9 Days • Anchorage → Seward → Homer → Alyeska → Anchorage
Join us for an immersive 9-day coastal birding adventure through some of Southcentral Alaska’s most spectacular landscapes. From migrating shorebirds and seabird colonies to glaciers, whales, marine wildlife, estuaries, and coastal mountains, this workshop combines focused birding with the incredible wildlife and scenery that make Alaska unique.
Take your wildlife photography to the next level by learning our editing process directly from your photography guides. You’ll have dedicated editing time during your stay to work through your own images, ask questions, and learn techniques you can continue using long after the workshop.
At the end of the workshop, we’ll bring everything together by creating a beautiful book featuring the images you selected and edited during your stay — giving you a lasting keepsake of your wildlife photography adventure.
Your Trip Is All-Inclusive
Once you arrive in Anchorage, everything is taken care of. Your workshop includes all accommodations, all meals, ground transportation, airport transfers, boats, scheduled activities and excursions, and gratuities for accommodations, activities, and included services.
The only travel expense not included is your flight to Anchorage at the beginning of the workshop and your flight home from Anchorage at the end.
We’ll also provide a hotel in Anchorage on your arrival and departure days to make traveling to and from Alaska as easy and comfortable as possible.
Day 1 — Welcome to Anchorage
Arrive in Anchorage and settle into our starting hotel, where you’ll meet your fellow workshop participants and guides.
This evening will be an opportunity to get acquainted, review the itinerary, discuss the birding opportunities ahead, and prepare for the days to come.
Meals: Included
Overnight: Anchorage
Day 2 — Anchorage to Seward & evening sunset tour
After breakfast, we’ll depart Anchorage and make our way south toward Seward along the scenic Seward Highway.
Rather than simply traveling between destinations, we’ll use the journey as our first full day of birding, making stops at productive coastal, wetland, and woodland habitats along the way. As we travel south, we’ll have opportunities to explore several birding hotspots and look for species along the route while taking in the dramatic scenery of the Kenai Peninsula.
We’ll arrive in Seward and settle into our hotel before heading back out for an evening sunset tour. With the long Alaskan summer evenings, we’ll have the opportunity to explore the coastline during some of the best light of the day, looking for birds and marine wildlife while enjoying the surrounding mountains and coastal scenery.
The evening tour will give us a chance to experience Seward after the day’s travel and birding has wound down, with opportunities for wildlife viewing and photography in the soft evening light.
Meals: Included
Overnight: Seward
Day 3 — Seward & Kenai Fjords
We’ll start the morning with a birding-focused boat tour into Kenai Fjords, giving us the opportunity to experience Alaska’s spectacular marine environment while searching for seabirds, migrating species, and marine wildlife.
As we travel through the fjords, we’ll look for puffins, murres, kittiwakes, cormorants, sea ducks, and other coastal species, while also keeping an eye out for whales, sea otters, sea lions, and other marine wildlife. The surrounding glaciers, rugged coastline, and towering mountains make this an unforgettable setting for both birding and photography.
After returning to Seward, we’ll have lunch before shifting our focus from the water to land-based birding and wildlife exploration.
The afternoon will be spent exploring coastal habitats around Seward, including beaches, tidal areas, wetlands, and coastal forest. We’ll take our time walking through these habitats and searching for shorebirds, waterfowl, seabirds, and forest species.
As the day continues, we’ll follow the best birding opportunities and wildlife activity in the area, with plenty of time for photography and observation.
We’ll finish the day with an evening ground-based sunset tour, exploring the Seward coastline during the long Alaskan evening light. This will give us another opportunity to look for birds and wildlife while enjoying the scenery without having to get back on the water.
Meals: Included
Overnight: Seward
Day 4 — Seward to Homer
We’ll depart Seward and begin our journey west toward Homer continuing to take advantage of productive birding locations along the way.
Upon arrival in Homer, we’ll check into Land's End Resort, located at the end of the Homer Spit.
With views across Kachemak Bay toward the surrounding mountain ranges, it’s the perfect place to unwind after our travels and enjoy the coastal scenery as well as the local bird shore festival.
