Temps in the 50s, mostly cloudy, wind w 10-15 mph
Whoops! I forgot to take my weather photo this morning…
What a great day on Adak! Not a record-buster, but lots of good birds.
First, I joined Aaron and his group walking the Lagoon marsh edge. We had the usual Pecs and Sharp-tails.
When we got down to the southwest corner, we saw one or two teal fly into the creek that feeds the lagoon there.
Aaron and I decided to walk up the creek and see what else was there.
No sooner had we started than a large flock of teal exploded from up ahead — including the Garganey!
Late yesterday afternoon, Aaron had TWO Garganeys at Contractor’s Marsh! I could not relocate them today.
Later in the morning, I ate lunch at the National Forest. While I was there, the Yellow Warbler popped out (and right back in!).
I went back to town and at the High School Willows, I spotted the Brambling.
It flew from the willows down to the road and then up to the spruces and then back to the willows.
I headed back up to Clam Lagoon. While looking at some Black-legged Kittiwakes on the lagoon, I heard Cackling Geese going over.
On the way to the Seawall, a Pacific Golden-Plover flew across the road and disappeared.
I was hoping to find the Greater scaup flock on Lake Shirley, as they weren’t on the lagoon. Aaron had seen a Lesser Scaup in the flock which I wanted to add to my trip list.
They were not there, so I drove up to Lake Ronnie, where waterfowl from Lake Shirley often go to rest and get away from hunters, etc.
On the way up the road, I found three Common Redpolls.
There were only Mallards and Pintails on Lake Ronnie.
However, on the way back past Lake Shirley, the scaup flock had arrived — along with the two Tufted Ducks and the Lesser Scaup.
The plover reappeared were I had last seen it. It flew down to the lagoon shoreline, where I got a photo.
It was now late afternoon, so I went home, had dinner and then decided to go back out.
I went back up to Clam Lagoon to scope the feeding teal flock in hopes of seeing the Garganey not in flight. Unfortunately, the flock was not out tonight.
As I drove up the west side of the lagoon, I ran into Aaron who informed me that they just had a Skylark!
He gave me directions and off I went.
I found the bird!
This bird looked very different from the one I had last September. Mine was an adult, this bird appears to be an immature.
Here is last year’s bird.
So my trip list exploded to 54 and my Year List to 81. My average Fall list is only 51…
You can see today’s eBird list at https://ebird.org/checklist/S150530817
Great day!