One of the year's big trips is in the books. I made my third visit to Alaska, spending roughly ten days hiking, birding, and goofing around with my best friend and returned this past weekend. The trip was a ton of fun and, as a birding venture, really great. The day of my flight out of MSP, I drove down to my sister's place in Blaine where I had a few hours to hang out before going to the airport.
A couple of weeks ago, my brother-in-law and sister were planning to remove the Christmas wreath hanging over their garage. They hooked it on a pole and brought it down to find a few surprises.
This little wreath currently houses three families--Robins on top and two House Finch nests within the inner circle! When they saw the nests, they quickly hung the nest back over the garage.
From MSP, I flew to Sea-Tac International Airport. My originally very tight layover turned into an overnight layover as my flight out of the Twin Cities was delayed, but I was able to do a good bit of reading and managed a few hours of sleep behind an Alaska Air customer service desk. When the sun came up, I spent a little while looking out the windows for birds but identified only a flying crow. The way up to Juneau was smooth, but the weather on my arrival was pretty gross. My friend picked me up from the airport and after running some errands we hung around inside for the rainy Thursday.
But Friday was pretty glorious, and we took advantage of it. We woke up for low tide and headed out for the coast. We were almost to the Shrine of St. Terese when we spotted a guy with a long lens shooting from a van pulled to the opposite shoulder. This led our eyes to:
Nice start to the trip! This American Black Bear was calmly browsing the roadside vegetation and even tolerated some not-so-subtle folks who stopped right in front of the bear for a picture . . .
The shrine was equally quick to deliver. We had positioned ourselves so I could get a few shots of the Harlequin Ducks when a pack of lifers landed on the rocky shore nearby--the first Black Oystercatchers of the trip! Some red squirrels were also poking about the rocks nearby.
We continued along the shore of the point, spotting Surf and White-winged Scoters and Murrelets, then moved into the trees to observe the second lifer, a Red-breasted Sapsucker, up close. The Sapsucker flew right past us before landing low on a mossy tree trunk.
My friend and I spent a few minutes completing the labyrinth before vrooming on. We made a quick check on the Salt Lake off Amalga Road where I saw the first Common Merganser and only Great Blue Heron of the trip, and then we drove to the Scout Trail along Eagle River. Here, we took our time, walking about three hours. There were lots of gulls, corvids, and some songbirds. The most exciting things for me were a lone Sanderling on the beach, a flying flock of Pectoral Sandpipers and the Canada Geese which alluded me on my previous Juneau visit!
Lena Point was our next stop where we spent an hour looking out into the channel for birds and marine mammals. Here was a species I was really hoping to see for the first time--the Pacific Loon! I was extremely happy to record thirteen of the loons flying low over the channel. They were quite far away, but it was awesome, and there would be plenty more loons to see!
Next up on our busy first day of birding was the Mendenhall Wetlands. We hit the well-birded Airport Dike Trail in a pretty dead time of the afternoon. We managed only a few birds but nabbed the first Barn and Tree Swallows of the trip!
The day's last stop would be the network of trails around the Moose Lake/Dredge Lake area in the Mendenhall Valley. The trails are practically in my friend's backyard, so it was a very convenient location for a walk right around dinnertime. I didn't record a ton of species, but I did see my first Ring-necked Ducks and Ruby-crowned Kinglet for Juneau!
Well, that sums up the flights and first day of birding in Juneau. Time to go through some more pictures!
