Temp in the 40s, overcast, almost steady rain, Wind SE 5-10 mph

Bad weather, good birds…

Still nothing new at the feeders.

The newly-arriving birders last night reported two different Garganeys! One at Contractor’s Marsh and one at the East Side Ponds.

We drove around the marsh this morning while two sets of birders walked it, but no Garganey was found.

However, we flushed the Least Sandpiper as we were driving through (trip bird).

This Semipalmated Plover poised nicely for a photo.

At the Airport Creek Bridge, we found one of the Red-necked Stints still present.

We got up to Clam Lagoon.

Just up from the peninsula, a Mallard was shepherding her brood.

The Emperor Goose was back on Cormorant Rocks after being absent for a day.

When we got down to Candlestick Bridge, Don got out to walk the beach where the Greenshank had last been reported, but no sooner than he started towards the bridge when the Greenshank called from nearby and flew a short distance up the lagoon!

At the same time, Manuel and Jason pulled in behind us and said the curlew was out on the flats and they also had just seen the Dunlin (which I had been pursuing for two days!).

We viewed the greenshank and curlew and then drove back up the lagoon looking for the elusive Dunlin.

This is the longest in my experience that a Far Eastern Curlew has stayed. I previously had one stay for two days.

We drove up the lagoon looking for the Dunlin. I was about to go back and walk up the edge of the flats, when I spotted an odd shape that turned out to be the Dunlin on a rock — disguising its shorebird shape!

We headed back to town, had lunch and then checked feeders and wandered about (it was still raining), when we got a call that there was a Common Sandpiper at Clam Lagoon.

By the time we got there, the other birders had moved on, but we managed to find the bird anyway. But it was very skittish and I could not get any photos.

While we were there, we got another call that there was a Wandering Tattler at the East Side Ponds, so we headed over there.

We arrived to find the other birders looking for (not at!) the tattler. It had flown off.

So we dipped on that one, but on the way back, at the northernmost East Side Pond, the Garganey took off (showing its distinct wing pattern), but it flew away too quickly for me to get a photo.

Once we got back to the other side of the lagoon where we had last seen the Common Sandpiper, we decided to try for it again.

Ivan had just arrived there and had seen it fly, so we joined him to look for it.

Success!

While we were standing there, Ivan pointed out a Herring Gull (rare on Adak) standing on a rock nearby.

What a way to cap off the day!

My Trip List is 70.

Don asked me if I ever had passed the average trip list only halfway through the trip. I checked my previous posts and NO, I hadn’t. So this is a very exceptional trip.

The Trip Report can be viewed at https://ebird.org/tripreport/243576