Seward, Alaska
Sunny and windy as forecasted. Low of 19, high of 27. North wind 5-12 mph with gusts up to 30 mph. Out of the wind the sun felt wonderfully warm. Step away from the windbreak and it was cold! Powdery snow blew off the surrounding mountains creating swirling summit clouds.
While birding with friends from out of town, I drove around a curve and suddenly was looking up at a giant moose standing on a snowbank ramp, reaching for Mt Ash twigs. Up so high, she seemed even more enormous.
I snatched up my camera and clicked away as she stretched even higher. I don’t often get the chance to safely see the white chin of a moose or the underside. Or note her lovely eyelashes and the many beautiful shades of brown in her living fur coat.
Another moose grazed below on the other side of the snowbank but I didn’t linger. In a minute I was gone, simply amazed by this closeup sighting of another iconic Alaskan mammal.
Of note, a DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANT, likely immature, roosting with two pencil-billed PELAGIC CORMORANTS by the seafood processing plant at SMIC. A dozen other Pelagic Cormorants preened and paddled in the boat basin.
Also spotted, the usual BARROW’S GOLDENEYES, HARLEQUIN DUCKS, COMMON MERGANSERS, SURF SCOTERS, SHORT-BILLED GULLS, GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULLS, AMERICAN CROWS, COMMON RAVENS, BLACK-BILLED MAGPIES, PIGEONS. Yesterday in addition, I saw the continuing drake LONG-TAILED DUCK and MARBLED MURRELETS by the Lowell Point Road seafood processing plant, but did not check today. Too windy!
Although I have been listening hard, I have not yet heard my neighborhood Saw-whet Owls or Great Horned Owls. However, on Thursday night around 8:30 pm, Robin and Sam heard a pair of Western Screech Owls hooting and hunting at Old Exit Glacier Road.
Carol Griswold
Seward Sporadic Bird Report Reporter
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