Birding Locations in Nome

The bridge marks a mix­ing zone where fresh riv­er water meets tidal salt water and turns brack­ish. This cre­ates a blend of water types and habi­tats and attracts many dif­fer­ent birds to areas of open water or the mud-bar edges of islands. Look for geese, cranes, shore­birds, and gulls in good num­bers, even unusu­al species like Arc­tic loon, red knot, black-tailed god­wit, red-necked stint, ivory gull, and white wag­tail. Also spot spawn­ing salmon.   ...more

Bor­der­ing the ceme­tery hill to the north, at the inter­sec­tion of Cen­ter Creek Road and the west exten­sion of the Nome ByPass Road, a large man-made pond from plac­er min­ing oper­a­tions that is slow­ly becom­ing veg­e­tat­ed is a good place to find a few species of nest­ing water­birds. Red-necked grebe, glau­cous gull, greater scaup, north­ern shov­el­er, and green-winged teal may be found near the cen­ter and edges of the pond. 

These stops on the east edge of Nome (described in more detail in the Coun­cil Road sec­tion) offer fresh­wa­ter ponds adja­cent to the marine water coast­line that attract a wide vari­ety of spring migrant water­birds and shore­birds as the ice is melt­ing in late May and ear­ly June. The area is worth check­ing reg­u­lar­ly because arriv­ing species often make a short stop before mov­ing inland. By mid-sum­mer, ear­ly depart­ing shore­birds gath­er to feed and  ...more

Anvil Rock perch­es above Nome, an ear­ly land­mark for gold min­ers and an easy hike for those who want to take in spec­tac­u­lar views of Nome, the Bering Sea, and the Kiglu­aik Moun­tains. Its resem­blance to a blacksmith’s anvil gen­er­at­ed names for many near­by land­scape fea­tures, includ­ing Anvil Moun­tain and Anvil Creek. The hike also promis­es a good chance to see musk oxen, birds, and maybe even rein­deer or red fox.  ...more

Return­ing south of the road to the air­port (Sep­pala Avenue) and west of the Nome port, the beach front area offers a good view of the marine waters of Nor­ton Sound and the barge dock­ing area built of quar­ried rock from Cape Nome. Depend­ing on the sea­son, the open ocean view will be punc­tu­at­ed with pass­ing flocks of eiders, brant, scot­ers, mur­res, auk­lets, cor­morants, and oth­er seabirds.

Look for loons, mer­gansers, gulls, terns, and kit­ti­wakes where the Snake Riv­er flows into the Nome har­bor area, either close to the beach or in the salt and fresh water mix­ing zone. When ice cov­ers the har­bor dur­ing the spring thaw, the plume of riv­er melt attracts a mix­ture of arriv­ing species seek­ing open water near the coast. Many birds stay in the area through­out the sum­mer, mak­ing this an impor­tant local hot spot for birdlife.

Skirt the har­bor and walk toward the west side of the port area along Sep­pala Avenue, and you’ll cross the cul­vert where Dry Creek flows into the har­bor. Upstream is a wide area of low­land veg­e­ta­tion. This area is sub­ject to salt water intru­sion dur­ing wind dri­ven high tides, affect­ing the wet­land habi­tat as it reach­es the side slopes of tun­dra and wil­low shrubs. Pud­dle ducks for­age and nest here. Look for shore­birds and oth­er species.

The west flank of Dry Creek leads to the Nome Ceme­tery on a small round­ed hill. The nar­row ceme­tery roads cross tun­dra and wil­low shrub habi­tats that dom­i­nate the area due to the slight rise in ele­va­tion. While being respect­ful of the grave mark­ers, search for north­ern shrike, bohemi­an waxwing, or black-capped chick­adee and enjoy the com­mon tun­dra bird species as well. Don’t be sur­prised if an east­ern yel­low wag­tail fly­ing over­head escorts you  ...more

Near the cen­ter of town along the beach­line, a large satel­lite com­mu­ni­ca­tion dish reg­u­lar­ly attracts nest­ing com­mon raven. In ear­ly March they start build­ing and refur­bish­ing their nest on the sup­port­ing cross-arms. By May the par­ent birds are stand­ing guard or deliv­er­ing food to ever-hun­gry nestlings. The young usu­al­ly leave the nest in late June or July and become a rau­cous trav­el­ing fam­i­ly with an ever-expand­ing range.

