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March 9 – Juneau, Day 1

Lynn E. BarberLeave a comment

There was a bit of a mix-up the night of March 8, when I arrived at my reserved Juneau motel to find that it was unexpectedly closed for repairs! It ended well when I found a different motel. It was beautiful on the morning of March 9th and I went birding at one of my favorite Juneau sites, the Mendenhall Wetlands. Although it was considerably warmer (9 degrees above zero) than Anchorage in the morning, the wind made birding quite uncomfortable, so after I’d seen five Hooded Mergansers and a couple of other more usual species, I got in my car and did some land birding. I added a few birds to my year list, which of course is not my big goal this year. Included were: Northwestern Crow, Common Merganser, Glaucous-winged and Mew Gulls and Belted Kingfisher.

In the afternoon after doing a short radio interview about my upcoming big year talk I birded with Brenda Wright at Fish Creek. It was a very enjoyable walk, which although there were windy portions, was often sheltered from the wind. There I added American Wigeon (many), Killdeer (3) and Pacific Wren to my year list. This non-big year I do not even know how many species I have seen this year in Alaska, but of course I can figure it out.

I ended the day giving my big year talk to a good-sized crowd at Juneau Audubon, a very enjoyable experience with a great group!

January 17 – Scrounging in the Snow

Lynn E. BarberLeave a comment

During the snow the last few snowy days, whenever I have swept snow off the platform bird feeders, I have also swept off seed that is now in and on the snow around the feeders. Redpolls, Pine Grosbeaks, Steller’s Jays and Black-billed Magpies are now spending much of their time going after the seed that is on the snow as well as on the feeders.

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Most of the day there were Common Redpolls around, often high in the birch trees. I did see one Hoary Redpoll high in the tree, very pale with nearly all white underneath with only faint tracings of marking down its sides.

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The magpies also spend much time on the snow outside my office window where they are picking up dried mealworms. The magpies regularly fly at the mealworm feeder that hangs on the porch above my window and deliberately knock the mealworms off the feeder and then fly down below to pick up the mealworms.

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The Common Raven came back today and worked on the suet block facing the back door, working hard to pull big hunks of suet out through the mesh.

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Late in the day the Black-capped Chickadee with the deformed beak that has started coming to our feeders sat for a while on the porch railing very near me when I was outside before it flew back to a birch tree.

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January 6 – Mostly Magpies

Lynn E. BarberLeave a comment

It was cold today, starting at zero degrees, going down to -5 degrees and then inching its way back up to about 13 degrees. I spent the entire day at home glued to my computer, doing client work and going through more photos from last year, but every now and then I peered out the window. The trees in our yard are now mostly cleaned of rime ice.

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Most of the time most of the birds seen out the window were Black-billed Magpies flying about, eating, chasing each other, perching and staring around.

Other birds included four Pine Grosbeaks, a Black-capped Chickadee, a Hairy Woodpecker and a handful of Common Redpolls. Although the magpies often, including today, sit on the porch railing next to the peanut butter log and eat peanut butter, I was not able to get a picture of that today.

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January 3 -Birding, Talking and Painting

Lynn E. Barber1 Comment

I birded some Anchorage neighborhoods today searching for and finally finding my first American Robin of the year. On the way, I had multiple flocks of Bohemian Waxwings but just the one robin. Everywhere it was foggy, sometimes so foggy that I could hardly drive. The fogginess is evident in the bird pictures.

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The fogginess is also evident in the pictures of the two moose that were out near the airport today. The browsing moose looked smaller. I’m not sure if it was a young one or a small fat (pregnant?) adult.

In addition to tell people about birds seen when I post, I also want to use this blog to let people know of when and where I will be giving talks on my Alaska big year. I’m delighted that the number has been increasing. Currently scheduled are the following talks:

February 8 – Mat-Su Birders (AK)

February 16-Anchorage Audubon (AK)

March 9-Juneau Audubon (AK)

April 13-Fort Worth Audubon (TX)

April 20-Golden Triangle Audubon (TX)

May 1-Arctic Audubon (AK)

May 18-Kenai Bird Festival (AK)

Finally, I’m delighted to announce that I’ve finally gotten back to painting. My first painting is intended to eventually have a couple of Bald Eagles soaring over the mountains, but so far I’ve only begun working on the mountains. Right now it looks like this:

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Assuming I finish it I’ll post the final result here.

