Akutan Bird and Marine Mammal Surveys - March 2006

Here are some photographs of a March 2006 trip I took out to Akutan Island. Akutan Island is located along the Aleutian Island Chain in southwest Alaska. It is a land of extreme weather, the Bering Sea is to the north and the Gulf of Alaska (Pacific Ocean) to the south, with the long chain of islands between the two. Lynn Spencer and I were conducting sea bird and marine mammal surveys for work. Specifically we were looking for Stellers Eiders and Sea Otters, both listed on the Endangered Species Act. The surveys were done from a small skiff traveling between Akutan Island to Akun Island. The weather prevented us from doing surveys most days, as there was a steady wind and driving rain and snow most days. Nevertheless, we did get out in the boat and do the surveys when our lives weren't in danger of doing so. We saw a variety of birds, including eiders, auklets, scoters, murrelets, cormorants, and harlequins. It was an amazing trip; the Aleutians are an amazing place, truly one of the wildest and most spectacular places I have ever traveled. Here is a list of all the critters I saw during the surveys:

American pipet	Common goldeneye	Long-tailed duck	Steller's eider
Ancient murrelet	Common merganser	Mallard	Western grebe
Auklet sp.	Common raven	Marbled murrelet	White-winged scoter
Bald eagle	Double-crested cormorant	Pelagic cormorant	Sea otter
Barrow's goldeneye	Emperor goose	Pigeon guillemot	Sea lion
Black oystercatcher	Glaucous-winged gull	Red-breasted merganser	Harbor seal
Black scoter	Gray-crowned rosy finch	Red-necked grebe	Cow (feral, on Akun)
Brant	Green-winged teal	Rock ptarmigan	Arctic fox
Bufflehead	Harlequin duck	Rock sandpiper
Common loon	Kittlitz's murrelet	Sooty fox sparrow

This is a view from the plane ride from Anchorage to Dutch Harbor. Impressive looking volcanoes.	A flock of Emperor Geese hanging out in a bay on Unalaska Island.
An overhead view of Dutch Harbor.	A nice sunset from Summer's Bay Road, Dutch Harbor.
Akutan Volcano from the Grumman Goose plane, along the 25 minute flight from Dutch Harbor to Akutan.	Akutan Volcano is active, note the plumes of steam being emitted from this small cone in the caldera.
A stunning view of Unalaska Island from the goose.	A remote valley on Akutan Island seen from the goose.
Here's the village of Akutan, Trident Seafoods is seen in the foreground.	Excitement everywhere, the goose has landed, bringing with it mail, food, and Lynn and I.
Here is the skiff that we take across Akun Pass, from Akutan to Akun Island.	This is a view from Akun Island to the west toward Akutan Island.
Here I am trying to identify birds in a small lake on Akun Island.	A large flock of Emperor Geese.
This is a view of the village of Akutan from the east.	A nice sandy beach along Akutan Harbor near Akutan Point.
This fox seemed indifferent to out presence and lazily sat there as we got about 10 feet away.	Lynn walking a pebble strewn beach on the Bering Sea side of Akutan Island.
Here is a nice size comparison of Lynn being over-towered by immense cliffs made of columnar basalt	Here I am hanging out on the beach next to a basalt cliff.
Out on Akutan Point, I'm soaking it all in.	On top of the world! Akutan Point.
This is a view looking to the west from high atop Akutan Point.	Attack of the killer kelp!