Juneau '24, Part I

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!

Weekend!

 Summer is almost here and is primed to start with a bang. On Wednesday, I'll be making the leap to Alaska for the third time. Until then, I'm continuing the local birding, and it has been a pretty great week!

After work on Tuesday, I ran over to the Bois de Sioux River. There were lots of birds near the river. I took a while to stand near the boat landing before moving into one of the little trails, and after a bit of walking I noticed a scritching sound coming from the brush and saw a dark flash of movement. Through the branches I could make out a small, dark sparrow and got my camera up just in time for a partially obstructed and poorly focused shot. The bird immediately flew off. When I checked the photo through the viewfinder, I was very surprised to find a towhee. And when I got home later, I was even more surprised to see that it was the first Spotted Towhee to be reported on eBird in Wilkin County. Perhaps outside of the Rothsay WMA, Wilkin is very under-birded, but it still felt pretty cool to claim the first of a species in a county on eBird.

In addition to the towhee, I saw my first Scarlet Tanager, Magnolia Warblers, Blackpoll Warbler, Nashville Warbler, Yellowthroat and vireos for 2024.

I returned to the riverside on Saturday morning just as the wind was picking up. This time there were some bobolinks making their neat noises in the open, grassy areas.

This morning, it was back to Chahinkapa, and it was great--Cedar Waxwings, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, Chimney Swifts! There was even a lifer--my first Philadelphia Vireo!

After feeding the grown Canada Geese and their growing juveniles, I was spotting birds at the edge of a pond when a solitary goose walked right up to me and stared inquisitively at me until I showed it my little bag of feed was empty. With the goose following me a while, I went to the little birdfeeder between the ponds where I had put a fair bit of cracked corn and pocked a few pieces. I went back to the edge of the pond and took some pictures until the same goose waddled up to me again, and this time I had a bit of corn for it to munch.

Satisfied, I went home for breakfast and to watch the Top 32 of the GOML X Melee Singles--what a silly, exciting tournament. It had everything you could want. Crazy upsets, Jmook doing crazy Sheik stuff, some good games out of Mang0, a huge Hungrybox popoff, some weird and dumb Melee moments.

I went for a little walk to stretch my legs after top 8 and came home to find two male Yellow-headed Blackbirds at (and a first for) my feeders! Alright, it's almost time to start packing up for Alaska. If all goes well, I'll be sifting through thousands and thousands of photos in two weeks!

Little Big Day

The past Saturday was World Migratory Bird Day and Big Day. Continuing my streak of local birding, I woke up just before 6 and took an abbreviated route through the park. I didn't come across anything extraordinary, but I did see my first yellow warblers and barn swallows of the year. I then headed into the little wooded area of the archery range.

Although the archery range didn't hold a huge variety of warblers, there were some redstarts, a gray-cheeked thrush and broad-winged hawk. After wandering through the range for a little while, I went back through the park and heard/saw that the green herons had recently returned.

On Sunday morning I made another visit to the Bois de Sioux riverside. There was a wider selection of warblers, and I'm planning to head there again soon to nab some more first-of-the-years.

May Town Birding 2

After a trip to get some groceries for myself and the backyard critters, I stocked the feeders and lay down in the grass to get some pictures. The chipping sparrows and chickadees were the first to cozy up to my presence.

This morning, I went down to the park for a couple of hours. A good chunk of that time was spent lying on the path between the ponds with the yellow-rumped warblers bouncing around and nabbing insects. I was hoping to get some white-crowned sparrow shots, which did not happen, but it was a nice and mostly quiet morning.

May Day!

Often the most exciting month for birding, May is here, and the earlier warblers are already busy making their way through the state. The most surprising thing I've seen in recent days, however, were some goslings and ducklings--one brood apiece.

The baby geese and chickadee above were all scrounging up cracked corn, but I didn't have a chance to photograph the ducklings who were marching along the sidewalk with their mallard mother the other morning while I was at work. They had one mildly busy street to cross before the river, so I'm hoping they made it the rest of the way safely.

This afternoon, I swung by the Bois de Sioux River again. There were lots of ruby-crowned kinglets, a house wren or two, and some warblers (yellow-rumped and orange-crowned). There was also a pair of Cooper's Hawks putting the finishing touches on their nest.

The next few weeks are looking to have quite a few rainy days, but I'm hoping to be out a lot, and I hope to see plenty more birds making their way through town.