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llow legged gulls greenwich london 19th august 2018 dante joined me at the o2 on monday 20th august and we had a juvenile mediterranean gull flying upriver as i arrived four yellow legged gulls as well as this 2nd summer caspian gull which has previously been seen by josh and dante at thames barrier park in july 2nd summer caspian gull greenwich london 20th august 2018 a relatively subtle looking thing with a slightly too beady eye for my liking so perhaps some german influence in there somewhere but the neck streaking and the retained p10 feather showing a decent mirror both are pro caspian features two yellow legged gulls at rotherhithe that afternoon a 2nd summer and a near adult were particularly showy yellow legged gulls rotherhithe london 20th august 2018 so all in all it has been a fairly pleasant ease back into london birding i m ready for the autumn now and whatever that has to throw at us posted by rb at 23 40 7 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest monday 20 august 2018 saint paul island alaskan birding at its best alaska s a massively wildlife rich place but for the last few years there has been one place that has been the aim above any other remote lying midway in the bering sea between alaska and russia st paul island was essentially the reason for my trip here probably best known to most for being one of the main harbours in the tv show the deadliest catch and its associated king crabs it is also one of the real jewels when it comes to seabirds spring and autumn time it functions along with gambell as north america s equivalent to corvo where asian mega vagrants are what the hardcore aba listers go there for st paul is essentially a rock of 22 square miles with just a couple of flights a week from anchorage that are weather dependent one hotel that is attached to the airport or is the airport attached to the hotel meals served in the canteen of the trident fish factory you get the idea however my main aim of this summer s trip to alaska was to see red legged kittiwake on st paul island and that i certainly did it is probably the most accessible place to reliably see this species and so due to flight schedules i was able to spend four fantastic days on this rock though still outnumbered by black legged kittiwakes quite considerably there are good breeding populations on the cliffs and they come into the harbour at times sitting nicely on the jetties i saw them in several spots often flying by among the black legged kittiwakes but also in the town harbour and cliffs at ridge wall and reef point proper quality birds with that big eye allowing them to feed nocturnally similar to swallow tailed gulls red legged kittwake st paul island alaska july 2018 shortly behind red legged kittiwake st paul is a mecca for some crippling alcids and they show exceptionally well too most of the cliffs are loaded mostly with brunnich s guillemots and lesser numbers of guillemot nice to write these anglicised having had to call them thick billed and common murres out in the field plus the two clowns of the pacific in abundance too horned and tufted puffins tufted puffin st paul island alaska july 2018 horned puffin st paul island alaska july 2018 brunnich s guillemot st paul island alaska july 2018 one of the reasons a lot of birders come to st paul though is the views of breeding auklets where elsewhere they re often distant lumps on the sea here they are up close and in your face parakeet auklets and the much scarcer crested auklets chill out on rock ledges before heading into their nests in deep rock crevices while the gremlinesque least auklets seemed to prefer the boulder beaches to breed all such good birds and a massive thrill to see in such good numbers parakeet auklet st paul island alaska july 2018 crested auklet st paul island alaska july 2018 least auklet st paul island alaska july 2018 r ed faced cormorants were the commonest breeding cormorant on the cliffs and having only seen them at relative distance in japan previously the views on st paul of this range restricted species were rather better red faced cormorant st paul island alaska july 2018 st paul though has other birds too and where the four most common species are grey crowned rosy finch rock sandpiper lapland bunting and snow bunting then you know you re in for a decent haul habitat wise a lot of the island was grassland with nearly fledged rock sandpipers hopping about pretty regularly so you get a bit blasé given elsewhere they re a target bird young rock sandpiper st paul island alaska july 2018 grey crowned rosy finch st paul island alaska july 2018 juvenile snow bunting st paul island alaska july 2018 lapland bunting st paul island alaska july 2018 a lot of the rock sandpipers could be found foraging in flocks at salt lagoon just outside of town while walking around other lagoons such as antone lake and pumphouse lagoon provided some pretty mega views too rock