Temps in the 40s, mostly cloudy, Winds NW 10-20 mph

Last day of the trip…

I’ve been watching the Bald Eagle nest at Sweeper Cove, but had not seen the young-uns until today.

After packing and spending the morning birding various locations (we had four Bramblings and one Hawfinch at the Andrew Lake Rec Center), we returned to the house to get lunch before heading to the airport.

No sooner had we walked in the door (and re-established wi-fi) did we get a message that a Common Rosefinch was at the Blue Building Feeder!

We raced up there and. after about 20 minutes, in it flew.

Lifer!!! And # 170 for my Adak List!

And a lifer for everyone else who was there today.

Not only that, but about an hour later, another one showed up at the Seal Drive Feeder!

I believe these would constitute the 4th and 5th records for Adak.

There had been great southwesterly winds yesterday. Who knows what other goodies were deposited on the island. Unfortunately, all of the birders were leaving today.

What a way to end the trip.

This was a so-so trip up until today.

But with today’s find it was great.

One lifer (Common Rosefinch) and two semi-lifers (drake Garganey and white Ruff).

Here are some of the birds seen by others during my stay, but not by me.

Tundra Bean Goose
Common Redpoll
Least Sandpiper
Lesser Yellowlegs
Yellow-billed Loon
Long-tailed Jaeger
Pomarine Jaeger
Long-tailed Duck
Greater White-fronted Goose

The Trip List is 74. Ebird says one less because they think Green-winged Teal and Common Teal are the same species (I don’t!).

Today’s List can be seen at https://ebird.org/checklist/S245188400

The Total Trip List can be seen at https://ebird.org/tripreport/372779

I will be back on September 20, 2025.

Temps in the 40s, mostly cloudy, very light drizzle most of the day, Wind, SW 10-20 mph

At the Seawall over the last two weeks, I have scanned the horizon for pelagics. All I saw were a few Short-tailed Shearwaters.

Today, as soon as I focused in on the horizon, a Laysan Albatross glided by. No other pelagics! At least it was a trip birds.

Down at the Marina, a pair of Marbled Murrelets posed for a few minutes.

I leave tomorrow afternoon and expect to get home on Sunday.

I will post my wrap-up then.

The Trip List is 73. Ebird says one less because they think Green-winged Teal and Common Teal are the same species (I don’t!).

Today’s List can be seen at https://ebird.org/checklist/S244788042

The Total Trip List can be seen at https://ebird.org/tripreport/372779

Temps in the 40s, mostly cloudy, Wind SW 10-20 mph

No new trip birds again today.

Up at Lake Jean and Andrew Lake, we found five Common Loons.

After lunch, we stopped at the Landing Lights and found the Ruddy Turnstones again.

As I was scanning up the beach, I spotted a flock of nine Bar-tailed Godwits flying in.

We drove up to the north end, but they were closer to halfway, so we found a gap in the dunes and walked out and got very nice views.

This is the most I’ve seen on Adak since 2022. There were several dozen in 2022. In intervening years, the high number was two!

After dinner, we went out again and ran into Michelle, who told us they had Bramblings, Hawfinch and the White Wagtail up at the Andrew Lake Recreation Area. She also had a possible Golden-crowned Sparrow.

We went up there and had six Bramblings and a Hawfinch, but could not find the others.

The Trip List is 72. Ebird says one less because they think Green-winged Teal and Common Teal are the same species (I don’t!).

Today’s List can be seen at https://ebird.org/checklist/S244407962

The Total Trip List can be seen at https://ebird.org/tripreport/372779

Temps in the 40s, mostly cloudy, Wind N 5-15 mph

No new trip birds for me and no bird photos for me.

However…

After dinner, we went back out. We decided to drop Dave off at the Landing Lights while I observed the shore from the Airport Creek Bridge.

However, when I dropped him off, I realized I had forgotten my camera. So I left him there and went back for it.

In the meantime, he found a White Wagtail there!

I arrived back there as did one of the other groups that was within radio distance.

The bird had flown up NavFac Beach, so we drove up to the north end, walked out onto the beach and walked all of the way back to the Landing Lights.

No wagtail.

But Dave did get photos.

