Having seen an Alaskan birding post that Aaron Bowman (and possibly others) had seen a Red-necked Phalarope at Lake Hood, I decided to check it out this morning. I know that I will see others this year, but I did not have any other good ideas of nearby birds to chase. I drove  around and looked at all the birds on the water on the two lakes (Spenard and Hood).

There were at least seven Horned Grebes, Red-necked Grebes, Barrow’s and Common Goldeneyes, Greater Scaup (possibly Lesser too, but I did not study them), Northern Shovelers, American Wigeons, one Ring-necked Duck, and a  Canvasback.

An American Pipit huddled next to a building singing until a Black-billed Magpie chased it away.

There were also two Red-throated Loons. And that was it for birds out on the water until I came around to the west side of Lake Hood and saw four little dots out on the water, four RED-NECKED PHALAROPES.

As I was posting the phalarope sighting to AKbirding on my cell phone, I saw a large bird flying over my car and then the lake. The bird was carrying a large fish. I dropped my phone. When I rapidly lifted my binoculars and then my camera, I saw that it was an OSPREY! I do not believe that I had ever seen one in the state and was extremely delighted at the sighting even though my only pictures were just interesting blurs.

To end my morning birding, I went to Potter Marsh again. The main excitement there was two Wilson’s Snipe repeatedly chasing each other, calling and sometimes going up overhead. All of their movements were too fast for me to begin to photograph.

Lincoln’s Sparrows were singing constantly. The other sign of spring was the presence of at least four each of Tree Swallows and Violet-green Swallows. The former were perching on twigs and the boardwalk and only sometimes flying. When perched on the boardwalk, they were extremely reluctant to move when someone walked by them. The Violet-green Swallows were constantly on the move around the boardwalk and I did not see them perch.

I’m not sure where I will bird tomorrow or when I will head south to Homer for shorebirds. It’s going to get awfully/wonderfully busy soon.

170 species so far

Apparently I brought a few raindrops with me from southeast Alaska, but just a few. The rain was light and infrequent. My birding was to a few favorite spots this afternoon.

First was Potter Marsh. Green-winged Teal were still all over. A Wilson’s Snipe burst out of somewhere and went heavenward, calling, calling and out of sight. Violet-green Swallows had arrived since I was last there. Arctic Terns were close to the boardwalk, periodically diving into the water. I did not find any new migrant warblers or flycatchers yet.

I then went to Westchester Lagoon and part of the nearby coastal trail. At the Lagoon were the usual gulls and terns and ducks (Northern Pintail below) and geese. There were Red-necked Grebes. A few Greater Yellowlegs and dowitchers were in the shallow water behind the lake. I don’t think I had previously seen a Common Loon on the lake, but there was one sleeping not too far from the pathway.

All in all a nice afternoon of birding.

168 species so far

 

Lately wherever I have birded in southeast Alaska, the “peeps”, primarily Least and Western Sandpipers, have been everywhere there’s water, which is pretty much everywhere.

This morning Patty Rose and I walked the dike trail at the Mendenhall Wetlands in Juneau. It did rain on and off but there were actual periods without rain. After hearing a Killdeer to start our walk, we were accompanied by American Pipits for ten minutes or so.

In addition to peeps in every puddle and slough and wet area, there were ducks, most notably a female Hooded Merganser (seen here with a female Bufflehead). There were also geese – a flock of some 250 Greater White-fronted Geese and 1 Snow Goose (see if you can see it in the picture).

About noon I headed to the airport, where I learned that my flight to Anchorage would be delayed an hour or so. Our takeoff and flight were uneventful and we flew over extensive show-capped mountains, but our landing was not uneventful. The plane was almost on the ground when suddenly we were headed upward at a steep angle. Apparently the runway had another plane on it where we were supposed to go. Oops. We circled around and the real landing was fine.

Now I’ve got to figure out where to bird until I head off to the Kachemak Bay birding festival in Homer next weekend. After that my schedule is just too complicated to remember – birding everywhere almost all at once, trying to get all those migrants before they disperse all over the wilds of Alaska.

