Going home.

The weather was nice today, partly sunny, light wind.

No new birds, but one of the Gyrfalcons finally stayed still long enough for a photo.

Gyrfalcon, Contractor’s Marsh, 09/27/12

Up at Clam Lagoon, the Red-necked Stint was still present on the peninsula. On the flats at Candlestick Bridge, we had a record 94 Harbor Seals sunning.

94 Harbor Seals sunning themselves, Clam Lagoon, 09/27/12

The airplane arrived and left early. I got some nice aerial shots as we took off.

Lake Andrew (top right), Haven Lake (top center), Contractor’s Marsh(center right), 09/27/12

Clam Lagoon, 09/27/12

Clam Lagoon Peninsula, 09/27/12

All of our flights were on time and uneventful. We got home at 3 pm Friday.

The highlights of the trip were roaring Sea Lions, a Giant Squid, lots of new photos, the Baikal Teal, and most importantly, the Eurasian Kestrel!

It was a good trip and we will be back.

And the days trickle down to a precious few..September…

The weather was similar to yesterday, but the wind got stronger again. Fewer rain showers.

We got a new trip bird today. We had a Common Redpoll at the High School Willows. John et al. had a couple there before we arrived two weeks ago, but this was the first one we found since being here. Not a great photo, but identifiable.

Common Redpoll, High School Willows, 09/26/12

Up at Clam Lagoon, I walked the peninsula between showers. One Red-necked Stint was still there, as was the flock of Sanderlings.

The surf was rip-roaring again today (Barb’s sound-level meter recorded a peak of 101 dB!), so not much at the seawall, although I did spot a Layson Albatross way out. Also, Rock Sandpipers and Ruddy Turnstones. We flushed a few Pectoral Sandpipers here and there.

At the Boy Scout Cabins, I walked over to the other side of the creek to see if I could find any small birds in the willows there. All I could find was a cooperative Pacific Wren.

Pacific Wren, Boy Scout Cabins, 09/26/12

I still don’t know how these little guys survive year-round out here!

At Sweeper Cove late in the afternoon, we found ten Black Oystercatchers — our high count for the trip.

This will be our last post until Saturday morning. We leave at 6 pm tomorrow (hopefully on a high note) and will be spending the next 15 hours or so in airports and on planes, arriving home Friday afternoon.

Trip count is now 52.

Where’s Moby Dick when you need him?

Today was less windy than yesterday, but it rained most of the morning, and became partly cloudy by late afternoon.

While scanning Landing Lights Beach for shorebirds this morning, I spotted a carcass of some type being prodded by gulls several hundred yards up the beach. I hiked up to there and found a giant squid! It was at least twelve feet long from tip to tentacle. The second photo below shows my boot-print for size comparison.

Giant Squid, Landing Lights Beach, 09/25/12

Giant Squid, Landing Lights Beach, 09/25/12

We cruised around Clam Lagoon and spent some time at the seawall. The Emperor Geese had moved out to one of the small rock outcroppings south of the seawall. We had a few loons and grebes, saw some shearwaters in the distance, but added nothing new.

The rain had let up enough by the time we came back around Clam Lagoon so that I could walk out the peninsula and marsh edge. The flock of Sanderlings was out on the flats. When I had seen them the other day at the Seawall Breaches, I noticed one that had not attained winter plumage yet. But he kept hidden behind the other birds, so I couldn’t get a shot of him. Well, today he was more exposed.

Sanderlings, Clam Lagoon, 09/25/12

As I rounded the first bend in the peninsula, a small sandpiper flushed and flew away. I couldn’t tell if it were a stint or maybe one of the Westerns that had been hanging around. The only other shorebirds out there today were three Rock Sandpipers. No stint or Westerns.

I returned from the peninsula and started walking down the marsh edge. I flushed and got good looks at (after they landed) six Pectoral Sandpipers. No other shorebirds.

Only two more days left to find something good…

What a joy it is — birding in 40 mph winds!

The weather was as predicted today, mostly cloudy, rain showers, and 30-40 mph winds gusting up to 60! Trying to stand outside the truck was difficult enough, but trying to steady your binoculars was impossible. Even inside the truck, the shaking often made it hard to stabilize.

However, we persevered…

Still no outflow from the fish factory, so we headed up to Clam Lagoon. The three Emperor Geese were still there.

