This tour is offered in partnership with High Lonesome Birdtours.
Journey to the Aleutian Islands and the largest fishing port in North America. Surrounded by spectacular mountains and wedged beween the Bering Sea and the Pacific Ocean, this is the best place to find Whiskered Auklet by boat.
Dutch Harbor, in the Aleutian Islands, is one of only two accessible locations (Adak is the other) where the Whiskered Auklet can easily be found. The town has relied on fishing for centuries and continues to do so. The weather is most suitable in mid to late June for our boat trip out to the Baby Islands to see the auklet. We expect to see Short-tailed Shearwater, Laysan and Black-footed Albatrosses, and Ancient Murrelet. We hope to see Mottled Petrel, a rare species in the Bering Sea now. We have seen Short-tailed Albatross a couple of times as well.
For our 8 – 10 hour boat trip, we will motor out to the Baby Islands for the Whiskered Auklet, then out to the Chelan Banks for other pelagic species. On the day we’re not on the boat, we’ll spend some time driving and walking around the tundra and seaside looking for other species that might be in residence or moving through. Tufted Duck was seen recently. Grey-crowned Rosy Finch (Aleutian race) is common, as well as Snow Bunting. Gyrfalcon is often seen. Dutch Harbor has the highest concentration of Bald Eagles in the Aleutians because of the fish processing plants.
Accommodations in Dutch Harbor are at the very comfortable Grand Aleutian Hotel, and meals will take advantage of the wealth of excellent seafood available in Dutch Harbor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLLaDwz5CNo
Please note: these prices are subject to foreign exchange fluctuations.
Whiskered Auklet; Laysan & Black-footed Albatrosses; Short-tailed Albatross (seen rarely on a couple of our trips); Short-tailed & Sooty Shearwaters; Red-faced Cormorant; Horned & Tufted Puffins; Kittlitz’s, Ancient & Marbled Murrelets; Rock Ptarmigan; American Dipper; Aleutian Song Sparrow; Pacific Wren; Grey-crowned Rosy Finch; Lapland Longspur; Snow Bunting.
Sea Otter; Steller’s Sea Lion; Harbour Seal; several species of whales
high tundra, pelagic
cool and sometimes wet; 40 to 60°F (5 - 16°C)
8 with 1 Rockjumper leader & local birding leader
Our Mega tours are very fast-paced birding adventures designed for the dedicated lister and serious birder. The focus of the tour is to see as many of the endemics and area specials as possible in our given time. In order to cover the necessary route to maximise the species list we tend to spend a single night at most sites and travel large distances. There is very little down time aside from that spent driving from one site to the next. These tours are not suitable for dedicated or avid photographers; inexperienced or new birders; as well as anyone with serious mobility or health challenges.
comfortable hotel
fairly easy
If you have some free time in Anchorage, don’t miss going to Wave Bookstores on Northern Lights or downtown on 5th Avenue. They have a great selection of Alaska fiction and non-fiction! In addition, there are some excellent restaurants downtown, including Orso, Glacier Brew House, Simon & Seafort’s, and Marx Brothers.
good to excellent
This was a great trip – way better than could even be expected. Yes, we saw Ross’s Gulls streaking across the distant horizon, but we also saw a polar bear mom and two cubs and our time in Barrow coincided with the Inupiat whale harvest. While the death of whales is always a bit sad, the opportunity to see subsistence hunters is rare these days. Stephan Lorenz has proved to be one of my favorite guides – his combination of ‘bionic eyes’ (Claudia’s report), great hearing, real understanding of bird behavior and incredible patience means he is my go-to guide for difficult species that I’ve missed on other tours (or not tried to see before because it seemed too difficult). With Stephan, I have ‘ticked’ Bachman’s Sparrow, Swainson’s Warbler, Buff-collared Nightjar, Short-tailed Albatross, Whiskered Auklet, Spectacled Eider, Emperor Goose, Bar-tailed Godwit (in Alaska), among many other much-sought after species. But Stephan and Claudia also keep every trip enjoyable. Claudia is a great birder in her own right and can set up a scope on the target bird as fast as Stephan. It is great to have two scopes set up immediately. What could be very discouraging to an older birder with poor eyesight and poor hearing like me turns out to be a delightful trip. Imagine spending hours and hours in a freezing wind staring out to an empty sea and still calling it fun. I am looking forward to traveling with Stephan and Claudia again as soon as possible.
Our trip to Alaska was great. Our guide, Stephan Lorenz, was greatly appreciated for his knowledge of the birds, of the sites, and his leader qualities. Thanks to Stephans sharp eyes we observed Grey-crowned Rosy Finch, my objective, which was less than zero chance according to Stephan :-). It was a very exciting moment for us ! Apart from seeing all the covoted birds we saw a great deal of animals including 11 grizzli bears, several orcas and a few polar bears which was the cherry on the cake ! What a great thrill ! Having our list done on eBird was also greatly appreciated.
Stephan as lead guide was one of the best guides I have ever had the privilege of working with. Wonderful at finding birds, making sure participants saw them, managing the challenging logistics, and a truly excellent group leader. Dave was an excellent partner guide. I will definitely seek them out to travel with again. Thanks to both of them.
The tour was very well organised and run. The guides, Stephan Lorenz and Dave Krueper, were excellent. They went out of their way to ensure that all the group members had a chance to see and identify the birds, especially concentrating on those they knew were life birds. Having two guides for 10 tour members was great and being in two vans for travel ensured that we all had sufficient space and window area to spread out and see everything. Even the weather was pretty good. Great tour!
Gambell was great, an adventure I’ll not soon forget.
20 Jun 2024 - 23 Jun 2024 (4 days)
USD4,750 - No Spaces Available
Tour Leader: Claudia Cavazos
Tour Leader: Stephan Lorenz
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