlife festival while touring the arctic ice floes and visiting all the far eastern Siberian Peninsula coastline. At Yttygran Island we were serenaded with more Puffin than I have ever seen before. The Horned Puffin like to nest in burrows near the coast line where they eat. However, because of fox and bears ravage their nests if on the top of the bluffs, they tend to burrow where they can on the cliff sides.

All Puffins are apparently gangly birds. They are built for both air and water – just aerodynamic enough to be able to fly, but also built to be able to float, swim and dive. They use their wings to dive and swim, so their dual purpose is not perfectly adapted to either. That is why they look at times like they are in a frantic freefall when they venture out to take the air.

The Tufted Puffins are really unique as well. Both species of Puffins have a ceremonial beak for attracting a mate. The beak you see in these photos is only because it is mating season here. Their actual beaks are small, usable, normal bird beaks. These brightly colored ornamental beaks fall off after mating season is over. Our naturalist ruined me on Tufted Puffins – said they reminded her of “The Donald.” I mentioned that to my brother Jerry – he tweeted me back “Making Tufted Puffins great again!”

We saw Penguin Murres, as well as Common Murres and other species of Auks. The Penguin Murres were my favorite because they looked as though in coats and tails. They live on sheer rock cliffs to avoid predators, and tend to stand side by side in a line on very narrow cliff ledges. I had to chuckle each time I saw them as they reminded me of our enthusiastic dining room servers waiting for us to join them for dinner each night.

We had seen Crested Auklets on many of the islands and bluffed coastlines we had visited. Sadly, this poor guy had somehow become entangled with the ship and appeared to have broken a leg. While the staff carefully handled him and set him free – he was able to fly away from the ship with no problem at all – I have no doubt that his fate was not rosy when he reached whatever destination when he could not walk proper.

We also spotted Glaucous Gulls. While none of the other birds seem to do so, these guys actually build nests on the cliffs. With bird doo doo and such they cement their nests to the rock walls, and lay a single egg. The cliff provides them protection from both land and sea predators, but they still have to watch for the avian type. In addition to these, we saw a few species of Loon, several Murres, several Eiders, and others I can’t even remember.

On our last near Enmelen we spotted these Harlequin Ducks. With their white ring encircled eyes – quite exaggerated in fact – you can understand where their name came from. They were very skittish and didn’t let us get too close. But in our binoculars, we could see the center ring of the circus with these guys.

Talk to you soon!