In win­ter between Octo­ber and mid-April, buntings clus­ter close to bird feed­ers in the cen­ter of town along Sec­ond Ave. A mix of McKay’s and snow buntings will perch on util­i­ty wires in con­gre­ga­tions of up to 100 birds, close enough for view­ers to see the sub­tle dif­fer­ences in these small snow­birds. Chick­adees, red­polls, and some­times a dark- eyed jun­co also come to the cen­ter of town, most often when fall is eclips­ing into win­ter and again in  ...more

Spring pro­vides some of the best oppor­tu­ni­ties to see semi-domes­tic rein­deer along this sec­tion of road. In sum­mer the dri­ve pro­vides good bird watch­ing for water­fowl, gulls, terns, and tun­dra species.

The land­fill draws many scav­engers. Com­mon raven is abun­dant year round. Glau­cous, glau­cous-winged, her­ring, mew, and — occa­sion­al­ly in sum­mer — slaty-backed gulls show up as well. Red fox is also a fre­quent vis­i­tor to the facility.

A grav­el pit pond may con­tain local nest­ing water­fowl, mew gull, Bonaparte’s gull, and semi­palmat­ed plover. The edges with the tallest wil­lows are a good place to find black­poll war­bler. A large beaver lodge on the banks has helped to fer­til­ize this once ster­ile grav­el pit, which now sup­ports juve­nile coho salmon, Dol­ly Var­den, and Arc­tic grayling.

The Nome Riv­er is a good place to see salmon. Pink and chum salmon spawn in August, coho are usu­al­ly present in August and Sep­tem­ber. Sock­eye salmon, Arc­tic grayling, and Dol­ly Var­den may be present. Look for Arc­tic terns fish­ing, har­le­quin duck and red-breast­ed mer­ganser rid­ing swift water, spot­ted sand­piper or wan­der­ing tat­tler at water­line, and north­ern shrike in the wil­lowed riv­er edges.

This high point in the road gives you an excel­lent view across the val­ley. Three ditch lines from ear­li­er min­ing activ­i­ties are appar­ent on the far side of the val­ley, espe­cial­ly where they cross the exposed rock face of Cape Horn. The ditch­es orig­i­nate near Hud­son Creek about 12 miles upstream. Today these deep, wide gash­es on the hill­side offer cov­er and eas­i­er move­ment for wildlife — espe­cial­ly moose and griz­zly bears.

There are two turn-offs to see rap­tors as you are head­ing down Kougarok rd. The first is a rap­tor nest, and the sec­ond give you a chance to see hawks

Sock­eye salmon migrate up Pil­grim Riv­er to Salmon Lake between late July and mid-August, and some con­tin­ue up the Grand Cen­tral Riv­er as far as the bridge. Griz­zlies are fair­ly com­mon in late sum­mer when spawned-out salmon and ripe berries are abun­dant. Bird­ers watch for har­le­quin duck, red-breast­ed mer­ganser, Amer­i­can dip­per, Bluethroat, yel­low war­bler, Wilson’s war­bler, and Arc­tic warbler.

Head­ing north, an access road on your right leads to a lake­side camp­ground that is main­tained by the Bureau of Land Man­age­ment. It has a sandy beach, pic­nic tables, bar­beque pits, a trash bin, and a restroom that is open dur­ing snow-free months. There is no run­ning water.

