If I Were Going...: Birding in Dutch Harbor: Land

Pacific Wren

The final chapter to our 2023 trip to Alaska was the part I was most excited about. Although after seeing those baby Bears in Silver Salmon Creek (SSCL), I could already call the trip a success.

Finally, after traveling all of Alaska's connected roads and going to all eight National Parks, I was going to tackle the final frontier: the Aleutians.

A "bucket list" destination

I had been looking at options to get there for a couple of years but was stymied by the lack of information. Now that I’ve been, I kind of get it. The Aleutians – that long chain of islands that fans southwest from the Alaskan mainland toward Russia – isn’t really much of a tourist destination. It’s rugged, sparely populated (if populated at all) and doesn’t have many services.

We went to Dutch Harbor, which is in the middle of the chain, so I am still not an expert. But I have been to PART of the Aleutians, thus fulfilling the goal.

Right in the middle

When planning the trip, I looked at flying or taking the ferry. Flights were a bit difficult to find because some of the airlines that claimed to offer service didn’t have any actual flights scheduled. Plus, it’s pretty pricey. And, I had heard that flights often didn’t make it in or out because of fog or, more often, high winds.

Flying into Dutch Harbor

I also looked into the Alaska Marine Highway System (AKA ferry).

The ferry takes three days from Homer; Chart: Resolute Travel

The ferry runs once a week and if you take that route, you can choose to: #1, stay on the ferry, watching the Aleutians pass by without really stopping; #2, take the ferry, stay a week and take the next ferry back; or #3, take the ferry one way and fly the other. If I ever go to the Aleutians again, I might choose #3.

Yeah, that!

I was a bit concerned that, while as cool as it might be to cruise along the chain, the ferry could be very rough.

Have you ever watched Deadliest Catch, which is filmed out of Dutch Harbor?

More on rough seas later.

I had even looked into luxury cruising along the Aleutians, but found only a couple of big ship cruises with long itineraries that started in places like Japan. After we went, UnCruise announced an Aleutian cruise starting in 2025!

I have traveled with Uncruise before and loved it.

After looking at transport options, I investigated how one could actually see the islands on the ground. Few have any services, so Dutch Harbor made sense. There is a hotel, the Grand Aleutian, which looked – and turned out to be – nice. There are some limited and confusing rental car options. And, there is precious little information on what to see. Dutch Harbor has only 40 miles of paved road and the rest seemed sketchy for the uninformed. If you took the stay-a-week option, what would you do?

Looking down onto town

Every time I looked, I came across birding tours, including one offered by High Lonesome BirdTours, a company my friend, Sue, had recommended. This seemed like the perfect solution. I am a birder, but I prefer to bird with a guide, especially when birding in difficult conditions, like on the ocean.

Scott isn’t a birder and I was unsure how much he would enjoy a dedicated birding trip. But, he was game. So we signed up.

I told Sue about it and she decided to join in

The four-day trip (inclusive of air travel) I selected was based in Dutch Harbor and included both birding on land and at sea. At $4,750 per person, it was not cheap. But, my research also showed me that a good chunk of that was the steep price of airfare, lodging and food one encounters in the Alaskan hinterlands.

It doesn't look like a luxury destination

And, seriously, how else could I go without any handwringing on how to plan, where to drive and how to maximize my time?

It was an excellent choice.

I already gave an overview of Dutch Harbor in my Recommendations for Travel to Alaska blog series, so I am not going to repeat everything about the area, but I will be a bit redundant.

Let's go!

Dutch Harbor is on Amaknak Island in a part of Alaska called Unalaska (add it up; there are 11 As and four Ks in that name!). The town is 1,200 miles from Anchorage and it takes more than three hours to fly there.

Dutch Harbor is settled primarily for maritime reasons. It is located at the far, far west of the U.S. near Russia and Japan and its ice-free bays are tucked into mountains, protecting ships from the treacherous Bering Sea. As sheltered as it is, winds off the ocean still occasionally toss shipments from ship decks. Interestingly, the Aleutians go so far west that Attu Island, at the very end, is in the eastern hemisphere.

Calm in the port

It has steep mountains and hardly any vegetation, so there is no farming. But, Dutch Harbor produces more than a billion dollars worth of pollock, cod, crab and other seafood each year. The ocean is also home to a number of marine mammals.

The area was originally home to indigenous Aleuts, who were badly treated when Russian fur traders came to the area to prey on the abundant Seals and Sea Otters that they killed for their warm, luxurious pelts

Their fur is warm and waterproof for obvious reasons

They enslaved much of the native population, infected others with diseases against which they had no immunity and massacred the rest. The remaining Aleuts ultimately converted to the Russian Orthodox Church.

The Russian Orthodox Church offered support and educated their children

Oh, and they over-hunted the marine life. By the time the U.S bought Alaska in 1867, Sea Otter populations were in decline. The business dried up after about 30 years with few Otters left. They have made a slow, but steady recovery.

We saw some fairly large groups of them while we were there

There are no indigenous land animals except Red Foxes, which give the islands in the central Aleutians their name, the Fox Islands.

