Sunday, October 29, 2017 Quest for Rare Bird continues

Seward, Alaska

Sunrise 9:15 am, sunset 6:10 pm for a total day length of 8 hours and 55 minutes. Tomorrow will be 5 minutes and 14 seconds shorter.

Gray skies continued with light, intermittent rain, and calm.

The mild temps ranged from a low of 40 and a high of 44. Showers are forecast for Monday, tapering to partly cloudy starting Tuesday with southerly winds for the next week. Maybe we’ll see the sun!

I waited until 11 am hoping for better light and returned to the old horse corral. Tom Evans was already there, after driving through heavy rain all the way down from Anchorage, wandering around as I had the previous day.

It was much more fun to wander around looking for an elusive bird together. Tom had found a FOX SPARROW in addition to the previous day’s species. That is somewhat unusual for this late, but occasionally we get a few on the Christmas Bird Count.

After a while, another car of birders arrived and Chris, Betty, and Cathy joined us. We added a single RUSTY BLACKBIRD, a female DOWNY WOODPECKER, GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLETS, and a RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH to our species list, but no Pipit.

Around 3 pm, the Anchorage birders had to head home. It was fun even though the Pipit proved elusive. Who knows where this lost bird may be now?

I stayed to collect aluminum cans and trash from this beautiful wetlands, grrrrr!!  Then Tasha and Chuck showed up and we birded the area again with no luck.

Tomorrow is another day, and worth another try.

Check out this link to a video of a Olive-backed Pipit perched in a tree: http://www.hbw.com/ibc/species/olive-backed-pipit-anthus-hodgsoni

And to some facts: http://www.arkive.org/olive-backed-pipit/anthus-hodgsoni/

Happy Birding!

Carol Griswold

Seward Sporadic Bird Report Reporter