 

December 6 – Request for Big Year Assistance

Lynn E. Barber2 Comments

At the suggestion of Gus Van Vliet today, I am listing below the birds that I have NOT YET SEEN this year for which there are prior year eBird records for Alaska in December. Some of these records reflect a single bird, one year only, while other listed species have been seen more than once in December. Since I hurriedly looked at eBird on my phone to make this list while I was waiting for my plane in Juneau, it is possible I missed birds or erroneously included birds, but this should you give Alaska birders an idea of what birds I am missing. Bottom line: if anyone sees one of these birds in Alaska yet this year or hears that someone else has seen one, PLEASE LET ME KNOW – I would love to have the chance to chase it if at all possible before the year ends:

Whooper Swan, Virginia Rail, Ivory Gull, Western Gull, White-winged Dove, Mourning Dove, Long-eared Owl, Costa’s Hummingbird, Dusky Thrush, Harris’s Sparrow, Swamp Sparrow (seen this year, but I want a photo), Rustic Bunting, Common Grackle, Purple Finch, Cassin’s Finch (January record), Eurasian Siskin, House Sparrow (no longer found in Ketchikan)

If you want to see the list of all possible birds for Alaska (at any time of the year) and to see which of those that I have seen this year, you can go to my web site (go to the 2016 list of species on the first page of my three 2016 birding pages): lynnbarber.com.

THANK YOU FOR WHATEVER YOU CAN DO, and of course, THANK YOU TO ALL OF THOSE WHO HAVE HELPED ME SO FAR!!

October 15 – The Ice Cometh

Lynn E. Barber1 Comment

I took a quick trip to Potter Marsh today. The open water near the boardwalk is frozen over except for the stream’s winding pathway. The only bird seen on my walk to the eastern end of the boardwalk was a single perched Bald Eagle near their nest site.

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I figured all the ducks must be gone but on my way back I saw a single Mallard nervously walking about on the ice.

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I drove the highway along the marsh and saw more Mallards in open areas of water.

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And then I was delighted to see that Trumpeter Swans were still around. I saw a total of 17 of them, including 3 immature-plumaged birds. I expect they will all be gone soon as the ice gradually covers the marsh and I probably will not get more pictures of these photogenic birds until next year.

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299 species so far

October 10 -Beautiful Morning in Barrow

Lynn E. Barber1 Comment

I am back in Anchorage but got to spend a nearly clear morning in Barrow after a spectacular sunrise. It has been cloudy since I arrived in Barrow until today so the sun was most welcome. No Ross’s Gulls came by this morning while I was there. For some reason they have only appeared in the afternoons this year, so far. The whale remains were removed by crews this morning from the easily birded site that isn’t very far from town, so that polar bears won’t be attracted so close to town. Therefore, the number of Glaucous Gulls that were visible was substantially reduced from the large numbers that were around since Friday.

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In addition to the smaller numbers of Glaucous Gulls and a few Thayer’s Gulls, a few Long-tailed Ducks were visible along the shore (photo) and others flew by, a distant Yellow-billed Loon flew by and landed far out, and a couple of flocks of King Eiders flew past before I left Barrow.

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I was finally able to get a few photos of Barrow since it was not obscured by clouds as I flew out at noon.

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I am planning to be back to Barrow in early November in hopes of seeing an Ivory Gull when there should be ice visible and hopefully near shore for the gulls to land on. Between now and then I’ll bird every day of course, and hope to find some rarity, or to have someone else find some rarity that isn’t yet on my Alaska year list that I can see too.

299 species so far

 

 

June 16 – Bird Seeking and Just Birding

Lynn E. Barber1 Comment

I started the day just birding at the Brotherhood Bridge trail in Juneau. The two Red-eyed Vireos were still singing (I wonder if they sing all night long) but as usual they were difficult to see. What were easier to see (and photograph) were the common summer birds – Song Sparrow and Yellow-rumped and Yellow Warblers. Also around were an Alder Flycatcher, both Kinglet species, about six Bank Swallows, Lincoln’s Sparrows, Orange-crowned and Townsend’s Warblers, two Red-breasted Sapsuckers, a Rufous Hummingbird and a Belted Kingfisher.

