Seward, Alaska
Sunrise 10:02 am, sunset 4:02 pm, for a total day length of 5 hours and 59 minutes. Tomorrow will be 1 minute and 56 seconds longer as we reach the 6-hour milestone with seconds to spare.
2024 started the new year with a calm, lovely day. The high of 31 at 7:30 am slid to the still comfortable high 20s under mostly cloudy skies with a bit of sunshine. The forecast calls for snow showers, sn’rain, and rain over the next week.
It’s very fun to start a new year's checklist where every bird, no matter how common, counts. I targeted a few today: 24 TRUMPETER SWANS at Afognak Beach including the resident Swan family with their three remaining cygnets. Just as I was leaving, a juvenile NORTHERN GOSHAWK flew past and landed in a nearby tree long enough for me to dash out and get some photos. Bonus!
At the head of the bay I heard, but did not see, SNOW BUNTINGS. Alas, no Killdeer.
At Ava’s Hot Spot, I supplemented my bird feeder list with DOWNY and HAIRY WOODPECKERS, and both CHESTNUT-BACKED and BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEES.
The Brambling proved elusive even at the Hemlock Street hot spot, but I found a WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW bonus with lots of other feeder birds. The White-throated Sparrow was not found.
A real treat was the selection from the Harbor Uplands: two GREAT BLUE HERONS perched in the blue coal loader, two PACIFIC LOONS, two COMMON MURRES, MARBLED MURRELETS, and a variety of other seabirds. I heard a Loon yodel an alarm as three adult BALD EAGLES swooped across the water towards the flocks of ducks. Bonus!
I too swooped in to First Lake to find a DIPPER and the RUSTY BLACKBIRD flipping through the leaf debris at the lake inlet. Double Bonus!
VARIED THRUSHES popped up at feeders all over town, many more than I remember seeing in the winter. PINE SISKIN and COMMON REDPOLLS numbers are up, as well as the continuing WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILLS, high in the spruce tops.
Also found a young bull moose eating willow twigs, sea lions, sea otters, red squirrels, and river otter tracks.
In all, I found 37 bird species, with more to check off, weather permitting. Surely, I will find a Short-billed Gull!
Happy Birding in the New Year!
Carol Griswold
Seward Sporadic Bird Report Reporter
Here’s the list:
Trumpeter Swan
Mallard
Surf Scoter
Bufflehead
Common Goldeneye
Barrow’s Goldeneye
Common Merganser
Red-breasted Merganser
Pacific Loon
Horned Grebe
Pelagic Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Bald Eagle
Northern Goshawk
Glaucous-winged Gull
Common Murre
Marbled Murrelet
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Steller’s Jay
Black-billed Magpie
Northwestern Crow
Common Raven
Black-capped Chickadee
Chestnut-backed Chickadee
Red-breasted Nuthatch
American Dipper
Varied Thrush
Fox Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Snow Bunting
Rusty Blackbird
Pine Grosbeak
White-winged Crossbill
Common Redpoll
Pine Siskin
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