Birding Alaska

Most of southcoastal Alaska’s breeding Rufous Hummingbirds head south by early August and any hummingbird seen on the Kenai Peninsula after then should be carefully checked. Anna’s Hummingbird is a casual fall visitor to southcoastal Alaska where it has been recorded in Homer, Seward, Cordova, Palmer and Anchorage. This bird arrived at a private residence in Homer on 28 August 2011 and has been sporadically feasting on nasturtiums there since then. This is the earliest of only a few Homer records and ties the early date for southcoastal Alaska.

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Homer birder Michelle Michaud discovered this Buff-breasted Sandpiper at the mouth of the Anchor River yesterday and it was still present today, 22 August 2011. Buff-breasted Sandpiper breeds on the Arctic coastal plain and migrates primarily through the interior of the continent. In southcoastal Alaska they occur only as casual fall migrants primarily in August and September. This is one of only a few records for the Kenai Peninsula and only the second record for the Homer/Kachemak Bay checklist area. The first was of a bird found in Homer on 11 September 2000 (North American Birds 55:(1)90.)

Buff-breasted Sandpiper Tringites subruficollis, Anchor River mouth, 21 August 2011. Photo by Michelle Michaud.

Long-billed Murrelet Brachyramphus perdix, near Aurora Lagoon, Kachemak Bay, 6 August 2011.

Dave Sonneborn, Rich MacIntosh and I finally relocated one of the Long-billed Murrelets in Kachemak Bay that had been found on 4 June and 23 July 2011.  We found the bird about 1/2 mile offshore of Aurora Lagoon in Kachemak Bay. More details of this morning’s outing can be found here. This is generally the same location of this summer’s other two sightings.

Karl Stolzfus of Bay Excursions tells me that brachyramphus murrelet numbers in this area typically remain high until late August. Since at least one bird has been present since 4 June, I don’t see any reason why one wouldn’t stick around as long as the big numbers of Kittlitz’s and Marbled Murrelets do.  Good luck to anyone else giving it a try and let me know if you want company!

Passerines are starting to flock up and move around in Homer. This afternoon a mixed flock of at least 75 birds moved through my backyard. The deck made a perfect canopy tower for photography as the birds foraged in a nearby elderberry. The flock contained six species of warblers–not too bad for an Alaskan mixed flock. Northern Waterthrush is the only warbler regular to the area that wasn’t in today’s flock. I thought I’d make a warbler post to practice typing the “new” scientific names of these species. Click here to get up to speed on the latest taxonomic changes to the AOU list.

Wilson’s Warblers Cardellina pusilla, Homer, 3 August 2011.

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On 23 July 2011, while conducting murrelet surveys in Kachemak Bay, Kathy Kuletz, Liz Labunski, and Tamara Zeller of the US Fish and Wildlife Service found and photographed THREE Long-billed Murrelets. The birds were in the same area where Karl Stoltzfus photographed the Kenai Peninsula’s first record of Long-billed Murrelet on 4 June 2011.

Long-billed Murrelets Brachyramphus perdix, Kachemak Bay, 23 July 2011. In addition to the long bill, the dark nape which lacks a white collar, white throat, and white eye-ring separate these birds from the similar Marbled Murrlet B. marmoratus. Karl Stoltzfus also commented that the color of the bird he saw struck him as “charcoal, closer to black than to brown.” Click any photo to enlarge. Photos taken by Liz Labunski.

Long-billed Murrelet is a close relative of Marbled Murrelet and was formerly considered a subspecies of Marbled Murrelet, but was elevated to full species status in 1998. Prior to this summer there were only five confirmed records for Alaska. All of the previous Alaska records involved one day occurrences of single birds.

On 29 July 2011, Karl Stoltzfus of Bay Excursions, Homer, took a group of local birders out to try to relocate the Long-billed Murrelets–or at least one of them! In perfect glassy conditions we spent the morning slowly cruising and scanning the area. We didn’t conduct any sort of formal count, but by the most conservative estimates there were at least 400-500 brachyramphus murrelets near shore between Glacier Spit and Aurora Lagoon in Kachemak Bay. At least 100 of these were Kittlitz’s Murrelets. Our search did not produce a Long-billed Murrelet, but there were likely many more murrelets out there than the birds we were able to study. We also turned up Pigeon Guillemot, Common Murre, three Ancient Murrelets, one Thick-billed Murre (very rare in Kachemak Bay), four Arctic Terns, one Aleutian Tern, and one Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel.

