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Our day began about 7am. That’s about the time the sun rises. It sets about midnight, but since there is no time difference between Anchorage and St. Paul, the middle of the night ends up being about 3am. Breakfast is laid out in a common room down the hall from our bedrooms. Cereal, fruit, yogurt, breads are available and of course the required coffee. At 7:30am we headed out for the morning with Claudia who took us to Ridge Wall and Southwest Point where we scanned the bird cliffs and saw lots of birds several of which were new for the trip. On the way we passed a courting Rock Sandpiper (photo). At the cliffs there were both Horned and Tufted Puffins, Least, Crested, and Parakeet Auklets (photo), Northern Fulmars (photo), Common and Thick-billed Murres, Red-faced and Pelagic Cormorants, Red-legged and Black-legged Kittiwakes, and Glaucous-winged Gulls. At one point a Sabine’s Gull flew by, but unfortunately sailed around the headland before anyone else got to see it. We visited the crab traps looking for vagrant passerines before returning to the King Eider Hotel for our lunch. Lunch was a sumptuous affair with meatloaf sandwiches, cornbread chili, clam chowder, and the salad bar. A cup of coffee and a cupcake topped it off. After lunch I took a nap while the rest went on a walkabout town. I was roused by the information that Stefan had found an octet of Steller’s Eiders which we re-found. The rest of the afternoon was spent searching various wet spots for shorebirds, but nothing new was discovered. Dinner was a choice of beef stew, halibut and rice, spinach, and salad bar. Dessert was ice cream, but instead I had apple pie and coffee. Our after-dinner session was to the Northeast Point area where we searched for vagrants. No vagrants were found but I did finally get Snow Buntings as a catch-up bird. A few Least Sandpipers caused some excitement, but we couldn’t convince ourselves that they were anything but Leasts. A Semi-palmated Plover was new for the island. The eight new year birds raised the total to 593.
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Our day began about 7am. That’s about the time the sun rises. It sets about midnight, but since there is no time difference between Anchorage and St. Paul, the middle of the night ends up being about 3am. Breakfast is laid out in a common room down the hall from our bedrooms. Cereal, fruit, yogurt, breads are available and of course the required coffee. At 7:30am we headed out for the morning with Claudia who took us to Ridge Wall and Southwest Point where we scanned the bird cliffs and saw lots of birds several of which were new for the trip. On the way we passed a courting Rock Sandpiper (photo). At the cliffs there were both Horned and Tufted Puffins, Least, Crested, and Parakeet Auklets (photo), Northern Fulmars (photo), Common and Thick-billed Murres, Red-faced and Pelagic Cormorants, Red-legged and Black-legged Kittiwakes, and Glaucous-winged Gulls. At one point a Sabine’s Gull flew by, but unfortunately sailed around the headland before anyone else got to see it. We visited the crab traps looking for vagrant passerines before returning to the King Eider Hotel for our lunch. Lunch was a sumptuous affair with meatloaf sandwiches, cornbread chili, clam chowder, and the salad bar. A cup of coffee and a cupcake topped it off. After lunch I took a nap while the rest went on a walkabout town. I was roused by the information that Stefan had found an octet of Steller’s Eiders which we re-found. The rest of the afternoon was spent searching various wet spots for shorebirds, but nothing new was discovered. Dinner was a choice of beef stew, halibut and rice, spinach, and salad bar. Dessert was ice cream, but instead I had apple pie and coffee. Our after-dinner session was to the Northeast Point area where we searched for vagrants. No vagrants were found but I did finally get Snow Buntings as a catch-up bird. A few Least Sandpipers caused some excitement, but we couldn’t convince ourselves that they were anything but Leasts. A Semi-palmated Plover was new for the island. The eight new year birds raised the total to 593.
Sounds like a great day. 8 new birds is something! Congrats (Sue from Colorado and the White-tailed Ptarmigan)
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