Meals: Included
Overnight: Land’s End Resort, Homer
Day 5 — Gull Island & Odyssey Lodge
After breakfast, we’ll leave Homer and make our way toward Odyssey Lodge, with an exciting birding stop at Gull Island along the way.
Gull Island is an important seabird nesting site and one of the highlights of our time in Kachemak Bay. The island supports nesting colonies of Black-legged Kittiwakes, Common Murres, Tufted Puffins, Horned Puffins, Pelagic Cormorants, Double-crested Cormorants, and Black Oystercatchers, along with other coastal and migratory species that use the island and surrounding waters throughout the year.
We’ll spend time observing the island and surrounding waters, looking for birds in flight, on the water, and along the nesting cliffs while taking advantage of the incredible photographic opportunities.
After our Gull Island excursion, we’ll continue on to Odyssey Lodge and settle in. Following lunch, we’ll take a relaxed property hike to get familiar with the area and introduce everyone to the habitats we’ll be exploring during our stay.
Later in the afternoon, we’ll head out toward the surrounding glacier-fed estuaries and tidal mudflats, where changing tides create productive feeding grounds for waterfowl, shorebirds, and other coastal species. We’ll explore the mudflats and shoreline while looking for birds taking advantage of the exposed tidal areas to forage and feed.
After returning to the lodge for dinner, we’ll head back out to Gull Island for an evening sunset photography session. The long Alaskan evening light will provide a beautiful backdrop as we photograph seabirds returning to the island and moving through the surrounding waters.
This will be our first full day immersed in the unique coastal ecosystem surrounding Odyssey Lodge.
Meals: Included
Overnight: Odyssey Lodge
Day 6 — Gull Island & Grewingk Glacier
We’ll start the morning with another opportunity to visit Gull Island, taking advantage of the morning activity around this incredible seabird colony. We’ll spend time watching the birds as they move between the island and surrounding waters before continuing toward one of the day’s major highlights: Grewingk Glacier.
From Gull Island, we’ll make our way toward the trailhead for the Grewingk Glacier Trail. This beautiful, approximately 5-mile round-trip hike takes us through a diverse coastal landscape toward spectacular views of the glacier and surrounding mountains.
Along the way, we’ll keep our eyes open for the variety of birds, wildlife, and plant species that inhabit this coastal ecosystem. The hike will also give us an opportunity to experience Alaska beyond the shoreline, with the landscape changing as we make our way toward the glacier.
After completing the hike, we’ll return to the lodge for some time to relax, recharge, and enjoy the property before heading back out for the evening.
Later in the day, we’ll make our way to Homer to attend the final ceremony of the Shorebird Festival, joining other birders and nature enthusiasts in celebrating the incredible shorebird migration that brings so much life to the region.
After the ceremony, we’ll begin our journey back toward the lodge. Before calling it a night, we’ll make one more pass by Gull Island to take advantage of the evening light.
With the sun getting low over Kachemak Bay, we’ll have another opportunity for sunset photography, capturing the seabirds against the mountains, water, and evening sky.
We’ll then return to Odyssey Lodge for the evening and our final night in this remarkable coastal environment.
Meals: Included
Overnight: Odyssey Lodge
Day 7 — Homer to Alyeska
After breakfast, we’ll begin our journey north toward Girdwood and Alyeska Resort.
The drive offers another opportunity to explore Southcentral Alaska’s changing landscapes and make birding stops along the way.
We’ll arrive at Alyeska and settle into the resort before spending the evening exploring the surrounding marshes and mountains.
Meals: Included
Overnight: Alyeska Resort
Day 8 — Alyeska, Turnagain Arm & Alpine Birding
Our final full day of the workshop takes us into a completely different side of Alaska’s coastal ecosystem. Alyeska and the surrounding Girdwood area sit where the Chugach Mountains meet Turnagain Arm, creating a unique combination of coastal, wetland, river, boreal forest, and alpine habitats.
This diversity is what makes the area such an exciting place to finish our birding journey. After spending much of the workshop focused on marine environments, shorelines, and tidal flats, Alyeska gives us the opportunity to explore forest and mountain bird communities alongside the coast.
