Seward, Alaska
Sunrise 5:17 am, sunset 10:33 pm for a total daylength of 17 hours and 16 minutes. Tomorrow will be 4 minutes and 36 seconds longer.
The first half of May remained stubbornly cool and cloudy with chilly wind. Today, the temperature sank to 35ยบ overnight and rose to 49. Sunshine is forecast for the next two days with a corresponding rise to the upper 50s.
A lonely, loud and persistent SAW-WHET OWL continued to call throughout the night from Little Bear Mountain. A nearby lodging guest at a late night fire pit was overheard asking in consternation, “WHAT is that NOISE?” I wish I could have heard the answer. They were as loud and persistent as the Owl and a couple of hearty, territorial male ROBINS.
At Two Lakes Park today, blueberry flowers hung on dainty red stems like white lanterns. I heard my FOS TOWNSEND’S WARBLER singing in the spruce trees: “I’m-a-TOWN-SEND’S-war-BLER!” Increasing numbers of VARIED THRUSHES sang in a variety of pitches like virtuosos of the referee's whistle.
A perky PACIFIC WREN competed with his long, bubbly song next to a stream lit by glowing yellow skunk cabbage flowers. RUBY-CROWNED KINGLETS, one of the earlier arrivals, keep belting out their jazzy song. I watched several HERMIT THRUSHES hunting for invertebrates and insects in the underbrush and riparian areas. One perched in an alder next to the lake, asking “Chway?” I have not yet heard their haunting, soothing song.
The peak shorebird spring migration seems mostly over, leaving latecomers and perhaps residents. Small flocks of WESTERN SANDPIPERS wheeled and flashed along the tideline, sometimes with a few of the larger, black bellied DUNLIN intermixed. LEAST SANDPIPERS seem to prefer the intertidal and marshy areas.
I found one PECTORAL SANDPIPER that only remotely resembles a “big Least Sandpiper” with its yellow legs. A big flock went through on May 12th with WHIMBRELS.
Increasing numbers of SEMIPALMATED PLOVERS stop-started along the tidelands, expertly extracting food from the mud. Such handsome birds with gleaming white fronts, black neckband with matching headband, and a dash of orange on the bill to complement the golden legs.
Robin Collman reported three WANDERING TATTLERS, first of season, by Scheffler Creek, before the weekend crowds disturbed them.
I included several photos of LESSER YELLOWLEGS as I sometimes find it hard to identify without the larger Greater Yellowlegs nearby for scale and comparison. The black markings along the side are much sparser and the bill is straighter. They both wade slowly through the emerging mares tails, yellow legs gleaming, to catch sticklebacks.
Dwindling numbers of GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GEESE, CACKLING GEESE, and DUSKY GEESE patroled the emerging sedges and grasses. The flock of 14 SNOW GEESE first seen on May 10, uncommon on our flyway, shrank to 11, then 6, and have now apparently moved on. Frequent disruptions from happy loose dogs did not help.
I’m glad I took a second look at a small flock of Mew Gulls, daintily picking through the freshly exposed edge of the tide. The thin black bill, dark ear smudge, and pinkish legs belonged to winter plumaged adult BONAPARTE’S GULLS. I did not see a black bar across the wings that would differentiate a first winter bird. By comparison, Mew Gulls seem clumsy and coarse, and the default Glaucous-winged Gulls as tanks.
YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER and ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER numbers are increasing as well. I heard a few GOLDEN-CROWNED SPARROWS and FOX SPARROWS singing around town.
My FOS RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRDS arrived May 5. Now I have two males and 3 females (that I know of ) that the drain sugar water feeder at a wonderful pace; buzzing and hovering like bejeweled figments of an extraordinary imagination.
Remember: bring 4 cups water to a boil and add 1 cup white granulated sugar and let cool. Do not add red food coloring. Clean feeders thoroughly at least once a week, or more often if it ever gets warm. I like to alternate my glass, easy-to-clean Audubon feeders so they’re always ready to go.
Spring is definitely here and moving along at a brisk pace!
For photos and edits, please visit my blog at http://sporadicbird.blogspot.com/
Happy Birding!
Carol Griswold
Seward Sporadic Bird Report Reporter
No comments:
Post a Comment