August 7, 2023

If Alaska isn’t on your bucket list, you might want to add it. Whether for the scenery, wildlife, or history, Alaska is a formidable and impressive destination, and one that appeals to people from all walks of life. The last leg of our journey would be a combination of sea and land, taking us to remote areas where even birds were scarce. And no running water! If getting away from it all appeals to you, Alaska is the state for you!

But before we went inland, we had a couple of ports left on our cruise. In Sitka, we disembarked from our ship to get on a smaller boat and go in search of Sea Otters. It was a cloudy, misty day, not unusual for Alaska, and not the best for photography, but we didn’t mind. Sitka Sound is home to the greatest variety of wildlife in Southeast Alaska, and I was in my element. Fortunately, we had a naturalist on board who was also a “bird nerd”, so she and I became friends quickly! She pointed out Common Mure, Rhinoceros Auklets, Short-billed Gulls and Bald Eagles. We even saw a pair of Black Oystercatchers flying low across the water, unfortunately not close enough to get clear photos.

Scattered through the bay were the cutest Sea Otters, comically floating on their backs, with mostly their heads and feet showing above the water. But these were just the beginning of what was to come. Our crew steered toward a rocky outcrop and all along the rocks were dozens of Sea Otters. Once nearly hunted to extinction, Sea Otters have come back with abundance. Sea Otters float on the ocean in groups called “rafts”, often holding hands with one another to keep their paws warm. Pups are born with a buoyant fur that makes them float like corks on the water, and doesn’t allow them to sink. They are raised solely by the female and shed their baby fur at around 13 weeks. By that point they can dive and fish for themselves. They have no blubber so they need to eat frequently, consuming 25-30% of their body weight every day in order to survive in their cold habitat. Did I mention how cute they are?

Back on land we headed to the Alaska Raptor Center. Like us, you may have seen them on television (Nat Geo Wild) and are already familiar with the work they do. A center focused on the care and rehabilitation of injured owls, hawks, eagles and any other raptors, they provide medical treatment to more than 200 injured birds each year. Most birds come to the center after being hit by a car, being orphaned, or any other such traumatic event. In an effort to rehabilitate and return to the wild as many of the birds as possible, they take great care to prevent these birds from imprinting on humans and keep their habitats, and interactions, as normal and wild as possible.

There are some exceptions of course. Some of the birds have such extensive injuries that even after healing and rehab they’re not able to return to the wild. Those birds join their “Raptors-in-Residence” team and become educators to the public and area schoolchildren.

While there, we met “Rain”. Rain is a Bald Eagle that was rescued and sent to the Center from Juneau in 2017. She was only able to fly short distances and had an obvious problem with her right wing. Upon examination, it was found that she had severe damage to her right wingtip that could not be repaired. While they’re not certain as to what caused the injury, they suspect it could have been electrocution from a powerline. As a result, her wingtip had to be amputated, leaving her unable to fly. Her temperament made her a good candidate for their education program and we were thrilled to meet her and hear her story. Oh yeah, have I mentioned that Bald Eagles in Alaska are much larger than our local Bald Eagles?! They are!

The next day we sailed on to Disenchantment Bay, to see Hubbard Glacier. What an awesome sight! Our ship pulled within a safe distance of the glacier and started a series of slow, 360 degree turns, giving everyone on board a prime view of the glacier.

According to the National Park Service website, Hubbard Glacier is the largest tidewater glacier in North America at 76 miles long, 7 miles wide, and 600 feet tall at its face (350 feet above the waterline and another 250 feet below the waterline). It starts at Mt Logan, in the Yukon Territory of Canada, and ends within the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park & Preserve. Hubbard Glacier has been advancing over the last 100 years and continues to thicken, up to 2,000 feet in some locations. The ice you see at the face of the glacier is 400-500 years old and chunks of that ice the size of 10-story buildings routinely calve and fall from the glacier during the summer months.

Hubbard Glacier

Our final port was Seward, and after disembarking we spent a little time at the Alaska SeaLife Center, an aquarium with facilities to rehabilitate and hopefully release sea life back into the wild. Sea lions, seals, fish, and a touch tank with an amazing array of sea urchins and sea stars were the popular exhibits. For me, it was the Sea Bird exhibit. It’s set up so fresh seawater flows into the pools, and the coverings are merely netting. Enough to keep the birds safe but also open enough to simulate their natural conditions.

Many of the inhabitants of this area now live at the center, due to injuries and situations that make them unable to be released. Like the raptors, they serve to educate the public who may not normally see Horned Puffins or Rhinoceros Auklets up close.

Horned Puffin

Rhinoceros Auklet

Our final destination was Denali, which we reached by train on The Wilderness Express. What a fun trip, including an excellent lunch in the dining car. I highly recommend this, even though we saw no wildlife. But we did see some incredible views.

As I sit here writing this it’s 10:15pm and the sun is still up in Denali. In fact it looks more like 6:00 in the evening than 10:00 at night. One advantage of touring Alaska is the 18-20 hour summer days. You can get a lot accomplished with that much daylight. Our hotel faces the river and four rafts full of tourists floated by around 9:00pm, still with quite a way to go.

