Cruising The Ring of Fire June 2007

by Ray O’Reilly

Steve Gent, Chris Hughes and myself were the participants on the first leg of this trip. We booked our travel arrangements through Wildwings who arranged our flights to Sakhalin Island, Russia in the Sea of Okhotsk via Moscow and our subsequent cruise up through the Kuril Islands. We then sailed even further east to the Commander Islands where, if we had gone any further, we would have entered the day before as they straddle the International Dateline. From there we journeyed west to the South Siberian Russian mainland of Kamchatka. The cruising section was booked through Heritage Expeditions and we sailed on the Professor Khromov, an old surveying vessel, seventy-two metres long and carrying just forty-eight passengers.

3rd June 2007

It was a three-hour flight to Moscow and a time difference of two hours meant that it was still early morning when we arrived. As our onward flight was late in the evening, we had a full day’s birding to look forward to. We took a taxi to Izmaylovoskiy Park and kicked off the trip’s bird list. Along with Richmond Park in London, this is one of the largest urban parks in the world, being around six times the size of Central Park, New York. Hooded Crows were numerous and one of the first birds that we found. A few Ravens were also watched, as was the only Redwing of the trip.  A pair of displaying Marsh Warblers allowed close scope views, as did several male Red-backed Shrikes. The park is largely forested and the trilling song of Wood Warblers fills the air at this time of year, along with the melodies of Thrush Nightingale and Icterine Warbler. There are numerous grassy areas where we had splendid views of Corncrakes and some small ponds including one that had breeding Goldeneye. At least twenty beautifully scarlet-coloured Common Rosefinches were delivering their distinctive song from suitable vantage posts. The River Serebryanka runs through the Park so it was only fitting that we should have wonderful views of River Warbler here at the park.

As the day wore on, the temperature rose and this resulted in rather a lot of nude sun bathing by people of all ages and confirmed what we all know - some things are best left covered up! Other species seen in the park included Blyth’s Reed and Garden  Warblers, Spotted and Pied Flycatchers, Common Cuckoo, Common Swift, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Barn Swallow, White Wagtail, Wren, European Robin, Mistle Thrush, Fieldfare, Blackbird, Blackcap, Common Whitethroat, Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff, Great, Blue and Long-tailed Tits of the white-headed caudatus race, Nuthatch, Magpie, Rook, Jackdaw, Common Starling, House and Tree Sparrows, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Siskin, Mallard, Kestrel and Black-headed Gull . For lunch we visited a nearby restaurant, where the local police were dining, for our first taste of how expensive Russia is. A very basic meal cost around £12.50 per head and we found this to be the norm across the country, where portions were on the small side and soft drink (in a realistic measure) difficult to find (not so beer).

Ismailovsky Park is infamous due to a bomb being planted there in 1995 by Chechnya Rebels, which consisted of dynamite and the chemical Caesium. Thankfully, this was found and diffused before it actually detonated. We travelled on the Moscow metro from the nearby Izmailovskaya Station when we headed back to the airport on rickety old trains. This really felt like the old Soviet Russia with the cost of a ticket being a mere 17 roubles (around 35p) and all of the fixtures and fittings dating back to at least the 1970s. The metro spans the entire capital and is well known for the ornate design of many of its stations, which contain beautiful examples of socialist art and this was extremely apparent on our journey. Let’s just mention smoking - being back in an environment where almost everyone smokes (a lot) with no restrictions is another thing that reminds one of a time gone by.

We did do some other birding in Moscow as we had a walk in a mixed forest adjacent to the Sheremelyevo 2 International Airport on our return, where fine views of Red-breasted Flycatcher and Greenish Warbler were enjoyed and a particularly tame Wood Mouse was observed. Other new birds for the tour here included Goldcrest, Dunnock and Song Thrush. Several very British-looking brown Willow Tits were studied at close range - other birds that we saw further East were distinctly grey. We boarded our Aeroflot flight to Petropavlovski-sakhalin - an eight-hour flight - and attempted to get some shut-eye.

4th June 2007

Due to the huge time-difference, it was mid-afternoon by the time we arrived at our destination. Immediately outside the airport, Pacific Swifts were wheeling around. Sakhalin lies due north of the Japanese island of Hokkaido. It is fish-shaped and around 590 Miles long. We did not stray from the Southern part of the island, which is quite mountainous with a cultivated strip and some freshwater marshland adjacent to the rocky coastline. It was the home, along with Hokkaido and the Kuril Islands, of the Ainu people, who were removed by force, and we didn’t, to our knowledge, see any of this incredible race of people at any stage of the tour. Sakhalin was part of the Japanese Empire between 1905 until the end of the war in 1945. In 1983 the Russians shot down a Korean passenger plane that unwittingly flew into their airspace, killing all 269 passengers and crew, after mistaking it for a spy-plane. In 1995 a massive earthquake hit the island, measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale, killing over 2,000 people. We checked into our very expensive hotel at the base of Chekov Peak after being met by Chris’s Russian friend Nicolay. His help, translating and driving over the next five days, was invaluable. It was surprisingly warm as we went for an afternoon stroll around the hotel grounds and along the road to the base of the peak. It was amazingly quiet and we really had to work for our birds. A lone Pallas’s Warbler was singing from on top of a pine tree. We viewed some very warm-coloured crested Coal Tits along with the previously mentioned Willow Tits and our first Japanese Tit. Asiatica race Nuthatches were found and we had amazing views of Japanese Pygmy Woodpeckers, including a pair mating. Both Common and Oriental Cuckoos were recorded and another Goldcrest, this one looking washed-out. A clearing in the forest produced a singing Black-browed Reed Warbler, Eurasian Sparrowhawk and Rufous (Oriental) Turtle Dove. It was here that I encountered the most menacing bird species at any one site in a lifetime of birding. Large-billed Crows are abundant here and fearless of man, even on occasion swooping down to strike one’s head in a Bonxie-like fashion. They also seemed particularly destructive by ripping twigs and leaves from trees and letting them drop to the ground in a bizarre fashion. The species that was top of all our want lists was noticeable by its absence - Gray’s Grasshopper Warbler. It is a famously late arrival and it looked as if we had arrived too early, as when they are present they sing both day and night with a song as loud and distinctive as a Cetti’s Warbler.

