Wednesday, August 18, 2021 Whoosh!

Seward, Alaska

Sunrise 6:21 am, sunset 9:44 pm, for a total day length of 15 hours and 23 minutes. Tomorrow will be 5 minutes and 17 seconds shorter.

Partly sunny today with a high of 64º and afternoon south wind despite the previous gloomy forecast. Partly sunny is forecast until Sunday, when the rain returns.

First day of school yesterday and the middle of the Silver Salmon Derby.

“Whoooosh!!!!” A sharp, powerful sound like a jet blasted past me as I sat on the beach quietly watching ten BLACK TURNSTONES flipping rocks and LESSER YELLOWLEGS feeding and bathing. A PEREGRINE shot over the beach ryegrass to my left, flying low and fast, scattering everything but catching nothing as it veered and quickly disappeared. Wow! End of shorebird show! I’d hate to be on the receiving end of that missile!

Out in the tidelands, pink salmon thrashed noisily across shallow sections of intertidal streams, the males’ proud hump proclaiming a fat, healthy specimen. GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULLS jostled and feasted on the spent bodies of previous warriors, mission accomplished.

A flock of about 20 SEMI-PALMATED PLOVERS, accompanied by a SEMI-PALMATED SANDPIPER and several LESSER SANDPIPERS, poked into the rapidly draining mudflats, extracting translucent marine worms and amphipods. 

Over in the sedge wetlands, a single GREAT BLUE HERON landed and vanished, disrupting two YELLOWLEGS. A few “popcorn” Sparrows, possibly Savannah Sparrows, popped up out of the grasses and just as quickly popped back down, unwilling to be identified.

Though I searched, I did not refind either the Peregrine or the Turnstones but felt so lucky to have seen them at all.

I then checked on the Swan family and spotted them at the back of the Nash Road pond. The cygnets continue to thrive and are now mostly dark gray.

To my surprise, back in town, four adult-plumaged TRUMPETER SWANS materialized at the Lagoon. Ten swans today! Two looked just like the previous, successful Nash Road parents, one with a distinctive narrow eye band. I wonder if the other two are their grown 2-year-old cygnets?

Where have they been? They were obviously very comfortable feeding alternately at the north and south ends of the Lagoon, unlike wary nonresidents passing through. 

In other news, some people have been lucky to see WILSON’S and TOWNSEND’S WARBLERS in Forest Acres. I haven’t seen any warblers for a long time but maybe more migrants will show up. 

Several ROBINS attacked ripening Mt Ash berries in the alley yesterday. I even saw a PIGEON fluttering mid-air as it grabbed red elderberries; these berries are magnets for birds.

A humpback whale was reported at the head of the bay yesterday. I missed it, but it’s nice to know it was there.

Happy Birding!

Carol Griswold

Seward Sporadic Bird Report Reporter

 

Thursday, August 12, 2021 Turnstones!

Seward, Alaska

Sunrise 6:06 am, sunset 10:01 pm for a total day length of 15 hours and 54 minutes. Tomorrow will be 5 minutes and 11 seconds shorter.

 

Pleasant temps in the mid-50s as low-hanging clouds shrouded the mountains. Forecast calls for partly sunny on Friday and Sunday with rain on Saturday, then showers likely for the next week.

 

GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULLS and RAVENS stripped calories from spent pink salmon carcasses strewn along the tidelands. One Gull wore black silt all over its face and neck on its normally spotless white plumage. A nearby LESSER YELLOWLEGS daintily plucked amphipods and other tidbits from the incoming tide. One SPOTTED SANDPIPER bobbed and probed.

 

I heard chittering and spun around to see nine TURNSTONES land at the water’s edge. True to their name, they immediately started flipping rocks and poked and prodded underneath. Traveling just ahead of the rising water, they occasionally had disputes that sent one or the other packing in protest a short distance away. Lots of rocks, but I guess some are more desirable than others.

 

A much whiter Turnstone caught my eye among the eight Black Turnstones. A RUDDY TURNSTONE! Only two Turnstone species in all the world, here together in one flock!

 

I wondered where they nested and where they’re going. Black Turnstones are native to the west coast of North America and breed only in Alaska, along the western coast, concentrating in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta.

 

Ruddy Turnstones are more widespread and nest in remote western and northern Alaska, across circumpolar high Arctic tundra and northern coasts of North America and Eurasia. They overwinter along the coasts of six continents!

 

Alaska’s long-distance flyers overwinter on the west coast of North America or fly from Alaska to Hawaii and then on as far as Australia and New Zealand where they overwinter from September to May. One internet site noted some birds travel more than 6,500 miles between breeding and nonbreeding grounds. Pretty astounding! I wonder if this bird will stick with his medium-distance American cousins and fly to the Pacific coast for the winter.