sandpiper st paul island alaska july 2018 dreamland if you re into your arctic waders there were several wandering tattlers seen along the coast probably about a dozen in total while semipalmated plovers and red necked phalaropes evidently bred on the islands red necked phalarope st paul island alaska july 2018 i also located a flock of seven pacific golden plovers at high bluffs on the west side of the island one afternoon while a grey phalarope flew in off the sea there too as well as there being a big flock of them out to sea from reef point too one morning adult pacific golden plover st paul island alaska july 2018 there were lots of harlequin ducks around the coast as well as long tailed ducks as well as a couple of white winged scoters from northeast point one afternoon across the island i saw about 15 king eiders including twelve together at northeast point while this one in town on salt lagoon was the showiest of the crew king eider st paul island alaska july 2018 i spotted a couple of vega gulls during the trip a third summer and first summer but both birds were a bit distant among the glaucous winged gulls an arctic skua ditched down on antone lake on my last morning a handful of short tailed shearwaters cruised by offshore while this short eared owl quartered the grassland on the first evening on the island short eared owl st paul island alaska july 2018 other than the birds the island is packed full of northern fur seal rookeries which meant a good number of the beaches were off limits during my trip but they showed nice enough and it was obvious too it was pupping season particularly at zapatni bay there were also some harbour seals and one afternoon while seawatching from webster in the northeast of the island a couple of fin whales breached a few times albeit distantly northern fur seal st paul island alaska july 2018 the only land mammal that was about and quite abundant were the arctic foxes it s a blue morph that occurs on st paul and there were quite a few family groups about during the trip particularly in the town as well as a den near our hotel at the airport arctic fox st paul island alaska july 2018 doing st paul as an independent traveller is tricky and you do have to go through st paul island tours it s not cheap but as with everything in life you get what you pay for i lucked out with a decent group of five of us two belgians and two americans all of us happy to just keep on going and lap up as much as possible on the island during our four days and three nights much appreciation too to the two resident guides there claudia and sulli who were chilled out accommodating and showed us the place nicely it ll be a trip i remember for as long as i live such a decent place and full of birds and remoteness thoroughly recommend it above most of the places i ve ever visited posted by rb at 00 51 12 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest sunday 29 july 2018 alaska s kenai fjords glacial birding in the rain on monday night i d stayed just a few miles north of seward overnight ready for a full day on the kenai fjords on the tuesday i m not usually one for planning things in advance but i booked this boat trip a month or so back but one thing i didn t book was the weather and so it actually rained pretty much continually throughout the day in typical american fashion everything was laid on for you and hyped up but it was more than a pleasant day out despite the weather i imagine that you d be blown away by the scenery in blue sky days but i am still left imagining i d opted for the nine hour trip which took in northwest glacier reason for me doing this was that kittlitz s murrelets favour the glacial waters and shorter trips wouldn t have given me access to this habitat and it was a success with two birds seen relatively well with potentially a couple of others a little bit more distant this was just one of eight species of alcid that i saw during the day with the highlight for me being my first horned puffins some of which showed fairly decently in the gloom horned puffin kenai fjords alaska 24th july 2018 i also saw my first parakeet auklets with 15 20 seen in total including a small raft tufted puffins just like horned were really numerous particularly around the chiswell islands marbled murrelets pigeon and common guillemots were present in good numbers too while there were a few rhinoceros auklets around too if the light had been better i may have taken a few shots that were worth keeping but you can t have everything one of the things i did have today though was plenty of humpback whale sightings with five individuals in total the star performer was this one though that breached several times in the calm waters coming into northwest glacier humpback whale kenai fjords alaska 24th july 2018 there were quite a few harbour seals around too while 10 or so sea otters in total including half a dozen dozing about in the harbour as we left first thing sea otter kenai