Birding Alaska

A day of birding Homer with Luke DeCicco and Wendy Holman made for a very memorable final day of 2011. All photos by Luke DeCicco.

Great Gray Owl Strix nebulosa, Homer, 30 December 2011. Photo by Lucas DeCicco.

Great Gray Owls make birding headlines anywhere on the Kenai, especially Homer. This winter has been an exceptional winter for the species on the Peninsula–there have been up to four different Gray Grays reported in the Homer area alone. The most reliable birds have been two that have shown regularly and well at the east end of Beluga Lake. The best viewing opportunities have been from the end of Adams Drive (off of East End Road), but the birds have also been spotted from the observation platform at the end of FAA drive near the airport. Luke took this photo on 30 December, but we relocated the bird again on New Year’s Eve for a final bird of 2011. This was my first Great Gray Owl for the Kenai Peninsula and a great way to celebrate New Year’s Eve!

Horned Lark Eremophila alpestris, Homer Spit, 31 December 2011. Photo by Lucas DeCicco.

This Horned Lark represents only the second winter report for Homer. The first mid-winter record was of four birds found on the Homer CBC last winter, one of which was of the Asian breeding flava subspecies. Click here for more on that.

White-throated Sparrow Zonotrichia albicollis, Seaside Farm, Homer, 31 December 2011. Photo by Lucas DeCicco.

It has been a good fall/winter for overwintering sparrows in Homer. This White-throated Sparrow found at Mossy’s Seaside Farm makes for the third consecutive winter this rare fall/winter visitor has been found in Homer.

The highlight of the Homer Christmas Bird Count (18 December 2010) was a yellow-faced Horned Lark of the Asian breeding race flava found by Lisa Matlock, Kathy Eagle, Dave Rosseneau and Vernon Byrd. It was with a group of three Alaskan breeding arcticola Horned Larks. I believe this is the first mid-winter record of Horned Lark for Homer (there are several records in recent years from the Kenai River flats and at least one from Seward). Also, this is the first record of a yellow-faced flava for the Kenai Peninsula. With help from Gary Lyon I relocated the flock on 19 December and got a few photos.

Horned Lark Eremophila alpestris flava, Fishing Lagoon, Homer Spit, 19 December 2010.

The yellow supercilium, throat and sides of face identify this individual as the Asian breeding race flava.

Horned Lark Eremophila alpestris arcticola, Fishing Lagoon, Homer Spit, 19 December 2010.

A typical Alaskan breeding arcticola lacking any color to the face.

The Asian form flava is a rare fall migrant to western Alaska, including the islands of the Bering Sea. In Southcoastal Alaska, there are two specimen records for Middleton Island and a sight record from Middleton Island on 25-27 September 1991. In Southeast Alaska a flava was photographed at Juneau, 6 December 2007 and this year at Gustavus on 31 October 2010. Thanks to Steve Heinl and Gus van Vliet for information on other Southcoastal and Southeast Alaska records.

Click here for photos of a flava from the Bering Sea earlier this year.

Horned Lark Eremophila alpestris flava, Eastern Bering Sea, 31 August 2010. Click on photos to enlarge.

Another hitchhiker this morning. The yellow throat and supercillia identify this Horned Lark as the flava subspecies, breeding in eastern Russia. It winters in southern Russia, northeast China and Japan and is a casual fall migrant to the islands of the Bering Sea.

Before landing on the ship this morning the Horned Lark was doing laps around the ship with a smaller mystery passerine. Unfortunately, that one got away.

Other migrants flying by the ship today were 11 Pacific Golden-Plovers, 1 Ruddy Turnstone and 1 Tattler sp.

• Brazil, M. 2009. Birds of East Asia: China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, and Russia. Princeton University Press.
• Gibson, D. D., and Byrd, G. V. 2007. Birds of the Aleutian Islands, Alaska. Nuttall Ornithological Club and the American Ornithologists’ Union. Series in Ornithology 1.
• Gibson, D. D., and Kessel, B. 1997. Inventory of the species and subspecies of Alaska birds. Western Birds 28:45-95.
• Lehman, P. E. 2005. Fall migration at Gambell, St. Lawrence Island, Alaska. Western Birds 36:2-55.