This is the sign on the front of the hotel above them.
Today, Mariah was our guide for the day. Our first stop was Antone Wall where a Least Auklet colony is located. These tiny birds breed in voids and crevices under the rocks where the Arctic Foxes can't get to their nests. It was pretty foggy this morning, which seemed to be the norm on most days. I got this photo of Least Auklets making more Least Auklets.
A stop at Ridge Wall provided my best chance for getting close photos of a Horned Puffin.
There were also a good number of Northern Fulmars there along with smaller numbers of Least and Parakeet Auklets.
A check of the Kamanista Quarry revealed 4 Red-necked Phalaropes in a small wet area but didn't turn up any unexpected landbirds.
After lunch, we checked the Salt Lagoon. The Bar-tailed Godwit was close enough for some documentation photos and, this time, the Common Greenshank was far enough away that it didn't flush before I got some distant photos of it.
One of my top highlights of the trip occurred here. Since the tide was low, we were able to walk out into the lagoon and get a lot closer to the continuing Ross's Gull. Eventually, it yawned, stretched its wings, and flew right by us, allowing many of us to get some nice photos of this rare Arctic-based gull.
We left the lagoon and made the drive all the way up to Northeast Point, hoping to find Bristle-thighed Curlews that had been seen there earlier since it would be a life bird for most of our group. I had seen a distant one near Coffee Dome outside of Nome in 2007 and a close one on O'ahu in Hawaii back in 2016. It got real foggy as we got closer to the point. A Pacific Golden-Plover was barely seen through the soup.
At the point, the fog eased a bit. A Red-necked Grebe was diving offshore and a Northern Fur Seal was growling on the beach.
We came up empty on finding the curlews. The one new landbird that we found there was a Common Redpoll.
After dinner, we headed back to the crab pots hoping for some new landbirds. A couple Arctic Foxes were there when we arrived.
Nothing new was turned up, but 11 Bramblings were still there and I did get a few more photos of the sneaky Siberian Rubythroat.
This sign is located next to the lagoon and right near the famous crab pots that held the Siberian Rubythroat.
Tom took this photo of me in my daily attire while on the island.
A Bank Swallow was found at our last stop of the day at Town Marsh.
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