We’ll spend the morning exploring the wetlands and coastal areas around Turnagain Arm, looking for waterfowl, shorebirds, Bald Eagles, gulls, and other species that use the shoreline and surrounding wetlands. The changing tides can expose extensive feeding areas along the mudflats, creating opportunities to observe birds actively foraging along the coast.
As we move inland toward Girdwood, we’ll transition into boreal forest and river habitats, where we’ll search for species that prefer the dense spruce and mixed forests rather than the open coastal environment. Depending on seasonal activity, we’ll be watching and listening for songbirds, woodpeckers, thrushes, sparrows, and other forest species.
We’ll also take time to explore the mountain environment around Alyeska, giving us the chance to look for birds associated with higher elevations and the dramatic Chugach landscape.
Throughout the day, we’ll move between these different habitats rather than staying in one location, allowing us to experience the remarkable range of birdlife found within the Alyeska and Turnagain Arm region.
As evening approaches, we’ll make our way back toward Alyeska for our final night together. We’ll have time to enjoy the resort, review some of the highlights from the workshop, and reflect on the incredible variety of birds and habitats we’ve experienced throughout coastal Alaska.
Meals: Included
Overnight: Alyeska Resort
Day 9 — Alyeska to Anchorage & Departure
After breakfast, we’ll make our way back to Anchorage, completing our coastal birding journey not before stopping at a few more spots along the way.
Once we arrive in Anchorage, you’ll have the flexibility to either continue directly to the airport for your flight home or stay an additional night in Anchorage if that better fits your travel plans.
If you choose not to use the included final Anchorage hotel night because you’re continuing on with your travels, we’ll refund the cost of that unused night.
Meals: Included
End of Workshop: Anchorage
What’s Included
Your workshop price includes:
All accommodations
All meals throughout the trip
Airport pickup and drop-off
All scheduled birding activities and excursions
Professional guides and workshop instruction
All transportation between destinations
Gratuities for accommodations, activities, and included services
Anchorage hotel on your arrival day
Anchorage hotel on your departure day, if needed
Not Included
The only flights you are responsible for are:
Once you arrive in Anchorage, your accommodations, meals, transportation, activities, and gratuities are all covered.
9 Days • Anchorage → Seward → Homer → Alyeska → Anchorage
Join us for an immersive 9-day coastal birding adventure through some of Southcentral Alaska’s most spectacular landscapes. From migrating shorebirds and seabird colonies to glaciers, whales, marine wildlife, estuaries, and coastal mountains, this workshop combines focused birding with the incredible wildlife and scenery that make Alaska unique.
Take your wildlife photography to the next level by learning our editing process directly from your photography guides. You’ll have dedicated editing time during your stay to work through your own images, ask questions, and learn techniques you can continue using long after the workshop.
At the end of the workshop, we’ll bring everything together by creating a beautiful book featuring the images you selected and edited during your stay — giving you a lasting keepsake of your wildlife photography adventure.
Your Trip Is All-Inclusive
Once you arrive in Anchorage, everything is taken care of. Your workshop includes all accommodations, all meals, ground transportation, airport transfers, boats, scheduled activities and excursions, and gratuities for accommodations, activities, and included services.
The only travel expense not included is your flight to Anchorage at the beginning of the workshop and your flight home from Anchorage at the end.
We’ll also provide a hotel in Anchorage on your arrival and departure days to make traveling to and from Alaska as easy and comfortable as possible.
Day 1 — Welcome to Anchorage
Arrive in Anchorage and settle into our starting hotel, where you’ll meet your fellow workshop participants and guides.
This evening will be an opportunity to get acquainted, review the itinerary, discuss the birding opportunities ahead, and prepare for the days to come.
Meals: Included
Overnight: Anchorage
Day 2 — Anchorage to Seward & evening sunset tour
After breakfast, we’ll depart Anchorage and make our way south toward Seward along the scenic Seward Highway.
Rather than simply traveling between destinations, we’ll use the journey as our first full day of birding, making stops at productive coastal, wetland, and woodland habitats along the way. As we travel south, we’ll have opportunities to explore several birding hotspots and look for species along the route while taking in the dramatic scenery of the Kenai Peninsula.