At the bot­tom of Gold­en Gate Pass where the road makes a sweep­ing curve to the right, a marked turn-off to the left leads to Pil­grim Hot Springs. The road tra­vers­es pri­vate prop­er­ty and trav­el­ers must obtain per­mis­sion to access before­hand. Although this 7‑mile side trip offers excel­lent vis­tas and access to a unique and his­toric set­ting, sec­tions of the road are very rough and, if flood­ed, may be impas­si­ble. The road sum­mit, 2.5 miles from the  ...more

The Pil­grim Riv­er cross­ing brings you close to groves of cot­ton­wood that are abun­dant in this sec­tion of the val­ley. Look for spawn­ing salmon, moose, and a vari­ety of birds.

Beyond the Pil­grim Riv­er Bridge, the road con­tin­ues uphill and offers sweep­ing views of a net­work of lakes and the mean­der­ing riv­er val­ley. North of the Pil­grim Riv­er drainage is a large hill topped with a series of gran­ite rock out­crop­pings known as Hen and Chick­ens because of its resem­blance to a small flock at cer­tain angles. A cross was placed at the sum­mit in mem­o­ry of a priest who died in a bliz­zard on his way to the orphanage.

The north­ern­most lake is called Swan Lake but sev­er­al lakes in this area may hold a wide vari­ety of birds. Tun­dra swan with cygnets, Cana­da goose, sand­hill crane, north­ern shov­el­er, black scot­er, long-tailed duck, greater and less­er scaup, and can­vas­back fre­quent the ponds. Red-necked grebe build float­ing nest plat­forms. The perime­ter of mead­ow habi­tat with threads of water drainages are good places to find Pacif­ic gold­en-plover. Look for signs  ...more

The Kuz­itrin Riv­er Bridge had its ori­gins in Fair­banks. It was orig­i­nal­ly named the Cush­man Street Bridge when it was built across the Chena Riv­er in the heart of down­town Fair­banks in 1917. In the 1950s the bridge was replaced with a con­crete span and the orig­i­nal met­al bridge was dis­as­sem­bled, shipped down the Chena, Tanana, and Yukon rivers and barged up the Bering Sea coast to Nome. It was hauled in sec­tions up the Nome-Tay­lor High­way and  ...more

Sev­er­al small lakes and ponds sprin­kle the land­scape on either side of the road. Look for a small hillock just beyond the first lake. This lone pin­go ris­es above the sur­round­ing flat tun­dra mead­ow and serves as a con­ve­nient look­out for hunters such as fox­es, wolves, hawks, owls, and jaegers. The soil on the tops of pin­gos is fer­til­ized by preda­tor feces and prey remains and gen­er­al­ly sup­ports lush and diverse vegetation. 

Though built to accom­mo­date the road from Bunker Hill to Tay­lor in the ear­ly 1900s, the bridge is as far as you can go by high­way vehi­cle. From here a rough, unmarked, and some­times impass­able ATV trail leads to Tay­lor where fam­i­ly-owned mines still oper­ate. Look for cana­da goose and white- front­ed goose. Bluethroat can be found on shrub­by riv­er banks. Arc­tic grayling are the most like­ly fish to be seen from the bridge.

Descend­ing into ter­rain increas­ing­ly dom­i­nat­ed by trees and wil­lows, you are more like­ly to see a moose than a muskox. In late sum­mer griz­zlies feed on spawn­ing chum salmon below the Fox Riv­er bridge. Salmon car­cass­es also attract red fox, gulls, and com­mon ravens. Both aban­doned and active beaver lodges and dams are found along the Fox Riv­er drainage. Dol­ly Var­den, Arc­tic grayling, and chum and pink salmon can be seen from the bridge.  ...more

An old road bed lead­ing to a Solomon Riv­er over­look is a good spot to look for salmon, Dol­ly Var­den, and Arc­tic grayling in late July and August. Say’s phoebe will launch from its nest to catch insects. North­ern shrike, har­le­quin duck, spot­ted sand­piper, and wan­der­ing tat­tler are also seen. In some years, the cliff is occu­pied by com­mon raven, rough-legged hawk, or oth­er rap­tors so be care­ful your pres­ence does not dis­turb nest­ing birds. 

