Birding Alaska’s Kodiak Island—A Wilderness Adventure

By Gail Jackson

Why go to Kodiak Island when other Alaska birding spots are better known? If you want to visit a real wilderness area where the birding is wonderful and the wildlife is truly wild, this is your place. While birding on the mainland of Alaska may bring you in touch with tourists and nature tours, Kodiak Island brings you in touch only with Nature herself, in all her beauty and wildness. It is a land of opposites. It is the second largest island in the United States, but one of the least developed. Kodiak is just 30 miles from the mainland of Alaska, but worlds away in time. The waters are crystal blue, while the skies are gray. The beaches are green with lush trees and grass, while the mountaintops are white with snow. The birds sing at sunset, and the eagles sing at daybreak.

The Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge and Native lands occupy two thirds of the island. The road system is about 60 miles long. Kodiak, the largest town, has 12,000 residents, and supports the largest Coast Guard port in the world. In addition, Kodiak is home to 3,000 Kodiak brown bears, and half of the bald eagles in Alaska. We saw seven bears in one day at three different locations. It also is home to Dall porpoise, harbor seals, black-tailed deer, Steller’s sea lions, land and sea otters, and humpback and fin whales. Birds that we can’t usually find in the lower 48 are everywhere, including puffins, eiders, kittiwakes, and alcids.

Before we got to Kodiak in early June 2003, we had birded other areas of Alaska including Anchorage, Seward and Nome. We saw many wonderful birds, but we wanted to see what Kodiak had to offer. We discovered that we could find almost all of the pelagic, waterfowl, and seabirds of Alaska on this one Island. Our plan was to visit Quartz Creek Lodge on Uganik Bay for the seabirds, and then bird the parks and road system around the town of Kodiak for land birds.

Where is the best place to see all that Kodiak had to offer? For us, the best window into this wilderness area was Uganik Bay on the north side of the Island. Uganik Bay is situated between mainland Alaska and Kodiak Island and provides a tremendous flow of fresh water from the snow-melts. This fresh water mixes with warmer waters of the salty bay where tidal currents then carry these to the sea. Warmer weather and water temperature create a perfect environment for fish, which is the fast food for the crowds of birds that nest throughout Uganik Bay. As a result, most of the birds vacationing in Alaska visit this area. Many of the pelagics, sea birds, and water fowl that we traveled all over Alaska to see can be found at this feeding and breeding hotspot.

We arrived in Kodiak on a rainy evening and took a cab to the Russian Heritage Motel in downtown Kodiak. Around the motel we saw common ravens and black-billed mag-pies. The next morning we were picked up at the motel by the Highline Air representative and taken to the seaport where we prepared for our first seaplane flight to Uganik Bay. There was some doubt about leaving as the day was foggy and the ceiling was low. However, we learned that these are normal challenges to Kodiak's air taxis!

Our 30-minute flight from the town of Kodiak took us over snow-covered mountains, through lush canyons, and to the crystal water of the Uganik Bay on the northwestern side of the island. The Pingree family welcomed us to their five star log home and guest cabins at Quartz Creek Lodge. It was a cozy lodge situated in the middle of nowhere, no TV, no road, no noise, no tourists. Peace and quiet and warm hospitality are its specialties. We thrived there, as do the breeding birds.

If Kodiak is a paradise for birds, then Quartz Creek is the paradise for birders. Built on the side of a mountain and overlooking the nutrient rich water of Uganik Bay, the Lodge and its family provided us with four days of birding, bearing, and unbelievable beauty. Whether floating on the water or clinging to the sparse islands and barren cliffs in the Shelikof Straits, gulls, terns and sea birds were a con-st ant source of entertainment.

David, our host and lodge owner, is a man of many talents. He is not only an expert spotter, enthusiastic birder, and competent wildlife guide, but also an amazing boat captain, historian and fisherman. He took us to the rough waters of the Shelikof Straits and Noisy Island where thousands of birds nest. We also went to the calm lagoons of Uganik Bay for waterfowl and sea birds. Daily boat trips and hikes along the streams and rivers were exciting. These streams flow into Uganik Bay and are decorated with meadows, flowers, birch trees and wildlife. Bear, birds and deer crossed our paths often.

