Two of the top target birds in any visit to the North Slope are Spectacled and Steller's Eiders:
By late August all the males seemed to have gone, and I was only able to find individuals or passing flocks (one flock of 36) of female-type Spectacled Eiders:
Again there were no male-plumaged Steller's Eiders, instead many groups of female+juveniles were still around Barrow, and they gathered close to the beach most mornings:
In the first two weeks there were huge numbers of King Eiders migrating south around or across Point Barrow. This is the one species of eider the locals still hunt, and many of the birds seen close to shore were probably wounded birds:
I saw no Common Eiders in the first two weeks at Barrow, but on my return in mid-September, they were starting to come through - often in single-sex/age flocks (all the males were in eclipse, but still with lots of white on the back and wings). These are the western Arctic form, and I did see one swimming eclipse male with a bright orange bill (but too windy for photos). This presumed juvenile has a much more-contrasting head pattern than that illustrated in most field guides:
