Sporadic Bird from Seward, Alaska

Friday, December 9, 2011 McKay's Bunting!

Seward, Alaska Sporadic Bird Report

Sunrise 9:48 am, sunset 3:51 pm, length of day 6 hours, 3 minutes; tomorrow will be 2 minutes and 6 seconds shorter.

Lunar Eclipse Alert!

Jupiter leads the full moon across the sky tonight, but in the early morning hours a drama will occur: the second and last total lunar eclipse of 2011! In the US, only Alaska and Hawaii will be able to see the whole lunar eclipse from start to finish. In Seward, the partial eclipse begins at 3:45 am, the total eclipse begins at 5:05 am, the greatest eclipse will be at 5:31 am ending at 5:58 am, and the partial eclipse ends at 7:18 am. For times in other locations, go to the Lunar Eclipse Calculator at <http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/LunarEclipse.php>

Weather: O joy, another blizzard warning in effect for Saturday evening along Turnagain Arm. Driving the Seward highway will be hazardous. Today was lovely: sunny with a gentle 10 mph north wind and temps just above freezing. The recent snowfall transformed Seward into a bright winter wonderland, leaving just a little bare ground under the spruce trees for the birds to continue to forage for frozen insects and invertebrates under the brown leaves and needles.

A much more welcome blizzard surrounded me yesterday at the salt marsh. Mist rising from the open river and patches of fog shrouded everything in mystery. Off in the distance, I spied a large flock of birds flushing from one patch of beach rye grass to another. The little birds landed at the top of the grass and rode it down to the snow where the seeds could be more easily extracted. It looked like fun! To my amazement, they flew ever closer and closer, feeding frantically, then exploded into the air, back down, and up. Suddenly, I was in their midst! Over 100 SNOW BUNTINGS flashed over and around me. I could hear their soft chirps and rush of their wings. I might have caught one if I held out my hand! Off they flew and then back again! This happened three times! What a thrill!

I snapped photos, trying to capture their beautiful black and white patterns embroidered with soft brown hues. One in particular seemed much, much lighter than the others. When I sent photos to Buzz Scher, he agreed that it was a McKAY'S BUNTING. His observations noted the lack of black on the back, no black on the bend of the upper wing, very little or restricted black at the tips of the central tail feathers, pale buffy face, and notably less black in the outer primaries. Another LIFE BIRD for me! Thank you, Buzz!

The birds seemed extremely nervous and soon I saw the reason: an adult SHARP-SHINNED HAWK materialized out of nowhere and plunged into the flock. It missed and continued flying over to a perch on a stump, reconsidering options for dinner. Many thanks to Paul Fritz for helping me decipher the ID of this bird. I really appreciate the support of other birders to help me learn.

Today, I refound the large flock at a distance. Once again, they approached and fed nearby, but did not surround around me as before. As they flew high into the sky and plummeted back to earth, they resembled snowflakes blown by the wind, a mini-blizzard of feathers from the far north. On the way back, the Sharpie reappeared and landed in the spruce grove, waiting its chance for a good meal to last it through the long cold night.

Other birds of interest:

Robin C also found the buntings today, including one McKay's, and a juvenile SHRIKE.

No Redwing at Lowell Point Beach. We have checked every day since it was last seen on November 26 without success. Reports of IT turned into song sparrows, varied thrushes, and even grosbeaks, but we'll keep looking.

Birds around town include a HAIRY WOODPECKER, female, (banging on my house), 22 GRAY-CROWNED ROSY FINCHES, 10 BOHEMIAN WAXWINGS, a few GOLDEN-CROWNED SPARROWS, 12 ROBINS, 2 VARIED THRUSHES, and the usual STELLER'S JAYS, CHESTNUT-BACKED and BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEES, GROSBEAKS, NUTHATCHES, DARK-EYED JUNCOS, GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLETS et al.

Ava has a cloud of grosbeaks, a growing flock of PINE SISKINS, many TREE SPARROWS, and the usual wonderful yard birds.

A tip from Duane and Sanna: to reduce the number of crows and pigeons, do not feed black oil sunflower seed. Instead use millet and Niger seed. This has worked well for them.

Check out this amazing footage of an Eurasian Eagle Owl flying to the camera holder for a food reward at

< http://www.petapixel.com/2011/08/09/eagle-owl-attacking-camera-at-1000fps/.

Here's a link from a little different angle and shows more of the ending:<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ji_x8RU4zIo>

Happy Birding!

Carol Griswold

Seward Sporadic Bird Report Reporter

Wednesday, December 7, 2011 the Dipper and the Whale

Seward, Alaska Sporadic Bird Report

The Great and the Small

Sunrise 9:45 am, sunset 3:53 pm, length of day 6 hours, 8 minutes; tomorrow will be 2 minutes and 25 seconds shorter.

