THE RETURN TO ATTU! 2006 with High Lonesome Bird Tours
photo © D. MacKay
High Lonesome BirdTours is pleased to announce that we are going to bird Attu in 2006! Attu is well known to most birders as the top destination for finding Asian vagrants and accidentals in North America. Since 2000, when Attours offered their last tour, there have been no organized birding tours to Attu. ATTU: Birding on the Edge, by Charles Osgood, is an excellent guide to the island, it’s birds, and previous birding trips there. Phil Davis, co-leader for our trip, has a nice trip report for the last Attours trip on Attu in Fall 2000.
As many as 19 first North American records, and as many as 80 Asian species have been recorded on this farthest Western island in North America. Some of the birds recorded in the spring over the past ten years or so: Lesser White-fronted Goose, Whooper Swan, Falcated Duck, Spot-billed Duck, Garganey, Smew, Steller’s Sea Eagle, Eurasian Kestrel, Eurasian Hobby, Spotted Redshank, Green Sandpiper, Terek Sandpiper, Spoonbill Sandpiper, Pin-tailed Snipe, Oriental Cuckoo, Fork-tailed Swift, Middendorf’s Grasshopper Warbler, Lanceolated Warbler, Dusky Warbler, Narcissus Flycatcher, Red-breasted Flycatcher, Siberian Flycatcher, Rufous-tailed Robin, Gray Wagtail, Pechora Pipit, Yellow-throated Bunting, Yellow-breasted Bunting, Common Rosefinch, Eurasian Bullfinch, & Hawfinch.
photo © Forrest Davis
Our trip begins in Adak, where we’ll overnight. We will have several Attu veterans along. Our expedition sails from Adak aboard the 67-foot ocean-going, first class boat, M.V. Sikumi. We sail for approximately two days to Attu, pelagic birding along the way, always on the lookout for expected pelagic species, but especially Mottled Petrel and Short-tailed Albatross.
We arrive at Massacre Bay, Attu Island and we’ll spend our nights on the ship accessing the island by Zodiaks during the day for birding.We’re bringing bicycles to get around to all of the Attu birding areas.
Traveling to Attu by boat affords us some opportunities that have never been available to previous Attu tours. We expect to circumnavigate Attu to see the entire island, especially Cape Wrangell, the western most point of land in the United States. We may also explore and bird some of some the previously unbirded areas of Attu, such as Sarna Bay, Chichagof Harbor, Holtz Bay, Steller Cove, Abraham Bay, and Temnac Bay. Depending on time and weather conditions, we may make stops at other places in the western Aleutians.
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