Lynn Barber

No new birds today. Because the weather was actually sometimes sunny in Juneau today and there were not long periods of rain, the lack of new birds wasn’t as dismal as it might have been if I had been suffering in the rain all day. In fact as it became clear that I was unlikely to find something new (although I did keep birding all day), I found that I was just enjoying the birding and almost letting go of the need to get a new bird. The world was green and growing and blooming and springlike, and I actually relaxed and took pictures for fun.

I did get some pictures of birds that I had seen before but had not been able to photograph. I was particularly delighted to find an American Kestrel at the wetlands across the river from the Mendenhall Wetlands (accessible off Industrial Blvd). I spent a number of hours there a couple of times today. My first sighting of a kestrel this year was on the road into Delta Junction but the bird was high in the sky attacking a Common Raven and not easily photographed.

I also got closer views and pictures of Hudsonian Godwits at Mendenhall Wetlands. For a while I thought that I also had a Marbled Godwit, but it was apparently a male Hudsonian Godwit not yet in full breeding plumage. Most of them were bright and rusty colored.

Other birds seen and photographed today included Greater Yellowlegs, Belted Kingfisher, mixed sandpiper flocks (Least, Western, Dunlin), White-fronted Geese, Yellow-rumped and Townsend’s Warblers and Song Sparrow.

Tomorrow midday I fly to Gustavus where I understand it will be raining heavily. Hopefully I’ll be able to see birds, particularly new birds, through the rain.

166 species so far