Seward,
Alaska Sporadic Bird Report
Sunrise
9:42 am, sunset 4:35 pm, length of day 6 hours, 53 minutes; tomorrow will be 4
minutes and 10 seconds longer.
Weather:
Cold and clear continues. Temps dropped to 1ยบ in town and below zero just out
of town. Fortunately, the north wind was light. The relatively "warm" bay relinquished heat to the
frigid air in ghostly vapor streamers.
Just
before dawn this morning (it sounds so righteous to get out before dawn!), I
noticed several small groups of STELLER'S JAYS and PINE GROSBEAKS quietly standing
guard at their posts at the tops of spruce trees. Watching, watching for
raptors. A VARIED THRUSH perched
in a cottonwood, warily checking out the neighbor's feeder before diving down to join
the JUNCOS.
Down
the street, six RAVENS tackled an unknown banquet next to the snow berm. A BALD
EAGLE cruised overhead, but nothing was left worth snatching.
Around
noon, I found 7 BLACK SCOTERS in a tight raft just offshore by the Scheffler
Creek Bridge. About 50 -100 gulls, SURF SCOTERS, and BARROW'S GOLDENEYES rafted
up by the buoys south of the boat harbor where the seafood processing plant
pipe feeds chopped fish waste. It was hard to discern the numbers and species
due to the sea smoke. A single RED-BREASTED MERGANSER dove by the harbor
breakwater; goldeneyes rested in the sun out of the wind on the rocks. No loons
seen.
Ava's
yard boiled with birds: PINE GROSBEAKS, PINE SISKINS, COMMON REDPOLLS,
RED-BREASTED NUTHATCHES, BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEES, DARK-EYED JUNCOS, DOWNY and
HAIRY WOODPECKERS, and at least 2 AMERICAN TREE SPARROWS.
Back
home, while I was away, my neighbor reported a NORTHERN SHRIKE, GRAY-CROWNED
ROSY-FINCHES, and about 20 PINE GROSBEAKS in addition to all the usual feeder birds. A NORTHERN GOSHAWK took out a PIGEON. Yea!
Happy
Birding!
Carol
Griswold
Seward
Sporadic Bird Report Reporter
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