Seward,
Alaska Sporadic Bird Report
Sunrise
10:00 am, sunset 4:02 pm, length of day 6 hours, 2 minutes; tomorrow will be 2
minutes and 10 seconds longer.
Weather:
8ยบ, clear and cold, north wind subdued to 12 mph. Partly cloudy with scattered snow showers in the forecast.
Sunrise
may officially be 10 am, but the sun did not actually show its welcome face until
10:42, igniting the snowy landscape and sparking brilliant long blue shadows. The sky
constantly changed hues from pink to pale yellow, through a graduated sequence of
tints, tones, and shades of blues, then slowly deepened to twilight lavenders. At 4:20 pm the
Evening Star Venus chased the sun over the western mountains and Jupiter
appeared below the growing half moon suspended high in the sky.
PINE
GROSBEAKS sang the sun awake, BOHEMIAN WAXWINGS chirred softly from their
secret roost. A visit to Ava's added a few new species to 2012: DOWNY and HAIRY
WOODPECKERS, AMERICAN TREE SPARROW, REDPOLLS, and PINE SISKENS plus dozens of
PINE GROSBEAKS and her usual feeder birds. The interior red FOX SPARROW sat in
a tree by a town feeder, its rufous tail almost glowing in the sun. A ROBIN dashed
across the road. Two VARIED THRUSHES scrabbled under low spruce boughs.
Just
after sundown at Fourth of July beach, a single GRAY-CROWNED ROSY-FINCH
suddenly landed on a nearby bent-over beach rye seed head. It seemed unwilling
to land on the snow and gripped the stalk tightly, reaching awkwardly to harvest
the fallen seeds. Finally it gave up and hopped around, deftly working the
precious seeds out of their papery wrappers. I was very surprised to see it
"in the wild" away from the town feeder, and even more surprised to
find only one of this species usually found in a flock.
Robin
C found 28 species yesterday, a great start for the New Year.
Happy
Birding!
Carol
Griswold
Seward
Sporadic Bird Report Reporter
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