Seward, Alaska
Sunrise 5:17 am, sunset 10:33 pm for a total day length of 17 hours and 15 minutes. Tomorrow will be 4 minutes and 37 seconds longer.
Cool and cloudy weather continued this week, with a low of 35 and a high of 40 today. More of the same with moderate rain is forecast for the next week as another big storm blows in from the Gulf of Alaska.
This morning, two VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOWS swooped low over the road hunting insects (mosquitoes have emerged), revealing their diagnostic white rumps. I hope they find one of my nesting boxes suitable!
I heard my FOS HERMIT THRUSH singing in my yard, and watched my FOS YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER fly-catch from a willow at Nash Road wetlands.
At the tidelands, a pale female BAR-TAILED GODWIT probed through the mud for marine worms, small clams, and crustaceans. The bars on her tail became visible only when she flew.
The Alaskan subspecies baueri breeds on sub-Arctic and Arctic coasts and tundra. They are famous for their non-stop flight across the Pacific Ocean without feeding to reach their nonbreeding grounds in New Zealand and eastern Australia. In 2022 a juvenile flew 8,425 miles from Alaska to Tasmania in 11 days, 1 hour, setting a record.
Another long-distance flyer from Hawaii, a female PACIFIC-GOLDEN PLOVER, gleaned sluggish flies from the wrack line. Other shorebirds included my FOS SPOTTED SANDPIPER, small numbers of WESTERN and LEAST SANDPIPERS, SEMIPALMATED PLOVERS, and a GREATER and LESSER YELLOWLEGS.
Nine DOWITCHERS continued to feed in the shallows of the pond.
A single HUDSONIAN WHIMBREL dined in wet areas in the upland grasses.
Small lingering flocks of CACKLING and GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GEESE fed in the sedges.
An adult BALD EAGLE swooped into the flats, scattering alarmed Geese, NORTHERN PINTAILS, GADWALL, GREEN-WINGED TEAL, NORTHERN SHOVELERS, AMERICAN WIGEON, and MALLARDS. She landed, grabbed a huge piece of seaweed (?), and stroked powerfully back to her nest.
Around 6 pm, my FOS female RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRD magically appeared at my feeder, just as if she never left. My neighbor reported their first one Friday and one was reported at Bear Lake on Thursday.
Another exciting day of birding!
Happy Birding!
Carol Griswold
Seward Sporadic Bird Report Reporter
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