 

In both species, the unsuccessful breeders leave first, followed by the moms even before her babies fledge, leaving dads in charge until they are independent. Then the juveniles are left to stock up on the diminishing food supply and master the art of sustained flight. Like many other shorebirds, they migrate without any adult help beyond their inborn GPS.

 

I also got a brief glimpse of a PEREGRINE FALCON dashing down the tide flats scattering ducks, gulls, a small flock of LEAST SANDPIPERS, two LESSER YELLOWLEGS, and a few SEMIPALMATED PLOVERS.

 

Arrivals and departures on a daily basis herald a change in the seasons, so exciting to witness!

 

Happy Birding!

Carol Griswold

Seward Sporadic Bird Report Reporter

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday, August 2, 2021 A Grand Day!

Seward, Alaska

Sunrise 5:42 am, sunset 10:27 pm for a total daylength of 16 hours and 45 minutes. Tomorrow will be 4 minutes and 55 seconds shorter.

 

Another fabulous, sunny day! Three in a row! Temp a very pleasant 64º, with a south wind rising around 11 am to stir up the reflections. Cloudy weather with rain starting on Friday through next week. 

 

The TRUMPETER SWAN family with four cygnets has not been easy to see with the tall vegetation and many hiding places in the Mile 1 Nash Road marsh. But today, one of the parents circled over the wetlands and flew across the road in front of me, trumpeting. I pulled over to watch it land on the east side. After a few more wild, echoing trumpets, it took a brief bath.

 

Glancing back at the marsh, I saw two cygnets paddling alone, side by side, one taller than the other. At two months, they apparently feel quite independent and allowed some liberties away from their watchful parents. This is a different parenting style from previous parents who always attended their cygnets closely, bookending their excursions around the pond.

 

Suddenly, the bathing adult took flight, and narrowly missing all the power lines, flew back over the road, circled around and landed on the far right with more fantastic fanfare. Wow! The other parent’s head popped up like a white periscope among the grasses. I could not tell if the other two cygnets were present. A casual passerby now would not know there were Swans here. Timing is everything!

 

Over at Fourth of July Beach, I experienced the dawn again as the sun steadily rose over the nearby mountain. It was fun to be in the remnant night shadow and watch the sun chase it back to the forest. 

Four SPOTTED SANDPIPERS bobbed and dashed along the riverside rocks, catching chilled flies before the sun revived them. Then a frowzy juvenile and spotless adult preened in the sun’s warmth. 

 

The shrill contact cries of at least 4 MARBLED MURRELETS rang out; I wonder where they roost at night? Three HARLEQUINS paddled towards the breaking waves near shore. A COMMON LOON in star-spangled breeding plumage and two DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANTS fished offshore, disappearing momentarily in the wave troughs. In the distance, I found a single COMMON MURRE. 

 

What a great morning!

 

In the afternoon, I checked Waterfall Beach for the Sabine’s Gull without success. It was here over the weekend despite the increased presence of shore fishers. As before, BLACK-LEGGED KITTIWAKES and GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULLS patrolled the shoreline, wheeling and hovering, squawking and screeching, then nabbed bits of food from the surface. 

 

I wonder why so many Kittiwakes are feeding here when their nests are far down the bay at the end of the Resurrection Peninsula? Are these failed breeders? Non-breeders? Is there no reliable food near their nests? Have their young fledged and are left to forage on their own? Regardless of the circumstances, close viewing from shore was a treat.

 

BALD EAGLES watched from the nearby forest. Whenever a fisherman tossed a pink salmon carcass back in the water, they were ready to swoop down and snatch it up as soon as the rising tide deposited it on the beach, scattering the snacking Gulls. A few Gulls gave a half-hearted chase, but soon went back to scavenging, including a dead skate that washed up.

 

A bike ride along Exit Glacier Road through the Chugach National Forest and Kenai Fjords Park seemed silent. As I rode past, I thought about all the wonderful birds I enjoyed hearing and seeing earlier, and their probable migration now back to their wintering grounds. I’m already looking forward to their return! Of note, a yearling moose in Box Canyon Creek by the first bridge, eating willows. People soon spooked it and it trotted into the underbrush and disappeared.

 

Around mile 4, a very large cow moose walked along, browsing the willows. She didn’t seem impressed with my cheery bike bell or me waving my arms and kept coming. I flagged down a car that kindly shielded me until I was past and on my way. Moose sure look much bigger when one is on a bike!

 

The wind dozed as the cottony gray clouds snuck in by late evening, shrouding all but the magnificent peak of Mt Alice, almost a mile high. As the sun set, a puffy cloud perched overhead lit up with a soft pink light. What a splendid finale to a grand day!

 

Happy Birding!

Carol Griswold

Seward Sporadic Bird Report Reporter