Tuesday, April 30, 2019 Arctic Terns!

Seward, Alaska

Sunrise 5:58 am, sunset 9:53 pm for a total daylength of 15 hours and 54 minutes. Tomorrow will be 5 minutes and 14 seconds longer.

After a rainy day yesterday, the morning fog rolled away by mid-morning revealing blue sky and sunshine. Temps rose from a low of 38 to a high of 52. Tomorrow’s forecast calls for partly sunny with a high of 58, then a typical mix of sun, partly sunny, partly cloudy, and rain.

SANDHILL CRANES continued to migrate overhead this past week without a stopover; a flock was reported this morning through the fog. GREATER WHITE-FRONTED and CANADA GEESE continue to linger, feed and fly. John M reported a flock of SNOW GEESE on April 25 around 11:30 am.

April 25: four PACIFIC DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANTS sporting fluffy white eyebrows preened and aired out their wings on the B Street pilings. Two male BLACK-BELLIED PLOVERS hunted in the sedges at the tidelands.

April 26: A PEREGRINE FALCON! stirred up everything but got nothing for its trouble. Nine LAPLAND LONGSPURS scurried through last year’s beach rye grass gleaning seeds, invertebrates, and insects.

April 27: FOS FOX SPARROW singing! 

Dozens of ARCTIC TERNS hovered, dove and jetted along the tidelands off Afognak Beach. A few even zoomed up close overhead for a look and a comment. One proudly paraded around with a Sand Lance on its first and last flight-see. So exciting to welcome these long-distance flyers back!

Perhaps Sand Lances were the cause of all the commotion as many100s of BLACK-LEGGED KITTIWAKES and other gulls plucked the small, slender fish from the water. FOS AMERICAN WIGEON dabbled with GREEN-WINGED TEAL, NORTHERN PINTAILS, MALLARDS, and a few GADWALL.

April 28: Report of the six missing resident TRUMPETER SWAN cygnets found snoozing together at Bear Lake in a small opening in the still-frozen but mushy lake.

April 29: Handsome FOS RING-NECKED DUCK male at Mile 1 Nash Road where resident Trumpeter Swan pair are nesting. Did not find reported Hooded Merganser pair. 

Herring and eggs attracted quite a crowd of enthusiastic seabirds at Fourth of July Beach: at least a 100 SURF SCOTERS, the most I’ve seen this year, BARROWS and COMMON GOLDENEYES, HARLEQUIN DUCKS, COMMON MERGANSERS, RED-BREASTED MERGANSERS, PIGEON GUILLEMOTS, MARBLED MURRELETS, and scores of screaming gulls: BLACK-LEGGED KITTIWAKES, GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULLS, MEW GULLS, and a few HERRING (of course!) GULLS.

I checked out some fresh herring eggs attached to strands of seaweed at the tideline. Under magnification, I could see the tiny black eyes of the embryo herring! As the miniscule babies swished around in their 1 mm diameter egg, the eyes disappeared then reappeared. Fascinating! 

April 30: Exit Glacier Road gate open to Resurrection River Bridge at Kenai Fjords National Park. Abundant RUBY-CROWNED KINGLETS finally joined by VARIED THRUSH song. Some snow remains on park road and in parking lot. A queen Bumblebee droned past; willows are in full bloom, ready for insects and warblers. A few cottonwood catkins burst into flower, more to come.

Lowell Canyon: PACIFIC WREN singing its impossibly long song!

Evenings filled with sweet songs of ROBINS declaring their love and territories until late in the night, resuming early in the morning.

What a glorious, bountiful, and hopeful time of year!

Happy Birding!
Carol Griswold
Seward Sporadic Bird Report Reporter















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