Emperor Geese, Clam Lagoon, 09/24/12

Emperor Geese, Clam Lagoon, 09/24/12

We had five turnstones fly by and a Rock Sandpiper on the road. We flushed a Pectoral near the seawall. At the Seawall, the surf was up!

Clam Lagoon Seawall, 09/24/12

As we come down the hill near Adak National Forest, we always scan Landing Lights Beach. This time we saw two shorebirds flying down the beach, landing about halfway down towards the Landing Lights. We drove down to a cut in the sand dune, and I walked out to get a better look. The birds were farther down the beach, so I started walking towards them. Just then, the heavens opened up and it started to rain — remember this is with 30-40 mph wind! As I continued down the beach, getting soaking wet, I finally got close enough to get photos in order to try to identify them. At one point, the wind blew my hood back and off came my hat, rolling quickly towards the surf. I raced after it and got it just before the water! Back to the camera. I took as many pictures as I could and then just couldn’t take it anymore and returned to the truck. We headed back to the house, where a quick stint in the dryer took care of my jacket. As it was drying, I took a quick look at the photos and determined that they were just Pectorals. So back out we went. All of that for Pectorals???

We headed up to Contractor’s Marsh and three Long-billed Dowitchers flushed from beside the road and flew back obligingly for photos.

Long-billed Dowitchers, Contractor’s Marsh, 09/24/12

Long-billed Dowitcher, Contractor’s Marsh, 09/24/12

We continued around the marsh and suddenly heard a thwap, thwap, thwap coming from the tires. We got out and and saw a piece of hard rubber embedded into the front left tire with a nail. I pulled the rubber off, leaving the nail, and headed back into town. We called Cindy (from whom we rented the truck) and she directed us to the city garage. There, “Mugs” and his crew quickly fixed our tire so we could get back to birding. While there, I noticed a big freshly- painted sign (at least the background for a sign) and inquired as to what it was for — I had a pretty good idea! Mugs said it was the new Adak National Forest sign! So, the missing frame was a part of replacing the sign after all.

We went back out, but found nothing new for the day. When we got back to the house, I downloaded the photos and looked through them. When I got to the Landing Lights shorebirds, they began to look like two different species.

The one that I had gotten close-ups (relatively) of, was a definite Pectoral. However, the other one looked browner and had what appeared to be a more decurved bill. Unfortunately, that bird had disappeared over a sand ledge as I was photographing the Pectoral, and that is when I gave up and headed back. At the time, through the driving rain-spattered binos, I thought the two birds were the same. After consulting with Isaac, I now believe the second bird was (is?) another Pectoral.

Pectoral Sandpiper (right) and ??, Landing Lights Beach, 09/24/12

The triplist is at 51.

The day started overcast, light wind, and light drizzle. It morphed into partly sunny and very high winds — 30-40 mph!

Several fishing boats came in overnight, so we were anticipating some output from the fish processing plant to the outflow pipe at the Sweeper Cove jetty. This would attract a lot of gulls, increasing our chances of spotting something different. Unfortunately, although we checked several times during the day, no outflow emerged, hence no new gulls.

Up at Clam Lagoon, we finally spotted three Emperor Geese — a species we have had on every fall trip. We were beginning to worry…

Out on the peninsula, the flock of shorebirds was down to one Red-necked Stint and two western Sandpipers.

The seawall had grebes and loons and the usual suspects.

As we drove back around, past Lake Shirley, a Peregrine Falcon made repeated passes over our truck, around the bluff and back.

Peregrine Falcon, Lake Shirley, 09/23/12

We drove one more time up to White Alice for Snow Buntings, and this time, in 40 mph winds, we found them.

Snow Bunting, White Alice, 09/23/12

As mentioned above, the fish plant outflow never appeared, but we had a small feeding-frenzy of gulls and kittiwakes out at the end of the jetty, allowing me to get some nice photos of kittiwakes. Here is a gallery of Kittiwakes.

Black-legged Kittiwake and Glaucous-winged Gull, Sweeper Cove, 09/23/12

Black-legged Kittiwake, Sweeper Cove, 09/23/12

Black-legged Kittiwake, Sweeper Cove, 09/23/12

Black-legged Kittiwake, Sweeper Cove, 09/23/12

Black-legged Kittiwake, Sweeper Cove, 09/23/12

Black-legged Kittiwake, Sweeper Cove, 09/23/12

Black-legged Kittiwake, Sweeper Cove, 09/23/12

Hope this wind blows in something exciting…

More variety today, but nothing new.