5th June 2007

A Red Letter Day! This morning we arose before dawn, around 6am, for the long slog up Chekov Peak. Early morning was the time to be about in this habitat and the birdlife was a lot more approachable. Around the hotel gardens we had Black-backed Wagtail, Brown-headed (Brown) Thrush, Oriental Greenfinch and numerous singing Black-faced Buntings, Chris found a spanking cock Long-tailed Rosefinch one of fifteen we were to see that day. Chekov Peak is the second highest peak in Southern Sakhalin at 3,450 ft or 1044 Metres and heavily forested up to the tree line. On the lower slopes butterflies were very conspicuous, with Camberwell Beauty (Morning Cloak), Large Tortoiseshell and Swallowtail extremely numerous. A pair of Red-flanked Bluetails was scoped, as was a male Narcissus Flycatcher. While we were walking I heard a whining song coming from a nearby ridge that was different to the Rufous-tailed (Swinhoe’s) Robin’s that had been singing all the way up. This meant a climb for the three of us up a very slippery slope, during which we had to use a type of Butterbur as a hand-hold as they had extremely thick fibrous stems. Without them we would have struggled reaching our goal, which was a splendid cock Japanese Robin in song and displaying, running along a log, with its chestnut tail cocked and fanned - it was a wonderful moment. We found an open space with a couple of small pools and it was here that we scored with a male Grey-bellied Bullfinch, another beautiful species, and our only Common Buzzard of the trip. The forest is home to a magnificent white Arisaema flower, not unlike our Lords and Ladies, and also a type of Lily of the Valley. It was in this forest that we saw a cock Hazel Hen (Grouse). We walked back down to our hotel at the base for some lunch. Yes, it was only half-time!

After dining, we set off to look at some cultivated fields near the airport. We soon added Skylark, Siberian Stonechat and Oriental Crow, although at one stop a woman became extremely irate that my scope was a camera and that we were filming her shack and small caravan. She would not listen to Nicolay and we had to drive away with her still ranting. A damp area nearby had some patchy scrub and willows and it gave us our best views of Rufous-tailed (Swinhoe’s) Robins. And then we heard it - a Gray’s Grasshopper Warbler. We had soon coaxed it out and were in seventh heaven! Here it is the Sakhalin race amnicola. Translated, this means “by a river”. The bird showed very well.

Sakhalin is famous for its gas and oil exports and has experienced something of an oil boom. There is a pipeline across the Tatar Strait to the Russian mainland and tankers are loaded for the foreign market, especially for Japan. Dredging material has in the past been dumped in Aniva Bay and this has had a detrimental effect on Salmon here. Recently, a liquefied gas plant and an oil export terminal have been built in the bay but it is still a fabulous birding spot and our final site of the day. As soon as we alighted from our vehicle we heard the strange synthesizer-like sound of Latham’s (Japanese) Snipe displaying. They are very pale, long-legged and long-billed birds and were perched on top of telegraph poles and other vantage points. A male Russet (Cinnamon) Sparrow allowed nice scope views and Black-tailed Gull and Green-headed Wagtail were soon seen. Several Middendorf’s Grasshopper Warblers were perched out singing. This is another Locostella that doesn’t have a reeling song. Pintail and Grey Heron were trip additions.

We had had a poor dinner the previous night so we agreed to take a taxi into Petropavlovski-sakhalin to have a meal this evening. It was still daylight so we had a walk around the town - a huge statue of Lenin was impressive - and in a small Tree Sparrow-inhabited park (replaces House Sparrow here) a selection of folk were quietly consuming alcohol. I wanted to have a look around the train station and see some steam trains so we headed there - we were not disappointed. Some of the buildings in town were extremely dilapidated with huge chunks of rendering missing and not having seen a lick of paint this century. In places the pavement was like a minefield. We didn’t find a single eating establishment and so we got a taxi back to the hotel and ate near there.

6th June 2007

We started the morning off with a trip up Mount Bolshevik (yes that really is its name) to the Gorny Vozdukh Ski Resort. As it was closed for the summer, we had to ask for permission to be allowed up the road to the chair lift. As we waited by the barrier for Nicolay to negotiate access for us, a cock Siberian Rubythroat popped up and sang its little head off for us - it was simply superb! This was a species that we commonly saw throughout the rest of the trip although males outnumbered females by at least five to one, but this first one of the trip was the best. We drove right to the top above the tree line and explored the surrounding area, walking down the cut in the vegetation that the chair lift had made. I was amazed when I checked my GPS to see that we were only 1.1 Kilometres from our hotel. Most of the birds that we saw we had recorded previously, although we had fine views of two of the locally endemic Sakhalin Leaf Warbler along with many more Pallas’s Warblers. In the Kuril Bamboo we scoped up a pair of Japanese Bush Warblers, a Cettia with a song to match.

Our hotel, as stated previously, was at the base of Chekov Peak and by late morning the temperate was up to 26°C, yet a short drive down to sea level on the Sea of Okhotsk found that it had dropped to a chilly 6°, a massive 20° difference. We headed towards Lake Lebyazhe which, translated, means “Sea Lake” and by the road we noticed a large flock of sea duck, very close in, by a rather smelly toilet block. The flock included 250 Black Scoters whose drakes’ large yellow-bill cob shone and 150 Stejegener’s Scoters, a spin-off from White-winged. A further scan gave us around ten each of Pacific and Red-throated Divers. The lake, as expected, was huge and surrounded by some farmland and dwarf pines and alders. These were home to Olive-backed Pipits and a Black-eared Kite. Between the lake and the Sea, were some smaller pools that held Tufted Duck and Scaup and on the lake itself we saw Whooper Swan, Pintail, Shoveler and two unexpected Intermediate Egrets. A lone adult White-tailed Eagle flapped between posts sticking out of the lake. We found a Whimbrel of the race variegates the link between Eurasian and Hudsonian Whimbrel. This race is a real in-between. On returning to the hotel we found Gray’s Grasshopper Warblers singing from everywhere - they had arrived!