Today's palette is mostly monochrome with an excess assortment of grays.

Weather: 100% low clouds, south wind, temperatures in the mid to high 30s. Heavy snow showers completely obscure the surrounding mountains and most of the bay. A scruff of crusty snow covers the ground, but greenish grass patches show under sheltering spruce. It's tricky walking without ice grippers as the snow conceals a lot of ice.

The weather is channel surfing, rushing from biting winds and subzero temperatures to rain on ice like a Zamboni, then a sunny, calm, mid-20s respite complete with brilliant stars, moon, and Jupiter at night, switching to a dash of snow showers to hide the ice and challenge optics, and repeat in random order.

The beach at Lowell Point today featured wet snow plastered onto my glasses, binocs, and camera. The two resident SONG SPARROWS hopped around in their favorite corner of the beach, rummaging though the seaweed, blending in with the dark cobbles. A BALD EAGLE cruised up and perched on the lookout at the top of Pinnacle Rock. A COMMON LOON and a female RED-BREASTED MERGANSER heedlessly chose to ignore it and continued fishing close by. One HORNED GREBE, one PELAGIC CORMORANT, and a few GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULLS bobbed on the waves, barely visible in the slanting snow.

Up by the beach houses, several DARK-EYED JUNCOS flitted among the Mt Ash trees and on the ground, their white outer tail feathers flashing. A MAGPIE stopped by to boss them around a bit. A good supply of Mt Ash berries remain on the ground, but sadly, no Redwing to gobble them up.

Back towards town by the waterfall, an eagle ripped into a freshly caught sea duck (goldeneye?) with gusto, dark feathers falling like snowflakes. One dies so another lives.

Robin C reported two PACIFIC LOONS feeding in the boat harbor.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Ah! The day of respite! Sunny, calm, mid 20sº. The short trip over to Fourth of July Beach on the east side of Resurrection Bay turned back the clock. Here, the sun does not rise over the mountains until well after 11 am, more than an hour later than town. Just as we arrived, the sun lit up that corner of the bay. Transient tendrils of golden yellow mist curled up and wafted seawards, the delicate balance of air and water temperatures suddenly disrupted. Inch-thick polygons of clear ice decorated the beach, stolen from the creek by the outgoing tide and just as casually discarded.

A flash of dark feathers caught my eye. Ah! A DIPPER paddled about the outlet of the little pond. As I approached, he flew, but towards me! Unconcerned, he stood on the nearby ice, totally dry. His bare pinkish legs and feet reminded me of a teen wearing shorts in the winter. After regarding me for a second, he plunged his whole head underwater, and peered around, short tail pointing skyward. Then he dove in the water and snorkeled, paddling around with his long skinny, web-free toes, resembling a very tiny, gray duck. After that short exploration, up he flew to perch on an ice-covered rock in the outlet waterfall, and leaned over to look under the murmuring water. Then up a bit higher to a dry rock to preen and adjust his remarkable dry suit, and finally back up again to the open water of the pond by the outlet. After a brief headlong dive off the ice edge, he caught a fine stickleback, repositioned it, and down it went, headfirst. I left him, dipping on the ice, completely content in his liquid and frozen world.

By now, the pale sun warmed the air just enough to absorb the ephemeral mist. Suddenly my son called out. A small whale surfaced just offshore! The water seemed inconceivably shallow to contain a whale of any size. Twin vapor clouds shot from its paired blowholes, then hung in the air, followed quickly by a craggy dorsal fin and a tight arc of its dark back. Then nothing remained but wisps of the blow. As they faded, another great exhale and shallow dive! It traveled quickly from one side of the bright sunbeams to the other. I snapped photos as fast as I could, dodging around the smiling sun.

We drove back to town, but now the sun raced ahead and it was almost twilight at 2 pm on the west side of the bay. What a time machine! As soon as possible, I emailed photos to marine mammal expert Kate Wynne. She identified it as a humpback whale, possibly a calf or juvenile that remained in northern waters while the adults migrated to Hawaii to breed and give birth. This theory has not yet been proven, but makes sense. And there it was, definitely a small humpback. She has observed whales swimming in water less than 20' deep and less than 20' from shore. Kate wrote that humpbacks love sand lance and it may have found a good supply there. How interesting that the diminutive dipper and the great whale were both feasting on tiny fish!

Happy Birding!

Carol Griswold

Seward Sporadic Bird Report Reporter

Tuesday, November 29, 2011 No Redwing

Seward, Alaska

Overcast with increasing dark clouds from the Gulf of Alaska, temps in the mid teens, moderate winds from the north, blizzard warning still in effect for this evening.

