I just returned today from a 5-day birding trip to Nome, Alaska. It was one of those experiences beyond words. The Long-tailed Jaeger serves as a symbol of my trip, a species I had seen only once before. In the hundreds of square miles of tundra and mountains around Nome, this striking bird was found more often than any other of the larger species, but I never tired of watching its graceful flight as it searched for prey, or chased ravens away from the territory near its nest.