Arctic Fox, Svalbard, Norway

In the 1700s and 1800s, Arctic Foxes were introduced on some Aleutian Islands and Fox farming was encouraged by the government to replace lost fur-trading revenue as Sea Otters declined.

Many of the islands where Foxes were introduced had large seabird colonies that were drastically affected by Arctic Fox predation.

Even after the Aleutians became a Wildlife Refuge in 1913, the government continued to encourage Fox farming.

By 1930, nearly every island was stocked with Foxes and the populations of ground nesting birds severely declined. So, how do you fix this?

Arctic Ground Squirrel, Denali NP

Introduce MORE potential pests!

Ground Squirrels and Voles were introduced to some islands as an additional food supply for Foxes!

Then, the government changed policy and began eradicating Foxes. A simultaneous collapse in fur prices led to diminished interest in Fox farming.

According to the Unalaska Visitors Bureau, indigenous Red Foxes may have a lesser impact on bird populations because, unlike the Arctic Fox, they don't like to swim and are not as nimble on rocky ledges where birds nest to avoid predators.

Dutch Harbor Red Fox; Photo: Scott Stevens

An NPS study found that Red Foxes on Unalaska Island eat primarily mammals over birds (82 percent vs.18 percent). So, maybe, for once, the government policy actually helped birds! I am not sure what they ate before rodents came to the Island.

On some islands, Foxes died out naturally or were over-trapped. On Unalaska, the Arctic Fox was out-competed by the Red and disappeared. So, now, the only land mammal you are likely to see is a Red Fox.

Dutch Harbor, 1904

Fur trading was replaced by the things that really sparked interest in Alaska: gold!

In 1897, prospectors arrived looking for gold but they didn’t find much. Instead, they found ports they could use for refueling steamers carrying (still optimistic) prospectors in and some gold out.

It was during World War II that Dutch Harbor became “important” to the U.S. Located far into the Pacific, it is close to Russia and Japan. The U.S. established a Navy and Army base and a refugee center for inhabitants from the rest of the island chain in 1941. The following year, the Japanese bombed Dutch Harbor, targeting the radio station and petroleum storage tanks. It was the first aerial attack on the continental U.S. during the war.

Remnants of WWII

By mid-1942, a small submarine base was in place and more than 20,000 troops were stationed in Dutch Harbor. In 1947, the Navy base was decommissioned and, by the early 50s, the Army was gone. With the growth of the king crab fishery in the 1970s, many old military buildings were used as warehouses, bunkhouses and family homes. In the late 1980s, the U.S. government finally funded a cleanup of the derelict fort and the area was turned over for commercial use.

An iconic Russian church

From a tourism point of view, there is probably less than a day's worth of historic sightseeing and no large game to view, photograph or hunt (we don't hunt, but hunting does play into typical Alaska tourism).

Front and center is the Holy Ascension of Our Lord Russian Orthodox Cathedral, a reminder of the area's previous "owners" and still part of the community today. Unfortunately, we couldn't go in.

The small, but nice Museum of the Aleutians covers local archaeology, culture, history, art and natural sciences.

Our Visit

We flew in on RAVN Air and didn’t see much on the way because of heavy cloud cover. Yikes! Were we going to have more rain, fog and wind? Honestly, that was what I was expecting because Dutch Harbor is notorious for its weather.

We did have some rain and overcast and wind (I got knocked over once), but the weather was actually better than I expected.

We even had some sun!

Fortunately, the clouds opened up as we landed so that we could see the bays that form Dutch Harbor and the relatively short runway between the ocean and a mountain.

Coming in for a landing

I can’t say town is pretty because it has that typical remote-Alaska-industrial look with questionable zoning, rusting and abandoned equipment, gravel roads, no landscaping and lots of fishing gear strewn about.

Fishing and crabbing gear

Trees don’t grow there naturally, but the town planted Sitka spruce and there is an interesting array of tundra plants and wildflowers.

Unnatural and natural vegetation

The Russian Orthodox Church is picturesque and there are several parks with some of the nicest playground equipment I have ever seen.

The pretty parts of town

I didn’t see any children, but I think lots of people leave in the summer when crabbing is not active, perhaps working elsewhere in the sport fishing business. Yep, not only do they crab on rough seas, but they do it in the winter. In Alaska.

We stayed at the Grand Aleutian, the nicest (and maybe only) hotel in town. It was fine except for somewhat pricey and finicky WiFi. In their defense, the major telecommunications cable serving the area had been cut or damaged, so there was very little available service anywhere.

Home for a few days

The hotel food was good, if a little fancy for the mood of the town. We also ate a few meals at nearby Amelia’s (with an odd sandwich shop/Asian menu), but I couldn’t really recommend it. Don’t get the cheesesteak. I still am not sure what it was that I got!

Our birding trip had two components: land and sea. There were actually two separate tours with different guides going on simultaneously. We got together for most meals, but split up for birding. When we did land birding, they did sea and vice versa.

Stephan flushing a Rock Ptarmigan

Our guide was Stephan Lorenz, with whom Sue had birded before.

