{"id":2088,"date":"2022-09-29T02:14:13","date_gmt":"2022-09-29T06:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/franklinhaas.com\/wordpress\/?p=2088"},"modified":"2023-08-24T11:47:49","modified_gmt":"2023-08-24T15:47:49","slug":"wednesday-september-28-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/franklinhaas.com\/wordpress\/wednesday-september-28-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"Wednesday, September 28, 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Temp in the 40s, mostly sunny, wind NW 5-15 mph<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A day of disappearing birds…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Adak Weather, Sept 28, 2022<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It was cold enough last night for Mount Moffet to get its first snow dusting of the season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Mount Moffet, Sept 28, 2022<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It was all melted off by late afternoon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I checked the High School Spruces several times today. No thrush sighting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between the High School Spruces and the High School Willows, there is a lone large spruce tree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I scan it every time I pass by and have never seen a single bird there. Not even a longspur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well this morning I pulled up started to scan it and out popped a bird!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was too far to identify with binos, so (not thinking) I grabbed my window mount scope and zeroed in on it. As soon as I did, it flew away!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If I had grabbed my camera instead, I would have had a chance to click off one or two pics. Distant, but probably identifiable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I searched all of the nearby willows and spruces to no avail. I have no idea what the bird was. It was light underneath. That is all I got before it flew. Disappear #1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the past two mornings, while scanning Kuluk Bay for seabirds, I have spotted the Gyrfalcon hunting over the water (presumably for waterfowl and alcids). I have seen this behavior on previous trips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Contractors Camp Marsh, I spotted a Peregrine Falcon cruising by. But this one was an adult (unlike the juvenile I had been seeing the past week).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But by the time I jumped out of the car to get a photo, it had disappeared. Disappear #2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After checking all of the willows, spruces, and feeders, I headed up to Clam Lagoon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Peninsula had no shorebirds, so I walked the Marsh Edge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I only had Pectoral and Sharp-tailed sandpipers today. No dowitchers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Pectoral Sandpipers, Clam Lagoon, Sept 28, 2022<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But I also saw the adult Peregrine again. This time for a photo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Peregrine Falcon, Clam Lagoon, Sept 28, 2022<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Over at the Seawall there was a feeding frenzy of gulls and murres going on. With them was a Pacific Loon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Pacific Loon, Seawall, Sept 28, 2022<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By the way, the Arctic Loon that I reported a few days ago was a Common. For some reason up here, Common Loons look smaller to me and the bills look smaller as well. Once I have that in my brain, then it is a choice between Pacific and Arctic. I have to judge loon size better…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I stopped by the Adak National Forest, just after I stopped, a small bird flew onto one of the top branches. I wasn’t going to make the same mistake again! So I grabbed my camera and jumped out of the car — as the bird flew away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disappear #3<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I stopped to see Lisa (the Refuge Manager), she asked if I had seen any recent dead birds or sickly-looking ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The eagle population on Adak has crashed. Down at Finger Creek, during the salmon run (right now), there should be dozens of eagles. I remember one year that Barb counted 59!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year there are none.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the number of eagles I am seeing elsewhere is in the single digits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They suspect bird flu, but have not yet proven it. They are looking for freshly dead birds to analyze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My trip list is 55.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My eBird list is at https:\/\/ebird.org\/checklist\/S119612924<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Temp in the 40s, mostly sunny, wind NW 5-15 mph A day of disappearing birds… It was cold enough last night for Mount Moffet to get its first snow dusting of the season. It was all melted off by late … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,225],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2022-september","category-sept-28-2022"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/franklinhaas.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/franklinhaas.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/franklinhaas.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/franklinhaas.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/franklinhaas.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2088"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/franklinhaas.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2088\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2091,"href":"https:\/\/franklinhaas.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2088\/revisions\/2091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/franklinhaas.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/franklinhaas.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/franklinhaas.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}