June Week 1

7th June

Up at 3.30am on my way back to the airport where I boarded for a flight making two stops on the way to my destination flying over Mount McKinley (Denali) the highest mountain in North America covered in snow before travelling over large grassy plains before landing down into fog. Then the final stretch of my journey brought me over a very white sea on the northern edge of Alaska as we dropped in over the sea ice to the remote town of Barrow where I was going to help with a monitoring program of the endangered Alaskan population of Steller’s Eider. Landing just after ten and I had already seen Pintail, Long-tailed Duck and Glaucous Gull from the window. Stepping out onto the tarmac I was surprised to feel how warm it was as the sun was shining. Meeting up with some of the team we headed out to the house. The most common/only passerine seen on route was the Snow Bunting, they definitely take the place of House Sparrow up here.



Meeting up with the rest of the chaps I got settled in. After tea I headed out with a few guys to do a road survey for Steller’s Eiders. As we headed out to the tundra there was very little snow cover (vanished in the last week I was told and earlier than normal) and lots of marshy pools. Many shorebirds with the most numerous starting with Semipalmated Sandpipers, Red-necked Phalarope, Red Phalarope (little stunners!), Long-billed Dowitcher, American Golden Plover, Pectoral Sandpipers with just a couple Semipalmated Plover and Dunlins. On the water were mainly Pintail and Long-tailed Ducks with a few White-fronted Geese, 2 Tundra Swans, 2 Pacific Loon, 1 Red-throated loon, Green-winged Teal and Greater Scaup. Flying around also were 3 Parastic Jaeger (Arctic Skua), 1 Pomarine Jaeger and 2 Sabine’s Gull. The only addition passerines were many cracking Lapland Longspurs and a couple Savannah Sparrows. Oh I can’t forget the eiders I suppose! First spotted were pairs of Steller’s Eider on the small pools (19 counted), then a distant pair of Spectacled was seen out in the heat haze followed by a single male and two female King Eiders. Ending a first great day a flock of 30 Common Eiders migrated along the coast over the sea ice.


Steller’s Eider

6th June

It was time to move on and continue my discovery of North America, three hours later I was sat in the airport at Toronto ready for my flight just after noon. After a connecting flight I arrived in Anchorage Alaska at 19:15 local time. I only had a brief visit to the city so I found a hostel and headed out. First I found some lagoons that were covered with Red-necked Grebes, as well as Great Scaup, American Wigeon and a single Arctic Tern that surprisingly had a reasonably sized chick in a colony of Mew Gulls. Walking along the coast I found Black-billed Magpie, Violet-green Swallows and White-crowned Sparrow. Arriving at Ship Creek there was hundreds of people all fishing the water (I guess the Salmon must be starting?). Overhead patrolling the creek were Herring and a few Glaucous-winged Gulls. The light finally started to go as I made my way back to the hostel at midnight.


Glaucous-winged Gull

3rd – 5th June

The wind swung around to the north making the late migration very slow as we continued to catch about thirty birds a day. Flycatchers were the most numerous with many Traill’s of which they are practically impossible to split in the hand with the current knowledge. The feeling is that the majority of the birds we have caught are Alder with two Willow caught on the 3rd. Dave is starting to look into the wing formula on the birds and from our small sample there are some promising signs. Otherwise just a few Grey-cheeked Thrushes seem to be moving. Well the final tally of birds caught during the spring fell just short of 6,500 as the nets were taken down on the 5th of which there were 107 different species.

Trip Total = 195 Lifers = 49


Traill’s Flycatchers

2nd June

A cloudy day and banding was still slow but another new bird was caught in the swamp net, a female Hairy Woodpecker. Around were two singing Alder Flycatchers, a pair of Eastern Bluebirds and the Tufted Titmouse still lurked in the wood.

An afternoon exploring for shrikes started with a brief stop along Babylon Road where we were immediately greeted by two alarming Upland Sandpipers. Finally managed to find these odd looking birds. Continuing north we cross out of the county and started to check a grassland area where Bobolinks, Meadowlarks and Eastern Kingbirds were numerous. A stop at a marshy area attracted Marsh Wren as a Virginia Rail was heard calling. Continuing on we bumped into another Upland Sandpiper. Arriving at the publicised site on our second stop we located a distant pair of Loggerhead Shrikes actively feeding.


Upland Sandpiper


On route back to the point we made a detour via Kaiser Cross Road were shorebirds were still in good numbers with 2 Black-bellied Plovers, 2 Whimbrel, 14 Semipalmated Plovers and 70+ Semipalmated Sandpipers. Also present with the sandpipers was a single Western but the best find was an Eastern Milk Snake that was lead across the road, this smart looking snake is sadly very rare so we moved him to safety.


Eastern Milk Snake

1st June

The start of a new month marked the end of the migration monitoring period so it was now time to play with some non-standard banding. It was a calm day with sunny spells and despite all our tape playing things were slow with 2 Canada Warblers, 6 Yellow-bellied Flycatchers some Traill’s and a very late Ruby-crowned Kinglet being caught. Some presumed none breeding Canada Geese flew over north with a total of 225. There was a surprise mid-morning at the feeder when a Tufted Titmouse appeared and was successfully caught later. 8 Chimney Swifts feed over the harbour at dusk.


Tufted Titmouse