Born in Germany, he is based in Houston, but he and his wife guide so often that they don’t even have a real home address.

Stephan has a degree focusing on grassland birds and has worked on ornithological research projects in Australia, Jamaica, Costa Rica and Alaska. He also has taught college-level biology and served as a biologist educator for the National Audubon Society. This type of education-rich experience is common among birding guides. He was excellent.

Dutch Harbor provided some great birding, including some lifers and birds that can be found only there. But, volume of species was nowhere near what I had experienced in tropical locations including Costa Rica and Ecuador. I should not do a cost-per-bird calculation!

I am going to talk about what we saw on land first (this incorporates both a full day dedicated to town and the mountains, coast and bay surrounding town) and some additional birding before our flight out on the last day.

Town (there is actually a bird in this photo; can you find it?)

Then, in my next post, I will talk about our adventures out on the ocean.

Coming later

The first thing you notice in Dutch Harbor is Bald Eagles. They are everywhere. I think at one time, I could see about a dozen or more at once.

Heck, there were seven in that small tree on the right

We didn’t concentrate on them, we just saw them everywhere we went.

Our land birding took place in three places ...

We birded in town, along the coast and up in the tundra-covered hills.

Town Birding

In town, we stopped by the Russian Orthodox Church to see if there would be an Eagle sitting on the cross on top of the onion dome.

There was (apparently, there always is)

Why would you cut this?

There were also gorgeous wildflowers in the churchyard. Scott hadn't gone on the morning trip to the church, but I knew we'd be going back and that he could then do a ground-up shot with flowers in front.

When we got there on the last day, they had just finished mowing the lawn! No flowers! No special photo!

In the same area, we saw some of Dutch Harbor’s typical birds:

Song Sparrows and Fox Sparrows

Plus, there were two birds that were not particularly special for me, but were apparently a little rare for Dutch Harbor …

A Golden-crowned Sparrow and a Yellow Warbler

As we explored around town, we saw some other birds, including ...

Some Savannah Sparrows and a Common Redpoll

I got a good view of a Belted Kingfisher, but it was just too far away to get a decent photo and since I have seen so many, I didn’t really try. That's what is in that picture of town above.

We took a walk down a rather steep road that was known as a good birding spot.

In addition to Bald Eagle flying overhead …

... we saw more Song, Savannah and Fox Sparrows ...

... a pair of Semipalmated Plovers protecting their chick ...

... and a very vocal (and adorable) Pacific Wren

Birding in the Hills

A lot of our searching (and a little bit of our finding) took place up on the tundra-covered mountains surrounding town.

In addition to the wildflower-covered hills …

... and views of distant bays …

... we saw American Pipits …

... Common Ravens ...

... Least Sandpipers doing courtship dances …

... and Snow Buntings

We searched and searched for Rock Sandpipers, but never found any. The other birding group did, but our efforts were for naught.

All we saw were Least Sandpipers, but they were entertaining

A major target for our in-the-hills birding was the Rock Ptarmigan. We did see one that surprised us by flying right in front of our van and then heading off to a distant rise. Stephan walked out to the other side of it (he was amazingly quick and steady on the rugged, lumpy tundra that I found difficult to walk across). He attempted to flush it in our direction and it did fly our way before veering off the wrong way. I got some bad photos; Stephan got some great ones.

Left, Stephan's photo; Right: Stephan taking the photo

Part of me wishes I had walked out there with him, but I doubt that I could have done it. My balance isn’t that good and my plantar fasciitis was acting up for the entire trip. At least I saw it.

It was tough walking in the tundra

My Target Birds

I live in Colorado. People come to Colorado to see Rosy Finches. I had never seen one. But, when researching Dutch Harbor birds on eBird, it said that 70 percent of visitors see a Rosy Finch. So, that was the top of my land birds list. I also wanted to see a Lapland Longspur. I saw a couple of each.

After seeing Gray-crowned Rosy Finches flitting quickly past both in town and in the hills outside town ...

Lots of cool rooftop perches

... we finally found one in some wildflowers. I slowly approached and got some nice photos ...

My Gray-crowned Rosy Finch!

Later we saw a whole bunch on a feeder …

We didn’t take too many pictures; it was a private yard!

We also saw Lapland Longspurs flying rapidly past us multiple times. I was able to get a so-so photo of one brightly colored male up in the hills.

If only he had sat still just a little longer!

A juvenile in the churchyard was far more cooperative

Coastal Birding

Some of our birding took place along the coast.

The scenery was absolutely spectacular

We saw many other birds as we drove and walked along the coast both in and outside of town.

We saw Black Oystercatchers ...

... Double-crested and Pelagic Cormorants …

... Marbled Murrelets and a Common Loon

Apparently Loons are not super common in Dutch Harbor.

We saw a bunch of birds that were too far away to even think about shooting: Greater Scaups, Green-winged Teals, Common Murres, Pigeon Guillemots, a Red-breasted Merganser, Kittlitz’s Murrelets and Short-billed and Glaucous-winged Gulls.

As we drove down the road by the shore, we encountered one rather scruffy-looking Red Fox.