I just spent two weeks on my first birding trip to Alaska. It was a fanastic trip, with over 145 species, I am still working out how many were lifers (about 30) or new subspecies (another 30+) and took lots of photographs that will take me a few weeks to get through. I look forward to posting plenty of highlights from the trip over the next few days/weeks.
My wife and I arrived in Nome on June 5th, met with our guide, and after checking in at our hotel did a brief trip down along a portion of the Council Road to Safety Sound. Along the way, we came across this Arctic Tern sitting on the ground just 5 feet off the road. It turned out to be sitting on its "nest" (really it was just a small depression in the sand) containing two spotted, brown eggs. The bird and her mate were fearless defenders of the nest, so we never got closer than 15 feet from their nest when we tried to get out of the car. As long as we stayed in the car, the bird would quickly settle down and return to the nest, allowing me to get these photos out the car window. We noted the location of the nest and planned to visit it throughout our 5-day stay in Nome. For the first 3 days, we found the bird sitting on the nest as we slowly passed by its
location; however on day 4, the bird was missing. As we drove closer, we noticed that the eggs were also gone! We never did find out what happened; although I suspect it was a preditor that had found the nest, I still hope that the eggs hatched and then the 2 chicks were led away from the road and down closer to the water line.
