Seward, Alaska
Sunrise 9:58 am, sunset 3:51 pm for a total day length of 5 hours and 52 minutes. Tomorrow will be 0 minutes and 53 seconds shorter.
Sunny today for that short time, low of 16 to a high of 23, with a brisk north wind gusting to 21 mph like a fan in a freezer. Continued cold, clear, and windy in the forecast.
Hoping to beach it out of the wind, I headed to Afognak Beach. On Tuesday, I counted 33 TRUMPETER SWANS, including 2 cygnets that were still quite brown, feeding on eel grass in the bay. Today, there were none. I kept walking along the frozen ocean floor, crackling through thin ice sheets, to the Point. In the distance on the tide flats in the sun, sixteen sleeping Swans lay in a line with heads tucked under wings like rounded snow drifts, completely exposed to the cold north wind.
The sluggish sun slowly crept over the nearby mountains and the blue shadows along the shore shrank back, but the Swans remained, fast asleep. I wondered how long they had been there; the 8.86’ high tide at 7:12 am likely covered this area. Did they paddle out of the adjacent stream to rest as the tide ebbed?
As I waited for some action, seven RED CROSSBILLS sailed in and landed on a spruce, extracting tiny seeds from the cones, chattering quietly. When I left, the Swans were still sleeping. Conserving energy? Fasting? Do they feed in the dark?
Robin C reported six Trumpeter Swans feeding at the north end of the Lagoon around 2 pm, so at least some Swans were active.
Back home, I was excited to hear the soft chirring of BOHEMIAN WAXWINGS and found about 40 decorating a neighbor’s spruce like feathered ornaments. After a few minutes, they simultaneously erupted and vanished. Maybe that Sharp-shinned Hawk Robin C reported in the ‘hood on Tuesday cruised past, checking out the lunch menu.
Carol Griswold
Seward Sporadic Bird Report Reporter
No comments:
Post a Comment