I checked Lowell Point Beach this morning around 10:45. The tide was low; I saw only frozen seaweed at the high tide line. This probably accounted for the lack of birds scavenging at the tide line. No crows, robins, song sparrows, rusty blackbird, or even an eagle in sight. The beach felt desolate.

Up by the summer homes, a single magpie quietly flew away across the road, but nothing flitted in the bare branches of the alders or Mt Ash trees.

I waited and watched, scanning with my binocs. The rhythmic surge of the waves echoed my thoughts: "Gone, gone, gone." How I wished I could shout, "There it is!" But there was nothing. This is the third day in a row that the Redwing has not been seen. I think the waves are right.

Congratulations to all who saw this "cracking little bird" and condolences to those who tried so hard and failed.

Happy Birding!

Carol Griswold

Seward Sporadic Bird Report Reporter

Monday, November 28, 2011 No Redwing

Seward, Alaska

In brief, the REDWING was not seen today. This is the second day in a row it has not been found.

Today was a perfect day to see the Redwing at Lowell Point Beach: 25º, sunny, and out of the north wind. As the sun rolled sleepily over the eastern mountains far to the south around 10 am, John Vanderpoel, the 2011 Big Year birder from Colorado, and Barrett Pierce from Texas cruised into town. Local birders, Joe, Robin, Jim, and I converged at Lowell Point to help find THE BIRD.

The beach was under surveillance from about 10:15 am to well after 2:30 pm when the sun began to wander behind the western mountains. We enjoyed more great close-up views of the single RUSTY BLACKBIRD adult working along the tide line, picking through the seaweed. Five AMERICAN ROBINS distracted us countless times, looking somewhat like THE BIRD, hopping along, feeding just like IT did. The robins are a recent addition to the beach scene as none were seen last week. Two very dark, long-tailed SONG SPARROWS stayed at the far west end of the beach, their preferred dining area. NORTHWESTERN CROWS and BLACK-BILLED MAGPIES also strolled along the tide line, snacking steadily. None of the birds seemed particularly concerned about our presence and most came very close, often too close to focus the camera.

A small group of birders split off to search other areas of Lowell Point (one GREAT BLUE HERON perched in a spruce), the rest of the beach, likely spots in town, and even across the bay in case THE BIRD had moved.

Two PACIFIC LOONS fished just off shore. Two RED-NECKED GREBES, a HORNED GREBE, a small flock of BARROW'S GOLDENEYES, a smattering of HARLEQUINS, a few COMMON MERGANSERS and a BALD EAGLE perched in a spruce provided a diversion from the hours of scrutinizing robins, counting crows, and staring at the favorite spots where THE BIRD should be.

For a dozen days straight, the Redwing provided magnetic mystery and magic to this special place. Without IT, the beach seems a bit empty. Far more empty than a couple ounces of missing feathers.

Tomorrow is another chance to find IT. The next regularly scheduled blizzard is expected late Tuesday night, bringing snow and strong winds. Maybe the nasty weather will pin the Redwing back down at the beach, or maybe it will bring in another fascinating bundle of feathers from afar.

KTUU web story: <http://www.ktuu.com/gotoak/ktuu-ultra-rare-sighting-has-birders-flocking-to-seward-20111128,0,7935362.story>

John Vanderpoel's blog: <http://www.bigyear2011.com>

Toby Burke's Refuge Notebook article: <http://peninsulaclarion.com/outdoors/2011-11-25/ultra-rare-eurasian-bird-discovered-along-seward-beachfront#.TtSCbGDOde4>

John Lofgreen's blog: <http://johnlofgreen.blogspot.com>

Happy Birding!

Carol Griswold

Seward Sporadic Bird Report Reporter

Sunday, November 27, 2011 No Redwing

Seward, Alaska

In brief, the REDWING was not seen today. The last verified sighting was around 1 pm yesterday at Lowell Point Beach.

Poor visibility and low light due to heavy cloud cover, frequent snow showers, and temperatures warming from 18º to 34º did not help birders today. John Vanderpoel finally arrived from his far-flung 2011 Big Year adventures and a flock of Alaskan birders worked hard to help him find The Bird.

A juvenile NORTHERN SHRIKE caused a bit of a stir momentarily, but all judged it was too large to be a Brown Shrike. AMERICAN ROBINS patrolling the seaweed also caused numerous double and triple checking. A single RUSTY BLACKBIRD walked purposefully along the wrack in the narrow band between the wet snow and the waves, often coming with a few feet of appreciative birders.

Despite our best efforts, the Redwing proved elusive. Tomorrow is another day. John plans to return for one last try.

