On to St. Paul

After our waffle breakfast, we got our act together for an early morning walk through the neighborhood near our motel, the Puffin Inn. It was a gorgeous morning with a repeat of many of the birds we had seen yesterday afternoon. But pairs of Sandhill Cranes and Common Loons flying overhead were a nice addition. We didn’t have as many Tree Swallows this morning and we finally got to see Common Redpolls. There weren’t as many ducks on the take-off lake for seaplanes but there were four Red-necked Phalaropes. A Savannah Sparrow sang from a tree. We got our stuff together and went to the airport at the appointed hour only to wait for an extra hour for our plane which finally arrived and took us via Dillingham, the salmon fishery capital of the world, to St. Paul where the wind was and had been strongly out of the northeast for several days. After our introduction to the native corporation TDX and the facility we had a great dinner of halibut and trimmings. Then it was out into the field for three hours. The common land birds were the Lapland Longspurs and Gray-crowned Rosy-Finches. Also on land were Rock Sandpipers, the pale Pribiloff race. Another new bird was a flock of Bar-tailed Godwits (photo). From a rocky perch above the sea we scoped out Least Auklets, Red-faced Cormorants, Northern Fulmars, and Common Murres. A songful Winter Wren wouldn't quit singing on his cliff perch nearby (photo).  There were a few bull Northern Fur Seals on the rocks below. A brief flurry of activity followed a sighting of an Eastern Yellow Wagtail by Dave, but none of the rest of us could catch up with it. We did see an American Pipit. There were plenty of Northern Pintail, Green-winged Teal, a couple of Eurasian Wigeon, and several Long-tailed Ducks. A walk for snipe flushed a Wilson’s Snipe, but not a Common Snipe. We had great looks at a couple of Glaucous Gulls in the company of a few Glaucous-winged Gulls. Then it was back to the lodge for a cup of hot chocolate and off to bed.  The eleven new birds boosted the year's list total to 585.