Yesterday I went to Potter Marsh.

As I expected, the young Arctic Tern had disappeared. What I did not expect, though, was the disappearance of all of the Arctic Terns. I’m not sure whether they were just temporarily off somewhere else or whether they are really gone. It was interesting that the sign upon which an adult Arctic Tern was usually to be found lately was yesterday occupied by a Mew Gull.

There was only a single Arctic Tern at Westchester Lagoon today. The Mew Gulls are still around in large numbers, including the young one at Westchester Lagoon shown below.

There were still young Violet-green and Tree Swallows at Potter Marsh, and various ducklings, mostly Mallards.

Today I first drove up Arctic Valley Road. Along the road I noticed my first blooming fireweed of the year, the dwarf variety I believe.

Although the numbers of singing birds has decreased, most species of warblers and sparrows were still represented by at least one singer. Shown is a Yellow Warbler (front and back view of same bird).

There also was a single Bald Eagle that remained on the same perch from the beginning of my drive to the end of it.

Along the road “critters” (various small mammals) were more visible than birds. They included many (over 10) hares along the drive up and at least 6 arctic ground squirrels (I believe that’s their name), plus a few red squirrels (not shown).

After Arctic Valley I went over to Westchester Lagoon to check on the Red-necked Grebes. Today in addition to the family that seems to regularly hang out at the west end of the lake, there was another two-chick family near the island (and probably more chicks farther out that I did not see). The parents of the west-end family were both diving for food and feeding the now half-grown young. The first video below shows the young take off rapidly away from one parent toward the other parent (not in the photo.

My final photos at Westchester were of a White-crowned Sparrow that was just chipping a bit and then ogling some unknown thing in the spruce branches.

So – the fluffy stuff. For days now white fluffy stuff has been drifting out of the sky and landing in our yard. Most of the time it looks like a midsummer snow storm. I thought it might be coming from some neighborhood cottonwoody thing, but I found out today that it is very widespread, all the way up the mountain, fluffing up the roadsides. I am definitely no tree expert, but it appears to be coming from willows or willow-type trees. Words of wisdom are welcomed.

 

 

 

 

Mid-morning today I went to the Campbell Creek Estuary Natural Area. There were not too many birds singing or evident. Mostly it was just so beautifully green. The last few days of rain have cleaned off everything and enlivened all the plants.

Out on the green grassy tidal flats I only saw two adult Sandhill Cranes, mostly silent.

On my walk, Lincoln’s and Savannah Sparrows scolded me (photos of latter).

At home, baby birds and their parents continue to be in abundance, including Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers (not photographed today), Steller’s Jays, Pine Siskins, Dark-eyed Juncos and European Starlings (sadly they are now numerous, even though I had none of them until this year).

 

 

…with a Red-throated Loon! Although I know this loon is apparently unafraid of anyone, when it perks up upon noticing me, dives and comes very close, it is tempting to think this loon is also in love with me. The last time I went out to the Lake Hood seaplane/float plane area, I did not see the Red-throated Loon and I thought that it might be gone, but this morning the loon was in one of the two spots where I’ve seen it before. At first it was quite a ways out, dozing, waking briefly, stretching and dozing again, but eventually it drifted a bit nearer and noticed me and came over to check me out. I think it was about 4-5 feet from me for about 10 minutes, watching me intently with its red eye, before it either got bored, or realized that I was not going to feed it, and it drifted away (I suspect someone has fed it to make it so tame). If you listen closely to the first video below, you can hear it gently saying sweet nothings to me (in spite of the background noise of floatplanes). Another very nice encounter with a loon.

PS. Perhaps there is a reason I used to be called “Loonie Lynnie”.

Today my goal was to visit Anchorage water areas (Potter Marsh, Hood Lake, Westchester Lagoon) and check on nesting and baby birds.

At Potter Marsh the baby Arctic Tern was exactly where it had been before but all those fish it was being fed had clearly helped it grow rapidly. While I was there the parents were mostly resting and not feeding the youngster who passed the time sleeping in the same pose as the parent perched on the sign above, complaining and trying out the new wing feathers.

While watching the terns, I saw an apparent adult Red-necked Phalarope that was a bit scruffy and had a very brief glimpse of a skittering-across-the-water little bird that was probably a baby phalarope. Unfortunately while I was there it did not reappear from the reeds.

I saw another adult Red-necked Phalarope at Hood Lake, but no sign of any of the loons.

At Point Woronzoff where I briefly stopped, about ten Bank Swallows were flying about, many of them dipping down to the marsh at the edge of the large parking lot, and mostly moving too fast to catch them in action in a photograph. The video worked a bit better but they still mostly look like bats instead of birds.

My final stop was to check on the Red-necked Grebes at Westchester Lagoon. The pair was also in the exact location where they had been a couple of days ago, and again, the fish that the parents brought had clearly helped the youngsters grow greatly in size. A single adult stayed with them while the other adult went off to fetch sustenance.

Back at home, I was surprised to see that one of the juvenile Hairy Woodpeckers was trying out the sugar water. Always something new to see!