I end today’s blog with the mandatory rainbow photo…

The Trip List is 72. Ebird says one less because they think Green-winged Teal and Common Teal are the same species (I don’t!).

Today’s List can be seen at https://ebird.org/checklist/S244023820

The Total Trip List can be seen at https://ebird.org/tripreport/372779

Temps in the 40s, mostly cloudy, Winds SE turning to NE 5-15 mph

There was little wind today, so Kuluk Bay and Sweeper Cove were like glass. Great conditions for seeing alcids.

We had both puffins, Ancient and Marbled murrelets, guillemots, and murres.

As I said previously, the ptarmigans are abundant this year.

It was a good day for loons. We had Arctic, Common, Pacific, and Red-throated.

As we were going around Clam Lagoon, we spotted an Aleutian Cackling Goose being pursued by a Bald Eagle.

The goose landed as the eagle made multiple unsuccessful passes at it. The goose took flight again, but had to land again as the eagle closed in.

The adult eagle was then joined by an immature, but both tired and abandoned the chase.

We decided to stop and eat lunch at the Blue Building Feeder and were rewarded with two more Bramblings!

We went around the lagoon and up to Lake Ronnie, where we saw a pair of Tufted Ducks.

We decided that I would drop Dave off at the South Lookout and he would walk the marsh edge while I scoped it from the pennisula area.

When Dave was a bout a third of the way up, we got a call from Sam that there was a Ruff at Lake Shirley!

Dave walked/ran as fast as was practical to get to me and we raced around the lagoon.

Thankfully, the bird stayed. We were also able to get Jon and Jim and they arrived about fifteen minutes later. We then walked over to get closer views/photos.

As you can see, it was a gorgeous white Ruff.

While we were watching from afar, before Jon and Jim arrived, it was displaying its ruff.

Not a bad way to end the day!

The Trip List is 72. Ebird says one less because they think Green-winged Teal and Common Teal are the same species (I don’t!).

Today’s List can be seen at https://ebird.org/checklist/S243683625

The Total Trip List can be seen at https://ebird.org/tripreport/372779

Temps in the 40s, overcast, rain on and off all day, Winds W 10-20 mph

We had two Hawfinches at my feeder this morning! And one over by the Seal Drive feeder a little after.

We also had the Bramblings at the Kuluk Drive feeder today.

There have not been many puffins this year (at least that I have seen), so this one in Sweeper Cove was nice.

The number of Rock Ptarmigans exploded from recent years. I am seeing over a hundred in a day! There have been a number of years when it took two or three days before I would see even one!

When we got to the east side of Clam Lagoon, we heard from the guys that there were two Red-necked Stints out on the peninsula.

Luckily, they stayed until we came back around and were very cooperative.

This one was shaking the rain off its head!

The rain abated and the wind lessened after dinner, so I decided to try again for the Canvasback.

We hiked out the Sweeper dike past where Jon and Jim had seen the bird, found the flock of waterfowl, but no Canvasback.

And the rain started back up while we were all the way out there!

Oh well…

The Trip List is 66. Ebird says one less because they think Green-winged Teal and Common Teal are the same species (I don’t!).

Today’s List can be seen at https://ebird.org/checklist/S242789076

The Total Trip List can be seen at https://ebird.org/tripreport/372779

Temps in the 40s, overcast with a spot of sun in late afternoon, Wind WSW 10-40 mph

A Tundra Bean Goose was seen again this morning, but I failed to catch up to it. Maybe it will hang around for another day or two.

However, I did find a Common Merganser at Andrew Lake.

Common Mergansers are not common on Adak.

I also finally found an American Green-winged Teal for the trip list. I count these separately from Common Teals…

The other exciting news is that one of the Hawfinches has found my feeder! Its nice to look out at a Hawfinch while eating breakfast or dinner.

Most of the birders left today, but Dave arrived. So right now there are only five birders on the island. More are coming on Wednesday.

As I was taking Dave around this evening, Sam told us he had seen a Canvasback up Sweeper Channel #2. I need that for my Adak List, so we set out to look for it.

No luck. Maybe tomorrow.

