Temps in the 40s, partly sunny, Wind E 5-10 mph

The sea was calm today, allowing me to see some of the alcids I was missing. I added Common Murre, Horned Puffin, and Tufted Puffin. And saw a lot more alcids in general.

I went up to the Seawall for a morning look-see.

As I got near Clam Lagoon, I saw the Egrets perched on the Sparrpowhawk Grove of spruces.

As I approached the new Breaches by-pass, a Grey-tailed Tattler flew up from the road and posed for me.

I let Stephan know and his group found 3 tattlers there! I don’t know which species.

I had two Pacific Loons at the Seawall. The number of loons is down this year. It is not unusual to see 4 loons on the Seawall of multiple species. This year this is the first day that I saw 2 in the same location.

There was one Tufted Duck on Lake Shirley and two on Lake Ronnie.

After that, I headed out to the Loran Station.

In the short time I was there, I had 4 Laysan Albatross.

The drive to and from Loran is always an adventure — especially the last quarter mile or so.

This section of road — carved into a cliffside is extra fun.

You never know what you will encounter. For instance, this rock was new.

As was this one…

When I got back to town, I got a call from Sam that he had just flushed a Fieldfare, but had lost it. I joined him in the search, to no avail. Maybe tomorrow someone will stumble on it.

When I got back to the house, a Hawfinch was on my feeder.

After dinner, I went out again. As I was scanning Sweeper Channel, Stephan’s group arrived and told me they had a Terek Sandpiper a few hours ago, but not everyone in their group saw it, so they were back to try again. As they scoured the estuary and delta, I drove up the Channel. I spotted the bird at the pipeline bridge and alerted the others.

When I first saw and identified it, it was on the west side of the channel. It flew to the east side (out of view). I waited in my car before walking up to where it flew to so that I wouldn’t flush it before the others arrived.

When they got there and we peered over the side of the channel, the bird was gone. However, they soon spotted it way upstream. They hiked up the channel as it kept flying ahead of them.

I didn’t get photos, as the bird had flown across the channel before I was ready.

Good trip bird, however.

The trip list is at 74.

You can see the total list at https://ebird.org/tripreport/525344?welcome=true