Sunday, April 19- Wednesday, April 22, 2026 FOS Savannah Sparrow, Vs of Geese and Cranes, FOS Northern Shovelers

Seward, Alaska

Sunrise 6:20 am, sunset 9:33 pm, for a total day length of 15 hours and 12 minutes. Tomorrow will be 5 minutes and 22 seconds longer

Temperatures remained chilly with overnight lows in the mid-20s and daytime highs in the mid-30s. Frost and frozen puddles greeted the mornings this week, but soon melted by midday despite the cold south wind. Rain, heavy at times, forecast by Wednesday and continuing for the next 10 days.

Sunday, April 19: Showers. FOS SAVANNAH SPARROW with a bright yellow eyebrow found flitting though the dead beach ryegrass, very hard to spot! Frost-nipped spears of green ryegrass poking through. A flock of 20 CACKLING GEESE circled from north and landed.

Monday, April 20: Partly sunny. 3 SNOW GEESE lingered, also circling and landing to feed.  Five ARCTIC TERNS patrolled along the tide’s edge, at least one carrying a small fish and bragging about it. 

SANDHILL CRANES reported flying north. 

Lots of BALD EAGLE interaction between adults and immatures, and sorties to activate clouds of noisy Gulls including BLACK-LEGGED KITTIWAKES at tide’s edge.

SAW-WHET OWL heard beeping away on Little Bear Mountain around 11 pm.

Tuesday, April 21: Sunny. Briefly heard Cranes flying north by Mt Alice. Ice finally gone from estuary pond revealing mostly mud and shockingly shallow. Arctic Tern overhead, what a beauty! 

Wednesday, April 22: Happy Earth Day! Sprinkles then lashing rain by 6 pm. Pulse of GREATER YELLOWLEGS and GREEN-WINGED TEAL arrived overnight ahead of storm. FOS NORTHERN SHOVELERS.    

Vs of CACKLING GEESE, 54 GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GEESE, small flock of SANDHILL CRANES. Three TRUMPETER SWANS honked faintly in the distance as they flew high overhead heading north. 

Happy Birding!

Carol Griswold

Seward Sporadic Bird Report Reporter

Saturday, April 18, 2026 FOS Tundra Swans, Cackling Geese!

Seward, Alaska

Sunrise 6:32 am, sunset 9:23 pm for a total day length of 14 hours and 51 minutes. Tomorrow will be 5 minutes and 24 seconds longer.

As expected, it did not snow as forecast, but rain and snow are predicted for Sunday and Wednesday with over an inch of rain on Thursday. April showers?

I checked out the Mile 1 Nash Road wetlands yesterday. To my delight, seven adult Swans were very close to the road. Another 5 were in the back under the watchful eyes of two adult Bald Eagles. A dozen Swans!

In between the noise of traffic whizzing by, it was so quiet I could hear their bills smacking the water as they slurped up the recently thawed vegetation soup. All were feeding ravenously, except for one. That one, in classic Swan yoga-style, napped with head tucked under wing while standing on one leg.

As I admired the Swans, I began to look more closely. One had a bit of yellow on the bill! A TUNDRA SWAN! I checked the other five; another had even more yellow on the bill! Then, the napping Swan unfurled its head and revealed even larger yellow patches shaped like mirror-image lightning bolts. Three of the seven were Tundra Swans! 

For these wild Tundras to hang out with Trumpeters was surprising to me. For one, there’s a good chance the Trumpeters are residents and have become habituated to cars over the years. Then, to have Tundras who never spent much time at this wetlands ever, to also tolerate traffic and the presence of the larger Trumpeters… Just amazing.

Today, the Swans were farther back, and the Tundras were still there with the Trumpeters.

Yesterday, 25 FOS CACKLING GEESE landed in the intertidal zone. Though they were far away, some showed the white neck ring of the Aleutian subspecies. Several were napping, doing Goose yoga. One Goose stood much taller, possibly a CANADA GOOSE. 

Though the Cackling Geese did not linger, I spotted 11 wary SNOW GOOSE heads peeking above the grass from a swale like white periscopes. I did not see them today. Moving on!

At 10 pm on April 17, a SAW-WHET OWL beeped from Little Bear Mountain in the dusk. The stars are already vanishing like the Cheshire Cat’s grin, another sign of Spring.

