Seward, Alaska
Sunrise 6:00 am, sunset 10:08 pm, for a total day length of 16 hours and 8 minutes. Tomorrow will be 5 minutes and 8 seconds shorter.
A day of grace today after torrential rain and flooding for the past three days. Lovely, lovely sunshine and blue sky. It’s a wonder. The overnight temperature dipped to 45 and rose to 58ยบ with an undecided wind waffling around the compass rose. More bouts of heavy rain in the forecast.
I visited Afognak Beach this afternoon, mercifully devoid of anglers. Small mixed flocks of peeps including WESTERN, LEAST, and SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPERS, and SEMIPALMATED PLOVERS picked through the tidbits left by the storm. BALD EAGLES perched on the flats, eyeing the menu spread before them.
Along the flood-altered shore of Afognak Creek, I hit a small but rewarding bonanza: two GREATER YELLOWLEGS, one SPOTTED SANDPIPER, one SOLITARY SANDPIPER, one BELTED KINGFISHER, and a DIPPER, rock stars all.
The Solitary Sandpiper sporting bold white eye-rings was a special treat as I haven’t seen one in a long time. It hunted amicably along the water’s edge and in the sandbar with the Greater Yellowlegs and Spotted Sandpiper.
I was surprised by the prominence of its whitish eyebrows that met at the forehead and tried hard to turn it into a Gray-tailed Tattler, without success. It didn’t bob very much, unlike Spotty, whose lively rear section ran on autopilot.
Later, I read a cool fact that Solitary Sandpipers nest in trees, 4-40’ above ground, and may take over a freshly-built songbird nest like that of a Robin or Rusty Blackbird. Imagine that!
A DIPPER swooped low over their heads, a small act of aggression by a resident on seasonals in its territory. After failing to drive anything away, it landed on a nearby log, then flew to the water’s edge across from where I sat and began hunting.
Poking its waterproof gray head underwater, it rummaged around and then, time after time, pulled out a caddisfly larva, shook it out of its supposedly camouflaged and unprotective case, then guzzled it down. It was amazing how many the Dipper found in a very short section of this productive creekside.
The Belted Kingfisher rattled overhead, flashing from one leafy perch to another and disappeared around the bend.
After that big storm and heavy rain, everything and everyone seemed glad for this sunny reprieve.
Happy Birding!
Carol Griswold
Seward Sporadic Bird Report Reporter
