Temp in the 40s, overcast to partly sunny, wind W 10-20

No new birds today, although the Fairbanks crew (JJ, Scott, Eric, Rita) thought they might have had three Hawfinches at the feeder this morning. We spent an hour there this afternoon and only saw one Hawfinch and one Brambling. However, the Brambling was singing away! (If you want to call that raspy trill a ‘song’?) It was still neat to hear.

Still 4 Tufted Ducks. No shorebirds other than residents. However, the Red-necked Phalaropes are becoming more conspicuous as they start setting up territories.

We had both Common and Wilson’s snipe at Contractor’s Camp Marsh, but no other shorebirds.

At Clam Lagoon, it was a fine day for sunbathing…

Harbor Seals, Clam Lagoon, May 23, 2016

The trip list holds at 58.

Just another sunny day on Adak…

Temp in the 40s, sunny!, wind N 5-10 switching to SW 10-20 in the afternoon

As mentioned in a previous post, the ravens have taken over the Sandy Cove Bluff Feeder.

Common Raven, Sandy Cove Bluffs Feeder, May 22, 2016

At Sweeper Creek, we finally found a Northern Shoveler. We have had a pair there each of the last few years, so we were wondering if they had finally died or left for nicer environs. Apparently, at least the male has survived.

Northern Shoveler, Sweeper Creek, May 22, 2016

Since it was a sunny day, we decided to make the annual pilgrimage up to White Alice (the bluff west of town where the cell towers are). As we were enjoying the view (not many birds usually up there), a flock of Cackling Geese flew by.

Aleutian Cackling Geese, White Alice, May 22, 2016

We spotted some Red-necked Phalaropes in some of the small ponds on the way up, but on the way down, one was particularly cooperative.

Red-necked Phalarope, Bering Hill area, May 22, 2016

We headed north and at the Palisades, a couple of Black Oystercatchers were carousing, so Frank hiked down to the beach and caught one napping.

Black Oystercatcher resting, but keeping a wary eye open, Palisades Beach, May 22, 2016

While I was down on the beach, Barb was scanning the bay and saw a whale surface briefly, but it dove and we never relocated it.

With sunny skies and good visibility, we went out to the Loran Station to scan the sea for pelagics. The view was fine, but no pelagics. However, three young Bald Eagles were cavorting overhead.

Bald Eagle, Loran Station, May 22, 2016

Bald Eagles, Loran Station, May 22, 2016

Bald Eagles, Loran Station, May 22, 2016

Also, a Glaucous-winged Gull flew by for a photo-op.

Glaucous-winged Gull, Loran Station, May 22, 2016

Five more birders arrived tonight — JJ, Scott, Eric, and Rita together and Don to join Bill, Chris, and Cathy. Don arrived, but not his luggage!

After settling in, they headed over to the feeders and found there were now two Hawfinches! The flock is growing…

There was a lot of snow this winter, and the local mountains show it. Notice the different amount due to elevation.

Mt Adagdak, 1614 ft

Mt Moffet, 3924 ft

Mt Sitkin, 5709 ft

There is even a patch of snow at the Warbler Willows, which is under 200 feet elevation.

Our trip list is 58, just 5 shy of our average May trip.

Temp in the 40s, Overcast, fog, occasional drizzle, Wind NW 10-15.

The birds, they are a-movin’…

Nothing at the feeders during the morning rounds.

At Sweeper Cove, a Pacific Loon is hanging out just outside the small boat marina. But every time I try to get close to get a good picture, it sees me coming and swims farther out!

We headed up to Sweeper Creek and, as we were leaving that area, we turned down a road near the Power Plant that goes down to a little wet area (There are a LOT of “little wet areas” out here!). As we approached, three shorebirds flew out, circled and landed behind a nearby building. I walked around it and found two Wood Sandpipers (don’t know what happened to the third). We called Bill and they arrived shortly and had nice looks at one of the birds.

Wood Sandpiper, near the Power Plant, May 21, 2016

We found four Tufted Ducks still at the Airport Ponds.

We returned to town for a pit stop and decided to check the feeders again. At the Seal Drive Feeder another Brambling popped out. This one was brighter than the Elfin Forest one from yesterday, and we later found out that Bill and Chris were looking at the Elfin Forest bird about the same time we were looking at this one. So two Bramblings, so far…

Brambling, Seal Drive Feeder, May 21, 2016

We could not reach Bill, so we continued on.

The godwits appear to have left and we found no other shorebirds at Clam Lagoon.

We headed over to Andrew Lake and finally spotted a Red-necked Phalarope for the trip.

