Seward Alaska Sporadic Bird
Report
Sunrise 4:40 am, sunset 11:12
pm for a total of 18 hours and 31 minutes. Tomorrow will be 2 minutes and 43
seconds longer.
After our "summer"
heat wave last week, the weather settled back to normal with temperatures in
the 40s to low 50s, partly cloudy skies, with occasional showers. A fleece once
again feels good.
With over 18 ½ hours of
daylight, it's a palette of greens of every hue and plants are growing like
mad. It's still possible to find warblers flitting and tumbling in the willow
trees, chasing tiny insects attracted to the flowers, but not for much longer.
Willow, alder, and cottonwood
are not the only flowers in bloom now. Nagoonberry and salmonberry flowers add
a splash of magenta; a single lupine offered its spire of blue and white
blooms; and dandelions have competition with the yellow flowers of the skunk
cabbage and marsh marigold.
The rapidly growing leaves
also hide the new nests under construction. The male birds loudly and
beautifully proclaim their territories now but soon the boundary disputes will be
settled and the nesting birds will be very quiet, incubating, then feeding
their families.
This is a great time to hop
on a boat and tour the seabird colonies on the cliffs and islands at the mouth
of Resurrection Bay and beyond to the Chiswell Islands. It's the only time
these seabirds come to shore because they haven't figured out a way to lay an
egg in the ocean. They are devoted to their rocky nesting sites, and easy to
find.
I was surprised to find
BLACK-LEGGED KITTIWAKES still gathering mud and vegetation for their nests, one
beakful at a time, at the mudflats at the head of the bay. What a long way to
carry this precious material back to the seabird colony! It seems a bit late,
just like everything else this spring.
Also a bit late, were two
GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GEESE, lagging far behind the rest of the flocks, and two
WANDERING TATTLERS.
The euchalon (hooligan)
continue to run in Resurrection River, attracting hoards of gulls: MEW,
BLACK-LEGGED KITTIWAKES, GLAUCOUS-WINGED, HERRING hybrids, and I think, a
GLAUCOUS GULL. A local fisherman thought the fish were late this year as he
only caught males in his dipnet when the females should also be here by now.
The RAVENS fish, steal, and
scavenge, eating the tasty, oily fish on the spot or haul them back to their
young in the nest. They run the gauntlet past the Mew gulls and ARCTIC TERNS
that fiercely attack from above. The Ravens quickly flip to present their beak
and claws, then either flip back or complete their 360 roll, acrobats that they
are. I suspect they enjoy the challenge! Eagles too, are attacked and harassed
by the bold birds, sometimes seeming to fly through just to stir things up into
a boiling flurry of feathers.
I happened to catch a photo
of an immature ARCTIC TERN with a white forehead. It takes 3 springs to reach
adult plumage, so this bird migrated all the way from the southern hemisphere
without any hopes of breeding. One source called this stage a
"loafer", though it might be very helpful in guarding others' nests
and territories. I have never noticed this before and wonder how common it is.
There is always something interesting to see and wonder about in the bird
world!
Other notes:
May 24: a juvenile SNOWY OWL
missing its head was found at the Exit Glacier outwash plain. How strange and
interesting! No further details.
May 27: 8 WANDERING TATTLERS
counted along Greenbelt at low tide, a surprising find on a busy Memorial Day.
May 30: single BRANT spotted
in the wetlands with the two TRUMPETER SWANS at Mile 1 Nash Road.
May 31: COMMON LOON in
breeding plumage diving near Lowell Point Road
June 1: FOS BANK SWALLOW;
either there aren't many around, or the swallows just move too fast and
erratically to properly identify.
June 3: GRAY-CHEEKED THRUSH reported from coniferous yard in town. None at Exit Glacier yet.
Happy Birding!
Carol
Griswold
Sporadic Bird Report Reporter
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