(This article first appeared on focusingonwildlife.com)
It has been said that our generation lives at the optimal time of the world’s history for birding and wildlife watching. Although vast parts of our natural heritage have been destroyed over the recent few centuries (sadly most rapidly during the last few decades), enough still exists that almost all species may still be encountered. In the past, while there was more habitat and wildlife, many parts of the world were inaccessible and information about finding species was not available. At present we have the means to travel almost everywhere on our planet AND most wildlife still survives. However, unless drastic changes are made it seems inevitable that at least one of these conditions will no longer exist.
It has been said that our generation lives at the optimal time of the world’s history for birding and wildlife watching. Although vast parts of our natural heritage have been destroyed over the recent few centuries (sadly most rapidly during the last few decades), enough still exists that almost all species may still be encountered. In the past, while there was more habitat and wildlife, many parts of the world were inaccessible and information about finding species was not available. At present we have the means to travel almost everywhere on our planet AND most wildlife still survives. However, unless drastic changes are made it seems inevitable that at least one of these conditions will no longer exist.
Sunset over
the rugged wilderness of the Russian Far East.
Image by Felicity Riley
I recently had the pleasure of exploring Russia’s Far East. This is one of the remotest and least visited parts of our planet, and a new frontier for wildlife watchers. This region’s human population is minimal and vast areas of wilderness still exist, sadly a great rarity on our overpopulated planet! Although the area’s wildlife was severely impacted by the fur trade, whaling and other human activities during the late 18th century soon after it was “discovered” by westerners and several species became extinct (e.g. the giant Steller’s Sea Cow and Steller’s Cormorant) or nearly so (Sea Otter, Grey Whale), the populations of those that survived the initial onslaught have somewhat recovered. In the instance of Sea Otters, it is estimated that they are back up to their maximum carrying capacity in certain parts of the Russian Far East.
Red-faced
Cormorant is restricted to remote areas of the North
Pacific Ocean. Image by Adam Riley
Our voyage aboard Heritage Expedition’s “Spirit of Enderby” departed
from the only city in the region, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy on the
Kamchatka Peninsula. As we sailed out of Avacha Bay, one of the world’s
largest natural harbours, we got a taste of what the next two weeks
would bring – thousands of birds were on the move, including our first
of many beautiful Red-faced Cormorants and no less than 8 species of
alcids. Alcids are a Northern Hemisphere family of marine birds, and I
am sure most people are familiar with one of their members, the comical
puffins. For those who haven’t had more exposure to these unique birds,
there are 23 surviving species (the most recently extinct was the
largest and only flightless representative, the Great Auk) and they go
by names such as Murres, Murrelets, Guillemots, Auklets, Razorbill and
Dovekie. We saw no less than 12 species of these unusual and attractive
birds during our time in the Russian Far East.
Tufted
Puffin in flight. Image by Adam Riley
The
handsome Laysan Albatross. Image by Adam Riley
The first day’s cruising the calm waters of the Bering Sea had us
entertained by vast numbers of seabirds, with highlights including
Laysan Albatross and dainty Fork-tailed Storm Petrels. These were
complemented by Sperm, Fin, Minke and Humpback Whales and playful Dall’s
Porpoises. Nikol’skoye village on Bering Island was our first port of
call. Bering Island is one of the two main islands that make up the
Commander Islands, and this village is one of the world’s remotest human
habitation. Nikol’skoye boasts a fascinating museum, an eccentric
artist, brightly painted buildings and some great birding. Highlights of
the last-mentioned include Mongolian (or Lesser Sand) Plovers in full
breeding plumage; Dunlins in frantic display, as the males accosted
females with their unusual single-lifted wing display; the localized
Rock Sandpiper; singing Lapland Longspurs; Snow Buntings and furtive
Pechora Pipits.
Displaying
Dunlin at Nikol’skoye on Bering
Island. Image by Adam
Riley
The
unusually plumaged Rock Sandpiper. Image by Adam Riley
Zodiac rides and landings in the wilder areas of Bering Island (pretty much everywhere away from the village is wild here) and nearby Medney Island had us marveling at towering cliffs and isolated stacks that hosted thousands of seabirds in mixed colonies. Localized Red-legged Kittiwakes were common in amongst their even more abundant Black-legged cousins. Tufted and Horned Puffins nested side by side and spirals of Northern Fulmars filled the sky. Colonies of endangered Steller’s Sea Lions roared at us – a quite remarkable and fearsome sound – and we encountered haul-outs of Harbour and Largha Seals, as well as our first Sea Otters.
A nesting
pair of Red-legged Kittiwakes – another species restricted to remote areas of
the North Atlantic. Image by Adam Riley
A pair of
Horned Puffin. Image by Adam Riley
After steaming back to the Kamchatka Peninsula, we again boarded Zodiacs and explored along the Zhapanova River. Here the world’s biggest eagle, the mighty Steller’s Sea Eagle, had already started to gather in numbers to feast on the salmon run and to nest. We encountered at least 20 of these ferocious looking eagles sitting in the shallows and even in vast stick nests in trees along the river banks. Birding this area was incredibly rewarding, and further highlights included a lovely pair of Falcated Duck, Smew, Long-toed Stint, Aleutian Tern, Rustic Bunting and Common Rosefinch amongst many others. A Muskrat swimming alongside the bank provided another interesting sighting, as did the smoking Karimsy Volcano.