It was a great morning of murrelet study and comparison and probably the best photographic opportunities that I’ve ever had for murrelets. As far as the Long-billed goes, with all the murrelets around and all the food in the water I don’t see any reason why there isn’t at least one still around. I’ll be trying to get back out there again soon and give it another try.

I just got home from a week of visiting friends and family in Cordova and had some time to get out birding. The Cordova area, including the Copper River Delta, is an incredible birding area and like much of Alaska under-birded. The delta itself is nearly 600 square miles of wetland habitat with only one road bisecting it. Who knows what birds are lurking away from the road!

Common Yellowthroat Geothlypis trichas, mile 8.5 Copper River Highway, Cordova, 22 July 2011.

This male and a female were first found on 11 June 2011 by Milo Burcham. I found the male still singing on 21 and 22 July, but did not see the female and unfortunately could not confirm nesting. There is no record of Yellowthroats breeding on the Copper River Delta and there are only about three previous records of the species in the Cordova area.

Hooded Merganser Lophodytes cucullatus, Heney Creek, Cordova, 22 July 2011.

These two Hooded Mergansers were fishing in Heney Creek, just upstream of the Hartney Bay bridge. While Hooded Mergansers are somewhat regular in Cordova from the late fall through winter, I only know of two other mid summer records. Both of these were breeding records from the Copper River Delta.

Long-billed Murrelet Brachyramphus perdix, near Glacier Spit, Kachemak Bay, 2 June 2011. Photo by Karl Stolzfus of Bay Excursions.

Long-billed Murrelet Brachyramphus perdix, near Glacier Spit, Kachemak Bay, 2 June 2011. Photo by Karl Stolzfus of Bay Excursions.

On Saturday, 2 June 2011, Homer birder Karl Stozfus found and beautifully photographed this Long-billed Murrelet in Kachemak Bay. This fantastic find is the first documentation of the species on the Kenai Peninsula. There are about five previous documented sightings for the state. More information can be found here. If the bird sticks around and is relocated information will be posted on the discussion site AK Birding.

The Kenai Peninsula list continues to grow. In addition to this find, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Eurasian Collared-Dove, Jack Snipe, Turkey Vulture and Western Meadowlark have all been addded to the Kenai Peninsula list since July 2009, and all of them from south of the Anchor River (Homer area)!

I just got back from Saint Paul Island and was craving some sunshine and a new bird, so I drove over to Kenny Lake and relocated the Eared Grebe that was reported last weekend by Paul Lehman. This makes three years in a row for Eared Grebe on Kenny Lake! The species is listed as casual on the Alaska Checklist. Kenny Lake is an ornithological oddity–an island of hay fields and pasture in a sea of boreal forest. Some really incredible birds have appeared at or near the lake over the years and an assortment of otherwise rare birds regularly nest there–Ruddy Duck, Blue-winged Teal and Chipping Sparrow.  Its one of my favorite birding spots in Alaska.

Eared Grebe Podiceps nigricollis, Kenny Lake, 25 May 2011.

It was no problem to see the Eared Grebe. I spent two hours at the lake and the entire time the grebe was out in the open and called for much of this time. The call reminded me of the deflected two-note call of a Sora. Several times when the Eared Grebe got too close to a pair of courting Horned Grebes the Horned Grebes would chase it away. Also on the lake were 9 Ruddy Ducks (5 male, 4 female).

Chipping Sparrow Spizella passerina, Kenny Lake, 25 May 2011.

This Chipping Sparrow was singing right at the Kenny Lake pull-out. Later in the morning I found two more Chipping Sparrows singing on private properties a few miles down the road. I wouldn’t be surprise to find even more Chipping Sparrows if I had time and permission to search all of the open grassy habitats in Kenny Lake. In at least 2006 and 2009 Chipping Sparrows nested at the lake.

Western Tailed-Blue Everes amynthula, mile 173.6 Glenn Highway, 25 May 2011.

Persius Duskywing Erynnis persius, mile 173.6 Glenn Highway, 25 May 2011.

Sunny and warm today so the butterflies were out. This is the first Persius Duskywing that I’ve seen and there were a few out today.