Some Southeast Alaskans may have only stopped in Yakutat on the “milk run” flight to Anchorage. But just beyond the tarmac lies a birders paradise. From black legged kittiwake’s nesting on the jagged edges of seaside cliffs, to a posse of surf scoters, riding the ocean waves in a v-formation as they forage for mussels off of the rocks below.
But there is one bird in particular that has motivated a pack of over a dozen visitors across the country to wander through beach dunes early on a Saturday morning, armed with binoculars and zoom camera lenses: the Aleutian tern.
Nate Catterson is the volunteer guide leading the trip. He began birding over a decade ago to learn more about his surrounding environment. Since then, he has worked to help track the migration of Aleutian terns, traveling as far as Indonesia. Yakutat is key to that research, since the village is home to the southernmost breeding colony of Aleutian terns. And they are not the only terns that make a pit stop here, with Catterson pointing out an Arctic tern landing a few feet ahead of the group.
The tern birding trip is one of many activities organized by the Yakutat Tern Festival, a four-day gathering organized by the Yakutat Nature Society that brings locals and visitors from all over the country to observe and learn more about terns and other wildlife in the area.
Catterson is an attentive guide, answering questions as they crop up while sharing enough facts about terns to fill up a trivia quiz. His knowledge proves insightful to everyone from beginner birders to cultivated conservationists like Paul Bannick, who is also the keynote speaker for the conference. While Bannick has photographed birds across Alaska, it is his first time in Yakutat. He looks up at the terns and smiles, clearly enchanted by them.
“To be encountered with the story of a bird that’s traveling 1000s of miles to survive, but also their elegance and resilience and beauty. And they’re small birds, yet incredibly protective of their young and their nests, fearless. All of these things I think offer inspiration,” says Bannick.
Seth Rosenberder is a lifelong birder from Cordova. He initially got into birding under the influence of his maternal grandmother.
“She was enthusiastic about birds. I still have the field guide that she gave me when I was seven years old,” says Rosenberder.
He is attending the festival for the first time with his partner. Rosenberder says he is grateful for the opportunity to connect with birders from all over.
“We get to come and network with each other, and meet different people and figure out different places that we want to go [birding],” says Rosenberder. “I think the community, the togetherness aspect of it, is important.”
Bannick says that events like the festival play an important role in engaging people with conservation work. That’s especially important for the Aleutian tern population in the United States, which researchers say has had a steep decline over the past few decades.
“It’s been said that we protect what we love, and we only love what we know,” says Bannick. “If you care about conservation, you should care about creating opportunities for people to fall in love with natural systems and wildlife, and this festival gives people a doorway to walk through and find that love, which can change their life and change the lives of other people that they come into contact with.”
Melissa Allen, of Juneau, is a festival volunteer who experienced that first-hand. She was recruited by the festival’s coordinator after sharing that she was DJing at a different event celebrating Arctic terns. Today’s walk on the beach was Allen’s first time ever seeing an Aleutian tern, adding fuel to her newfound passion.
“Last year was the first time that I learned about Arctic terns, and I feel like that’s cracked open something in me,” says Allen. “There’s a great blue heron that lives by where I live, and that’s been really special, and the mergansers and the harlequin ducks that have been coming around, I’ve started noticing birds ever since I first learned about terns… I’m not a birder, but I think I’ll get there.”
If Allen does begin to consider herself a birder, she’s with the right crowd. The festival organizers hope to continue drawing attendees, old and new alike, to expand their flock of enthusiastic birders and everyday conservationists.