7th June 2007

The morning found us on the Sea of Okhotsk at the aptly named Okhotski. It was a chilly, foggy start to the day. As we would find out later during the tour, it is very often foggy at sea in this part of the world. At a site where local fishermen had left some nets, we found a flock of large gulls that included sixty Slaty-backed, two Glaucous-winged and four 2nd cy Glaucous Gulls. Juvenile and 1st and 2nd cy Slaty-backed Gulls look very washed out and often have pure white-wings which make it a pitfall for the unwary. A European bird in this plumage could result in some head- scratching. Another Black-eared Kite was loafing around here also. On our way back to base we stopped at a riverside meadow that was part of the Lutoga River Valley. Here we had Sand Martin and a singing Wren of the race sakhalinenses and four species of Tits - Willow, Coal, Japanese and Marsh, the latter having a much larger bib than European birds.

After lunch I opted for another trek up Chekov Peak and only Steve fancied the hike. Dr Anton Chekov 1860-1904 was a first generation intellectual as his father was a shopkeeper. During 1890, at the very heart of his successful career as a short novel writer and dramatist, he made his journey to Sakhalin, a tortuous journey of over 4,000 Kilometres endured in mainly horse drawn vehicles on roads that we can never imagine. He reached the island by paddle steamer and within three months had made a complete census of the Sakhalin people, personally interviewing over 8,000 people. During this time, he visited the penal colony he labelled “Hell on Earth”.  He died in the Black Forest in Germany of TB. Today’s walk produced very little (wrong time of the day) although two sightings of a hen Hazel Hen (Grouse) made it a worthwhile walk. That evening we relaxed in the hotel and enjoyed a Sauna and a Jacuzzi for around £5.00. Two Woodcocks were watched from the hotel balcony roding at one point. They would almost touch before heading off at an angle.

8th June 2007

This morning we got up early so that we could visit Aviva Bay before the heat haze rose.  It was a beautiful morning and, as the mist cleared, we saw at least six White-tailed Eagles hunting in the bay. Half a dozen Aleutian Terns were quartering offshore and a couple of birds landed on some floating detritus and posed for the scope. We headed back from the water across the marsh with Latham’s Snipe displaying overhead. When we heard a Lanceolated Warbler singing, we were soon enjoying very close views.  I must be one of the few people who can claim that a Lancy has nutmeged me (run between my legs) on two continents (Fair Isle and Beidaihe)!  An Eastern Marsh Harrier was a trip tick. En route back to the vehicle we met with a particularly unfriendly pack of dogs which, although with their owners, the latter made no attempt to control them. Later we had a look around a disused Mink Farm. It was quite eerie - old cages and pens were still in evidence and the wind vane was a mink. I wondered what happened to them all. Escaped minks have a poor history in this part of the world causing havoc with native animals, especially birds and the native European Mink. The farmed American Mink are larger and better swimmers and so can out-compete the native Mustelidae that is now endangered. It is ironic that these animals are released (30,000 at one Russian Farm last year) for the best of reasons and end up having disastrous environmental consequences. The overgrown grounds and allotment area gave us a Brown Flycatcher and another Grey-bellied Bullfinch feeding merrily on buds. Another mentionable happening of the day was that my theory that Oriental Cuckoo being a higher altitude species than Common Cuckoo here was showed to be flawed, as on the marshes we had three Common and one Oriental. ("It must have been a migrant eh!"). We asked Nicolay to give us the address of a traditional Russian restaurant in town and we had a taxi driver drop us there. It was a very rustic establishment, dimly lit, with bearskins, fox pelts and elks’ antlers adorning the walls. Russian nested dolls sat on shelving and I ordered a tasty fish soup followed, of course, by Beef Stroganoff. We washed this down with a couple of beers as it was our last night on Sakhalin.

9th June 2007

Today we would board the ship and meet the people with whom we would spend the next two weeks. We started the morning with a walk around the hotel gardens before breakfast and then went into Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk (the word Yuzhno means South) to find our rendezvous spot for the coach to take us to the harbour. We arrived early and had a walk around Gargarin Park. As we strolled amongst the fair rides and candyfloss stalls to a quieter section of the park, a gorgeous male Narcissus Flycatcher gave fine views. This species is surely named after the flower and not after the character in Greek Mythology, so presumably it could have been called Daffodil Flycatcher although that doesn’t quite have the same ring to it! We sighted our first hen Siberian Rubythroat and a collection of commoner birds. We had previously been to the harbour to have a look around and on a nearby beach a huge number of post- spawning Sprats were being washed up on the beach and locals were harvesting them by the sackfull. Black-backed Wagtails seemed equally happy along the beach as they were inland, their mainly-white wings in flight giving them a Snow Bunting-like effect. We boarded the ship late in the afternoon for an evening sailing. A few birds were in the harbour, notably a Pelagic Cormorant, around twenty Kittiwakes, fifteen Black-tailed Gulls, a Pacific Diver and a couple of Common Guillemots. The ship is now owned by Rodney Russ, a Kiwi, and his team, including his two sons, are New Zealanders. The rest of the crew is mainly Russian. We sailed on calm seas like glass and started our Voyage to the Kuril Islands. A beautifully close Long-billed Murrelet was soon seen and over 100 Short-tailed Shearwaters. As dusk fell, we retired to the ship’s library. Tomorrow would be mainly pelagic.

