Included:

• Guided birding for 9 days.

• Lodging for 8 nights

• Meals beginning with dinner on the first night through breakfast on the final day.

• Transportation throughout the trip including hotel shuttles.

• Round trip airfare from Anchorage to Adak.

• Half-day Bearing Sea boat tour (subject to weather).

• Optics – I will have a Kowa 99mm scope available throughout the tour.

NOT Included:

• Round trip flights to Anchorage (ANC).

• Lodging/Meals prior to or after the tour dates: May 25 - Jun. 2.

• Personal items such as alcohol with meals, laundry, etc.

May 25 – Arrivals, night in Anchorage.

Plan to arrive at Anchorage International Airport (ANC) and transfer to our hotel that is just 1 mile from the airport, appropriately named the Puffin Inn. We’ll gather for an early dinner at a nearby steakhouse where we’ll enjoy our first meal together and review the trip itinerary. In the morning, we’ll have some time in the morning to bird around Lake Spenard before our flight to Adak departs at 11:45 AM.

May 26 - Jun. 2 -- Birding Adak

Springtime in the Aleutian Islands is a birder’s dream! With hundreds of thousands of seabirds, shorebirds, waterfowl and songbirds migrating to the arctic, and the chance to see rare Asiatic vagrants, we’ll have our hands full for the week. The island includes numerous beaches, mudflats, wetlands and niches for birds to rest on their northward journey.

Weather and winds have a lot to do with the mix of birds we’ll see. Some of the more regularly occurring species include Emperor Goose, Eurasian Wigeon, Eurasian Green-winged Teal, an endemic race of Rock Ptarmigan, Arctic Loon, Laysan Albatross (often seen from shore), Bar-tailed Godwit, Pacific Golden-Plover, Rock Sandpiper, Aleutian, and Arctic Terns, Marbled, Kittlitz’s and Ancient Murrelets, Cassin’s, Parakeet, Whiskered and Crested Auklets, Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch and Snow Bunting!

Potential rare species include Tufted Duck, Smew, Garganey, Spot-billed Duck, Common Pochard, Whooper Swan, Tundra Bean-Goose, Lesser Sand-Plover, Ruff, Wood, Terek, and Marsh Sandpipers, Common Greenshank, Spotted Redshank, Gray-tailed Tattler, Common Snipe, Red-necked, Little, Temminck’s, and Long-toed Stints, Long-billed Murrelet, Black-headed and Slaty-backed Gulls, Common Cuckoo, White Wagtail, Eyebrowed Thrush, Siberian Rubythroat, Oriental Greenfinch, Brambling and many more!

Our tour includes a 3-hour pelagic (depending on weather) offering close views of Whiskered, Crested and Least Auklets along with many more alcids and hopefully Short-tailed Albatross, Short-tailed Shearwater and other seabirds.

A former WWII military base has been converted for tourism by the Aleut Corporation, providing comfortable family-style accommodations. We will bring our food from Anchorage and enjoy home-cooked meals throughout our time on the island. Please be sure to communicate any dietary restrictions in advance!

June 2 -- Departures Our flight to Anchorage leaves at 2:50 PM and gets in at 6:40 PM. Many departures out of Anchorage leave late at night, so you may want to catch a connecting flight this evening.

Please read through Rocky Mountain Birding terms and conditions here.