Soggy Seward Birding
Seward, Alaska Sporadic Bird Report
Seward, Alaska Sporadic Bird Report
Sunrise
5:29 am, sunset 10:20 pm, length of day 16 hours, 51 minutes; tomorrow will be
4 minutes and 55 seconds longer.
Weather:
Unbelievable! It was snowing rain or raining snow this morning, enough to tinge
the ground white. As the day warmed up to a whopping 40ยบ the steady precip
became invisible, but wet nonetheless. More sn'rain in the forecast for the
next several days with strong wind as a bonus.
Thanks
to the series of storms and brisk south winds, the birds continue to blow in.
In weather like this, car birding is much easier on optics and provides a great
blind. Today I parked along the beach south of the Scheffler Creek bridge. The
WANDERING TATTLER was joined by a LESSER YELLOWLEGS and several WESTERN
SANDPIPERS, poking and picking through the intertidal zone seaweeds. HARLEQUINS
took a break from the ocean to nap in the rain on the slippery rocks while MEW
GULLS stood guard nearby.
Several
NORTHERN SHOVELERS paddled close to shore with their heads low to the water,
their over-sized bills straining the nutrient-laden water. A small raft of SURF
SCOTERS dove in synchrony; a nearby flock of GREATER SCAUP echoed their
movements.
A
BALD EAGLE stood smack in the middle of Scheffler Creek, up to its pantaloons
in the current. Every now and then, it lowered its head, scooped up a beakful
of water to drink, and then looked around regally, a soggy bird surveying its
soggy kingdom.
A
bit farther from shore, BARROW'S GOLDENEYES paddled and dove, keeping an eye on
the eagle.
Out
at the tidelands, a large flock of about 100 DUNLINS swooped overhead, with WESTERNS and
LEAST SANDPIPERS. A few WHIMBRELS toot-toot-tooted flying
from here to there. Clouds of gulls rose and fell at the mouth of Resurrection
River, probably hassled by an eagle. A single TUNDRA swan pulled vegetation
from the pond bottom, surrounded
by a host of GREATER SCAUP, AMERICAN WIGEON, and MALLARDS. NORTHERN SHOVELERS,
NORTHERN PINTAILS, and GREEN-WINGED TEAL fed throughout the recently thawed
pond. ARCTIC TERNS zipped overhead.
Yesterday,
Jim H reported, in addition to the above birds, a pair of BRANT out in front of
the river, one BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER, 5 SEMI-PALMATED PLOVERS, and a wet MERLIN
perched at the top of a spruce.
The
RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRDS have arrived in force. I have received many happy reports
of this tiny, tough, traveler visiting feeders all around town. I was pleased
to watch a male and several females tanking up on sugar water. How they
survived the migration and then this miserable wintery weather is just beyond
imagining.
The
GOLDEN-CROWNED SPARROWS, FOX SPARROWS are migrating through in numbers. For an
interesting report on the Golden-crowned Sparrows' 3,200-to-5,000-mile
roundtrip migration from California to Alaska go to
http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/tiny-trackers-plot-sparrows-flight-between-alaska-and-california?page=0,0.
The
article says in part, "The one-ounce birds had taken an average of 29 days
to travel north, eventually spreading out into four areas along 750 miles of
coastal Alaska. Their trips ranged from 1,600 to 2,400 miles in length. When
they flew back to California, they traveled somewhat slower, averaging about 53
days in transit." Thanks to Jim for that link.
My FOS LINCOLN'S SPARROW popped up in my neighborhood on May 8th, sat in a leafing young cottonwood and even sang briefly before flitting away.
Other
news of note is not a bird, but a red, 12" float I spotted on the beach. I
don't recall seeing a red buoy or float here before; this one says
"Sanshin Kako Co LTD". In addition, someone hand-painted a pair of spouting white whales. I suspect it is from the March 2011 Japan tsunami.
I
reported it to DisasterDebris@noaa.gov.
More information is available at
http://marinedebris.noaa.gov/info/japanfaqs.html#7. Innocent debris like this
is fun, but I shudder to think what might be hitting our coast next. Yikes!
Happy
Birding!
Carol
Griswold
Seward
Sporadic Bird Report Reporter
No comments:
Post a Comment