Seward, Alaska
Overcast, spitting rain, south wind, 43º
The saltmarsh vegetation looked brown, bent, and sodden after the snow and ice finally melted. The scant remaining ice rimming the pond is pocked with holes, fragile and gray. Though there were lots of ducks napping or feeding, I didn’t see any Swans. The Arctic Terns were absent and even the boisterous MEW GULLS were subdued.
While scanning the seemingly barren grasses, a bit of life walked into view: a handsome BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER male! With the characteristic plover stop start pattern, he took several steps, stopped, bent down to pluck and probe, then traveled another few feet. Another ghostly Plover appeared behind him, and then another, all walking slowly; stop, start, stop. What a thrill to find these shorebirds, the second species of the season (Greater Yellowlegs were first.)
The Black-bellied Plover overwinters along the Pacific coast all the way down to Mexico, and Central and South America. They nest in the Arctic tundra including the Seward Peninsula and northern arctic coast.
I’m so glad they chose Seward for a stop-over on their long trip back home!
Happy Birding!
Carol Griswold
Seward Sporadic Bird Report Reporter
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