We’ll arrive in Seward and settle into our hotel before heading back out for an evening sunset tour. With the long Alaskan summer evenings, we’ll have the opportunity to explore the coastline during some of the best light of the day, looking for birds and marine wildlife while enjoying the surrounding mountains and coastal scenery.
The evening tour will give us a chance to experience Seward after the day’s travel and birding has wound down, with opportunities for wildlife viewing and photography in the soft evening light.
Meals: Included
Overnight: Seward
Day 3 — Seward & Kenai Fjords
We’ll start the morning with a birding-focused boat tour into Kenai Fjords, giving us the opportunity to experience Alaska’s spectacular marine environment while searching for seabirds, migrating species, and marine wildlife.
As we travel through the fjords, we’ll look for puffins, murres, kittiwakes, cormorants, sea ducks, and other coastal species, while also keeping an eye out for whales, sea otters, sea lions, and other marine wildlife. The surrounding glaciers, rugged coastline, and towering mountains make this an unforgettable setting for both birding and photography.
After returning to Seward, we’ll have lunch before shifting our focus from the water to land-based birding and wildlife exploration.
The afternoon will be spent exploring coastal habitats around Seward, including beaches, tidal areas, wetlands, and coastal forest. We’ll take our time walking through these habitats and searching for shorebirds, waterfowl, seabirds, and forest species.
As the day continues, we’ll follow the best birding opportunities and wildlife activity in the area, with plenty of time for photography and observation.
We’ll finish the day with an evening ground-based sunset tour, exploring the Seward coastline during the long Alaskan evening light. This will give us another opportunity to look for birds and wildlife while enjoying the scenery without having to get back on the water.
Meals: Included
Overnight: Seward
Day 4 — Seward to Homer
We’ll depart Seward and begin our journey west toward Homer continuing to take advantage of productive birding locations along the way.
Upon arrival in Homer, we’ll check into Land's End Resort, located at the end of the Homer Spit.
With views across Kachemak Bay toward the surrounding mountain ranges, it’s the perfect place to unwind after our travels and enjoy the coastal scenery as well as the local bird shore festival.
Meals: Included
Overnight: Land’s End Resort, Homer
Day 5 — Gull Island & Odyssey Lodge
After breakfast, we’ll leave Homer and make our way toward Odyssey Lodge, with an exciting birding stop at Gull Island along the way.
Gull Island is an important seabird nesting site and one of the highlights of our time in Kachemak Bay. The island supports nesting colonies of Black-legged Kittiwakes, Common Murres, Tufted Puffins, Horned Puffins, Pelagic Cormorants, Double-crested Cormorants, and Black Oystercatchers, along with other coastal and migratory species that use the island and surrounding waters throughout the year.
We’ll spend time observing the island and surrounding waters, looking for birds in flight, on the water, and along the nesting cliffs while taking advantage of the incredible photographic opportunities.
After our Gull Island excursion, we’ll continue on to Odyssey Lodge and settle in. Following lunch, we’ll take a relaxed property hike to get familiar with the area and introduce everyone to the habitats we’ll be exploring during our stay.
Later in the afternoon, we’ll head out toward the surrounding glacier-fed estuaries and tidal mudflats, where changing tides create productive feeding grounds for waterfowl, shorebirds, and other coastal species. We’ll explore the mudflats and shoreline while looking for birds taking advantage of the exposed tidal areas to forage and feed.
After returning to the lodge for dinner, we’ll head back out to Gull Island for an evening sunset photography session. The long Alaskan evening light will provide a beautiful backdrop as we photograph seabirds returning to the island and moving through the surrounding waters.
This will be our first full day immersed in the unique coastal ecosystem surrounding Odyssey Lodge.
Meals: Included
Overnight: Odyssey Lodge
Day 6 — Gull Island & Grewingk Glacier
We’ll start the morning with another opportunity to visit Gull Island, taking advantage of the morning activity around this incredible seabird colony. We’ll spend time watching the birds as they move between the island and surrounding waters before continuing toward one of the day’s major highlights: Grewingk Glacier.
From Gull Island, we’ll make our way toward the trailhead for the Grewingk Glacier Trail. This beautiful, approximately 5-mile round-trip hike takes us through a diverse coastal landscape toward spectacular views of the glacier and surrounding mountains.
