KACHEMAK BAY BIRDERS
*UPCOMING TRIPS/Events
*MEETINGS/PRESENTATIONS
Meetings at the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge (formerly:Islands and Ocean Visitor Center), begin at 5:30 pm (unless otherwise indicated).
April 29th Meeting and Shorebird Festival
Film Fundraiser:Purple Haze
May 20th Meeting + T.B.A.
All Kachemak Bay Birders’ Meetings, activities and birding trips are cosponsored by the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. All events are free and everyone is welcome to attend. Masks encouraged and all trips will comply with FWS covid-safe practices.
Link to previous Presentation
December 4th Presentation by Aaron Lang: “Birding in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge” was recorded and the link is on the Friends of the Alaska National Wildlife Refuges website:
https://alaskarefugefriends.org/category/events/special-events/
Trip Report: Spit 2-17-24 (Kristine Sowl)
There were 9 people at the start with I think two that popped in later for a short while. We changed it up and started at Land’s End because there were long-tailed ducks that had been hanging out there. The weather was pretty good for the most part, partly cloudy until the end when the clouds moved in and we got some light rain. We were out for 3 hours. Besides Lands End, we visited the south and north ends of the boat harbor, then Freight dock road out to harbor entrance, the Fishing Hole, and a brief stop at Mariner Park and the base of the spit (to count the mallards). The rock sandpipers were in a big flock in Mud Bay. I don’t think we had any particular bird highlights. We did see a seal grab a flatfish out of the water. Just a congenial group and a nice morning of birding.
Species that were seen:
Mallard 110
Greater Scaup 20
Surf Scoter 15
White-winged Scoter 5
Black Scoter 40
Long-tailed Duck 28
Bufflehead 7
Common Goldeneye 23
Common/Barrow’s Goldeneye 2 (First year males. Having difficulty being sure of id–photos posted on eBird)
Red-breasted Merganser 18
Horned Grebe 2
Red-necked Grebe 2
Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon) 30
Rock Sandpiper 1000 (est.)
Pigeon Guillemot 1
Short-billed Gull 15
Glaucous-winged Gull 3
Red-throated Loon 1
Common Loon 2
Pelagic Cormorant 8
Bald Eagle 14
American Crow 60
Common Raven 1
Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch 12
Song Sparrow 2
It Was A Great Day To Bird! Thanks to Kristine for leading the group.
Ohlson Mountain Road. It was a mostly clear, relatively warm night at 40
degrees and neither wind nor rain intervened. We played the calls of
Northern Saw-whet, Great Horned and Boreal Owls. After about 20 minutes
we got a fairly close response from a Northern Saw-whet, which all of us
heard. A bit later a few of us heard two more simultaneous calls of
likely Saw-whets.
After about 45 minutes we all moved about two miles to the terminal end
of East Skyline Drive, where there is a bus turnaround. We played the
same calls there and added a few bars of Great Gray Owl calls. We
listened here for about 30 minutes to no avail. However it was a
pleasant, quiet night punctuated by shooting stars, and a chance for
some of us to get caught up.
And a great night to “Owl”!
Despite the threat of wind and rain, we actually had a very pleasant trip – light wind, and several spotty rain showers lasting less than a minute or so. Five birders, including a young woman from Georgia, spotted 30 different species for the trip. She was happy because a lot of the birds were life birds for her.
- Mallard
- Barrow’s Goldeneye
- Red-breasted Merganser
- Red-necked Grebe
- Pacific Golden-Plover
- Semipalmated Plover
- Sanderling
- Rock Sandpiper
- Semipalmated Sandpiper
- Western Sandpiper
- Greater Yellowlegs
- Common Murre
- Pigeon Guillemot
- Marbled Murrelet
- Ancient Murrelet
- Horned Puffin
- Black-legged Kittiwake
- Short-billed Gull
- Herring Gull
- Glaucous-winged Gull
- Arctic Tern
- Pacific Loon
- 2 Common Loon
- Sooty Shearwater
- Bald Eagle
- Belted Kingfisher
- Black-billed Magpie
- 5American Crow
- Savannah Sparrow
- Song Sparrow
White-winged Scoter
Black Scoter
Common Merganser
Whimbrel – at least 67
Black Turnstone – well over 100
Surfbird – at least 50
Least Sandpiper – only two for sure, but possibly 4 total
Common Murre
Pigeon Guillemot
Ancient Murrelet – and close to shore for good looks
murrelet sp. – mostly likely Marbled Murrelets, but only saw these birds in flight
Horned Puffin
Short-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Glaucous-winged Gull
Herring x Glaucous-winged Gull (hybrid)
Red-throated Loon – at least one pair
Pacific Loon
Common Loon
Bald Eagle
Belted Kingfisher – nice views at it hovered over the river, and then again when it landed on stumps
Black-billed Magpie – heard
American Crow – the young were very vocal about wanting to be fed
Bank Swallow
Savannah Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Orange-crowned Warbler