Lynn Barber's Birding Blog

For Anchorage, the temperature has been sweltering, particularly indoors where we have no air conditioning and inadequate air circulation. At our house the daytime indoor temperatures have been between 78-85. Hot. Outside with similar high temperatures and where there’s usually a breeze it’s quite pleasant to go birding.

Yesterday morning I birded for a couple of hours with Kenna Sue Trickey and Louann Feldmann.

We went to Westchester Lagoon and Lake Hood. Although things were a bit slow, at Westchester Lagoon, we had great views of dowitchers, Greater Yellowlegs and Red-necked Grebes, as well as ducks of various kinds.

Lake Hood had a few birds, but in the morning the Red-throated Loon was not seen. Kenna Sue found it in the afternoon.

At our house, both Hairy and Downy Woodpeckers are bringing their young to our peanut butter. The former are shown below. Other youngsters around our yard are hordes of starlings, plus Black-capped Chickadees, Black-billed Magpies and Steller’s Jays. A fun time of year, with all the fledglings making up for the lack of very many rarities.

Tomorrow I will be flying to Nome for another of my periodic trips there to see what birding is like throughout the year – primarily aimed at the regular birds, but of course a rarity or too while I’m there would be appreciated.