Nenana River, Denali National Park, 10:16pm

The next day we left early in search of the mountain. The goal was to hopefully see most or all of Denali without clouds. Formerly known as Mt McKinley, it’s so tall (20,308 feet) that it influences its own weather, creating an almost constant cloud cover and gale force winds. We spent several hours in the park, in hopes of catching the mountain without clouds. One in ten people actually see the mountain, and one in three are fortunate enough to get a clear view of the whole mountain, both peaks. We had high hopes as the sun was out and the weather was nice. We got lucky and saw both the south peak and the north peak, just not at the same time. We were at a popular lookout point in this photo, 70 miles from the mountain!

Snow-covered Denali Mountain in the background

As we drove around Denali National Park, which by the way is over 6 million acres, larger than the state of Massachusetts, we were on the constant lookout for Dall Sheep, Grizzly Bears and Moose. But no such luck. (Although we did have moose wandering through our hotel parking lot!) What we did see was gorgeous landscapes and the occasional gull. Locals call them Mew Gulls but that never came up when I tried to do an eBird checklist. Further research by a friend back in the lower 48 (with reliable internet!) revealed that the Mew Gull was actually split into two species in 2021, Short-billed Gull and Common Gull. The differences are very minor but Short-Billed Gulls (Mew Gulls to the locals) are plentiful and we even saw them nesting along rocky riverbanks. Like our Least Terns, they make a scrape in the sand and rocks to lay their nest. Unfortunately our sightings were from a moving vehicle, and not close enough to get a good photo.

The only other birds I saw while in Denali were Bald Eagles, Canada Jays, and Violet-green Swallows diving and flying over rivers. It’s not the most hospitable location, explaining why we saw far more birds on the coast than inland.

Our time in Alaska was drawing to a close and it was almost time to fly back to reality. We felt blessed to have this opportunity to visit the last frontier. We walked the paths of history, witnessed spectacular landscapes, met many interesting people, and I happily added 30 birds to my life list. I don’t think we can close the Alaska chapter of our travel log just yet, I think going back a third time might be in the cards. We’ll keep it on the list just in case.

Submitted by Gina Sanders
Photos by Gina Sanders

To learn more about the Alaska Raptor Center, click here.

To learn more about the Alaska SeaLife Center, click here.

Ruby-Throated Hummingbird:
Family – Trochilidae
Species – Archilochus colubris
Length: 3 – 3.75”; Wingspan: 4.25 – 4.5”; Weight: 0.1 oz

(Submitted by Ron Schlidge)

Male Ruby-throated Hummingbird - Bob Hider — Male Ruby-throated Hummingbird – Bob Hider

The Ruby-throated Hummingbird is the only hummer known by most Easterners and has a range that covers most of eastern North America. Both sexes have glittering green crown and upperparts, and the underparts are grayish to white. Males have black faces and a deep red to orange-red throat or gorget. The humming of its wings is clearly discernible from a distance. Their wings beat up to 75 per second.

They feed primarily on nectar but take some insects and spiders, also sap from sapsucker drill wells. In courtship flight, males make a huge 180-degree arcs back and forth, emitting a buzzing sound at its lowest point. Males often arrive on breeding grounds well ahead of females. These birds are strongly attracted to the color red as are many other hummers.

The nest of the hummingbird is very small and made from soft plant down, fireweed, milkweed thistles and leaves. They are a solitary breeder and generally lay two white eggs the size of a pea with incubation 11 to 16 days by the female. Altricial young stay in nest 20 – 22 days and are fed by the female. They have 1-3 broods per year.

Ruby-throated Hummers feed on red columbine in spring; salvia, trumpet or coral honeysuckle, and bee balm later in the year. They also fed on jewelweed, phlox, petunias, lilies, trumpet creeper, Siberian peatree, nasturtium, cone-shaped red flowers and sugar water.

You can mix your own sugar water by using a 4:1 ratio of water to sugar (ex: 2 cups of water and 1/2 cup of sugar). Red food dyes added to sugar water may harm birds. Always replace the sugar water in your feeders at least once a week and maybe more in the hot days of summer.

A group of Hummingbirds has many collective nouns, including a “bought”, “glittering”, “hover”, “shimmer” and a “tune” of hummingbirds.

Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are common on Seabrook in the summer. They can be seen over the beach, amid the dunes, and in the myrtles along the boardwalks. They are also around the estuaries and edges wherever they may find nectar-producing plants and small insects. If you have a home you might try a feeder – they will come. A very few might spend the winter. A feeder in winter might also attract other vagrant species such as the Rufous Hummingbird or Black-chinned Hummingbird.

(See the range map following the photographs below.)

If you would like to learn more about this bird visit:

This blog post is part of a series SIB will publish on a regular basis to feature birds seen in the area, both migratory and permanent residents. When possible we will use photographs taken by our members. Please let us know if you have any special requests of birds you would like to learn more about.