Along the way, we’ll keep our eyes open for the variety of birds, wildlife, and plant species that inhabit this coastal ecosystem. The hike will also give us an opportunity to experience Alaska beyond the shoreline, with the landscape changing as we make our way toward the glacier.
After completing the hike, we’ll return to the lodge for some time to relax, recharge, and enjoy the property before heading back out for the evening.
Later in the day, we’ll make our way to Homer to attend the final ceremony of the Shorebird Festival, joining other birders and nature enthusiasts in celebrating the incredible shorebird migration that brings so much life to the region.
After the ceremony, we’ll begin our journey back toward the lodge. Before calling it a night, we’ll make one more pass by Gull Island to take advantage of the evening light.
With the sun getting low over Kachemak Bay, we’ll have another opportunity for sunset photography, capturing the seabirds against the mountains, water, and evening sky.
We’ll then return to Odyssey Lodge for the evening and our final night in this remarkable coastal environment.
Meals: Included
Overnight: Odyssey Lodge
Day 7 — Homer to Alyeska
After breakfast, we’ll begin our journey north toward Girdwood and Alyeska Resort.
The drive offers another opportunity to explore Southcentral Alaska’s changing landscapes and make birding stops along the way.
We’ll arrive at Alyeska and settle into the resort before spending the evening exploring the surrounding marshes and mountains.
Meals: Included
Overnight: Alyeska Resort
Day 8 — Alyeska, Turnagain Arm & Alpine Birding
Our final full day of the workshop takes us into a completely different side of Alaska’s coastal ecosystem. Alyeska and the surrounding Girdwood area sit where the Chugach Mountains meet Turnagain Arm, creating a unique combination of coastal, wetland, river, boreal forest, and alpine habitats.
This diversity is what makes the area such an exciting place to finish our birding journey. After spending much of the workshop focused on marine environments, shorelines, and tidal flats, Alyeska gives us the opportunity to explore forest and mountain bird communities alongside the coast.
We’ll spend the morning exploring the wetlands and coastal areas around Turnagain Arm, looking for waterfowl, shorebirds, Bald Eagles, gulls, and other species that use the shoreline and surrounding wetlands. The changing tides can expose extensive feeding areas along the mudflats, creating opportunities to observe birds actively foraging along the coast.
As we move inland toward Girdwood, we’ll transition into boreal forest and river habitats, where we’ll search for species that prefer the dense spruce and mixed forests rather than the open coastal environment. Depending on seasonal activity, we’ll be watching and listening for songbirds, woodpeckers, thrushes, sparrows, and other forest species.
We’ll also take time to explore the mountain environment around Alyeska, giving us the chance to look for birds associated with higher elevations and the dramatic Chugach landscape.
Throughout the day, we’ll move between these different habitats rather than staying in one location, allowing us to experience the remarkable range of birdlife found within the Alyeska and Turnagain Arm region.
As evening approaches, we’ll make our way back toward Alyeska for our final night together. We’ll have time to enjoy the resort, review some of the highlights from the workshop, and reflect on the incredible variety of birds and habitats we’ve experienced throughout coastal Alaska.
Meals: Included
Overnight: Alyeska Resort
Day 9 — Alyeska to Anchorage & Departure
After breakfast, we’ll make our way back to Anchorage, completing our coastal birding journey not before stopping at a few more spots along the way.
Once we arrive in Anchorage, you’ll have the flexibility to either continue directly to the airport for your flight home or stay an additional night in Anchorage if that better fits your travel plans.
If you choose not to use the included final Anchorage hotel night because you’re continuing on with your travels, we’ll refund the cost of that unused night.
Meals: Included
End of Workshop: Anchorage
What’s Included
Your workshop price includes:
All accommodations
All meals throughout the trip
Airport pickup and drop-off
All scheduled birding activities and excursions
Professional guides and workshop instruction
All transportation between destinations
Gratuities for accommodations, activities, and included services
Anchorage hotel on your arrival day
Anchorage hotel on your departure day, if needed
Not Included
The only flights you are responsible for are:
Once you arrive in Anchorage, your accommodations, meals, transportation, activities, and gratuities are all covered.
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