Steve, Louann and I birded basically the same areas in Hyder as yesterday and added even more bird species. Hightlights today, in addition to the Veery that was again seen and heard and today was photographed and audio-recorded by Steve, we had many other “good” birds. The picture shows Steve pointing to the Veery spot.
As can be seen by the photos of us (Louann & Steve; Lynn & Steve), we are all very pleased with this trip to Hyder.
By about 9:00 today (8:00 am our time), we had finally seen an AMERICAN CROW (about the only place in Alaska where they are); a young male BULLOCK’S ORIOLE (seen periodically in SE Alaska, but not seen by me before in AK); a singing BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAK (silhouetted in the picture); my first ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOWS (seen yesterday by the others); and about four high-flying BLACK SWIFTS (Hyder is about the only place in AK for them).
In the afternoon, it looked we weren’t going to see anything new, but then we were very surpriused to hear and then see a a very close YELLOW-BELLIED FLYCATCHER. Steve got very good photos but mine were just a blur.
A non-new bird for me since I had heard but not seen them in Delta Junction earlier this year was the wonderful sighting for me of a drumming Ruffed Grouse. We heard both him and a more distant Sooty Grouse for much of one of our afternoon walks. We could see him well between the branches, and he was only about 40 feet away from us! He seemed to ignore us and was still there when we left.
266 species so far
Lynn Barber's Birding Blog 