The mighty Steller’s Sea Eagle in flight across the Zhapanova River.
Image by Adam Riley
Karimsy
Volcano photographed from the Zhapanova
River. Image by Adam
Riley
The rugged mountainous scenery as we sailed southwards along the Kamchatka Peninsula was nothing short of jawdropping! Landings and Zodiac rides in the Buhka Russkhaya area produced our first Brown Bear sightings, incredibly close experiences with a pod of a dozen Orca, the rare Long-billed Murrelet and a dazzling white raptor that after healthy debate and scrutiny of images turned out to be the little known pure white form of the albidus race of Northern Goshawk, not a Gyrfalcon as was many people’s initial expectation. Amazingly, we even had a Steller’s Sea Eagle land on our ship and observe us for an hour; not even the forest of bristling telephoto lenses or thousands of shutter clicks deterred this giant raptor!
Orca with
typical Kamchatka Peninsula background. Image by
Felicity Riley
The
Steller’s Sea Eagle that landed on our ship! Image by Adam Riley
South of the Kamchatka Peninsula lies the long line of the Kuril Island chain that separate the frigid Sea of Okhotsk from the warmer Pacific Ocean. Here upwellings of deep and nutrient-rich waters provide the sustenance for countless seabirds and marine mammals. The next week of our cruise had us zigzagging between these towering volcanic islands where regular landings or Zodiac rides allowed us to explore the wildlife of this almost uninhabited area. At Ptich’i Island we marveled at thousands of nesting seabirds and a mindboggling gathering of 500+ Sea Otters! At Brotana Bay tucked away inside the caldera that forms Simushir Island, we explored a secret Soviet submarine base that was seemingly abandoned with almost no warning in 1994. Troops stationed here left clothes, books and other personal items in their quarters, glasses and plates still on tables in the dining rooms and medical equipment in the hospital, an eerie experience indeed.
A curious
Sea Otter. Image by Adam Riley
A Red Fox
leaps from the second floor of a building at the abandoned Soviet submarine
base at Brotana Bay. Image by Adam Riley
An evening excursion into another caldera, that of Yankicha Island, was an experience of a lifetime as literally hundreds of thousands of Crested and Whiskered Auklets filled the sky as they came to roost. The local Arctic Foxes had certainly picked a good home and were busy hunting these innumerable birds as well as flocks of painted Harlequin Ducks. Nearby we were thrilled to find an endangered Short-tailed Albatross. A single bay on Iturup island produced no less than 9 Brown Bears!
An Arctic
Fox carefully watches a flock of Harlequin Ducks in Yankicha Caldera. Image by Adam Riley
Three of
the hundreds of thousands of Crested Auklets that came to roost in Yankicha
caldera. Image by Adam Riley
The tiny
and amazingly plumaged Whiskered Auklet in Yankicha caldera. Image by Adam Riley
A trip into the interior of Kunashir Island yielded temperate forests stretching off into the horizon and a relaxing swim in a thermal river for those who chose to indulge. As we moved southwards, Spring really seemed to erupt and the contrast between the bleak, snow covered mountains of the Commander Islands to the green forests, bursting with bloom and birdsong of the southern Kuril Islands was wonderful to observe. Passerines were far more prominent here, commonest of all was the ebullient and beautiful Siberian Rubythroat, but other highlights included the stunning Japanese Robin, Japanese Accentor, Pine Grosbeak, Red-flanked Bluetail, Brown-headed Thrush, Kamchatka Leaf, Japanese Bush, Lanceolated and Middendorff’s Grasshopper Warblers, Spotted Nutcracker, Siberian Nuthatch, Long-tailed Rosefinch and a surprise find of a pair of Asian Rosy-finches. Other avian delights were singing Eurasian and Oriental Cuckoos, the diminutive Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker and Eurasian Wryneck. As our adventure drew to a close, we headed westwards through the Sea of Okhotsk, past floating flocks of thousands upon thousands of moulting Short-tailed Shearwaters, until we arrived at Kalsakov Port on Sakhalin Island where our Russian Far East adventure came to an end.
A brilliant
songster, the Siberian Rubythroat was commonly encountered on all of the Kuril
Islands we visited. Image by Adam Riley
A singing
Japanese Robin on Kunashir Island. Image by Adam Riley
I feel truly honoured that I have had the privilege of being able to explore this little known and almost untouched wilderness, a trip I cannot more highly recommend. If you are interested in details of similar upcoming Russian Far East cruises or even exploration of wader breeding grounds (including the highly sought-after and critically endangered Spoon-billed Sandpiper) to the north of the area described above, please contact the Rockjumper Birding Tours office for more details: info@rockjumperbirding.com or www.rockjumperbirding.com