Lee’s Dredge, the last dredge to work the Solomon Riv­er, was oper­at­ed by the Lee fam­i­ly until the 1960s. It now pro­vides nest­ing plat­forms for rap­tors and ravens. You may see green-winged teal and phalaropes feed­ing in the dredge pond and song­birds in the sur­round­ing willows.

Shov­el Creek pass­es under the road through a dou­ble cul­vert before it enters the Solomon Riv­er. A year-round spring that feeds the creek near the road keeps the water from freez­ing in win­ter. This attracts dip­pers, beaver, mink, and otter and encour­ages the growth of cot­ton­woods. The spring-fed creek also offers a mod­er­ate amount of spawn­ing habi­tat for pink, chum, and coho salmon in late July and August. Dol­ly Var­den are present but few Arctic  ...more

Gold­en Gate Pass divides the gold-laden creeks and rivers to the south from Pil­grim and Kuz­itrin Rivers. This pass is a migra­tion cor­ri­dor into the Pil­grim Riv­er drainage for the West­ern Arc­tic cari­bou herd in years when they win­ter on the cen­tral Seward Penin­su­la. Amer­i­can gold­en-plover, north­ern wheatear, Amer­i­can pip­it, and Lap­land longspur are com­mon in the tun­dra areas.

Riv­er cross­ing warn­ing! Unlike oth­er braid­ed rivers along the road sys­tem, the Niuk­luk Riv­er flows along a sin­gle broad chan­nel. A large colony of cliff swal­low inhab­its the cliff banks down­stream while tree swal­low nest in aspen cav­i­ties and nest box­es put up by Coun­cil res­i­dents. Osprey, which nest down- stream, may be spot­ted fly­ing over the riv­er. Bald eagle are also asso­ci­at­ed with the riv­er and nest at the Fish Riv­er confluence.  ...more

These stops on the east edge of Nome (described in more detail in the Coun­cil Road sec­tion) offer fresh­wa­ter ponds adja­cent to the marine water coast­line that attract a wide vari­ety of spring migrant water­birds and shore­birds as the ice is melt­ing in late May and ear­ly June. The area is worth check­ing reg­u­lar­ly because arriv­ing species often make a short stop before mov­ing inland. By mid-sum­mer, ear­ly depart­ing shore­birds gath­er to feed and  ...more

The bridge marks a mix­ing zone where fresh riv­er water meets tidal salt water and turns brack­ish. This cre­ates a blend of water types and habi­tats and attracts many dif­fer­ent birds to areas of open water or the mud-bar edges of islands. Look for geese, cranes, shore­birds, and gulls in good num­bers, even unusu­al species like Arc­tic loon, red knot, black-tailed god­wit, red-necked stint, ivory gull, and white wag­tail. Also spot spawn­ing salmon.   ...more

Safe­ty Lagoon slow­ly nar­rows and mix­es with wet­lands, ponds, and the Bonan­za Riv­er estu­ary. Thou­sands of tun­dra swan move through this area on their spring migra­tion. Breed­ing swans move on to upland ponds to nest and raise their young, while non-breed­ing birds may remain all sum­mer. In the fall, parts of the lagoon and Solomon Riv­er wet­lands turn white with huge groups of swans prepar­ing for fall migration.

In the fall, peo­ple fish for tom­cod from the bridge. Deep div­ing ducks feed in the chan­nel depths of the Bonan­za Riv­er. Sand­hill crane feed on berries, plant shoots, roots, insects, and even small rodents. Red-throat­ed loon and, less com­mon­ly, Pacif­ic loon float the waters.

Approach­ing the East Fork of Solomon Riv­er, a wide pull-off on the left is an excel­lent place to park and scan the slopes and riv­er val­ley for wildlife. North­ern wheatear and Amer­i­can pip­it fre­quent the rocky slopes near­by. Cliff swal­low often build nests on the bridge sup­ports, and ravens and rap­tors occa­sion­al­ly nest in the area. This view of the riv­er makes it easy to find red-breast­ed mer­ganser, har­le­quin duck, tat­tlers, and gulls.

