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 64ยบ 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
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