Seward, Alaska
Sunrise 9:50 am, sunset 4:09 pm for a total day length of 6 hours and 10 minutes. Tomorrow will be 2 minutes and 39 seconds longer.
Today was mostly clear with a low of 8ยบ, a high of 18, and a northerly breeze that felt like a zephyr compared to the recent rages culminating with gusts to 53 mph on Saturday.
I loaded up the good dogs and headed to Afognak Beach to watch the dawn gently alight on Mt Marathon around 10 am then slowly descend to the homes and buildings perched on the edge of the bay. The surrounding spectacular mountains dwarfed the town. Golden plumes of steam rose from the calm bay.
As I walked along, the incoming tide rushed into the channels in the frozen ripples in the sand. It is always startling how quickly the tide fills this rather flat tidelands. Hurry, hurry, hurry! But away from the edge, close to shore, the urgency lessened for a bit. As the sun finally reached me around 11:15, I took photos of the high tide lines etched in ice on the rocks, a reminder of Monday’s 13.6’ high tide, the highest of the year. A bleached soft-shell clam lay open, adorning the icy ripple patterns.
A sudden wild trumpeting erupted over the wetlands at the head of the bay. An adult TRUMPETER SWAN and two cygnets flew low from the north, circled over the tidelands, and then flew even lower to join the rest of the family (I hope) waiting for them with joyful cries. From that distance, I could only see a few heads sticking up like periscopes over the banks where they were hunkered down.
Last week, I counted 33 Trumpeter Swans including the resident Swan family with 4 cygnets and another family with two cygnets feeding on eel grass in the bay. What meager winter resources for such large birds!
I also found about 70 ROCK SANDPIPERS and at least one DUNLIN feeding noisily at the tidelands like friends exclaiming about treasures found at a fabulous rummage sale. I did not find them today and hope they survived the tremendous winds and cold this past week.
The tide quickly filled in the remaining distance and I crunched briskly through the thin ice and splashed through the deepening water, grateful not only for my ice grippers and neoprene boots, but the joy of the dawn and beautiful morning.
Towards sunset around 4 pm, Robin C pointed out 13 ROBINS feasting on frozen Mt Ash berries in the 300 block of Second Ave. Where were they during the Count and how did they survive the bitter cold and wind? He also relocated the TOWNSEND’S SOLITAIRE perched on the top spire of a spruce.
Around 6 pm, the 13% waxing crescent moon passed the constellation Aquarius with the great, shining globe of Jupiter suspended above, sailing west to set behind Bear Mountain. I imagined the tide, trying to keep up with her gravitational pull, rising and falling all over the Earth in an endless and timeless flow.
Happy Birding!
Carol Griswold
Seward Sporadic Bird Report Reporter
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