The Trip List is 65. Ebird says one less because they think Green-winged Teal and Common Teal are the same species (I don’t!).

Today’s List can be seen at https://ebird.org/checklist/S242272790

The Total Trip List can be seen at https://ebird.org/tripreport/372779

Temps in the 40s, overcast, on and off light rain all day, Wind SW light increasing to 10 mph in the afternoon

As I’ve stated in previous blogs, I am entitled to one bone-headed mistake per trip.

The Garganey was this one’s.

With much humiliation, I saw the Garganey this morning. I got distant, but identifiable photos.

A semi-lifer!

As we started to drive back through he Marsh, we saw a Wood Sandpiper. There have been about a half-dozen hanging around this year.

We decided to try to get a better (maybe closer?) view of the Garganey from the west side.

However, as soon as we started walking down from the hillside on the west side of the pond, the ducks started flushing. So we abandoned that effort.

However, while we were up there, a Short-eared Owl flew by.

Since we were partly up that particular road, I decided on a whim to continue driving up it to the Power Plant #5.

Good thing we did. The Gyrfalcon was sitting on a post up there.

As we were returning to town, we got a call from Sam that he had a Common Sandpiper on Sweeper Channel.

We headed there and, after a little searching, all got good looks (of it flying mostly). It was very skittish. So I did not get any photos.

I split off from Jon and Jim at that pint to bird on my own.

At the Airport Ponds, I found a female Common Goldeneye for the trip list.

Along the west shore of Clam Lagoon, I found these Oystercatchers.

I ended up with 11 for the day.

On the flats on the East Side of the Lagoon, I found two Aleutian Terns procreating the species…

Its always nice to see loving couples…

Who said Adak doesn’t have any public toilets?

The Trip List is 63.

Today’s List can be seen at https://ebird.org/checklist/S241776481

The Total Trip List can be seen at https://ebird.org/tripreport/372779

Temps in the 40s, overcast with drizzle until afternoon, some sunshine in late afternoon, Winds W 10-30 mph

John and Jim tagged along with me today.

As we hit the various feeders in town, we found the Bramblings at the Kuluk Drive feeder.

We didn’t find anything new until we checked the Airport Creek Bridge in late afternoon, where we found the Ruddy Turnstone that had been reported in the area.

Then after we got back, we went over to the store, only to find it was closed until further notice for maintenance…

However, on the way over, a Hawfinch flew across the road in front of us and we all got decent looks.

Boy, do I have egg on my face!

I had been ignoring the Garganey posts, as I have had Garganey on Adak several times and I thought this was the same bird as last year (a female). Nobody mentioned to me that this year’s bird was a male! I have never seen a male Garganey (in the wild), so this is would be what I call a semi-lifer.

I just found out, so tomorrow Jon, Jim, and I will attempt to get a look (and photos) at it.

The Trip List is 58.

Today’s List can be seen at https://ebird.org/checklist/S241390786

The Total Trip List can be seen at https://ebird.org/tripreport/372779

Temps in the 40s, Overcast in the morning, breaks of sun in late afternoon, Wind SE turning to SW 10-15 mph

At the Airport Ponds this morning, I had the two pair of Tufted Ducks. So they hadn’t flown north to be with the others up at Lakes Ronnie and Shirley! So there are at least 14 Tufted Ducks here!

Two Hawfinches were spotted today in town. After several groups fanned out, they were relocated next to the liquor store.

At one point this morning, one of them was seen outside my house, but I have not yet seen it at my feeder.

Two Brambling were also seen (at the Seal Drive and Kuluk Drive feeders). I had a nano-second look at them as they flew away from the Seal drive feeder.

However, a Pine Siskin was a little more cooperative.

Up at Clam Lagoon, the Bar-tailed Godwit was on the east flats.

A lot of birders left today and more arrived, including Jon Boone and Jim DeForge. I have birded with them out here before.

Jon needed the Garganey, so we stopped at the Marsh and Jon and Jim hiked over to the ponds where the bird has been reported. They saw it fly out. Success! Good way to start their trip.

The Trip List is 57.

Today’s List can be seen at https://ebird.org/checklist/S241093099

The Total Trip List can be seen at https://ebird.org/tripreport/372779