168 species so far

No post today. Hardly any signal.

Jerry Koerner had told me that I could come by as early as 5 am if I wanted to keep trying for the White-winged Crossbill. So I was there just after 5:30. His beautiful yard was still hosting about 15 species hopping, singing, eating and entertaining me – especially the Varied Thrushes, Pine Siskins, and Golden-crowned, White-crowned, Fox, Savannah and Lincoln’s Sparrows and Eurasian Collared-Doves.  I only planned to stay a little over an hour as I was going to meet Steve Heinl to look for other birds. Just before 7 am as I was beginning to prepare to leave, a very red bird flew into the very pink cherry blossoms. It was the WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL, which then dove to the ground behind the flowering bushes and disappeared. I didn’t dare leave the shelter of the porch for fear I would scare all the birds, so I waited impatiently. The impatience paid off, and the crossbill finally hopped into view, eating seeds as it approached. With delight I photographed it and then told Jerry that his wonderful bird had arrived.

It was time for me to head out but on the way back to downtown Ketchikan some 20 miles away, I spotted shorebirds at Mud Bight and did a U-turn. There among the Least Sandpipers was a SEMIPALMATED PLOVER.

I hurried on and with Steve birded other north-of-town areas. We had two SPOTTED SANDPIPERS near Whipple Creek (I believe) and WILSON’S WARBLER near the Higgins School. Also near the school were Least and Western Sandpipers, a large flock of Savannah Sparrows, many robins, a Lapland Longspur, a Red-breasted Sapsucker (finally seen and not just heard), and an American Pipit.

About noon we were joined by Andy Piston and birded some sites south of town. In addition to the usual birds of the area we had a couple of flyover goose flocks, Greater White-fronted and Snow. At one of the usual gull-roost areas, were surprised to see a CASPIAN TERN land amid the gulls, a bird that I figured was going to be difficult to get this year. Clearly Andy was happy to see the tern too, or maybe he was just rejoicing in my rejoicing.

I flew back to Juneau tonight and will bird some more in Juneau tomorrow and Thursday morning.

166 species so far this year

Today’s weather was cloudy without rain for the first couple of hours I birded, but then the rain set in again. I started the day looking for Mountain Bluebirds but did not see any. I did see a Greater Yellowlegs, Song Sparrows (so rusty-colored that I spent some time trying to identify them as something else), and Yellow-rumped and Orange-crowned Warblers.

I then drove north again to the Eagle Beach area. Unlike yesterday I arrived there at high tide and all the ducks were much closer to the overlook. I scanned the little flock of Green-winged Teal, but it was just teal. I looked around the wetland at the other ducks (pintails, wigeon) and geese (Canada Geese and one Snow Goose) and then looked back to find that the Green-winged Teal flock had grown, and even better, that it now included a male CINNAMON TEAL! Even though the Cinnamon Teal was sort of embedded in the flock of Green-winged Teal, its darker cinnamon color made it stand out.

I was about to call Bev Agler to tell her about the teal when she called me and we arranged to meet with Patty Rose for more birding. Before we headed out, however, we looked out her window and saw her beautiful male RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRD.

The three of us headed over to the Mendentall Wetlands which by now were getting wetter by the minute.  Undeterred we took our scopes and headed out across the mud and grassy areas. For a while we birded with Gwen Baluss. As we trudged along we found that the flock of Canada Geese that we encountered included at least one tiny goose, a CACKLING GOOSE.

Little flocks of shorebirds were scattered across the flats, including LEAST SANDPIPERS and WESTERN SANDPIPERS, as well as Lapland Longspurs and American Pipits. Later Gwen saw a Horned Lark, but I did not see it. Patty found a group of Black=bellied Plovers which then disappeared but finally we relocated at least one BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER.

In the evening I went back to Eagle Beach until almost dark and watched the tide and the birds come in, but I did not see the Marbled Godwit that had been seen there a couple of days ago. Tomorrow I take a quick trip to Ketchikan and then I’ll be back in Juneau for a couple of days.

155 species so far