Ptichy Island (, Ostrov Ptichy, meaning Bird Island) is a small island in the Sea of Okhotsk. Geography Ptichy Island is one of the Shantar Islands. It lies between the southwest point of Bolshoy Shantar and Cape Bol'shoy Dugandzha on the mainland. It is a little over 1.6 km (1 mi) in length and rises to a height of 290 m (951 ft).National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. (2014). Sailing Directions (Enroute): East Coast of Russia. U.S. Government, Springfield, Virginia.

History

Between 1857 and 1889, American whaleships cruised for bowhead whales off Ptichiy.Frances Henrietta, of New Bedford, August 18, 1857, Nicholson Whaling Collection (NWC); Mary Frazier, of New Bedford, July 18, 1859, NWC; Josephine, of New Bedford, September 25, 1864, August 28, 1865, Kendall Whaling Museum (KWM); Sea Breeze, of New Bedford, September 4, 1866, Old Dartmouth Historical Society; Mary and Helen II, of San Francisco, August 15, August 17, 1885, KWM; E. F. Herriman, of San Francisco, August 26-27, September 5-6, September 10, September 25, 1889, George Blunt White Library (GBWL) #761. They called it Big StinkerWilliam C. Nye, of San Francisco, August 31, 1862, Bancroft Library (BL). or just Stinker Island, "on account of the dead whales drifting along there from the ice".Williams, H. (1964). One whaling family. Boston, Houghton Mifflin. Along with Utichy, it was considered one of the Stinker Islands.Charles W. Morgan, of New Bedford, September 5, 1866, GBWL.William C. Nye, of San Francisco, August 8, August 30, 1862, BL.Bart Gosnold, of New Bedford, September 14, 1863, GBWL. Ships also anchored under it during strong windsEndeavor, of New Bedford, August 27, 1859, NWC. and boat crews spent the night on the island after cruising for whales all day.Antelope, of Newport, August 22, 1858, Nantucket Historical Association.

Fauna

In the summer there is a large colony of spectacled guillemots on the island, as well as a smaller nesting colony of thick-billed murres.Kondratyev, A. Y., Litvinenko, N. M., Shibaev, Y. V., Vyatkin, P. S., & Kondratyeva, L. F. (2000). "The breeding seabirds of the Russian Far East". Seabirds of the Russian Far East, 37-81.

References