Seward, Alaska
Seward Christmas Bird Count today!
Sunrise 10:03 am, sunset 3:56 pm, for a total day length of 5 hours and 53 minutes. Tomorrow will be 1 minute and 10 seconds longer.
Civil twilight 9:05 am rise, 3:56 pm set.
Cloudy, north winds 7-13 with gusts to 23 increasing to 31 mph in the evening; temps hovered around 24 most of the day, dropping to 11 overnight. The strong north wind and white-capped waves canceled the survey of Resurrection Bay by the boat crew, a significant loss for the Count.
My CBC mission today was to tally the ANNA’S HUMMINGBIRD. After 4” of powder snow on Friday, a failed hummingbird heater that turned the sugar water into a slushy, and continuing cold, wind, and long nights, I was worried. Would this unlikely winter resident make it through another night?
I set out the warmed feeder in the dark at 9 am and waited and watched with binoculars from inside. At 9:21 am, in the dim light before dawn, a small dark shape materialized at the feeder and sat for two minutes. Yay! He seemed alert and perky. He fed and then flew up into the nearby spruce tree presumably to hunt for cold spiders.
He zoomed back to feed at 10:30, 11:25, and noon. I then left to find the KILLDEER, 35 TRUMPETER SWANS, and a photo-bomb BELTED KINGFISHER at Afognak Beach, a drake LONG-TAILED DUCK at Spring Creek Beach, a GREAT BLUE HERON flying over Nash Road, two COMMON MURRES with the pair of Long-tailed Ducks, two RED-NECKED GREBES, and 10 MARBLED MURRELETS at the Lowell Point seafood processing plant with the usual sea ducks.
I happened to see the Hummer feeding at 3 pm during a brief stop, then at 4:12-4:14 pm in the dusk and finally at 4:18-4:22 pm, tanking up for the night.
Bird feeder watchers and field counters are still uploading their data to the Google document. It will be fascinating to learn what others found on this blustery winter day. I was thrilled with my tally that included a nickel-weight bird with an astounding will to live.
Happy Birding!
Carol Griswold
Seward Sporadic Bird Report Reporter
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