On the way home one day, we stopped and pulled up a basket of king crab from the clear waters and feasted for several days on these delicacies. All the time we were sustained by David’s wife, Pam’s, delicious meals. Treats such as home-made bread and pastries, fresh caught and home smoked salmon; succulent king crab and delicious home cooking were a daily event. Many a day’s adventure was fueled with strong coffer and a dose of Alaska vitamins (a.k.a. chocolate chip cookies laced with M&M’s). With no TV or radio we savored the peacefulness of the evenings that still had full sun. We spent that time walking the beach, quietly reading on our mountainside cabin deck, or enjoying card games with their delightful children. As we howled with laughter we could still hear the eagles singing from their roost outside the lodge.

While at Quartz Creek Lodge (quartzcreek@alaska.com) and Kodiak we saw 47 species that included many of Alaska’s rare specialties. Among the species were the red-breasted mergansers, common eiders, harlequin ducks, Barrow’s goldeneyes, and American dippers. On the cliffs were thousands of mews and glaucous-winged gulls, black-legged kittiwakes, double-crested and red-faced cormorants, tufted and horned puffins, pigeon guillemots, commons murres, marbled murrelets and surfbirds. On the trails around the Lodge we saw golden-crowned, fox and Savannah sparrows, hermit thrushes, winter wrens, black-billed magpies, belted kingfishers, common ravens, violet, green, and bank swallows, and more eagles. One day, far in the forest, we heard the sound of a woodpecker at play. Could he have been our elusive target bird, the three-toed woodpecker?

On the final day, we were picked up by the seaplane that flew us back through the beautiful scenery to the town of Kodiak. The next day we went birding on the Kodiak road system. At last, we found one of the target birds of the entire trip–the Aleutian tern. A large flock was nesting in a cow pasture adjacent to Women’s Bay (see the maps in George West’s book, A Birder’s Guide to Alaska). What a sight to see in the middle of nowhere! After a celebratory drink, we went to Fort Abercrombie Park, a magnificent tall spruce forest located high above the cliffs of the Pacific Ocean. This gorgeous park was the sight of a key WWII military base. Its moss covered trees and barricades are now the home to many birds and wildlife. In the park we located many new life species and particularly the red cross-bills. But still there was no three-toed woodpecker. Wet and tired after four hours of birding in the rain we dragged ourselves to the parking lot. Our last day, and still one target bird missing. As we approached the car we heard a momentary “chip” right next to us. There he was–just 10 feet away, 15 feet up the tree trunk and in perfect view. As he pecked away at the tree and put on his show for us, I whipped out the video camera with glee. He must have known that his show was the Oscar winning performance of our trip for he continued to show off for another 10 minutes.

Kodiak Island is also great for winter and early spring birding. Rich MacIntosh, Audubon member, writing in West’s book indicates that “Kodiak is best known for its winter birding (Lethaby, 1997). When the mainland is gripped by ice and snow, the island’s maritime climate keeps many habitats and waters open and thus available to birds. The Kodiak CBC typically leads the state in number of species seen. The ducks and other water birds number well over a million birds in winter and early spring. In addition to large numbers of wintering loons, grebes, cormorants, sea ducks, and alcids, Emperor Goose and Steller’s Eider are near the eastern edge of their normal winter range. Few wintering birds leave before mid-April, making March and early April a good time to visit.” These words made us think of return-in in the spring.

As we flew from Kodiak back to the hustle and bustle of the lower 48 we could not help but reflect upon our exciting wilderness adventure. With its friendly people, wonderful birds, wildlife and scenery, Alaska is truly a birds and birders paradise. At Kodiak Island, and particularly Quartz Creek Lodge, we felt as though we had met paradise in person.