fjords alaska 24th july 2018 bald eagles too were fairly common and included this adult bird as we headed back into the harbour they were either on beaches or sat up in tall trees like this bird bald eagle kenai fjords alaska 24th july 2018 and so that was that given the pretty inclement weather i felt i lucked out on the views of the glacier as that area seemed to have a climate all of its own and while everyone else marvelled at the glacier i came back from the tour having enjoyed a load of good birds decent scenery even on a dull day and being given a load of excess chicken wraps they d made too many which meant i didn t need to buy dinner in the evening a result all round glaucous winged gull kenai fjords alaska 24th july 2018 posted by rb at 10 09 29 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest tuesday 24 july 2018 alaska escaping the heat i ve just finished my first full day here in alaska and having arrived to lovely blue skies yesterday it has been a day of cloudiness and drizzle today lovely stuff given the last month or so of relatively oppressive london heat alaska had always felt a long long way from home and i appreciate it is but with some icelandic air flights via iceland i was surprised how short the journey to anchorage was just a 6 hour 50 minute flight from keflavik airport yesterday anyway anchorage as a city itself is pretty average mind you every american city is just that but when you ve got the calls of mew gulls continually and some nice juvenile bonaparte s gulls too a plumage i d never seen then it wasn t all that bad westchester lagoon was where i started and the common grebe there was red necked with several pairs and decently sized young there were also half a dozen short billed dowitchers too and on the cutoff lake the other side of the highway a belted kingfisher and a showy lesser yellowlegs were present as well as about ten juvenile bonaparte s gulls and lots of mew gulls not a bad couple of hours post arrival juvenile mew gull westchester lagoon anchorage alaska 22nd july 2018 juvenile bonaparte s gulls westchester lagoon anchorage alaska 22nd july 2018 and it was onto this morning where typically i woke up before my alarm at 5am so after trying to get back to sleep and failing i headed back out after briefly revisiting yesterday s sites i went south on the seward highway a few miles south of anchorage potter s marsh was the spot and it wasn t too bad redpolls and audubon s warbler seemed to be the most numerous passerines while a group of waders from the boardwalk were made up of c 20 short billed dowitchers and both species of yellowlegs nice stuff with most of the dowitchers being juveniles green winged teal were present too while the bird i d been searching for rusty blackbird put in a brief appearance with two birds flying low overhead before plummeting into the thickets and that was that juvenile short billed dowitcher potter s marsh anchorage alaska 23rd july 2018 i headed south along the cook inlet in the direction of seward which is where i m staying this evening birding en route was actually quite slow with not much on the lakes bar the odd arctic tern though i did manage to see my first sooty fox sparrow of the trip midway between portage and seward arriving in seward first port of call was obviously going to be the harbour where there were good numbers of glaucous winged gulls i was actually surprised about the purity of the vast majority of these here with just a couple of american herrings and cook inlet hybrid american herring x glaucous winged gulls present the weather wasn t ideal as i headed south towards lovell s point and the end of the road nevertheless there were still five harlequins all female types and a few marbled murrelets and pigeon guillemots offshore the rest of the afternoon was spent about town and particularly along nash road where the feeders produced chestnut backed chickadee pine siskin and a rufous hummingbird that seemed bizarrely out of place in the cold the beach at the end was good for some nice looks at northwestern crow a tenuous species if ever there was one as well as some really dark looking song sparrows and a load of glaucous winged gulls and kittiwakes a family party of trumpeter swans showed well by the roadside too as did a female common merganser and her chicks fox sparrow seward highway alaska 23rd july 2018 trumpeter swan seward alaska 23rd july 2018 back at my accommodation orange crowned and wilson s warblers buzzed about as did a family group of ruby crowned kinglets all in all a relaxed and pleasant day rounded off with some alaskan cod and chips posted by rb at 06 43 23 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest older posts home subscribe to posts atom about this blog in my mid 30s this blog is about birds mainly gulls and birding i m normally in southeast london but travelling in the western palearctic and further afield as much as possible a kid lister still trying to grow up ...