timistravels

Sept. 17-20 Trip to St. Paul Island,,, Part 2…

The Pribilof’s are known as the Galapagos of the North due to the fact that there are so many different species of birds on the islands.  I would not consider myself adept at birds, but after this day, I have a better appreciate of those that love this ‘activity.’

St. Paul Island is home to millions of seabirds nesting on the steep shores of the island. There are also rare Asiatic birds, blown off course during their migration or dropping in just briefly on their way to other breeding and nesting destinations.

The first birds we saw were both Tufted Puffin and Horned Puffin (white breast).  It was amazing how close we were to them and how incredibly beautiful they are.

As we continued our tour on this beautiful fall day, it was so clear that we saw Otter and Walrus Island as well as St. George Island, not always able to be spotted from St. Paul!   Harbor Seals breed on Otter Island, several miles southwest of St. Paul Island, but nonetheless are often seen off St. Paul shores. Occasionally, Steller sea lions haul out on St. Paul, but usually take refuge in the rookery at Walrus Island, some 10 miles northeast of St. Paul. On extremely rare occasions, Grey whales, Orcas, and walrus are observed offshore.

We spotted wild celery all over the place, however, it was past its prime for eating.

“Sea Lion Neck” was the next stop on our tour.  Currently it is only open to Sea Lion hunters (Native’s only) and this tour!  At the end of the road, 11 miles away from town, is Webster lake and a memorial to the old church that once stood at that site.  There is also a cabin/house that anyone can rent (for free) if they care to go out there and explore.

Birds we saw on this adventure:

• Snow bunting
• Sharp tailed sandpiper (Asian Born)
• Rock sandpiper
• Fox sparrow and goldencrown sparrow both from mainland, AK
• Pacific golden plover
• Wandering tattler
• Ruddy turnstones
• Red faced Cormorants
• Red legged kittiwake (big eyes, red legs) very rare, ‘chasers’ come here to see these
• Common kittiwake (black legs) one of most common gulls in world
• Lapland longspur (song bird)
• American pipit

We DID NOT SEE but our guide has spotted a White Tailed Eagle (sea Eagle) here this summer.  It probably stopped over enroute from Russia. Neither did we see the elusive shrew, which is sometimes spotted under the pieces of plywood out near one of the points.

After the tour we made it back to our little apartment and decided it was time for dinner.  The Trident Plant, where million’s of pounds of crab are processed each spring (see March blog) was a bit slower this time of year as they were now processing halibut.  For $20 pre paid you can go to the cafeteria and eat, and this time of year, endless halibut is well worth $20!  There were very few staff from the plant there and we enjoyed dinner there 2 nights in a row!
We also ran into the store and there photo’s are a reminded of the high cost of living in these remote rural communities, can you believe the price of soup?  (cans are heavy!).
So ends my exciting trips to the Pribilof Island’s for this year!  All 3 were an adventure and I am blessed to be able to get to these places for WORK.

timi

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I returned to St. Paul Island in the Pribilof’s for a few days to do workshops with the board and work in the schools with my colleague Jenni.  If you go back in the blogs you will see I was here in March.  I’ll remind you that St. Paul is part of the Pribilof Islands and sit 880 miles W of Anchorage.

It was so different being there in Sept. vs in March.  It had a feel of mid-west fall days, though no trees to have leaves that are changing colors, the plants and ground cover are changing to their fall hues.

The first night we walked down to the end of town and watched the seals from a distance as the beaches are all off limits to people.  It was a cloudy night but you could see seals playing in the water, swimming and jumping all around as well as 100’s of them on the hillside. 

I was to leave on Wed. however a volcano eruption in Russia caused problems with air quality and my plane did not make it out to pick me up, so I had a ‘free’ afternoon after doing some workshops in the morning.

Jenni and I decided to contact St. Paul Island Tours to see if we could go on a tour and thankfully they had an open calendar.  Doug,  our guide picked us up and stated the adventure.

First stop, Reef Point where there were 1000’s of fur seals.  Such a interesting  to come upon these seals in their natural habitat and watch them for almost an hour.  This is what I learned.

• In early May, the males, 5 years or older come to the beaches and ‘mark’ their territory.
• These spaces tend to be 12’-15’ from one another.
• On June 1, the rookeries are closed and remain off limits until mid-October .
• These “Beach Master” males find their spot and wait about a month and a half for the females to arrive in the end of June.
• 90% of the females give birth immediately, within 24 hours, once they snuggle up with a Beach Master.
  

  mom nursing a baby

• Beach Master Males can have anywhere from 40-60 females in ‘their’ space, and the weaker Masters can have as little as 1 or 2 females as they get too old to defend their space.
• Males become Beach Masters at around the age of 7, females can get pregnant as young as 5 but usually don’t start having pups until they are 7/8.
• Once they give birth, the male impregnate the females immediately.
• The females will deliver these pups next June/July.
• Hunting for the Aleut Natives begins at the end of July and into early Aug.
• About 200 males are killed during the hunt and the 3 year old male seals are targeted, though 2 -4 year olds are taken during the open hunt.
• The Beach Master males head back into the waters in late August though a few linger until Sept.  They are hungry and in search of food.
• Females and pups head into the waters in Nov. and separate shortly after this.
• Males live until about 12-15 years of age.
• Females live to between 20-21 years of age.
• Much like humans you can tell their age by how ‘white’ their whiskers are… the more white, the older the seal!

I will write about the rest of the tour in another blog!