Happy Birding!

Carol Griswold

Sporadic Bird Report Reporter

Thursday, November 24, 2011 Redwing yes! and Homer report

Yes, the REDWING was again seen today in Seward, but I was on the road to Homer, Alaska.

I was fortunate to ramble about Homer for about an hour on Thanksgiving Day. I headed out East End Road to seek the extensive Mt Ash trees on Fernwood. A cloud of BOHEMIAN WAXWINGS arrived just as I did, but were nervous and whirred away before I could turn the car around. I soon discovered the source of their apprehension. Across the open field, sitting at the top of a spruce, I spotted a light morph ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK. It perched there just like the many adult Bald Eagles I had passed, but instead of a pure white head, it sported a streaky brown and white head and cape. The hawk swiveled its head frequently, checking all around. Suddenly, a feral pheasant cock exploded into the field, a gorgeous adult NORTHERN GOSHAWK right on its tail. Suddenly the goshawk veered upwards to dive bomb the peaceful Rough-legged hawk. They both took off and soon vanished, a beautiful sight against the pearly gray sky.

A short time later on the way back, I screeched to the side of the road. What luck! A HAWK OWL perched near the top of an alder, peering all around, looking and hunting, then dove into the grassy field and disappeared. I hope it enjoyed a tasty Thanksgiving feast!

On Friday, November 25, 100s of ROCK SANDPIPERS swooped over the Spit road in front of my car, flowing in a tight black and white pattern like a swarm of bees as the thundering surf boiled and spat onto the road. A large raft of BLACK SCOTERS gathered just outside the surf zone. Also spotted a PACIFIC LOON, a few WHITE-WINGED SCOTERS, LONG-TAILED DUCKS, RED-NECKED GREBES, and COMMON MERGANSERS. ROSY FINCHES flitted in the beach rye. A SONG SPARROW sat on a dumpster with NORTHWESTERN CROWS.

Back in town, another adult NORTHERN GOSHAWK sailed over houses just as we were leaving.

No luck looking for the Great Gray Owls on Adkins Road at Mile 77 Sterling Highway on the way home, but it was nice to know they were there. It was fun to find birders there too, none other than my neighbors Peregrine Joe, Mary, his sister, and Robin C.

Happy Birding!

Carol Griswold

Seward Sporadic Bird Reporter Reporter on the road

Tuesday, November 22, 2011 Redwing update

Seward, Alaska

In brief: the REDWING was spotted again today for the eighth day in a row, in the same place by the row of trees along the fence between the second and third house at Lowell Point beach.

The blizzard shut down school buses from Girdwood to Anchorage this morning, but spared Seward and the 55 mph winds that were forecast. Temps dropped to 9º with blowing snow from a brisk north wind around 20-30 mph in the am. Ghostly sea smoke obscured the bay and streamed around a waiting tug and barge as the warmer ocean reluctantly released its heat to the frigid air. The winds diminished by late afternoon as a light snow began to fall.

I raked up another 5-gallon bucket of frozen Mt Ash berries from some town trees for the Redwing. It's getting harder to find whole ones and many have been de-seeded. It's lucky that pine grosbeaks prefer the seeds and spit out the pulp, whereas the Redwing eats the whole fruit. At least it will get a little snack if the crows and magpies don't eat them all first. I tossed the berries along the whole fence line to spread out the competition.

On the way back, I stopped to watch an adult BALD EAGLE rip into a fresh duck dinner laid out on a piling without benefit of tablecloth or cutlery. Its deadly yellow talons anchored the feast firmly. Wow. No delicate table manners here either! A MAGPIE danced around just out of reach of that deadly beak, hoping for scraps. Another adult eagle flew in and perched at a barely respectful distance. It too had blood on its forehead, evidence of a recent meal. Maybe it was still hungry or just enjoyed being part of the royal dining ambiance.

Robin C watched a PEREGRINE FALCON chase pigeons by seafood processing plant on the north side of the harbor around noon today, and saw a PACIFIC LOON in the harbor.

Of special note over the past few days: Tasha reported 2 CEDAR WAXWINGS feeding with BOHEMIAN WAXWINGS at Lowell Point. On Sunday, Luke, Nick, and Wendy found a THAYER'S GULL hanging out with the mallards at the Lowell Point Sewage Lagoon. Peregrine Joe spotted a GLAUCOUS GULL and has an OREGON JUNCO at his feeder.

Watch for a few more Oregon juncos with the DARK-EYED JUNCOS and the TOWNSEND'S SOLITAIRE reported by Scott H by the hospital on First Ave. Luke et al also found a single GRAY-CROWNED ROSY FINCH with the numerous PINE GROSBEAKS along Second Ave.