Dawn broke to a cloudless Mount Sitkin — a rare sight! Mount Sitkin is an active volcano thirty miles east of Adak. A mostly cloudy day with practically no wind until mid-afternoon.

Adak Sunrise (Mount Sitkin on left), 09/22/12

Sweeper Cove was a sheet of glass with no birds (well, very few…).

I walked part of Contractor’s Marsh, but the only shorebird was kicked up by Barb — a Pectoral Sandpiper.

There are a series of narrow long ponds (glorified ditches, really) that parallel the road that goes up the west side of Clam Lagoon. They are invisible to anyone on the road and provide neat hiding places for the flocks of Common Teal (the Eurasian form of our Green-winged Teal). At least once each trip up here, I walk over to these ditches and the teal explode out of them as I snap as many photos as possible in hope of catching something exotic mixed in with them. I did that this morning.

Common Teal, Clam Lagoon, 09/22/12

Nothing unusual, but some neat photos.

Out on the peninsula, one stint and three Westerns remained. A flock of Ruddy Turnstones flew by as we continued around Clam Lagoon.

After several days with no loons or grebes, today we had 5 Horned Grebes, one Red-necked Grebe, two Pacific Loons, two Common Loons, and four White-winged Scoters — all along the seawall. Towards the north end of the seawall, there are a few openings (breaches) where winter storms have crashed through. They make for easy access to the stone and boulder-strewn beach, which I try to check every day. Today there was a nice flock of Sanderlings which were resting and preening contentedly until a Peregrine came cruising by. They departed quickly!

Sanderlings, Clam Lagoon Seawall, 09/22/12

The only other highlight today was a Peregrine chasing a Gyrfalcon over Contractor’s Marsh.

After taking the obligatory head shot of a Bald Eagle today, I decided to share a few more.

Bald Eagle, Clam Lagoon, 09/22/12

Sanderling, Clam Lagoon Seawall, 09/22/12

Rock Ptarmigan, Clam Lagoon, 09/22/12

Ruddy Turnstone, Clam Lagoon Seawall, 09/22/12

Red-faced Cormorant, Clam Lagoon Seawall, 09/22/12

Isn’t digital photography wonderful?

Not much today.

The weather was similar to yesterday, but less windy.

We went up to White Alice again to try for Snow Bunting, but still no luck. We usually get Snow Buntings on our September trips, so this is a big miss. Maybe next week.

Sweeper Creek provided Rock Sandpipers and we saw some presumed Pectorals flying over Contractor’s Marsh.

As we got to Clam Lagoon, we sat in the truck until a shower passed. Once the rain stopped, two different-sized shorebirds flew out from the peninsula and away. The larger one was a Pectoral and I presume the smaller one was a Red-necked Stint, as when I got out to the peninsula, only one stint was still there with the four Westerns. No Sanderling or Pectoral.

Over at he seawall, we again scanned the river of shearwaters for albatross and finally picked one out. But it was too far out to tell which species.

We saw one Peregrine at the north end of Clam Lagoon and two more down at Contractor’s Marsh. There was an almost-white Harbor Seal sunning itself in Clam Lagoon.

Harbor Seal, Clam Lagoon, 09/21/12

When we got back down to Sweeper Cove, a pair of Common Murres was close to the jetty.

Common Murres, Sweeper Cove, 09/21/12

Yesterday, we had a young puffin early in the morning. The lighting was so poor, I had to digitally lighten it considerably to see any features. This made the breast look almost white, which I thought was just an after-effect, and I called it a Tufted Puffin. Well, this afternoon, the same (presumed) bird was just off the jetty in good light (but farther out). I took some more pictures and it is obvious that the breast is white, so it is a young Horned Puffin, not a Tufted. This photo is not enhanced, just enlarged.

Immature Horned Puffin, Sweeper Cove, 09/21/12

Our trip-list stands at 49. Our average September list is 55, so we are below average with a week to go. A lot of good birds have shown up in the last week of September on previous trips, so we are optimistic.