Sunrise 5:09 am, sunset 10:40
pm for a total day length of 17 hours and 31 minutes. Tomorrow will be 4
minutes and 26 seconds longer.
Day after day of sunshine
continues, interrupted only by occasional but serious evening fog. Despite the
drought, town is green, green, green. The Red Elderberries burst overnight into
white lilac-like blooms, as the willows, alders, and cottonwoods reached their
peak and faded. The magenta male cones of the spruce trees opened wide, casting
their wind-blown golden pollen on the waiting female cones, and generously coated
everything else.
After days of relatively
light winds, today's brisk 15-26 mph north wind reached gusts of 38 mph. The
temperature dropped into the low 60s, but it felt much cooler. We were spoiled
by the mid to high 70ยบ temperatures over the weekend that sent people to the
beach in rarely seen swimming suits to splash about and soak up some Vitamin D.
What a spring!
Today I layered on the fleece
and a heavy jacket to venture out into the wind at the head of the bay. The
main shorebird migration seems to be over, but I found one WHIMBREL, about 7
SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHERS feeding and bathing, a few SEMI-PALMATED PLOVERS, 1
GREATER YELLOWLEGS, and a highlight: 2 PECTORAL SANDPIPERS mostly hidden in the
green and brown sedges.
An immature and adult BALD
EAGLE stirred up the various ducks: MALLARDS, PINTAILS, SHOVELERS, AMERICAN
WIGEON, and GREEN-WINGED TEAL. Overhead, ARCTIC TERNS swarmed like bees, maybe
over 100 noisy, beautiful, bundles of pizzazz.
A bit later, driving along
the waterfront, I spied a spout! I quickly found a place to pull over and
watched a HUMPBACK WHALE right in the inner bay, cruising along and diving
among the white-capped rolling waves. Closer to shore, a colorful PELAGIC
CORMORANT with fancy white flank patches and a touch of red on its glossy
greenish head swam past. Ten DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANTS, ranging in age from
adults with blowing eyebrow plumes to brownish second-year birds, perched on the
pilings facing into the wind. Behind them, a proverbial blizzard of mostly
BLACK-LEGGED KITTIWAKES plunged and lunged after fish scraps from the seafood
processing plant's outfall pipe. I heard a WANDERING TATTLER'S soft call, but
could not find it among the intertidal rocks.
Hang on to your hat!
Happy Birding!
Carol Griswold
Seward Sporadic Bird Report
Reporter
PS I am way behind, but will
try to catch up with my posts as I can!
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