10th June 2007

Today would be spent mostly at sea crossing the La Perouse Strait towards the Kuril Islands (a chain of Volcanoes that stretches between Japan and Russia dotted in the Bering Sea). The area is known as the Ring of Fire as the volcanoes are often observed smoking. As the day broke, a thin layer of mist rose from the sea and as visibility cleared it was apparent that the numbers of Short-tailed Shearwaters were massive. We sailed through flocks of thousands and estimated a daily total of 150,000 birds. These shearwaters are in their wintering grounds as they breed in the extreme southern oceans. Amongst them were at least 800 Fulmars, dark grey-brown birds of the race rodgersi. Around one in 300 birds were virtually all white. None of them looked like Atlantic birds. One of my favourite gripes is some of the really poor English names for certain birds, many of which do the bird in question no justice at all. Fork-tailed Storm Petrel is one such bird. It is a gorgeous pearly-grey coloured Storm Petrel with a black highwayman’s mask and we watched twenty-five of these wonderful birds today. Four Red-necked Phalaropes bobbed around on the sea like corks and at least forty Rhinocerous Auklets with their tusks were very much in evidence. Both Pallas’s Leaf and Middendorf’s Grasshopper Warblers visited the ship. A Northern Fur Seal floated by the Professor Khromov, its long, bare rear flippers curled up over its body. They are known as eared or walking seals as they can walk on their flippers, which have small claws. It is now classified as a vulnerable species as it was once hunted for food and then for the commercial fur trade in its millions. Thank goodness this is no longer the case. The fog came down in the afternoon but cleared in time for us to enter a Caldera, which is a large volcanic crater formed by the collapse of the volcano’s mouth. This one, located at the southern edge of Iturup Island, is called the Big Lion’s Mouth. Nice views were had of fourteen Ancient Murrelets, a lone Tufted Puffin and a couple of Spectacled Guillemots. On an island we saw a few pairs of Cormorants nesting, around twenty Temminck’s and six Pelagics. However, the whole ship was enthralled by the sight of four Asiatic Bears meandering along the rocky shoreline with seemingly no purpose. Shortly after that we enjoyed dinner.

11th June 2007

Overnight we headed south towards the island of Kunashir. This would mean that we would have to backtrack to Iturup later. We awoke to another foggy morning and set off for the island using a GPS. After what seemed an eternity, we saw the shoreline and we were to disembark on the beach in a wet landing. The Naiad (semi-rigid inflatable) stopped for people to disembark and from the opposite side a passenger jumped and waded through the water to the beach. When it was my turn, I waited for the wave to come in and go out and then jumped. I landed up to my chest in freezing cold water. I had my newish Zeiss Viceroy bins on and my brand new (never before used) Kowa TSN 884 scope and tripod in my hand. Another wave came in, knocking me off my balance and I fell, gashing my knee on a rock. I managed to keep my scope above my head and I was plucked from the water by some local Russians. I just couldn’t believe it. I was ferried back to the Professor Khromov where I completely changed my clothes and put them straight in the laundry. Wet clothing would be a feature of this voyage and if it wasn’t for the warmth of the engine room, I don’t know how I would have got by. I was not the only one to have problems with landings, as they were all wet. On return to the beach a couple of Grey-tailed Tattlers were spotted. A flock of around fifty Harlequin Duck moved in unison, when one dived they all dived, and a close Horned Puffin showed well

 We climbed up to the Ranger’s house, where there had once been a Japanese village, and daffodils they had planted still bloomed. The Ranger, armed with rifles in case we met any bears, lead us down a nature trail through head-high Kurile Bamboo and into a forested area until we met a fast flowing river. Here we found a Grey Wagtail, a pair of Goosanders and ten White-tailed Eagles. Rufous Turtle Doves were common.  Flycatchers included Brown, Narcissus and Siberian and Japanese Pygmy and Great Spotted Woodpeckers were scoped. We had a picnic lunch on the beach. After our meal, we walked along the beach to the mouth of a smaller river. Many of the small pools en route were full of tadpoles and small brown frogs, thought to have been Siberian Wood Frogs. A Red Fox ran past us, two splendid Bull-headed Shrikes were enjoyed and we also watched a pair of Siskin. The Fish Owl boxes were vacant. There is a breeding programme here for Blakiston’s and at least two chicks had fledged this year but we were just too late in the season. During the afternoon the mist cleared and we had amazing views of the whole of the Tyatya Volcano, considered to be the third most perfect volcano in the world. It is a type of volcano called a Somma Volcano, whose summit has collapsed to form a near perfect cone.

12th June 2007

Overnight we had steamed northwards, back to the island of Iturup and were anchored offshore from Kurilisk, the largest village on the Kuril Islands. On 26th November  1941, a Japanese carrier fleet left the eastern shores of Iturup and sailed for the attack on Pearl Harbour in Hawaii. They chose this venue because of a lack of foreigners and its foggy climate, which would hide the fleet. The islands were forcibly taken from the Japanese after World War Two but they still maintain a claim on the four most southerly islands, including Kunashir and Iturup. We had a walk around the village, visiting the museum which contained some very sorry stuffed specimens, including a Ribbon Seal. We walked up to the church and found a couple of Russet Sparrows amongst the Tree Sparrows and I counted at least 250 Pacific Swifts above and a couple of Brown-headed Thrushes in the gardens. This species is not unlike an American Robin but browner above and on the head and upper breast. We birded an old graveyard and found a 2cy Kamchatka Gull on the beach before setting off in an old Russian bus for a tour of the island. The vehicles had a high road clearance and were totally suitable for the island roads. We visited Yankito Bay, which was once an ancient Ainu village. This was a truly beautiful spot. It was a lovely sunny day, with Skylarks singing and alpine flowers in full bloom, including Chocolate Lilies, which were particularly common. This is a type of fritillary, not unlike our Snakeshead, which was known to the Ainu as Rice Lily because of the rice-like bulblets that form around its roots. This was a major source of carbohydrates for these ancient folk. Another nickname for this plant is Skunk Lily because of its pungent foul smell and it is actually pollinated by flies. The boulder beach was strewn with flotsam and jetsam and on some nearby cliffs Pelagic and Temminck’s Cormorants were breeding, as were Spectacled Guillemots. These birds were flying in and out of the cliffs continuously. We also found a White-tailed Eagle on its nest. Lunch was eaten at the Sakura Café, an unlikely spot for such an establishment. Afterwards, we visited the Olga Bay Fish Factory and here several Sand Martins were flying around the bay with Pacific Swifts.  I picked out an Asian House Martin, which showed well. We also saw further evidence of the menace of the Large-billed Crow as we watched a murder of them bombard a pack of dogs.

