Why would several hundred people each year visit a remote Alaska island in the middle of the Bering Sea to hunker down near the edges of 350-foot cliffs and be buffeted by gale-force winds?
Why would people travel thousands of miles and pay thousands of dollars to visit St. Paul Island, population about 650, where comforts are few and luxury is more likely to be a new four-wheeler than a Jacuzzi?
People flock to St. Paul Island for the birds. It's a birders' paradise.
St. Paul Island is only 14 miles long but more than 300 species of birds have been spotted on the island. Of those, 30 to 35 species breed on the island. St. Paul, which is about 600 miles from Alaska's mainland, hosts many of the largest colonies of auklets and other seabirds in the world.
The island's cliffs and rocky outcrops are home to huge colonies of birds including parakeet, least and crested auklets, horned and tufted puffins, black and red-legged kittiwakes, northern fulmar and common and thick-billed murres.
But it is the Asiatic vagrants and other birds that were either caught up in a storm and looking for a resting spot, or just those that for some unknown reason fly the wrong way, that cause the most excitement. For birders, the appeal of St. Paul is finding a particular bird in an odd location. For example, the common cuckoo is spotted on the island every year, but is a rarity in other parts of North America. The Rufous-tailed robin has been spotted in the Pribilofs. That bird normally is not seen outside China and southeast Russia.
"Some birds simply get blown off course," said Scott Schuette, director of St. Paul Island Tours, a company owned by the local native corporation. It offers tours of varying length from the end of May to mid-October, with groups generally being between five and 10 people. Those guests coming to photograph the birds tend to arrive in the middle of summer. Birders hoping to see on Asiatic vagrant or other unusual bird arrive in either the spring or fall, Schuette said.
St. Paul Island also is home to the world's largest single breeding colony of northern fur seals, with between 300,000 and 500,000 northern fur seals on the island. That accounts for between 40 and 60 percent of the world's population of northern fur seals.
For the hard-core birder or someone wishing to go somewhere remote unlike just about any other place in the world, St. Paul Island might be the perfect destination. Most guests stay at the new King Eider Hotel near the airport. While there are no private bathrooms and it's not fancy (having been built originally as an oil exploration camp) guests report that the staff is friendly and the hotel is clean.
High Lonesome Birdtours also offers birding tours on St. Paul, including a seven-day tour in October for the serious birder wanting to get a glimpse of an Asiatic vagrant during the fall migration. At least one day will be spent on the cliffs. Bring your windbreaker and don't forget the binoculars.