I really missed fall migration while living in Alaska. Yes Alaska has fall migration, but it was all too brief. In Minnesota migration lasts months with shorebirds popping up as early as late July. But really it starts in August and depending on when lakes and rivers freeze it can least into early December.

While birding at Westwood Hills this week with my friend Kara, we watched dozens of common nighthawks fly over at about 5 pm, feeding and beginning the journey south. Yesterday, while working, I noticed a warbler flitting in the tree and got my binoculars on it. It was a young, hatched this summer Tennessee Warbler.

The view from the Rock Creek Trail inside Denali National Park and Preserve. I could walk out my front door and hike this regularly.

I knew I was in trouble in Alaska my first fall. The park starts to shut down mid September and if you live there, you practically have it to yourself. I decided I was going to hike a trail out my front door called the Rock Trail daily until the weather stopped me. I have seen many autumns, but none as spectacular as in Central Alaska. And after a few days of this plan, I realized I was bored on the hike and I couldn’t figure out why. What was wrong with me that I thought that view above was boring? And then I realized what was happening, I wasn’t hearing anything. No birds, no crickets, no katydids, nothing. Dead silence , and then I realized all the birds had left. There were a few cranes and swans flying over still. But the waves of warblers, waterfowl, sparrows, that I’d come to expect over many months in Minnesota they had all left already. Of course, I knew from reading books and articles that breeding seasons were fast and furious in the Arctic. I was living in the Sub Arctic…less than 330 miles south of the Arctic Circle. I realized that it was going to be months of silence…It was late September, I wouldn’t really hear birds again until late April…over six months away.

That’s not to say there were no birds. Boreal chickadees, magpies, and Canada jays were around. The first winter didn’t have much of a tree crop so I didn’t really see any crossbills or redpolls. I wasn’t allowed to have a bird feeder where I lived because park rules and grizzly bears so I could easily go days without seeing a bird.

On Saturdays in winter, I’d drive the sixteen miles to Healy to visit the grocery/hardware store/gun store/convenience store/liquor store known as Three Bears to watch the parking lot ravens as a form of desperation birding. Often, I’d buy a bag of walnuts to toss out to them.

My first Christmas Bird Count only had three species. The second one had more thanks to it being an irruptive year for finches and grosbeaks. Side note: the upside to a CBC in Alaska is that there is so little daylight, you count starts around 10 am and only lasts about four hours.

So looking at the calendar and realizing fall migration is on, I’m going to take it all in and enjoy it for as long as possible. Warblers are already moving through in Minnesota, and it won’t be long until we see even more nighthawks overhead, and wood thrushes (like on above) will be passing through our yards. We still three more months ahead at least and I intend to savor it.