We drove our way up the slopes of the Babanskiy Volcano, with its still snow-capped summit. We parked up and birded our way down to the waterfall and some hot thermal pools that we would bathe in. An Arctic Warbler, of the race xanthodryas, was one of the first birds that we saw here. Mark Beaman is of the opinion that this is a separate species, sounding quite different to the birds inside the Arctic Circle, and perhaps should be called Japanese Leaf Warbler. On arrival at the swimming pools, we could hear Japanese Robins singing, while we splashed about in what felt like a hot bath. It was wonderful, but as usual I got carried away and went under the water with my eyes open. The sulphur stung my eyes like billy-oh. The final site of the day was a geothermal power station close by with pipe work everywhere and steam billowing out. It reminded me of birding at Kingsnorth Power Station in Kent, only with Siberian Rubythroat and four Japanese Buzzards! On the return to the ship a pair of Wigeon was watched on the sea. It had been another eventful day and one that would not be easily forgotten.

One final fact on Iturup is that it is home to an endemic Strawberry, found nowhere else in the world, which has a particularly large fruit for a wild Fragaria.

13th June 2007

Today we would visit two of the Kuril Islands, namely Urup and Chirpoy. The Ainu inhabited Urup in 1643 when a ship from the Dutch East India Company arrived there, most likely in search of furs. There were clashes between the Russians and the Ainu in 1772 and this time the Russians were expelled. In 1801, Japan officially claimed control of the island. This led to clashes with the Russians and it finally became Russian territory in 1855. A border was set up between here and Iturup Island but, just twenty years later, it was back with the Japanese in a swap with Sakhalin and the Ainu were terminally forced out. It remained like this until their defeat in World War Two and the Japanese inhabitants themselves were repatriated.

Today was a lovely sunny morning, made better with the early sight of two Sperm Whales alongside the Professor Khromov. We boarded the Naiads and landed ashore at Bukhta Natalii, which is a large driftwood-strewn bay at the west of the island. Turnstone fed along the tide-line. The surrounding hill was carpeted with wild flowers, including the Japanese Big-leaf Magnolia, whose leaves were once used for wrapping food.  Trillium, and Primroses were also present. We walked across a meadow watching Siberian Rubythroat, Middendorf’s Grasshopper Warbler and Long-tailed Rosefinch but, best of all, was an amazing adult Steller’s Sea Eagle that majestically drifted over our heads twice, dwarfing four Ravens in comparison. In the bay we enjoyed sixty Harlequin Ducks, Pacific Diver and Black Scoter. Around mid-day we set sail for Chirpoy. We stayed out on deck sea-watching and saw further Sperm Whales. This intriguing species is the largest of the toothed whales and was observed, in typical Moby Dick fashion, with its prominent large-head very conspicuous. The Sperm Whale is so named after the milky-white waxy substance called spermaceti that is found in its head and this was originally mistaken for sperm. I picked out a White-billed Diver an adult Pomarine Skua complete with spoons (tail) and six Laysan Albatrosses. The northern end of the island was home to thousands of seabirds including Common, Brünnich’s and Kuril Guillemots. Kuril Guillemot is considered a race of Pigeon Guillemot named snowii and it looks like a cross between this species (which do not occur this far south in Asia) and Spectacled Guillemot. It has no white wing-patch, although some birds have wing-bars; they may also have a bridle. Other breeding birds included Red-faced Cormorant, Tufted Puffin and thousands of Kittiwakes and Fulmars. Amongst the melee, Whiskered, Crested and Parakeet Auklets were recorded, along with Horned Puffin - it was an incredible environment. A kelp bed sheltered by a bay gave us four species of mammal - Steller’s sea lion, Northern Fur Seal, Common Seal and Sea Otter!

