The Deskbound Birder: Glaucous-winged Gull

Showing posts with label Glaucous-winged Gull. Show all posts

Friday, 3 June 2016

Alaska - 3rd June (Day 7)

An early start (05:15) for an exciting day, we loaded the car and headed down to the harbour at Seward to meet Jim for our boat trip out into the Kenai Fjords. The charter boat was the smaller of Jim’s two boats being faster and more nimble than his larger boat, we had chartered the boat from 06:00-14:00 for $1,298, Jim’s website is www.alaskawhalewatchingtours.com, Jim knows the location of the key birds and is constantly in touch with other boatman for sightings of cetaceans, birds etc. We spent the morning and early afternoon around the fjords, the scenery was spectacular with high forest and snow clad mountains dropping steeply into the sea. Birds included Black Oystercatcher (2), Bald Eagle (4), Parakeet Auklet (50), Tufted Puffin (many), Horned Puffin (many), Marbled Murrelet (c.50), Pigeon Guillemot (30), Common Guillemot (many), Black-legged Kittiwake (many), Goosander (10) and Red-throated Diver (2). Four stunning Dall’s Porpoise joined us bow-riding for a while before heading off and then being relocated a few minutes apparently in a feeding frenzy. Not far on we encountered two Orca, a male and a female which gave good and prolonged views. The highlight was spending just over an hour in the water amongst the ice at the foot of Glacier Aialik here Glaucous-winged Gull, Sea Otter and Harbour Seal were hauled out on the ice while our target, Kittlitz’s Murrelet was present with around seven present in the glacial waters. It was a fantastic experience spending time at the face of the immense glacier with occasional ice falls and gun cracks as the glacier slid down the valley.

All too soon it was time to head off and we were on our 350m trip northwards via Anchorage to Denali National Park, we eventually arrived at around 21:30, checked into the Denali Cabins located eight miles south of the National Park entrance, we had dinner and crashed.

Leaving Seward

Orca - Kenai Fjords, Seward

Black Oystercatcher - Kenai Fjords, Seward

Harbour Seal - Kenai Fjords, Seward

Steller's Sea-lion - Kenai Fjords, Seward

Bald Eagle - Kenai Fjords, Seward

Steller's Sea-lion - Kenai Fjords, Seward

Dall's Porpoise - Kenai Fjord

Kenai Fjord's

Kittlitz's Murrelet - Kenai Fjords, Seward

Black-legged Kittiwake - Kenai Fjords, Seward

Iceberg - Kenai Fjords, Seward

Glacier Aialik - Kenai Fjords, Seward

Glaucous-winged Gull - Kenai Fjords, Seward

Sea Otter - Kenai Fjords, Seward

Glacier Aialik - Kenai Fjords, Seward

Glacier Aialik area - Kenai Fjords, Seward

Glacier Aialik - Kenai Fjords, Seward

Glacier Aialik area - Kenai Fjords, Seward

Humpback Whale - Kenai Fjords, Seward

Rock Strata - Kenai Fjords

Marbled Murrelet - Kenai Fjords, Seward

Return to Seward

Approach to Denali National Park

Links to the other days of the trip (click to view)

Day 1 – Background, international flights and Anchorage

Day 2 (Part 1) – Anchorage

Day 2 (Part 2) – St. Paul, Pribolofs

Day 3 - St. Paul, Pribolofs

Day 4 - St. Paul, Pribolofs

Day 5 - St. Paul, Pribolofs then fly to Anchorage

Day 6 –Seward

Day 8 – Denali National Park and Denali Highway

Day 9 – Paxton Area of Denali Highway

Day 10 – Drive Paxton to Anchorage

Day 11 – Nome

Day 12 – Nome

Day 13 – Nome

Day 14 – Nome and travel to Barrow

Day 15 (Part 1) – Barrow

Day 15 (Part 2) – Barrow

Day 16 – Barrow

Day 17 – Barrow then travel back to Anchorage and international fli

Tuesday, 31 May 2016

Alaska - 31st May (Day 4)

