Seward, Alaska
Sunrise 6:24 am, sunset 9:40 pm for a total day length of 15 hours and 16 minutes. Tomorrow will be 5 minutes and 18 seconds shorter.
Sunny skies returned today with a high of 64. The forecast calls for more sunshine with summery highs in the 70s through Saturday followed by a week of fall-ish rain.
On this early evening at the beach, a smattering of shorebirds picked through thick green wrack for invertebrates refreshed by the now receding high tide. Among the scattered families of stop-start SEMIPALMATED PLOVERS, a few LEAST SANDPIPERS, and WESTERN SANDPIPERS, I found a BAIRD’S SANDPIPER.
Like the inch smaller Western, it had short black legs, but a shorter, almost straight black bill. The bright buffy outlines of the feathers on its back gave it a scalloped appearance and marked it as a juvenile. As the species nests in the high arctic tundra, this bird is migrating to South America. The long tapering wings are an adaptation for its long migration, according to All About Birds. At rest, the long wings extend past the end of its tail and are a good identification mark.
Also noted on the Cornell site, “in 1861, naturalist Elliott Coues described Baird’s Sandpiper, naming it in honor of his mentor Spencer Fullerton Baird, who was the second secretary of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Baird’s Sandpiper was one of the last sandpipers to be described in North America.”
I don’t get to see a Baird’s often and not every summer, so that was quite a treat.
Robin C alerted me to a very distant PEREGRINE FALCON standing out on the tide flats, even with binoculars barely distinguishable from nearby driftwood. After we parted company, I wandered down the beach and lost track of the bird while admiring the evening light on the mountains and cirque glaciers across the bay.
Apparently, the Peregrine circled back undetected and suddenly appeared ahead of me, clutching something too small to see in its yellow talons. The immature falcon was much browner overall than an adult with a beautiful pale bluish eye ring instead of yellow, and streaked rather than barred underparts.
As it almost hung in the air, it leaned down to peck at the prey between its toes. I believe it was removing the case from a caddisfly larva. In a trice, the plucked insect was gobbled up, and after a long look down, the magnificent young Falcon sailed off to stir up some Green-winged Teal on the flats.
Now THAT was incredible!
Also fantastic that both an adult and immature Peregrines are in Seward.
Happy Birding!
Carol Griswold
Seward Sporadic Bird Report Reporter
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