Seward, Alaska
August already!!!!
Sunrise 5:41 am, sunset 10:28 pm for a total day length of 16 hours and 46 minutes. Tomorrow will be 4 minutes and 55 seconds shorter.
Mostly brilliant sunshine this past week with highs of 65. Yesterday featured ghostly fog wafting in from the Gulf of Alaska, obscuring then revealing the surrounding bay and mountains.
Rain, heavy at times, is in the forecast for the week as stormy weather returns.
Spring Creek Beach and the adjacent boat basin proved to be a hot spot this past week.
After the fish processing plant moved from its long-standing location on Lowell Point Road to the SMIC harbor in March, their feathered clients of the ground-up fish waste moved with them.
Hundreds of Gulls, including clouds of BLACK-LEGGED KITTIWAKES and GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULLS, and some HERRING GULLS partied with maximum volume around the outlet pipe feast on the seaward side of the harbor breakwater.
As the fish-bits drifted along the shore, many of the Gulls followed. The Kittiwakes mastered the art of hovering and patter-feeding like Storm Petrels, plucking small morsels from the surface midair. The larger Gulls also tried this feeding method but not were not as graceful. Daintier SHORT-BILLED GULLS picked and paddled.
Two juvenile BONAPARTE’S GULLS rested quietly on the placid water, such lovely markings!
Four PIGEON GUILLEMOTS and at least 4 MARBLED MURRELETS dove for live fish just offshore. The shrill whistles of the Murrelets kept the family in touch after surfacing.
I spotted four ARCTIC TERNS on July 28. I heard begging, and the next day, found an adult carrying a small fish back for her baby.
I lucked out when a fledgling chose to land at the tide’s edge near me. She was as large as the parent, but insisted on fresh fish delivery services. She waited patiently for long minutes, looking around, then burst into full begging mode when the adult flew overhead, fish or no fish. Finally, the parent hovered overhead and carefully placed the fish into the wide-open beak. Delivery! And quiet, for now.
I totally missed seeing any Tern chicks this year before the colony at the head of the bay collapsed, so this felt like a serendipitous time warp.
On August 1, I counted 35 Terns swooping ensemble off the rocks by the breakwater. When they settled back down in the intertidal zone, I counted 44 Terns. So exciting! I wonder if this population included Terns from the collapsed colony, and if this will be the new colony location. I also wonder when they will migrate.
On July 28, a SPOTTED SANDPIPER, presumably a parent, still in her dashing spotted breeding plumage, walked along the rocks at the tide’s edge. Her sleek juvenile, with remnant downy feathers poking out from its nape, crept cautiously along the high tide line, stalking the numerous beach flies.
I also found a SEMIPALMATED PLOVER family at Fourth of July Beach later that afternoon, chasing beach flies, and a juvenile VARIED THRUSH grabbing flies at Afognak Beach on July 30.
A pulse of LESSER YELLOWLEGS showed up this week at the various beaches, with a few GREATER YELLOWLEGS.
On August 1, I was stunned to find a buck Sitka Black-tailed Deer walking along Nash Road by the Mile 1 wetlands. He soon realized that he was trapped with vehicles on the road and wetlands on both sides. He crossed over and hustled along the road trying to get around the water.
When he passed my somewhat pulled-over car, I snapped a photo that showed his long whiskers and eyebrows, something I have never seen in a taxidermied specimen. Such big, dark eyes, alert ears, and antlers covered in velvet. A beautiful deer, unusual for Seward, though a doe has been living in Seward for the past several years.
At home, the last RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRD I saw was feeding on my red columbines on July 28. Safe travels!
An adult Varied Thrush hopped across the yard, and a ROBIN sang a few wistful bars from the top of a spruce tree. Resident CHESTNUT-BACKED CHICKADEES called from the nearby trees and WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILLS called from clusters of green spruce cones at the tops. STELLER JAYS, BLACK-BILLED MAGPIES, RAVENS, and even BALD EAGLES passed through.
The flashy visitors are getting more scarce and the residents more noticeable as the season quickly moves along.
Happy Birding!
Carol Griswold
Seward Sporadic Bird Report Reporter