14th June 2007

Another day, another Kuril and we had an early start. By 05:30 we were back on the Naiads and heading towards Bukhta Milna, a long sweeping beach in the south of Simushir Island. It had been another foggy night and it was still misty when we reached shore. Evidence of one time habitation was apparent from a derelict border guards station and more distantly a derelict meteorological station. We spent a couple of hours birding, although on these uninhabited islands it was very difficult to gain access to the interior. An Osprey was a surprise. Arctic Warblers were numerous and fabulous views were obtained of a pair of Grey-bellied Bullfinches. On the beach, many Siberian Rubythroats, a couple of Middendorf’s Grasshopper Warblers and Brown-headed Thrushes were singing from driftwood along with Black-backed Wagtails. Offshore were Harlequin Ducks, Pelagic Cormorants, Crested Auklets and Tufted Puffins. We headed back to the ship for breakfast and several Laysan Albatrosses were sitting on the sea around our Naiads with Fulmars, Short-tailed Shearwaters and gulls. We sailed north alongside the island, as at the top of the island is a large indented caldera. This has a narrow opening called Brouton Bay, the site of a Russian nuclear submarine base between 1987-1994 and today, thirteen years later, a ghost town. Fog had settled again and we set off for shore in a pea souper. Inside the caldera we were offered a pleasant microclimate as it was clear as a bell and warm and sunny. As we landed on the beach, we explored the barracks with overgrown gardens. Many, once-cherished, items lay strewn around - cars, trucks, clothes, shoes, light bulbs etc.  Jeanie, our friend from Austin, Texas, found an officer’s jacket complete with eagle-shaped buttons. She was keeping a scrapbook of all the detritus that she found on her trip. It contained letters, sketches etc, all skilfully selected. Her one rule was that she had to find it. It was a brilliant idea. An overgrown football pitch had just the crossbar poking above the vegetation and a pair of Asian Buff-bellied Pipits were allowing scope views as they were flycatching.  Nutcrackers were particularly common on the island as there is an impenetrable dwarf pine forest there and we watched one pair feed their well-grown chicks. On this day I nailed a bird top of my want-list, with a fine cock Grey Bunting filling my scope. We had heard these even in Sakhalin but, until today, we had not managed a sniff of one. As I was saying how extraordinary it was that Nutcracker was the main crow on the island (we were now thankfully too far north for Large-billed Crows), a pair of Ravens flew over. On leaving the bay, we entered the conditions that we had left behind and without GPS I don’t know how we would have found the ship, despite it sounding its foghorn.

In 1772 Russian explorer and map maker, Garasim Izmailov, was marooned on Simushir Island for a full year, living off scallops, grass and roots before being rescued, defying all the odds - he must have been an incredible person.

15th June 2007

Today would be one of the greatest ornithological experiences of my life - it would be my chance to feel what life was like before man decimated the World. As the clocks went forward one hour, we were very tired at dawn and once again thick fog greeted us when we got on deck. We would again need a GPS to find our way ashore at Yankicho Island. A plug-shaped islet guards the mouth of a caldera and, once again on entering the caldera, the fog cleared and we were greeted by a truly unbelievable spectacle. The sight and sound of 1,000,000 Crested Auklets, 500,000 Whiskered Auklets and 500 Tufted Puffins was an experience I will never forget. We had touching-distance views and if we had had a butterfly net we could have bagged hundreds - some even tried to land on our Naiad. Arctic Foxes patrolled the edges of the breeding colony and were so unused to humans that a couple of them trotted up to the Naiads to look at us. The only land birds here were the Kuril race of Wren, several of which were in full song. We then moved on to the plug-like islet. Here, different varieties of seabirds were nesting - Red-faced Cormorants, Slaty-backed Gulls, 250 Brünnich’s Guillemots and twenty-five Kuril Guillemots. On the other side of the caldera we visited an area of geothermal activity with boiling water steaming out of the ground and bubbling sulphurous mud. The adjacent seaweed had been cooked and a pungent odour filled the air. The tide was dropping as we attempted to leave the caldera. The Zodiacs floated through the mouth but the Naiads grounded firmly on the bottom and it took a cold, wet wade to push them off the sand-bar into deeper water. We made our way back to the Professor Khromov, which itself had run aground on rocks when used as a research vessel in Antarctica in 1997, long before Heritage Expeditions had purchased it. The eponymous Professor was the deputy director of the Institute of Strategic Studies of Moscow. He carried out hydro-chemical studies in the Sea of Japan and the Sea of Okhotsk, where he investigated the concentrations of dissolved oxygen, nutrients and proteins of the carbonate system. Rodney, when outside Russian waters, renamed the ship the Spirit of Enderby (more apt in the Southern waters). We made our way to Matua Island watching, apart from Alcids, Laysan Albatross, Short-tailed Shearwater and Fork-tailed Storm Petrels. The Island has one of the most active volcanoes in the Kurils.  Sarychev Peak has erupted fourteen times since 1765, the latest major one being in 1960. During World War Two, the Japanese had a military airfield located on the island and, in 1944, the USS Herring (a submarine) was sunk forever just off the island. We had anchored above a spawning ground for Sea Perch and the crew was filling barrel-loads of fish. Even the chambermaids joined in and were catching seven or eight at a time. The perch is a bonnie tiger-patterned fish that was enjoyed by all, one way or another. As many as 250 Ancient Murrelets were around the ship, enabling some great scope views.

16th June 2007

It was raining this morning so I thought that I would have a look up on deck. As soon as I opened the door I noted a Leach’s Petrel sitting on the deck. Several others were scattered about the ship and a Crested Auklet was waddling around the deck. There were also several passerines, including a Brown Flycatcher that had flown inside the bridge. I trapped it and released it after photography. It was a lot more fortunate than another specimen that fell down the ship’s funnel. A couple of Reed Buntings enjoyed the rest and moved on in search of their breeding grounds.

We set off after breakfast in our wet-weather gear and headed to Ekarma Island through huge rafts of Fulmars and Short-tailed Shearwaters with large numbers of Auks including at least ten Horned Puffins. A few Common Seal (called Harbour Seal here) loafed around near the shore.  We had three Red-breasted Merganser and a pair of extremely large, dark Peregrines that caused some debate - this was a case of going with one’s first impressions. Ekarma Island also has an active Volcano that last erupted in 1980 and is home to the Aleutian Goose (an endangered race of the Cackling Goose that has been re-introduced on the island from a captive breeding programme in Kamchatka). We continued along the coastline, where Tufted Puffins were abundant. There were kelp beds and several Sea Otters were viewed. This is also an endangered species as it is the world’s heaviest otter (up to nearly 100lbs) and it is in its own genus Enhydra.  Some individuals have their bones dyed pale-violet from a diet that includes Purple Sea Urchins, although different populations have different food preferences and these include gulls, crabs and other shellfish. The otters are, themselves, consumed by Killer Whales (Orca) and Sharks but, of course, their biggest predator is man. We entered a huge cavern that had Red-faced Cormorants nesting in the roof-space. A Minke Whale was observed before it dived to feed. Prior to landing on Shiashkotan Island we headed for a large bay that hosted a fine Red-necked Grebe.  Asian Buff-bellied Pipits were walking along amongst the beach debris and we were handed out another severe soaking before returning to ship.