The rocky out­crop across the Solomon Riv­er usu­al­ly hosts an active gold­en eagle nest. Look for a huge tow­er of sticks and splash­es of white­wash and orange lichen in the vicin­i­ty of the nest and sur­round­ing perch­ing sites. Built by eagles and added onto in suc­ces­sive years, the nest i s dis­tinc­tive for its large size, con­struc­tion, and shape. When not occu­pied by eagles, the large nest may be used by gyrfalcons.

Leav­ing Cape Nome, the road pass­es through the coastal grass­lands, dunes, and mead­ows of a long and nar­row bar­ri­er island envi­ron­ment. This sandy strip of land divides the pro­tect­ed wet­lands and lagoon of Safe­ty Sound from the unpro­tect­ed marine waters of Nor­ton Sound and the Bering Sea. The close prox­im­i­ty of these waters makes this one of the most dynam­ic and inter­est­ing places for birdlife on the road system.

Cape Nome is a mas­sive granitic out­crop that is much more resis­tant to weath­er­ing than sur­round­ing lands. Local Alas­ka Native cor­po­ra­tions quar­ry the rock, which is trucked or barged to large-scale con­struc­tion projects up and down the coast. Nome’s sea­wall is built from this gran­ite. Amidst con­sid­er­able con­struc­tion or quar­ry activ­i­ty, birds con­tin­ue to nest or roost on the rock faces. The thick­ly-veg­e­tat­ed slopes attract dense num­bers of  ...more

The cross­ing offers expan­sive views of a vari­ety of creek­side habi­tats, each with its own dis­tinc­tive char­ac­ter­is­tics. In spring the upstream por­tion of the creek is filled with thick lay­ers of glac­i­ered ice that build up from winter’s con­tin­u­al freez­ing of the spring waters that flow year-round into the creek. This late flow of melt water attracts water­bird species long after oth­er areas are ice-free. Drift­wood col­lects in the deep­er pools  ...more

The road junc­tion is marked by ponds and tun­dra mead­ows with­in sight of the coastal beach­line. Loons, red-breast­ed mer­ganser, long-tailed duck, scot­ers, gulls, and Arc­tic tern are com­mon on the marine water and some­times ven­ture inland to ponds or tun­dra tus­socks. Less fre­quent­ly, Aleut­ian tern and long-tailed jaeger may be inter­spersed among perched glau­cous and mew gulls near the road.

“Nome­henge,” as some of the locals call the four tow­er­ing anten­nas on Anvil Moun­tain above Nome, oper­at­ed dur­ing the height of the Cold War to link remote parts of Alas­ka with the rest of the coun­try. These are the last of 71 White Alice struc­tures, and serve as impor­tant his­toric and geo­graph­ic land­marks in Nome.

Glac­i­er Creek Road runs approx­i­mate­ly 30 miles up the east side of the Snake Riv­er. It becomes a rough four-wheel-dri­ve road after it pass­es the Rock Creek Mine site three miles in and is not main­tained in win­ter. If you look north up the val­ley from Teller Road, you will see the pyra­mid-shaped peak of Mount Osborn, the tallest peak on the Seward Penin­su­la. Look for birds nest­ing in the small lakes on either side of the road.

The Snake Riv­er has a rel­a­tive­ly short drainage that flows out of the south side of the Kiglu­aik Moun­tains. Prime moose, bird­ing, and salmon view­ing habitat. 

Sev­en miles off the coast, Sledge Island is vis­i­ble on clear days from this sec­tion of Teller Road. Orig­i­nal­ly named Ayak, the island was home to about 50 Ayak­mi­ut, who pri­mar­i­ly hunt­ed seals but also wal­rus when those ani­mals migrat­ed close to shore.

