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