At 11 pm on April 18, Merlin helped me identify a large flock of GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GEESE flying north in the dark through thick cloud cover. I was astonished to hear their glad cries!

Happy Birding!

Carol Griswold

Seward Sporadic Bird Report Reporter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday, April 16, 2026 FOS Arctic Tern, Snow Geese, White-fronted Goose

 Seward, Alaska

Sunrise 6:38 am, sunset 9:18 pm, for a total day length of 14 hours and 40 minutes. Tomorrow will be 5 minutes and 25 seconds longer.

Temps slightly warmer with a low of 30 and a high of 35. 

Though snow was in the forecast, the gray blanket covering the sky only delivered light sprinkles, a southerly whisper of wind, and new spring migrants.

On Monday, a FOS SHORT-EARED OWL shot out of the grasses about 20 feet ahead of me. The AMERICAN CROWS and RAVENS soon found him/her and escorted poor owl out of sight.

Yesterday, FOS flock of SANDHILL CRANES was reported flying over town at 7 am. Later, while watching the clouds of screaming Gulls at the beach, I heard the exciting “chip! RRRRRZZZZZZ!” of a FOS ARCTIC TERN and found the single buoyant flyer high in the sky heading over the bay.

Four GREATER YELLOWLEGS dashed after prey in the creeks and intertidal puddles, their numbers slowly increasing.

This afternoon,19 FOS SNOW GEESE landed in the soggy sedges of the estuary accompanied by a lone FOS GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE! The aptly named Snow Geese looked like snow drifts against the brown vegetation as they eagerly devoured the goodness hidden in the plant roots.

Ice still covers area ponds, lakes, and the Lagoon, but leads are widening and the softening ice is blue-gray. With the gentle but persistent light rain and warming temperatures, the ice is doomed.

Keep your eyes and ears to the sky for the oncoming waves of Cranes, Geese, and Swans. Spring is!

Happy Birding!

Carol Griswold

Seward Sporadic Bird Report Reporter

Sunday, April 12, 2026 Eurasian Teal, Eurasian Wigeon, Greater Yellowlegs, Lapland Longspurs, Ducks

Seward, Alaska

Sunrise 6:50 am, sunset 9:08 pm, for a total day length of 14 hours and 18 minutes. Tomorrow will be 5 minutes and 27 seconds longer.

Winter and Spring continued to swap places all week with 2” of short-lived snow on Tuesday then sunny on Thursday with temps rising above 40. The forecast favors Winter with temps in the high 20s overnight, rising to mid-30s. Spring wins, regardless, with over 14 hours of daylight and gaining!

The wetlands and pond at Mile 1 Nash Road remained mostly frozen, but five adult TRUMPETER SWANS gathered at the back near a small section of open water. 

The nest failed last year due to high water flooding; these Swans may be the family from the previous year. It will be interesting to watch the territorial drama and winners of the nest sweepstakes over the next few weeks. 

After hearing and briefly spotting very elusive LAPLAND LONGSPURS this past week, I found four who landed and instantly disappeared, perfectly camouflaged against the brown grasses. By taking blind shots of the general landing zone, I managed to get a documentary, but gratifying photo by luck.

I also found and photographed the drake EURASIAN TEAL with his sporty horizontal white stripe, and a very handsome drake EURASIAN WIGEON styling his rufous head with a big white “thumbprint” on the crown. 

Small numbers of GREEN-WINGED TEAL, AMERICAN WIGEON, GADWALL, NORTHERN PINTAILS, and MALLARDS dabbled nearby in the tidelands.

Hundreds of SHORT-BILLED GULLS and other gulls rose and fell like snow in a blizzard at the tide’s edge when an Eagle swooped across. I watched one adult Bald Eagle stroke low and powerfully after a panicked duck; the duck miraculously escaped.

On sunny Thursday, I heard the much-missed call of a GREATER YELLOWLEGS and finally found him/her standing next to an estuary creek.

On April 6, as the Artemis II Orion spacecraft passed behind the moon on their historic fly-by mission, I happened to find patchy clouds veiling the sun. I took some photos and when I enlarged them later, I discovered sunspots! 93 million miles away! 

From the wonders of Spring migrants to space; what a phenomenal week!

Happy Birding!

Carol Griswold

Seward Sporadic Bird Report Reporter