Back to town we went. When we saw the Seal Drive Brambling earlier, it was raining, so I got very poor pictures. So we decided to try again. We pulled up to the feeder location and shortly a Hawfinch popped out! We called Bill and they arrived shortly and not only saw the Hawfinch, but got nice looks at the Brambling as well.

Hawfinch, Seal Drive Feeder, May 21, 2016

I was informed by Kitty LaBounty (who was with us on Adak last May) that the sure way to identify a Morel is to look inside. They are hollow.

Morel it is!

Our trip list is 54.

Note: I made a typo on the trip list spreadsheet earlier, so this is the new correct number.

Keep those birds coming…

Finally, something to brighten our day…

Temp in the 40s, occasional sun, occasional rain or drizzle, Wind W 10-20

The feeders around town were still not producing any Asian vagrants.

At Sweeper Cove, a couple of Ancient Murrelets wouldn’t turn around, which made for an interesting photo.

Ancient Murrelets, Sweeper Cove, May 20, 2016

There were still four Tufted Ducks on the Airport Ponds and the Aleutian Terns have started feeding there. We had a dozen or more.

At Contractor’s Camp Marsh, Frank walked over to where the Ruffs had last been reported, but could not find them. He did get a couple of Common Snipe winnowing.

We went to check the Warbler Willows and, as we were leaving, we got a call from Bill and Chris (Feeney, who flew in yesterday) that they had found a Brambling at the Elfin Forest. We hurried up there and saw a nice male.

Brambling, Elfin Forest, May 20, 2016

Brambling and Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch, Elfin Forest, May 20, 2016

At Clam Lagoon, there were only five Bar-tailed Godwits left, as well as two Pacific Golden-Plovers.

As we were scanning the flats, a flock of a dozen or so passerines flew across the flats heading west. Frank, Chris and Cathy walked the edge of the flats/marsh in hopes of kicking them up, but found nothing. Flocks of any  passerine in the spring are intriguing, as the local birds generally are not seen in large flocks this time of year. You might see a half-dozen Rosy-Finches (or more at a feeder), but rarely this many. So we have no idea what they were.

We also saw Arctic Terns for the triplist.

At the Seawall, we were able to pick out Shearwaters and Layson Albatross far offshore.

Addendum: Yesterday after dinner, we drove up to Clam Lagoon in hopes that the wind was dying down, thereby allowing better looks (and possibly photos) of the Kittlitz’s Murrelets. Alas, the winds picked up instead, making the waters too choppy. However, I did get the obligatory Otter shot.

Sea Otter w/pup, Cla Lagoon, May 19, 2016

Also, while getting gas yesterday (down to $6.49 a gallon!) one of the people on the High Lonesome tour pointed out to me some mushrooms growing nearby. I believe they are Morels.

Morel?, near gas station, May 20, 2016

These are the first mushrooms that I have seen out here.

The triplist is 51.

Temp in the 40s, partly sunny, W wind 10-20

The feeders are attracting finches, but no Asian relatives yet.

We went down to Finger Bay and Creek, but had nothing of note there.

At Clam Lagoon, we had only 17 Bar-tailed Godwits, but added three Pacific Golden-Plovers to our trip list.

We finally caught up to one of the Gyrfalcons that the other tour groups had reported. It was sitting on the Blue Building (literally using the bird feeder!). It was a very pale (but not white) bird. We have never seen a white Gyrfalcon out here. They have all been gray or brown.

Gyrfalcon, Blue Building, May 18, 2016

Two Ruffs (actually a Ruff and a Reeve) had been seen the past few days at Contractor’s Camp Marsh, so we finally decided to look for them, but did not find them.

The two tour groups leave tomorrow evening. We hope the shifting winds bring something good in for their last day.

Our trip list is 41.

Temps in the 40s, Partly sunny, N wind 10-15.

We started the day by checking feeders. The Sandy Cove Bluffs feeder has been taken over by ravens, as has the Adak National Forest feeder! The other feeders have begun attracting rosy-finches, so we hope their feeding activity will in turn attract vagrant passersby…

The Airport Ponds were hosting two pairs of Tufted Ducks. And we found another male in the ponds below the Airport Escarpment.

We found two Common Snipe calling and displaying at Contractor’s Camp Marsh. Warbler Willows have not leafed out yet, so they are not as attractive as in the fall, when they provide more cover for passerines. So we didn’t find anything there. Haven Lake had a few Eurasian Wigeon.

At Andrew Lake, we got our first Common Loons for the trip and then spotted a Black-legged Kittiwake, which obligingly came in and landed beside the road in front of us.

