Saturday, June 3, 2017 Yakutat Tern Festival

Yakutat, Alaska

9 am to 2 pm: Tern Viewing field trip to Strawberry Point with Nate Catterman (The other field trip was to Harlequin Lake where they saw icebergs and 3 brown bear cubs, among other things.)

Strawberry Point: 2 PARASITIC JAEGERS, ALEUTIAN, ARCTIC and CASPIAN TERNS, SPOTTED SANDPIPER, GREATER YELLOWLEGS, NORTHERN SHOVELERS, GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULLS, NORTHWESTERN CROWS, RAVEN, TREE SWALLOWS, LINCOLN’S SPARROW, WILSON’S WARBLER, BALD EAGLES (of course!)

In flower: Yakutat strawberries, shooting stars, beach pea, yellow paintbrush, chocolate lily, elderberry. Sitka Spruce male flowers, magenta, were ready to burst with wind-dispersed pollen.

Situk River: 2 SPOTTED SANDPIPERS, GREATER YELLOWLEGS bathing, HERMIT THRUSH, ROBIN, NW CROWS, ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLERS, EAGLES (of course!)

Cannon Beach, mouth of estuary: ALEUTIAN, ARCTIC, CASPIAN TERNS, PACIFIC LOONS, COMMON MERGANSERS, male KINGFISHER with smelt, FOX SPARROW, SAVANNAH SPARROW, HERMIT THRUSH, WILSON’S WARBLER, TREE SWALLOW, STELLER’S JAYS.

Nate found the mysterious Moonwort Fern growing in the sandy substrate with strawberries, beach pea, and grasses. Very cool fern!

Cannon Beach Park: RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET, HERMIT THRUSH, VARIED THRUSH, PACIFIC WREN, OREGON JUNCO, CHESTNUT-BACKED CHICKADEE, RAVEN, BALD EAGLES (of course!)

Cannon Beach is named for the WWII cannons that were installed to protect the US Army airfield and area. An amphibious tracked landing vehicle is on display here at the park. According to The Mooring Lodge website, http://www.mooringlodge.com/Cannon-Beach-Historical-Site.htm it was designed to carry combat troops and equipment from cargo ships through the surf to the beach during the war in the late 1930s. The US Marine Corps nicknamed it the “alligator.” There are fewer than 12 remaining “alligators” in existence worldwide.

The LTV came to Yakutat in 1965 to transport salmon to fishing tenders. It also hauled fishermen, their families, and supplies from Lost River to the Ahrnklin/Situk River fishing camps when the Situk River railroad bridge washed out in 1965. Ferns and grasses now grow on its rusty tracks.

2 to 3: Lili Naves of the Alaska Migratory Bird Co-Management Council presented on the subsistence use of birds in a subsistence-cash mixed economy. Note the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1916 to protect nesting birds is now 101 years old. It was amended in 1977 after the 1963 duck rebellion to allow some spring and summer harvest. Her study documented a critical connection between local food sources and the communities, and the importance of a sustainable harvest based on science and conservation.

Anchorage photographer Donna Dewhurst provided all the excellent photos for the AMBCC Birds on the Subsistence Harvest Survey poster. Kudos to Donna!

3 to 4: Mary Willson on SE Alaska Ecology connected the many dots on a SE Coastal food web. Did you know that there would be no harvestable crop of blueberries without bumblebees? They are an important pollinator for lingonberries, crowberries, bog cranberries, huckleberries, and willows among many others. Watch for “buzz pollination.” Note the flowers specialized for bumblebees: monkshood, lupine, iris, shooting stars, and Calypso orchid.

Did you know some owls eat bats? That would be a fierce meal!

Did you know hummingbirds follow the Red-breasted Sapsucker to feed on insects trapped at their sap wells? And that the wells also attract bumblebees, mourning cloak butterflies, and wasps? That the old nesting holes provide homes for Pacific Wrens, Chestnut-backed Chickadees, and Tree Swallows?

Mary connected up the glaciers’ freshwater flow to the sea laden with organics and minerals to the marine food web from phytoplankton to whales, back to the spawning salmon and their food web. Did you know blowflies are in the family Calliforidae which means “bearer of beauty” and that their larvae consume salmon carcasses while the adults pollinate flowers like Yarrow?

That songbird density is higher near salmon streams?

Did you know that the tiny fungus filaments or mycorrhizae collect nutrients from the soil and pass them on to trees? That without this essential symbiotic relationship, there would be no forests?

Did you know trees like willows communicate with each other through the air and underground between plants of different species! Check out this link < https://www.wired.com/2013/12/secret-language-of-plants/>

All this and much more! Everything is connected, many in ways we are only just beginning to understand.

4 to 5: Repeat of Strings and Stories, but this time I was able to hear the whole presentation. The participating kids were awesome!

6:00: ANB/ANS Fundraiser Dinner, another delicious dinner featuring salmon, salmon chowder with Pilot bread (cracker), and tiny clusters of herring eggs in the salad. Kayla Drumm, Festival T-shirt designer, presented on marine debris cleanups.

Keynote Speaker Julia Parrish gave an excellent presentation on Alaska marine birds, and the program she developed to help monitor them: COASST, the Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Team.

The Murre wrecks of 1993 and 2015-16 were heart-wrenching. I know, as a COASSTER participating in last years’ wreck. She noted other high mortality events documented by volunteer COASSTERs including the Puffins in the Pribilofs, Cassin’s Auklets, Rhinocerous Auklets, Puffins, and Crested Auklets. The majority of these deaths were caused by starvation.

Julia discussed the warmer than normal waters of the Pacific Blob, and how a one degree rise in ocean temperatures can shift the whole ecosystem. This is much different from land temperature shifts where drastic temperature shifts are mostly accommodated.

She urged us, as citizens to participate, to bear witness and take action. Join COASST by surveying a beach near your home!

And thus ended another inspiring day at the Tern Festival.

Happy Birding!

Carol Griswold

Traveling Seward Sporadic Bird Report Reporter