The bridge cross­ing gives a good view of birdlife, spawn­ing salmon, and moose. Red-breast­ed mer­ganser and har­le­quin duck like the swift-flow­ing water.

Dri­ving north, the rocky out­crop on your right may host a nest­ing or perch­ing site for rough-legged hawk, gyr­fal­con, and com­mon raven. Look to your left into the creek bot­tom to see an active beaver lodge with sev­er­al dams and ponds.

House Rock and Cab­in Rock are local names for the obvi­ous rock for­ma­tion on the right. Look for Arc­tic ground squir­rel on the dry, upper slopes and for Musk ox on the wind­blown sum­mits. This is also a great bird­ing area.

The steep road grade on either side of Crip­ple Riv­er gives a good overview of the thin thread-like riv­er that runs through the val­ley. Gold min­ing activ­i­ties occurred in the upper trib­u­taries, as evi­denced by the road and hor­i­zon­tal ditch lines. Look for har­le­quin ducks pad­dling swift riv­er cur­rents in late August or Sep­tem­ber, and Pink Salmon swim­ming upstream to spawn.

This 100-foot-wide road is a pub­lic right-of-way that tra­vers­es lands pri­vate­ly owned by the King Island Native Cor­po­ra­tion. It runs eight miles to tra­di­tion­al sum­mer fish­ing camps at Wool­ley Lagoon. Please stay with­in 50 feet of either side of the road. Do not pho­to­graph or trav­el close to lagoon or camps. A pull-off to the right offers views of Moon Moun­tains, a win­ter­ing spot for muskox. Also watch for red fox and black-bel­lied plovers.  ...more

As you approach the Tisuk Riv­er, scan down­stream and across the riv­er for a large nest of sticks on an orange lichen-cov­ered rock out­crop. Built by gold­en eagles, it may be used by gyr­fal­con when not occu­pied by eagles.

The road par­al­lels a some­what nar­row creek val­ley, mak­ing it easy to see water and shore­birds asso­ci­at­ed with flow­ing water as well as the wide vari­ety of song­birds, such as thrush­es, war­blers, and spar­rows that hang out in dense shrubs clus­tered at creek’s edge. Arc­tic grayling, and some­times pink salmon, are found here.

The Blue­stone Riv­er is unlike oth­er riv­er cross­ings along the Teller Road because it flows north­ward to Imu­ruk Basin rather than south to Nor­ton Sound. The riv­er is deeply incised as it cuts through steep moun­tains, cre­at­ing steep, rocky slopes and cliffs. Rough-legged hawk, gold­en eagle, gyr­fal­con, and com­mon raven may nest on near­by rock cliffs

At Teller the road returns to sea-lev­el where the envi­ron­ment is dom­i­nat­ed by marine waters. Look for spot­ted seals on calm days, their heads pop­ping up inquis­i­tive­ly at the tip of the spit. Pelag­ic cor­morant, pigeon guille­mot, horned puf­fin, com­mon eider, and black scot­ers are seen here.

The Sinuk Riv­er is the largest riv­er cross­ing on the Teller Road, and the mag­ni­tude of the val­ley, riv­er chan­nels, crag­gy moun­tains, and rolling tun­dra — all in one panoram­ic vista — is an impres­sive sight. The bridge is a reli­able spot to see salmon on their return upriv­er. Birdlife tends to be those species attract­ed to flow­ing water and grav­el bars, islands, and thick veg­e­ta­tion clus­tered in some sec­tions of the river. 

About a mile fur­ther north on Cen­ter Creek Road, a wet­land mead­ow lies west of the old Nome dump, which is now used as a monofil area for large bulky refuse that does not belong in the san­i­tary land­fill. The monofil area might attract ravens or gulls, but the real gem is the wet­land mead­ow inter­spersed with rem­nant struc­tures from ear­li­er min­ing activ­i­ty. Red­necked phalarope, pin­tail, teal, and scaup are often float­ing on the pond near the road,  ...more