Rock Ptarmigan
DISPATCH FROM THE FIELD: For the past week or so I have been wandering with the birds in Alaska! This is my first-ever trip to The Last Frontier, and it has been everything I had hoped it would be. I arrived in Anchorage late in the evening and had most of the following day to explore on my own before my tour group arrived. I visited several area birding hotspots and thoroughly enjoyed my time around Alaska’s largest city. Our group of six arrived later in the day, and after dinner we readied ourselves for an early morning flight to Nome.
There are no roads leading to Nome, which sits on the shore of the Bering Sea, so the only practical way to reach the isolated city is via a 90-minute flight from Anchorage – unless you opt to travel the 938 miles by sled as the mushers do each year during the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, which runs from Anchorage to Nome. We took the flight. This time of year, Nome experiences approximately 21 hours of sunlight each day, with sunset about 1:30 a.m. and sunrise about 4:30 a.m. Truly the Land of the Midnight Sun!