Well the waterfowl season is almost upon us and before you know it the little blue-wing teal will be buzzing our decoys next month. Here are some pics from my exploratory waterfowl hunt that took place in the remote Aleutian Island chain....a place called Adak Island. It it the western most part of USA where civilians can go. The major island after that is Attu which is a military/coast guard base.

Our main goal on this exploratory hunt was to collect some hard to get waterfowl species...primarily....ALEUTIAN GREENWING TEAL. They are the biggest sub-species of the Greenwing Teal the other two being (American and Eurasian). The American Greenwing Teal drake has white vertical line on the side wherease the Eurasian has a white horizontal scapular line. Eurasian is a bit smaller than the American. So this Aleutian Greenwing Teal is like a huge Eurasian Greenwing Teal, about twice the size. There were less that 5 in private collections in the USA as of 2009 and maybe around 8 in the museums. So a very very hard to get bird.

There were also reports on some asiatic species, we ended up connecting with a few of them and some we did not see. This does not mean that they are not there....Aleutians is a very very big place and the birds can scatter easily over thousands of square miles.

So to summarize...most collectors go to Alaska in search of seaducks...this hunt was primarily to find puddle ducks.

The weather was BRUTAL...cold, wet, windy, just absolutely horrible. Very very hard on electronic equipment.

If anyone feels like going on this extreme adventure drop me a line and I will hook you up.

We flew much farther away close to Russia...Jim Schockey's caribou lease is about half way in the last arc....so we were much closer to Kamchatka.



A stop over in Anchorage.


Flying over Aleutian Islands.


Rugged coast of Adak Island.


Daily routine.


High altitude water ponds...looking for exotic species.


Live ammo from second world war is still scattered around the island.


Endless pursuit !!!



Harlequin ducks !!!



Flying torpedos !!!


Drake Harlequin Duck !!!



Weather changed within minutes...this mountain got engulphed by this clound within minutes.


Retrieving birds on a fresh water pond


Got hammered in salt water.


A caribou skull...we left it there untouched.



There were 2 monster bulls in this herd on top of a mountain.


Some common scoter bulls we picked up.



A Eurasian Wigeon drake.


My Euro-Wigeon Bull


Finally connected with what we came there for...Aleutian Greenwing Teal drakes. These birds are the size of Harlequin ducks (we measured them for comparison side by side)...you can see the white horizontal scapular line in mid-body. I will post more pics when I get the birds back from the taxidermist.

Cool pictures of an unusual hunt.

Great looking hunt.....and birds.

A real adventure....
Congratulations!

You must be the world's most traveled duck hunter! Very nice.

fascinating post. outside of the munitions was there any evidence of the Japanese occupation during the war?

Great post. I am heading out to Adak in January for Ducks.
Butchloc - The Japanese never got on Adak. Only Attu and Kiska.

Glad you are enjoying the pics.

@larryshores
I have hunted on 6 continents so far. They do not have any huntable duck species in the Antarctic otherwise I would have made the effort to go there

@butchloc
US used Adak as staging ground to take back Attu. So Japanese were never really there. Then during the cold war it was a hot bed for keeping an eye on the Soviets, there still are multiple radar domes scattered all over. At the peak there were couple of thousand military personnel stationed there. Then when the base was shut down all the land and all buildings were given back to the native Aleuts. You can buy a duplex for about $14,000 there. If $hit hits the fan in the lower 48, you can easily move there and survive off the land. It will be a harsh existence but you can atleast survive. They get the supplies in from Seattle via a barge once a year. Only a couple of hundred natives live there. Visit to the local grocery store was exciting....Milk was $15 per gallon. Gas was about $8 per gallon. When you land at the airport you buy a trespassing pass from the local Aleut corporation representative (probably around $50) that gives you the right to run around on the island. Locals are very very friendly and are trying hard to setup eco-tourism...Alaskan residents go to Adak for Caribou hunting....the meat is unbelievably good. On the plane ride over I sat next to the owner of Alaska Sausage Company...he was going there with his son to hunt Caribou. Northern part of the island has roads so it is fairly easy to navigate. Lower half you can only do by foot. We navigated the waters with our Zodiak. There is an unbelivable amount of bird life there.

@SG Olds
Good luck and stay safe....if you are getting into the Adak waters then I am sure you've got balls of steel


Some pics from the Adak airport.

gets more interesting by the minute - i gotta - how much was the air ticket from anchorage and back? & how many times did the flights get canceled due to weather

Grate as always

@butchloc
I am sure you can get great deals from MN to Anchorage...now from Anchorage to Adak is usually around $900 return ticket. They allow you 3 checked bags for free. They fly a jet plane on that route, half of it is for cargo, half of it is very comfy seats. Flight time is about 3 hours. There is one flight on Sunday and another on Thursday. Adak has a kickass runway (thanks to military engineering) and they pretty much fly there all year....only thing stops them is if a nearby volcano is spitting ash. I am sure there is a website out there that will tell you the flight cancellation percentage for a certain route. We had no delays arriving or departing. More pics...


Arriving at Adak airport.



A caribou bull that almost hit our truck.



Bald eagles on the shore taking care of a caribou carcass.


A beautiful eagle waiting for his turn.


Harlequin ducks...there were quite a few of them.


A nice Goldeneye drake.



Some Rock Ptarmigans we shot....they are really big...as big as Willow Ptarmigan of mainland Alaska. We cooked them and ate them, meat was dark but very tasty. Their plumage here in Adak do not turn completely white and they stay in the interphasic color during winter.

Very Very nice, I always enjoy your posts...

Fantastic! Great Picts.

Excellent as always Oz. I have a Euro GW and our common GW but no Aleutian. Maybe someday. Thanks for posting those great pics.
David

Thank you Patricio, Steve and David....glad you all enjoyed the pics

I was Chief Forecaster and then Chief of Weather for the USAF in Alaska during the late '60's and I can vouch for the crazy, nasty and unpredictable weather along the Chain.

I love waterfowl hunting, and did a lot of it while in Alaska, but in more reasonable areas and under more reasonable conditons.

My hat is off to you for your love of the sport.

INCREDIBLE ,WONDERFULL ,GREAT EXPEDITION THANK YOU VERY MUCH

@DB Bill
Thank you...my hunting equipment took a lot of beating on that trip. It was an extreme adventure for sure. Jim Shockey has setup a Caribou operation about half way between Anchorage and Adak in the Aleutian Islands...and is charging a ton of $$$ for that hunt. They do have some impressive animals there.

@juanpozzi
Very welcome...glad you enjoyed the pics.