Juneau V: Around town birding

With the trip nearing its end, we took the last day of July to hit some convenient places around Juneau. We started out with a visit to Rotary Park on the Douglas Island side. Rotary Park is nothing more than a playground with some bushes and trees and residential buildings around.

We didn't stick around Rotary Park for long. We had a quick bite and headed to Cope Park for a walk with the dogs. The running water looked promising, but our expectations weren't too high considering our luck of days prior.

We headed up the trail along the water. Lo and behold:

My first confirmed American Dipper! Yes!! We continued up the trail a ways, grabbed a few more pictures and then circled back.

We were almost back to the parking lot when another dull-colored flash of a dipper passed by, heading downstream of us. We squatted on some rocks, watched and waited, and the dipper began skipping rock to rock. It came closer and closer, ducking its head below the water. The dogs sat still as well, giving no more than the occasional whine. The dipper came within FEET of us. It got so close that I couldn't focus on it and didn't get any great pictures, but it was awesome.

Skipping back over the channel, we wandered the Rainforest Trail. The forest was alive with birdsong, and we spotted a lifer three-toed woodpecker scaling a tree near the beach. We also went for a short walk beside the Twin Lakes, but the heavy rain sent us back indoors for the night.

Juneau IV: Cabin and Dipper-Lack

After a lazy day of anime and movies, we were back on the trails and after the birds on Friday. We made a short stop at the Juneau Community Gardens where some hummingbirds were buzzing about the flowers and other birds perched in the surroundings trees.

Next was the first of several failed attempts to spot some American dippers. We wandered along Montana Creek for a mile or so and set up near a good dipper spot after swearing we saw one duck into a tangle of trunk and branches hung over the water. Unfortunately, whatever it was did not reappear, and we had another trail to hit before nightfall.

We made the humid hike to the John Muir Cabin, arriving just as it the gray skies were losing light. After dining and goofing about, we set up our sleeping bags in the loft. Sleep came quickly but was cut short at dawn by the morning shrieks of a nearby raven. We had a quick breakfast and hit the trail. The first red crossibll and yellow-rumped warblers of the trip showed up, and I got a quick picture of a lifer Pacific-slope flycatcher on the way back to the car.

Auke Rec was next up. There wouldn't be much for birds to spot, but I did catch a glimpse of my first harbor porpoise.

Saturday's last stop was another failed search for dippers at Montana Creek.

Juneau III: Point Bridget and Favorite Channel

Wednesday was the one nice-weather day for the Juneau trip, and it was the day most packed with birding. We had ourselves a quick breakfast before starting up Glacier Highway, making several stops en route to Point Bridget.

Stop one: Shrine of Saint Therese. We made a quick scan of the water, spotting harlequin ducks and a few (lifer!) marbled murrelets.

Stop two: Eagle Beach. This stop didn't seem promising at first glance. There were a few species of gulls swimming and soaring about, but the water was quite quiet. Then, while we were staring down at the shore, I saw a bird zip into a pack of berry bushes near our vehicle. On closer inspection, several species of birds were hopping about the vegetation including two lifers: MacGillivray's and Townsend's warblers!

Stop three: Point Bridget State Park

Our focus for the day was Point Bridget. The weather was absolutely perfect as we started from the trailhead and passed through the initial wooded section where our biggest worry was the stream of young toads hopping about our footsteps on the trail.

We made it out to the channel shore as low tide was winding down and skipped our way out along the rocks to get a closer look at a pack of seven or so harbor seals, then found a nice place to sit and enjoy a snack. While we ate, we grew distracted with a strange shape floating in the water and fooled ourselves into believing it to be a young harbor pup with a piece of kelp, but alas . . .

It was only kelp. We did, however, get to see a score of surf scoters, more murrelets and gulls and my first black-legged kittiwake! After eating our share, we headed back on the trail, making a little detour to check a lake which was entirely free of ducks and other birds, so far as we could tell.

We headed back down Favorite Channel, returning to the shrine where a raven and marmots were entertaining visitors.

We made one more stop at the Sheep Creek delta where the fishermen, gulls and eagles had congregated at the day's end. The gull antics were aplenty. In particular, we had fun watching one of the Bonaparte's using just about all its time and energy protecting a patch of stream, chasing off every other Bonaparte's which came near. As the daylight faded completely, we headed back to the car, but on the way, we spotted one of Juneau's sitka deer, a rather young one feeding alongside the road. The deer watched us a bit but seemed content to munch within a few steps of us.