17th June 2007

This morning we awoke and found ourselves anchored off the south-western corner of the island of Paramushir. We headed ashore to a bay where a small cove offered some protection, not just for us, but to five Long-tailed and seventeen Harlequin Ducks. This is a sub-arctic island and the name is Ainu for Broad Island. It is the second largest Kuril Island and its northern tip is only 39KMs south of the Russian Mainland of Kamchatka. It has a dwindling human population that has not been helped by the collapse of the Herring industry. This was another island on which we were tracked with a guide, armed with a rifle, to deter Asian Bears from getting too curious. Marsh Orchids were very conspicuous, especially around some freshwater pools that were just inland from the sandy beach. Fourteen Scaup and a Pacific Diver were on these pools. Reed Buntings, Asian Buff-bellied Pipits and Black-backed Wagtails were singing, displaying and showing well along their edges. Another cock Grey Bunting was scoped. Paramushir, whose rivers are home to the Arctic Charr and Pacific Salmon, was also home to the northernmost Japanese military base and was the subject of several air raids by the US during World War Two. It even possessed a POW camp - what a grim place that must have been! It was foggy en route to Atlasova Island, the northernmost Island, with the highest volcano in the Kurils. It is named after Vladimir Atlasov, a 17th century Russian explorer, and it was our last island that we would visit in the Kurils. The slop between the ship and the naiads was at times at least two metres so timing was essential. It was a bumpy, wet ride to the shore, one that Steve decided to give a miss to. By the landing rose a huge wall of grey ash in a symmetrical banded formation that gave us some protection from the weather. There was much snow and ice lying around on the island but the impenetrable vegetation meant that we were unable to access the snowfields. We didn’t see any new birds but an incredibly abundant mammal, the Lemming Vole, was numerous. In one square metre I counted fifteen animals. The ride back to the Professor Khromov was equally wet and bumpy and a hot cup of tea priceless! The northerly wind increased and I felt decidedly ill as time progressed and the wind increased to a force 8 gale.

18th June 2007

I did not get out of my bunk this morning except to go to the loo. I remember lying in my bunk being told that we had detoured and that we were heading towards the Commander Islands to try and flee the storm but we would not arrive there for another two days and two nights and thinking how am I going to get through this. I felt like I was dying. Fortunately, another passenger gave me a few sturgeron sea sickness tablets and I immediately took them. What a difference, and within next to no time! In the early afternoon I actually managed to eat something, but I did no birding this day.

The Commander Islands are named after Commander Vitus Bering, a Dane who died on our destination island, Bering Island, in 1741 after his ship the St Peter was wrecked on the rocks. It is alleged that he actually died of scurvy. He was also an integral part of the subsequent Russian sovereignty of Alaska. Some of the crew managed to survive, however, including the ship’s naturalist and physician, one Georg Steller. The St Peter was later re-built and the remaining crew sailed it back to Kamchatka. Georg Steller was the first European to describe some North American species such as the Steller’s Jay. He described both the Sea Cow and the Spectacled Cormorant and his journals were published by Peter Pallas who went on to be just as famous.

19th June 2007

Another day at sea and the morning was pretty gloomy and overcast with the sky various shades of grey and light rain falling. The ship was a-rocking and a-rolling! Today I was back in the field and went to the rear of the ship alone to shelter from the wind. Within no time I was watching a stonking lifer at close quarters in the form of a Mottled Petrel a striking Pterodroma that, like Short-tailed Shearwater, is here on its wintering grounds as this Gadfly Petrel breeds in the Sub-Antarctic Islands. I made a daily count of twenty-two of these very special near-threatened birds. Other birds observed today were Tufted Puffin, Laysan Albatross, Fork-tailed Storm Petrel, Brünnich’s Guillemot and a fine adult Glaucous-winged Gull.

20th June 2007

Before breakfast we could see Bering Island faintly visible through the damp-grey misty haze and, on approaching the island’s main town (village) Nikolsokoye, it was so like many other northern grey towns with smoke billowing out of chimney pots, it was an environment of staggering enchantment. After breakfast we boarded the Zodiacs and Naiads after we had gained our landing permission. Before we had set foot on dry land, pristine Snow and Lapland Buntings could be seen and heard singing from many available perches and Glaucous-winged Gull had replaced Slaty-backed as the default gull. On landing, I was pleased to see that several people in our reception party were clearly Aleuts. A small flock of waders flew by and before we had a chance to remove our life jackets we were soon scoping up Rock Sandpipers, and what an excellent wader too! Later in the day we would visit their breeding ground and watch their feigning display and see them feeding their cute little chicks. Our first proper Pigeon Guillemots were in the harbour, as were further Harlequin Duck and Horned Puffin. The island is around the length of our Shetland Islands (my old home) and like them it is mainly treeless, hilly and windswept. It must be unimaginable in winter, with a population of around 800, whose main income is from fishing. The island is renowned for being foggy and prone to earthquakes. The whole island now is a nature reserve but this was not before Reindeer and the dreaded American Mink were introduced.  We birded our way from the harbour to the village, past some very Russian murals, to the Commander Vitus Bering Monument. This was next to an amazing football pitch. How I would have loved to see an English team play the locals on that pitch, with mini bogs and chunks of rock jutting out of the rank turf! Right next to this was the Nikolskoye Museum and it was here that we ventured. We marvelled at the displays of history and natural history of the islands, including an almost complete skeleton of a Steller’s Sea Cow. What a creature this must have been! It had been designed by nature to keep the Sea Kelp beds at bay and the beast grazed on enormous quantities of this marine vegetation and massive amounts of roots and stalks were washed ashore on the beaches after feeding. It took just twenty-seven years for man to wipe out what must have been one of the most charismatic animals ever to have lived on earth. I was disappointed that there was not a specimen of another ill-fated species - the Spectacled Cormorant. I had to make do with just a painting. This species lasted a further seven years after the Sea Cow. Its hunters called it large, clumsy and mainly flightless and harvested it for food (it could feed three men) and its feathers were also used. There were photographs of some really weathered and wizened folk in the museum, some of whom were tiny and various examples of old tools and basic machinery. We all very much enjoyed the experience. Back to birding and Tree Sparrows on the museum roof were a surprise. We headed inland and followed an estuary where many Dunlin were feeding and Red-breasted Mergansers and Scaup were on the water. We watched a Pechora Pipit display flighting and had to wait a while until we obtained good views on the ground. Common Snipe were drumming overhead and an Arctic Skua was patrolling a bog. The fog came down as we walked through the Rock Sandpiper colony and we headed back to the coast, where I picked out five super Mongolian Plovers and a couple of Ravens on the beach (one of the first species seen on this trip). Chris managed Long-billed Dowitcher and Bar-tailed Godwit and, all too soon, we were back on board for a late lunch.

