Ketchikan, Alaska birding 4 May 2008
Hi All
went out this morning with Steve Heinl, one of the most experienced birders in Ketchikan. We went out north of town, along the Tongass Highway (the main road on the island), stopping in various strategic places.
The landscape around Ketchikan is extraordinarily beautiful. As I understand it, southeast Alaska was dominated for a long time by glaciers until the end of the most recent Ice Age, a mere 11 -15 000 years ago. These carved huge valleys to make today’s geologically young landscape, a region consisting of thousands of steep sided islands separated by extremely deep fjordlike waterways mostly made of dark, slaty schist. Relatively warm Pacific ocean currents give off a lot of humid air which is forced up over islands, creating a huge amount of orographic (remember that word from geography?) rainfall, which in turn feeds an amazing, lush, coniferous temperate rainforest. The oceans are also extremely productive, containing huge numbers of fish.
It was a colder than normal spring day here, but otherwise typical for this region i.e. low cloud, mist, and rain. I did not take as many bird photos as I had planned (light was terrible and my camera doesn’t like getting wet. These types of pictures look more spectacular with some sun in them, but that wasn’t on the agenda for today).
Here is Steve at one of the places we stopped at. The birds (black spots) in the back are mostly Surf Scoter.
The western US has a large number of various types of seagoing ducks – something we lack in Africa. Although many of the species breed on freshwater, they’ll spend great chunks of the year bobbing about quite happily in salt. Around Ketchikan this morning we saw groups of several hundred or more Surf Scoter along with much smaller numbers of White-winged Scoter, Bufflehead, Harlequin Duck, Greater Scaup, Barrow’s and Common Goldeneye, Long-tailed Duck, Mallard, American Wigeon and other seagoing ducks. (Steve found us a an Eurasian Wigeon on the shore – very rarely seen in the US.) The Scoters were diving down to feed on herring eggs. Herring come to some points inshore and lay thousands of eggs which stick to clumps of seaweed – a great source of duck protein. Sometimes the duck-rafts are filled in with gulls, loons, and other seabirds. The picture below shows a raft of Surf Scoter over a herring spawning ground along with good numbers of Bonaparte’s Gull (there are also a few other things in the shot but I can’t ID them now.)
We saw huge numbers of sparrows migrating through (mostly Golden-crowned Sparrow), and all through the morning frayed strings and vees of hundreds of geese passed high overhead, purposefully heading to their northern Arctic breeding areas. The famous American nature writer Aldo Leopold spoke of ‘goose music’ – the gentle, continuous honking that floats down from the groups as they make their way across this vast continent. It’s a wonderfully clear manifestation to me of the changing seasons and the ecological connections that span the globe.
Enough of that. Here’s this morning’s list (in Sibley guide order):
1) Pacific Loon
2) Common Loon
3) Red-necked Grebe
4) Pelagic Cormorant
5) Great Blue Heron
6) Greater White-fronted Goose
7) Snow Goose
8 ) Canada Goose
9) Brant (goose)
10) Mallard (duck)
11) American Wigeon
12) Eurasian Wigeon
13) Northern Shoveler
14) Green-winged Teal
15) Greater Scaup
16) Harlequin Duck (a small, dainty duck that rejoices in the scientific name of Histrionicus histrionicus)
17) Long-tailed Duck
18 ) Surf Scoter
19) White-winged Scoter
20) Common Goldeneye
21) Barrow’s Goldeneye
22) Bufflehead
23) Red-breasted Merganser
24) Northern Harrier
25) Bald Eagle
26) Black-bellied Plover
27) Killdeer (a type of plover)
28 ) Greater Yellowlegs (calls just like Greenshank)
29) Dunlin
30) Western Sandpiper
31) Least Sandpiper
32) Wilson’s Snipe
33) Bonaparte’s Gull
34) Mew Gull
35) California Gull
36) Herring Gull
37) Thayer’s Gull
38 ) Glaucous Gull
39) Glaucous-winged Gull
40) Marbled Murrulet
41) Feral Pigeon (introduced exotic)
42) Belted Kingfisher
43) Rufous Hummingbird
44) Steller’s Jay
45) Northwestern Crow
46) Common Raven
47) Tree Swallow
48) Chestnut-backed Chickadee
49) American Dipper (what a great bird)
50) Golden-crowned Kinglet
51) Ruby-crowned Kinglet
52) Varied Thrush
53) American Robin
54) Hermit Thrush
55) American Pipit
56) European Starling (introduced exotic)
57) Orange-crowned Warbler
58) Townsend’s Warbler
59) Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle, Audubon’s & intergrade forms)
60) Savannah Sparrow
61) Fox Sparrow (sooty form)
62) Song Sparrow
63) Lincoln’s Sparrow
64) Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon form)
65) White-crowned Sparrow (seen after Steve went home)
66) Golden-crowned Sparrow
also heard (and identified by Steve) but not seen
a) Red-throated Loon
b) Northern Flicker
c) Winter Wren
I also saw Red-breasted Sapsucker and House Sparrow around Ketchikan yesterday – so I might crack 100 in Alaska if I get lucky up near Anchorage.
A good total for half a day in this area. Thanks Steve, and happy birding to all of you, even the ones who haven’t been hooked by this silly sport yet…
Cheers
Adam
PS there seems to be a bug in this blogging program that sometimes turns the number eight (or is it the number eight and a bracket?) into a smiley… will figure that out. Whenever you see a smiley, read ‘eight’!
[…] Ketchikan, Alaska birding 4 May 2008 – 34) Mew Gull. 35) California Gull. 36) Herring Gull. 37) Thayer’s Gull. 3 Glaucous Gull. 39) Glaucous-winged Gull. 40) Marbled Murrulet. 41) Feral Pigeon (introduced exotic). 42) Belted Kingfisher. 43) Rufous Hummingbird … […]