Sunday, May 12, 2024 Hummer in the snow, more migrants

Seward, Alaska

 

Sunrise 5:26 am, sunset 10:24 pm, for a total day length of 15 hours and 58 minutes. Tomorrow will be 4 minutes and 48 seconds longer.

 

Chilly, windy, and rainy spring weather continued this past week with actual snow on the ground on Wednesday. Overnight temperatures hovered around freezing and daytime highs barely scraped 40. Showers mixed with sunshine today for a welcome change. Slightly warmer daytime temps in the forecast, still in the 40s.

 

Migratory birds can’t wait for balmy weather. On May 6, I saw my first female RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRD at Ava’s, first VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOWS (2) in town, and first BLACK OYSTERCATCHER at Spring Creek.

 

I heard my FOS YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER on May 7, and saw my breath that evening before it snowed. The next morning, “my” male Rufous Hummingbird fed ravenously in the snowstorm, then sat on a handy driftwood perch nearby, quietly watching the giant flakes fall all around. Tough little guy!

 

May 8, my first SURFBIRDS, 6, first spotted by Robin C yesterday at Spring Creek. ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLERS flitted through bare but budding alders. Just offshore, a nice raft of about 20 SURFSCOTERS, 3 WHITE-WINGED SCOTERS, and 20 HARLEQUIN DUCKS. 

I heard a COMMON LOON calling as it flew. At least 40 BARROW’S GOLDENEYES dotted the plugged and flooded wetland pond, perhaps staging for nesting. A BELTED KINGFISH rattled across the pond.

 

May 10, first DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANTS, some sporting flouncy white eyebrows. 

 

May 11, a mixed winter-spring feeding frenzy in my yard: RED CROSSBILLS, 1WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL on suet, PINE SISKINS, GOLDEN-CROWNED SPARROWS, CHESTNUT-BACKED and BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEES, RED-BREASTED NUTHATCHES, and the female RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRD. 

Aggressive Pine Siskins landed on the hummer feeder and chased her away. A PACIFIC WREN sang in the rain at Two Lakes Park; skunk cabbage brightened wet areas with their yellow candles. 

 

Today at the tidelands, I saw my first SEMIPALMATED PLOVERS, so dapper, another PECTORAL SANDPIPER, more WESTERN, LEAST, and SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPERS, DUNLINS, lingering HUDSONIAN GODWITS and SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHERS, WHIMBRELS, and CACKLING and GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GEESE, GADWALL, MALLARDS, AMERICAN WIGEON, NORTHERN SHOVELERS, and GREEN-WINGED TEAL, nesting ARCTIC TERNS and SHORT-BILLED GULLS, and marauding RAVENS and BALD EAGLES. WILSON’S SNIPE winnowed high in the sky.

 

Birding by bike along Exit Glacier Road in showers and sunshine this afternoon, I heard or saw RUBY-CROWNED KINGLETS, FOX SPARROWS, GOLDEN-CROWNED SPARROWS, COMMON REDPOLLS, VARIED THRUSHES, HERMIT THRUSHES, ROBINS, 2 BLACK-BILLED MAGPIES, YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS, ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLERS, and a TOWNSEND’S WARBLER. 

 

The gate remains closed at Box Canyon which makes walking and biking a pleasure for at least a few more days. The road is plowed all the way to the Nature Center and parking lot, with several feet of snow still blanketing the ground. Trees are leafless and stark, contrasting with the blooming willows. Exit Glacier gleamed under a fresh coat of snow; it was wonderful to see it again after a long winter.

 

Happy Spring Birding!

Carol Griswold

Seward Sporadic Bird Report Reporter