We were heading for Airy Rock, the final nesting ground of the Spectacled Cormorant and our quarry was an equally special bird, as this is the breeding site of the Red-legged Kittiwake.  But first, how typical of birding to have us sweating! The swell had once again become decidingly choppy and it was getting doubtful whether we would be able to board the Naiads to get close to the islands to see them nesting. It was the eleventh hour when we boarded our vessels and we sailed to the leeward side of the island. The Red-legs were utterly superb, being completely different from their more numerous (even here) cousins and were nesting lower down the cliff face (closer to us). Other nesting seabirds included 100 Pelagic Cormorants, 45 Red-faced Cormorants, 5,000 Tufted Puffins, 1,000 Common Guillemots, 50 Brünnich’s, 15 Pigeon Guillemots and 250 Glaucous-winged Gulls. Several large male Steller’s Sea Lions swam along with us and some were out on the rocks. Our final site on the Commander Islands was a visit to some beaches at the north-west end of the islands, home to a large colony of Northern Fur Seals. Early evening we set sail for the Russian mainland and Kamchatka. 

21st June 2007

We arrived by the next day, around noon, and, surprisingly, a pair of Red-legged Kittiwake put on a show off the starboard side of the ship, as did a couple of Fin Whales as we dropped anchor at the mouth of the Zhupanovo River. This was our penultimate day of this leg of the trip. There was a rolling swell as we made our way towards the river mouth and quite a bit of spray. However, once inside the river mouth, it was lovely and calm and, as we arranged our permission to venture up river, on the muddy banks Far Eastern Curlew, Greenshank and Common Snipe were feeding. Black-billed Terns were fishing and a pair of Goosander swimming merrily along on the river. Several adult pristine Kamchatka Gulls were perched on posts. Kamchatka, once the home of the Cossack, was firmly closed even to Russians from 1945-1989 and foreigners were not admitted until the early 1990’s so we felt very privileged indeed to be allowed to experience the ambience of this very special place. We made our way upriver and we were soon awe-struck at the size of several Steller’s Sea Eagles, including a pair on their nest! Red and Black-throated Divers were watched and twenty or more spotted-coated Larga Seals were enjoying the warmth of the sun’s rays on their bodies. Some land birds were found, including our old friend the Common Rosefinch, and a fine male Rustic Bunting in full song. Too soon it was time to make our way back down river and we visited a Salmon camp that was adjacent to some marshland and some small pools.  I birded here, mostly alone, for just under an hour. A super adult Steller’s Sea Eagle was scoped on the ground, as was an ambling Asian Brown Bear. On the pools, a drake Falcated Duck was scoped looking dandy amongst the Scaup, Shoveler, Tufted Duck and Mallards. There were breeding Long-toed Stints showing down to a few feet. Alaskan Wagtails were conspicuous and an adult White-tailed Eagle was fishing in the estuary. The final ride in the Naiads back to the Professor Khromov was as bumpy as ever and we set sail for our final destination, Petropavlosk-Kamchatsky (imagine that in game of scrabble!). Our final seawatch yielded Arctic and Pomarine Skuas, Brünnich’s Guillemots, Ancient Murrelets and my final lifer - eight Least Auklets. Their nickname of Sea Bumblebees looked very fitting as they were dwarfed by the former species that they were interacting with. The mood got too much for me as I got told off by the captain for whistling on the bridge. Apparently this is taboo and could bring on a gale!

22nd June 2007 

A thirty-six hour day!

We awoke motionless in Petropavlosk-Kamchatsky Harbour where we waited for around an hour and a half to be escorted into our mooring by the Harbour Master. We used the time to do some final birding, watching Aleutian and Black-billed Terns, Pelagic and Red-faced Cormorants, Brünnich’s Guillemots, Tufted Puffins, Ancient Murrelets and thousands of gulls. We were finally towed into a pretty run-down harbour with disintegrating buildings with Oriental Crows on the roofs. The harbour remains ice-free and open during the winter. It was once the home to some major fish factories whose produce was transported all over the Soviet Union. The city is the second largest in the world having no road connection, the largest being Iquitos in Peru. It is named after Vitus Bering’s two ships the St Peter and the St Paul. Our journey to the airport took us past Lenin Square and past statues of tanks and soldiers with tin hats and trench coats on, armed with rifles raised. As we got off the bus and walked to the airport buildings Skylarks were song-flighting.

We boarded our Aeroflot flight for what must be the longest internal haul in the World. Nine Hours! On arrival in Moscow we were pretty tired and we still had five hours to kill before our three-hour flight back to Blighty. I have never been so glad to finally crawl back into my own bed that night - it was bliss.

End of Part One.