Temp in the low 50s, Mostly Cloudy, Wind NW 10-15 mph
Quite a change from the past two days. Sunny, mild wind.
But, still no new birds.
The only birds of note were a flock of Cackling Geese flying over. I hadn’t seen (or heard) any in several days.
I ended with 53 species (two shy of average).
The best bird from an Adak perspective was Least Sandpiper. First fall record for Adak.
The best bird from my perspective was the Lesser Sand-Plover, which stayed a week and was most cooperative.
The stint, Gray-tailed Tattler, Wood Sandpipers, and Ruff rounded out the highlights.
My Adak Year List was 79 (below average), but I was only here three weeks instead of four.
My trip home was interesting…
The flight to Adak was an hour late, as was my arrival in Anchorage. But no problem, I had a 5-hour layover there.
When the Flight to Chicago should have been boarding, they announced there was a maintenance issue. It turned out the water system wasn’t working.
So after an hour, they switched us to another plane and we left for Chicago about an hour late.
The thing is, I only had a 1-hour connection in Chicago.
Well, I missed my connection, but was immediately booked on the next flight to Philly that was about to board!
It too was running late — which was the saving grace this time.
So I arrived in Philly only about an hour-and-a-half later than I had planned.
I went down to the baggage claim expecting to NOT find my luggage, but amazingly, they had managed to get my bag re-tagged and on to this flight!
So all’s well that ends well.
I will leave you with two videos.
Ravens and eagles playing in the wind.
I will be back next May.
Coda: The earlier version of the posts for this trip listed a Little Stint. It now appears to have been a Red-necked Stint. Therefore, I went back and edited those posts.