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 64ยบ, 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
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