Nome & Barrow Photo Workshop

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The outposts of Nome and Barrow offer some of North Americas most amazing photo opportunities! King, Spectacled, and Steller’s Eiders, Harlequin Duck, Rock and Willow Ptarmigan, Gyrfalcon, Rough-legged Hawk, Golden Eagle, Wandering Tattler, Hudsonian Godwit, Bristle-thighed Curlew, Whimbrel, Pacific and American Golden Plovers, Semipalmated Sandpiper, Surfbirds, Black Turnstone, Eastern Yellow Wagtail, Arctic Warbler, Bluethroat, Northern Wheatear, Gray-cheeked Thrush, Golden-crowned Sparrow, and Hoary Redpoll are but a few of the species at which we will point our lenses.

Our first day in Anchorage will give us a chance at some of southern Alaska’s common breeding birds as they set up territories or migrate through the Anchorage area.

The Seward Peninsula, home to our first destination, Nome, has a rich and varied history of gold rushes and native peoples. The Iñupiat people have been resident here for thousands of years of subsistence hunting on the land and sea. In 1898, gold was found at the current site of Nome and the population exploded. Gold is still sought here and we will see old gold dredges and new mines around Nome. Just below the Arctic Circle, the light very early and very late in the day is spectacular! We will have to get used to odd hours to take best advantage of this marvelous light. Our sleeping will be divided into two sessions per day with early afternoon naps and short nights. But the results of these odd hours will be stunning images of many birds and mammals found nowhere else in North America.

Nome with the Berring Sea in background. Photo by tour participant Josh Galicki ©

From Nome, in the west of Alaska, we will travel to the northern-most point of North America – Barrow. Unlike Nome, the sun never sets here! So you could conceivably photograph 24 hours a day! But we will again break up our sleep into two sessions. Barrow has fewer species of birds but the ones that breed here are truly amazing! All three Eider species, Pacific Loon, Snowy Owl (in good lemming years), numerous shorebirds in full breeding plumage and doing courtship displays (Long-billed Dowitcher, Semipalmated and Pectoral Sandpipers, Red and Red-necked Phalaropes, and hopefully Buff-breasted Sandpiper) will all entertain and delight us on the tundra. Lapland Longspurs and Snow Buntings will give us beautiful passerines to bring in to our setups.

Spectacled Eider by tour participant Josh Galicki ©

Come join us for a fun-filled photographic adventure to North America’s Last Frontier!

Leaders: Kim Risen and Rick Bowers.

 

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