St George Island Airport

What was my "job" on St. George? Among the millions of birds that breed and nest on St. George are hundreds of thousands of Kittiwakes - both Black-legged and Red-legged. Given certain weather conditions, especially on windy days, many of these kittiwakes like to loaf on the airport runway. Of course, this presents a significant hazard for passenger and freight planes during landing and take-off. My job was to keep these birds off of the runway when flights were due to land.

The airport was moved from the north side of the island near the town to the south side near the harbor about 1992. Originally, the runway was gravel, but it was paved about 4 years ago. The first terminal building was "affectionately" referred to as "Apollo" because of its resemblance to the moon landing vehicle. The present terminal facility, while not very fancy, is adequate and much better than the original. There are three scheduled passenger flights to St. George per week and an occasional unscheduled flight or charter passenger flight. Saab 340 aircraft are used for passenger flights. Freight/cargo flights are unscheduled and erratic in nature, requiring continual monitoring to determine when they may be arriving. The arrival of cargo flights is announced to the residents by phone and over VHF radio and usually results in a rather disorganized scramble because folks are anxious to get items they may have been ordered a month or more previously. When planes were scheduled to arrive, I usually headed to the airport about an hour or so beforehand. If kittiwakes were on the runway, I would harass them with my pickup and then turn on at least half of the eight propane canons that were set to fire perhaps once a minute or so. Groups of loafing kittiwakes often numbered in the thousands. But the canons were quite effective in keeping them from sitting on the runway, so other scare tactics, such as shotgun propelled firecrackers were seldom needed to keep the runway clear.The only real problems with the propane canons was to keep them operational during long periods of fog and mist. A reliable supply of propane is a potential future concern since the cost is quite high. Presently, it costs $60 to fill each 25 gallon cylinder. In 2011, propane may not be available from sources on the island so supplies will have to be shipped specially to St. George for the propane canons, a potentially expensive option. This "job" of mine seemed to be fairly simple and for the most part it was. But fog and mist frequently interfered with landing schedules so flight delays were common, and indeed, frequently the rule. Some days, there was a wait of 3-4 hours or so before a decision was made regarding the cancellation of a flight from the mainland. Patience was a requisite aspect of the job!!

St. George Island - Small Breeding Land Birds

There are only four species of small, Passerine birds that breed on St. George Island - Lapland Longspur, Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch, Pacific(Winter) Wren, and Snow Bunting. A few other similar species may breed there occasionally, but I did not encounter any of them on my visit. This is unusually low diversity but perhaps to be expected because of the rather uniform habitat and remoteness of these islands. Other small birds species are found on the Pribilofs during spring and fall migration, including some occasional rare stray species from Asia.

Lapland Longspurs seem to be the most abundant of the small birds and males in their breeding plumage were a pleasure to see. This species is regularly seen in Montana during winter but their plumage then is very much on the drab side, like the bird below.Gray-crowned Rosy-Finches were also abundant on St. George Island and they spend the winter there. These St. George/Pribilof birds are considered a distinct sub-species and can be separated from other sub-species by the more extensive gray on the side of their head. They are also noticeably larger than the ones we see in Montana. The young ones do not yet have the gray plumage on the side of the head.Snow buntings are one of my favorite Montana winter birds. On St. George, they seem to prefer the rocky areas that are abundant on the island. But they were the wariest of the small birds there and I was not able to get any very good pictures of them.Winter Wrens - now called Pacific Wrens - were the most petite of the breeding Passerines on St. George, where they are considered a separate sub-species. Very recently, the folks who decide such things split Winter Wrens into two species (Pacific and Winter) based on genetic and behavioral criteria. Several days passed before I encountered my first wren on the island, but after that, they seems to be easier to find, probably because I visited their breeding habitat - cliff faces - more often. This tiny species resides year-round on St. George, so it must be quite tough. The only other small bird I got pictures of - a fairly common migrant - was a Northern Wheatear. This species breeds on mainland Alaska and then migrates across Asia to winter areas south of the Sahara Desert in Africa. That is quite an amazing distance for such a small bird.

St.George Island Mammals

Historically, there was not much in the way of native land mammals on St. George Island. About 1786, Aleut/Unangan slaves were brought to the island for the purpose of harvesting and processing fur seals. At that time, there were probably also Steller's Sea Lions, Sea Otters, and occasional walrus found there. But there were no native land mammals except for some small rodents, a species of lemmings. At some point after the Aleut/Unangan slaves were brought there, the Russians introduced Arctic Foxes to St. George, and many of the Aleutians and other islands in the region.

In the early 1970's, about 15 reindeer were brought to St. George and into the early 1990's, they increased to about 500 animals. This was too many for the island vegetation to support and they were subsequently reduced to about 200 animals at present. Island residents do not harvest too many of these animals, but there are some visiting hunters and other seasonal residents who take them for their fine meat. I ate some while I was there and it was some of the finest wild meat I have eaten. Large antler sets are commonly found scattered around the village and shed antlers are relatively commonly noted on hikes through some areas of the island. These reindeer stay mostly in one large herd and I did not see than while I was there.

The commercial harvest of Northern Fur Seals on St. George was discontinued in the mid-1970's, but there is presently a small limited subsistence harvest which is conducted in a very efficient and humane manner. On my first day walk along the shoreline near the village, this bull fur seal surprised me and was very vocal in his dislike of my presence. Others, mostly males, were occasionally seen loafing individually on rocky shorelines, but were mostly quite spooky.There are four "rookery" areas on St. George where raising of young and breeding take place. Presently, there are an estimated 200,000 fur seals using these rookery areas. This image shows a "harem" group with a "dominant male - called a "beach master" and a numbers of females with young pups.This female is sunning herself while her young lays peacefully at her side - on right.This male crawled on on Zapadni Beach one morning and didn't see me until I approached fairly close to it.Arctic foxes are quite common on St. George. I was surprised to learn that they do not turn white in winter as they apparently do in other areas. They are no longer trapped for their hides. This mother and young kit fox were curious about me and not very wary. During my stay on the island, I located perhaps 6 or more different fox litters, with 5 or 6 young in each. The males that I saw usually had more light hair on them and were solitary. This male barked at me and posed for a number of pictures. Many of the other were on the wary side. Given the size of the fox litters, their food sources must be plentiful this year. Small rodents and birds likely make up the bulk of their diet, but I didn't see any rodents in the dense vegetation and rock fields.

Here Come The Clowns!

The Auklets - Least, Parakeet, and Crested - are one of the other groups of seabirds that nest on St. George Island in large numbers. However, in my opinion, they are not all that attractive, lacking much variety in plumage colors and with no distinctive pattern. Despite the lack of these attributes, these birds were really quite photogenic. I suppose that was because they were quite tame and they were vocal and animated. While I did not take as many photos of them as I did of puffins, I did fill up my cameras memory card with their images on many occasions. Below, all three species posed for me. From left to right - Parakeet, Least and Crested.Crested Auklets were not at all abundant on St. George, but I was fortunate to find them in a number of locations where they cooperated for some good photos. Other breeding areas to the north apparently have much greater numbers of this species and I just read a note where some birders on St. Lawrence Island estimated about a million of them passing a point near the town of Gambell on that island. It is easy to figure out how they got their name.Least Auklets were the smallest but by far most abundant of the group. Most apparently nested inland in the rock-fields below ridge lines where there were many burrows where they could remain relatively secure from predators, mostly Arctic Foxes.


Of the three species, I would probably rate the Parakeet Auklets as the most attractive, but that isn't saying much. They seemed to be quite a bit more abundant on the cliffs later in the season than the other species.