We awoke to a strong north-west gale and occasional heavy showers so a seawatch was on the cards. After breakfast we headed to Reef Cliffs and found a reasonable position overlooking the huge seas, despite the relative shelter behind an outcrop of volcanic rock we were buffeted and sand blasted. There were large numbers of birds passing north along the coast with many 100’s of Least Auklet, Crested Auklet and Parakeet Auklet plus Black-legged Kittiwake, Red-legged Kittiwake, Tufted Puffin and Horned Puffin. The only new species we added was a single Pomarine Skua that flew south. After around one hour we headed south to the seal blind overlooking the Town Bay for another scan for Ancient Murrelet but although relatively sheltered we decided that the search was futile given the choppy conditions. We headed a little way north to Saltwater Lagoon where we birded around stacks of crab pots which offered some shelter for migrant birds but produced little, it was pretty tough going in the wind. Out on the lagoon we had better views of the Bar-tailed Godwit, this bird of the eastern race baueri which has relatively longer wings and bill compared to the more western races. There were many dead and dying Plaice in the lagoon and the Glaucous-winged Gull were enjoying a feast. We headed back to the rocky bay on the south coast of the island before lunch for some shelter and to spend a bit more time with the Least Auklet which seemed to be struggling to balance on the rocks in the wind. Just before lunch we headed back to Town Bay for a quick scan of for the Ancient Murrelet but with no luck but we did get fairly nice views of White-billed Diver and more Harlequin Duck.

Early morning seawtaching in a north Pacific gale (left to right Ian, Martin, myself, Andy and our guide Alison)

Looking back towards the town

Bar-tailed Godwit of race baueri - St Paul Island

Crab-pots offer one of the few forms of cover on the islands and hence offer shelter for tired migrants

Crab-pot birding

Glaucous-winged Gull (1st winter) and Plaice - St Paul Island

Glaucous-winged Gull (3rd winter) - St Paul Island

Harlequin Duck - St Paul Island

Harlequin Duck (adult male with a 1st summer male 2nd from left) - St Paul Island

Harlequin Duck (1st summer male) - St Paul Island

White-billed Diver - St Paul Island

Lapland Bunting - St Paul Island

St Paul town

Arctic Fox - St Paul Island

South Coast of St Paul Island

Least Auklet - St Paul Island

Glaucous-winged Gull (first winter) - St Paul Island

Glaucous-winged Gull (third winter) - St Paul Island

Glaucous-winged Gull (second winter and adult) - St Paul Island

Glaucous-winged Gull (first, second and third winter birds) - St Paul Island

Glaucous-winged Gull (fourth summer or adult summer) - St Paul Island

Northern Fur-seal - St Paul Island

After lunch we went north up to North Point birding Big Water and the surrounding marshland. This produced Pacific Golden Plover, Least Sandpiper, Ring-necked Duck and four stunning Red Phalarope, the first summer plumage birds I had seen but still the strong winds hampered good views of birds and photography. A seawatch on the far north-east point of the island produced six Short-tailed Shearwater and an adult Long-tailed Skua plus around 12 female and sub-adult male King Eider on the water. We headed south for dinner and as we approached the town we heard news that two Ancient Murrelet had been seen a short while ago in Town Bay so we drove through the town and positioned ourselves in the shelter of the van looking east into the bay, as we scanned there was the now familiar Yellow-billed Loon, a sub-adult male King Eider and White-winged Scoter. It was apparent that there were many Alcids sheltering in the bay from the storm and then Alison Vilag, our guide, exclaimed Ancient Murrelet! And as I was standing next to her I was first to look through the scope and there they were two fantastic summer plumage Ancient Murrelet – my first since dot views on Lundy Island in May 1990. We watched the birds for 15 minutes before it was time to head for dinner.

Northern Pintail - St Paul Island

Lapland Bunting - St Paul Island

Red-necked Phalarope - St Paul Island

Grey-crowned Rosy-finch - St Paul Island

View to the south from the north of the island

View in the north of the island

Ancient Murrelet - St Paul Island (photo by Andy Bunting)

After dinner we spent a little bit of time around the Port of St. Paul photographing Rock Sandpiper and enjoying closer views of Harlequin Duck and distant views of Pigeon Guillemot. The last hour or so of the day was spent seawatching which produced more of the same that we had seen this morning although the calming seas produced fewer birds. Finally, we wandered the southern end of the peninsular enjoying the windswept landscape and watching the rather disgusting Northern Fur-seal before heading back to the hotel for a couple of beers.