Black-legged Kittiwake, Andrew Lake, May 17, 2016

A trip out to the Loran Station was unproductive, as was our swing around Clam Lagoon and the Seawall. But on our return around the lagoon, we had nice (if distant) looks at several pairs of Kittlitz’s Murrelets.

Kittlitz’s Murrelets, Clam Lagoon, May 17, 2016

Frank walked out the Clam Lagoon Peninsula and found the godwits. There were 25 of them. We continued down towards town and spotted 3 more on Landing Lights Beach.

Bar-tailed Godwits, Clam Lagoon, May 17, 2016

Our trip list is 39.

Temp in the 40s, overcast, wind NNW 10-20 increasing to 15-25+

There are a lot of birding eyes and ears here this week. High Lonesome has 8 people (led by Stephan Lorenz), Wilderness has 10 (led by Aaron Lang), half-a-dozen+ waiting for the Attu tour boat to arrive (Zugunruhe Tours, led by John Puschok), Bill and Cathy Mauck, and us. The boat people expect to leave tonight, the other tour groups will be here until Thursday, and Bill and Cathy will be here the same as us (2 weeks). There will be other birders arriving and leaving during our stay. Some coming for a few days, other coming early to wait for the Attu tour to return and go out on the Adak Pelagic tour (John Puschok). So we hope the extra manpower will help find some good birds.

Today we started at Sweeper Channel, where we had a couple Semipalmated Plovers and Rock Sandpipers. A pair of Tufted Ducks were on the Airport Ponds. At Clam Lagoon, the 13 Bar-tailed Godwits were still there. As we left the south lookout to go up and turn around, we noticed a funny sound. I got out and saw we had a flat tire (not the first time we have experienced this up here!).

We phoned for help because the last time, the jack in the car didn’t work. However, after calling, I noticed the jack looked different, so I tried it and it worked! I raised the car and took off the flat tire. When I unloaded the spare, I saw that it too was flat! So we had to wait until they could get someone to render assistance. Bill and Cathy came by during this time and offered to drive us into town instead of waiting out in the cold. Barb agreed, but I stayed with the car. Two-and-a-half hours later (!!!), we were back on the road again, albeit without a spare…

We drove back up to Clam Lagoon and continued around. We had several Pacific Loons, but not much else of note. However, on the return swing, at the Seawall, we had three Surf Scoters — a rare bird on Adak. And — since we had Black and White-winged scoters earlier in the day — we scored a scoter trifecta! And — it was a new Adak bird or us.

Surf Scoters, Seawall, May 16, 2016

At the north end of Clam Lagoon, a flock of 4 Black Oystercatchers flew in.

Black Oystercatchers, Clam Lagoon, May 16, 2016

When we got back down to the Clam Lagoon flats, the godwit population had grown to 29.

The other tour groups had two Ruffs and several Common Snipe at Contractor’s Camp Marsh today.

Our trip list is 33. Slow start…

After arriving in Anchorage on Saturday, we did our food shopping and then did some birding. A Red-throated Loon had been reported from Lake Hood, so we looked for it. It was there, and VERY cooperative! In Pennsylvania, Red-throateds are usually seen out in the middle of a lake during rain storms in migration, so this was a real treat.

Red-throated Loon, Lake Hood, Anchorage, May 14, 2016.

Red-throated Loon, Lake Hood, Anchorage, May 14, 2016.

This was a state bird for us. At Ship Creek, Frank spotted a Greater Yellowlegs, which was also a new Alaska bird for us.

On Sunday morning we headed up to Arctic Valley and added Townsend’s Warbler to our state list.

Townsend’s Warbler, Arctic Valley Road, Anchorage, May 15, 2016

A Fox Sparrow up at the ski area posed nicely.

Fox Sparrow, Arctic Valley Ski Area, Anchorage, May 15, 2016.

At Potter Marsh, we added Downy Woodpecker to our list and ran into the High Lonesome tour group, which were also flying out to Adak today.

We flew out to Adak and arrived in rain. John Puschock had seen a Black-crowned Night-Heron earlier in the day, but it had flown away. This was a first record for Adak. We hope it is still in the area.

After unpacking, we headed out to do a little birding. We had received a report from a resident that some swans were hanging around a lake on the road up to Bering Hill. Being that there are several roads going up Bering Hill, we started driving around several of them, checking all of the lakes and ponds. We didn’t find any swans, but after 11 years and 18 trips to Adak, we finally saw some Caribou! They normally are only found in the southern end of the island, where we never have gone (it is accessible only by hiking or ATV). So it was nice to finally add them to our Adak list.

Caribou, Bering Hill, May 15, 2016

At Clam Lagoon, we had 13 Bar-tailed Godwits. By this time (8:40 pm), we were pretty tired and called it quits.

More tomorrow.