Seward, Alaska
Sunrise 8:03 am, sunset 8:10 pm for a total day length of 12 hours and 7 minutes. Tomorrow will be 5 minutes and 30 seconds longer. We hit 12 hours 1 minute yesterday, giving us a jump on the Spring Equinox, occurring on Friday, March 20 at 6:46 am.
The relentless north wind at 13 with gusts to 30 mph now has a trace of snow to swirl around in ground blizzards as it howls and rattles the trees. The “feels like” temperature is minus 11 today with wind chill. The low is 5 and the high is 9. Brrrrrrrr! March has proved challenging!
Until last night, the ground remained mostly bare of snow. COMMON REDPOLL and PINE SISKIN numbers gradually increased this month as small flocks extracted the tiny seeds from alder catkins and foraged on the ground.
Now, about 50 finches hop and flutter at my feeders, tiny, tough puffs buffeted by the wind. The Pine Siskins excel at flinging seeds from the feeders so there’s plenty for others on the ground.
One 10# bag of unshelled black oil sunflower seeds lasted since November; I had to buy a #20 bag yesterday to try to keep up. The birds are ravenous and with good reason!
While birding has been difficult, I lucked out on some special sightings.
On March 15, I stopped at an intersection and instead of traffic, I saw two adult TRUMPETER SWANS flying north over the road. I quickly grabbed my camera and got off several shots of the magnificent Swans as they flew past. They landed in a branch of Japanese Creek, somewhat sheltered from the wind by thick brush. Any port in a storm!
Yesterday at Fourth of July Beach, brrrrr, about 15 SNOW BUNTINGS flew up and down along the beach rye, gleaning seeds, leaving their tiny tracks in the scant snow everywhere.
Over at Spring Creek Beach, a juvenile BALD EAGLE flyover startled another flock of about 30 Snow Buntings in the distance.
While waiting for them to reappear, no luck, I spotted a DIPPER with a Stickleback in its bill, standing on the ice next to Spring Creek. What a prize! The Dipper held the hapless fish for a long time, whapping it against the ice, swinging it back and forth and up and down, waiting for it to be asphyxiated.
Unfortunately, while warming my hands, I missed the finale, but did see the little fisherbird walk away and then fly up the stream. He probably sang a happy little song about his dive in the frigid water and dinner on ice.
While I retreat to the warmth of my home, these feathered Alaskans tough it out, day after night after day. This cold and wind surely cannot last much longer. We are all more than ready for Spring.
Happy Brrrrrding!
Carol Griswold
Seward Sporadic Bird Report Reporter
