Alaska Peninsula, where hundreds 

 of thousands of pintails, black 

 brant, cackling geese, and others 

 concentrate before making the long 

 hop to the Pacific Coast States. 

 These birds, together with lesser 

 Canada geese and other species 

 from elsewhere in Alaska, are the 

 waterfowl that provide most of the 

 sport for Pacific-coast hunters. 

 At the same time, many of the 

 ducks and geese from the northern 

 part of Alaska migrate east to 

 Maryland and as far south as 

 Louisiana, 



Alaska is not entirely deserted 

 during the winter. Thousands of 

 scoters, eiders, scaup, and other sea 

 ducks winter in sheltered bays from 

 the Aleutians through Prince Wil- 

 liam Sound to the Panhandle. 

 Many mallards and a few other 

 pond ducks and geese remain in 

 Southeastern Alaska during win- 

 ter. Alaska's "own" goose, the 

 emperor, rarely strays beyond the 

 country's borders. This medium- 

 sized, bluish, sea-going goose win- 

 ters up and down the Aleutian 

 chain and Alaska Peninsula and 

 nests in the Yukon-Kuskokwim re- 

 gion and along the north coast of 

 Seward Peninsula. 



The largest species of waterfowl 

 in North America, the trumpeter 

 swan, once on the verge of extinc- 

 tion and still alarmingly rare, has 

 been found wintering in southeast- 

 ern Alaska, and recently two were 

 reported on Cook Inlet. The 

 smaller whistling swan has always 

 been found thinly scattered over 

 the northern nesting regions. 



SHORE AND WATER BIRDS 



The multitude of shore and water 

 birds that swarm into Alaska for 

 the summer are more spectacular 

 and characteristic of Alaska's 

 northern breeding grounds than the 

 waterfowl. The largest of these is 

 the lesser sandhill crane. Others 

 are the abundant Wilson's snipe, 

 yellowlegs, willets, dowitchers, 

 phalaropes, sandpipers, loons, and 

 grebes. Some of these cover great 

 distances to reach their Alaskan 

 nesting grounds. The Pacific god- 

 wit winters as far south as Aus- 

 tralia, the golden plover in New 

 Zealand, and the bristle-thighed 

 curlew in Tahiti. 



SEA BIRDS 



Literally millions of sea birds fre- 

 quent the rocky islands and rugged 

 headlands of Alaska each summer 

 to rear their young. Flocks of 

 murres, auklets, kittiwakes, guille- 

 mots, puffins, petrels, albatrosses, 

 fulmars, and shearwaters fill the 

 seascape with abundant life. 



UPLAND GAME BIRDS 



Alaska's native game birds offer 

 excellent shooting. So far, bird 

 shooting has been incidental to 

 other types of hunting, but to the 

 explorer, prospector, or trapper, 

 grouse and ptarmigan are impor- 

 tant food. They are fine-flavored, 

 especially in early fall when berries 

 and various seeds are the main diet. 

 Ptarmigan may be seen in flocks 

 of several hundreds. Grouse are 

 seen in family-sized groups. Ptar- 

 migan hunting with a small-bore 

 shotgun is much like quail hunting. 



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