Arctic Dispatch: Long-tailed Ducks at Teshekpuk Lake

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Arctic Dispatch: Long-tailed Ducks at Teshekpuk Lake
Written by Gerrit Vyn

Ariana Remmel: This is BirdNote.

In the summer of 2026, conservation photographer Gerrit Vyn visited a remote wilderness called the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska. He shared this audio postcard in June.

Gerrit Vyn:

 I'm at Teshekpuk Lake in the Alaskan Arctic, just six miles from the Arctic Ocean, a landscape that just days ago was still covered in ice and snow, and now it's absolutely bustling with life and birdsong.

    [Arctic soundscape]

It's midnight, but the sun is still above the horizon, casting a golden light across the grasses and the wetlands. As far as you can hear in every direction, there are birds advertising and displaying.
    
    [Arctic soundscape featuring Long-tailed Ducks calling]

On this lake right now, there's an incredible congregation of Long-tailed Ducks. A huge group of males is vigorously competing to attract females, to fend off and fight off rival males.

    [Long-tailed Ducks]

They're splashing and fighting and chasing, and their vocalizations reflect the urgency of the season. They have a very short window to meet and breed and produce the next generation. And it's not just the Long-tailed Ducks.

    [Goose sounds]

Watching the spectacle on the lake are hundreds of geese, Yellow-billed Loons, and one of the most beautiful birds of the Arctic, King Eiders. In the air around the lake: Pectoral Sandpipers are displaying on the wing. 
    
    [Pectoral Sandpipers hooting]

Phalaropes that have spent the summer far out at sea are spinning like tops on the ponds around me.

    [Red and Red-throated Phalorope calls]

And a Snowy Owl is perched prominently on a ridgeline overlooking it all.

    [Arctic soundscape]

The wetlands around Teshekpuk Lake are among the most vast in the entire Arctic. They're critical for millions of birds to breed every year, and they come from all over the world. Bar-tailed Godwits from New Zealand, White-fronted Geese and pintail from the Lower 48, sandpipers that go all the way to southern South America.

[Arctic soundscape]

This is a nursery for so many of our birds.

I’m Gerrit Vyn for BirdNote.

Ariana Remmel: Hear more soundscapes from Gerrit Vyn’s expedition on our website, BirdNote.org. I’m Ariana Remmel.

###

Senior Producer: Mark Bramhill
Producer: Sam Johnson
Managing Producer: Jazzi Johnson
Managing Producer: Ariana Remmel
Content Director: Jonese Franklin

Bird sounds provided and recorded by Gerrit Vyn.
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2026 BirdNote September 2026
Narrator: Gerrit Vyn & Ariana Remmel

ID# vynG-02-2026-09-07        vynG-02