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I was about to go the Mendenhall Wetlands when Gus Van Vliet called and asked if I wanted to check out some ponds and wetlands for rails. Although Virginia Rail and Sora are possible to get in Alaskan some years, they are unlikely. Nevertheless if I don’t go looking for them I definitely will not get them. So we went to the Nancy Street Wetland, the Mendenhall Glacier campground, and the Community Garden wetland, but no rails.

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As the day got hotter and hotter, I spent two hours in the early afternoon slowly walking the Mendenhall Wetland dike trail. Again, no new birds but I decided to take my time and just bird and take pictures. I was of course open to the possibility of a new bird or two but none appeared. I added photos of a Belted Kingfisher, a Spotted Sandpiper, a Lesser Yellowlegs and a Savannah Sparrow to my day’s photo list.

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Tonight when it cools off I plan to spend a little time listening for rails at another site (as I did last night too) and will report tomorrow if I have any luck.

Throughout this year so far I’ve gotten nervous if too many days passed without me getting any new birds. Now that I’m reaching the previously known maximum number of bird species seen in one year by any one person in Alaska, I need to realize that there are way more days left in the year (more than half a year!) than there are birds that it would be possible for me to add to my year list. Bottom line: there will be many days to come without any new birds for me so I need to get used to it!

272 species so far

 

 

June 7-8 – Ketchikan Birding

Lynn E. Barber2 Comments

Two great days of birding, including a not-so-great night last night of not seeing a Barred Owl.

The birds that I did see were BROWN-HEADED COWBIRD in the very productive yard of Jerry Koerner. This is a bird common and not loved in the lower 48, but a desired rarity for Alaska listers. In addition to the cowbird, there were many Pine Sisk9inas, two Rufous Hummingbirds and a few Chestnut-backed Chickadees.IMG_3011 (2)A.jpg

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After that I birded at Ward Lake and heard zillions and saw a few PACIFIC-SLOPE FLYCATCHERS. No pictures, however. I also spent time watching a Red-breasted Sapsucker feeding its young.

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After a very short night (owling until 2 am), I went to Ward Lake this morning, and heard and eventually found a COMMON YELLOWTHROAT – not common in Alaska.

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In the late morning Louann Feldmann arrived by plane and she and I went to bird with Steve Heinl and Andy Piston over the noon hour. On our walk in a Ketchikan neighborhood, we had four noisy WARBLING VIREOS. Although I attempted photographing them, the photos show many leaves and no good vireo shots.

After that Louann and I drove to Brown Mountain. We found only one of our goal OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHERS, but that was enough t0o allow me to add it to my list even though no photographs.

Tomorrow Louann, Steve and I fly on a mail plane to Hyder. Birds await us!

249 species so far

May 22 – St. Paul Island, Wonderful First Day

Lynn E. BarberLeave a comment

St. Paul Island was inundated with a planeful of birders today, of which I am one. After lugging our gear to our rooms we headed out in three vans to try to find some very wanted shorebirds that had been seen on the island. It was a bit windy but no rain today. Nice. Today I rode in a van with Scott Schuette, the Tour Director for St. Paul Island Tours.

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Although birds were my main goal (as usual), I was glad to see some of the island’s reindeer.

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Our first stop was a marsh behind Weather Bureau Lake where it did not take us long to find the previously reported multiple WOOD SANDPIPERS and a couple of LONG-TOED STINTS. So far I haven’t gotten acceptable photos of either species although I have seen both well through binoculars and spotting scope. At and around the lake itself were many RED-LEGGED KITTIWAKES, an island specialty which we should see on the nesting cliffs tomorrow.

After a very delicious supper, we went back out to Salt Lagoon where we had a single SLATY-BACKED GULL, and a very cooperative COMMON GREENSHANK working the edge of the lake and a very photogenic LESSER SAND-PLOVER on the mudflats. Three of these new birds (the Stint, Greenshank and Sand-Plover) were birds that I have not seen before in Alaska and were very exciting additions to my year list.

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In addition to the new year birds, other birds seen today included a single Bar-tailed Godwit, Snow Buntings, and the common Lapland Longspurs and Rock Sandpipers.

Tomorrow I expect to get sightings and photos of many of the birds that nest on St. Paul’s cliffs.

204 species so far