Yesterdays Birds

Yesterday morning I got a text from a person who works out at the airport that said there were three snow buntings out there. Since I had not seen any snow buntings before I got out of bed got ready and biked out there. The buntings were on a part of the runway that was a restricted area so I was unable to go out to where they were and I was unable to see them from where I was. I waited at long term parking but I never saw the birds a bit later the person who had texted me drove up and said that the buntings had flown away across the runway tords the causeway and said that they would let me know if they showed back up again. so I decided that I would look for the townsend’s solitaire or the short eared owl. I had seen a lapland longspur when I was biking in but did not see it again. I looked and looked but never did fined the solitaire or the owl or the buntings so I went back and stopped by the lake on the way home I saw two american coots and some ring necked duck and some mallards and the male wood duck but nothing I had not all ready see quite a few times, so I went home.

  1. Question where does the townsend’s solitaire go when we do not see it?
  2. Question where did the short eared owl go?
  3. Question where did the snow buntings go?
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park

Today when I went down to the park, it was cloudy, cold and the ground was wet. When I was nearing the end of the breakwater, I saw a song sparrow by the harbor. When I was on the breakwater, I saw some seagulls, ducks and a eagle out on one of the poles out in the water. When I was in the park, I saw some four ducks in the water near the shore. When I was nearing the battle site bench, I saw some ducks out in the water, and I saw two shorebirds flying. When I was at the battle site bench, it was low tide, and I saw some seagulls and crows out by the water. When I was on the trail by the river, I saw some ducks farther down on the other side of the river. When I nearing the foot bridge, I saw a eagle fly off out of the trees. When I was on my way back home, it was getting darker, and I saw some more sea gulls, and some goldeneyes across the road on sage beach.
Why were the ducks farther down the river?
Why were there ducks at the beginning of the park?
Why were there only two shorebirds flying?

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Trip To The Airport

This morning I got up and asked dad if I could go out to the airport after I did a couple of things. He said I could so I did my stuff and walked to the airport. I got out there the sun was shinning a little bit but not a lot but I walked down the old airport road to see if the townsend’s solitaire was still around. I found dad down there and he said that he had not seen it yet so I climbed up a pile of dirt and wait for a while to see if the bird would show up. It did not show up and I got bored so I told ad that I was going to walk around by Search and walk the alice island loop. I walked around Search and down by UAS and up to alice island and around the loop and back to the old airport road but had not seen the solitaire but I did see a lapland longsur I took some photos of it then went back to where dad was and when I got back there he was talking to some one. We talked a while and then we went over to alice island and while we were over there I saw a fairly large bird jump down from a fence to the ground and then fly back up we went back to look and see what the bird was. When we got back to were the bird was it was up on the fence and it was the townsend’s solitaire. I was unable to get any photos of it before it flew away but it was nice to see that it was still around.

  1. Question how long will the townsend’s solitaire stay here?
  2. Question where does the solitaire go when it flys away?
  3. Question why did I only see one lapland longspur today?longspur-jpg longspur
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Airport Birds

This morning dad let me know that there were a couple of lapland longspurs out by sealing cove. I got ready and biked out there to see if I could find them. I biked through the parking lot a sealing cove and looked for the longspurs in the short grass but did not see them so I went up a little trail through some trees and back to the road. When I got to the road two birds flew up and flew across the road and one of them landed on the fence. I saw that they were the lapland longspurs so I got off my bike and took some photos of them. They then flew up the road a little ways and landed on the side of the road. I went up the road to where they were and took some more photos of them then a car drove by and they flew away. I went home after that and on my way home I saw a flock of about 47 swans flying. After I had been home for a bit dad sent me a text about a townsend’s solitaire. I said that I would be over there after I was done with what I was doing. After I was done doing what I was doing I bike over to the airport again. I saw dad and he said that he had not seen the townsend’s solitaire in quite a while. He went home shortly after I got there and told me to let him know if the solitaire came back. I waited there for about 10 or 20 minutes then I bike around alice island loop and went  back I had been back for about 10 minutes when I saw the bird. I took some photos of it then let dad know it was back and took some more photos of it. It was out there for a little while long then it flew away and I did not see it again. It was exciting to see those two bird they were both new bird for my alaska list.lapland-longspur-jpg lapland-longspur                                                       lapland longspurs townsends-solitaire-jpg townsends-solitaire                                                            townsend’s solitaire

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Thanksgiving Day Warblers

Today Rowan and I went to our moms place to have a thanksgiving day breakfast. I had just gotten in side the apartment and had most of my stuff off when Rowan came in and said that there was a funny looking bird out side so I grabbed my camera and we went out side. Rowan led me around the building to one side of it and when we got around there I saw a little warbler sitting on the ground. It looked like a yellow rumped warbler to me but it did not sit there for a very long time before flying a little ways away so Rowan and I followed it over to where it went and when we got over there I saw the bird moving in the tree but I also saw two other small birds moving around in the tree. The two other small birds turned out to be a couple of palm warbler. I was able to get a few photos of the palm warbler nun of them very good but I could tell they were palm warblers. After I had gotten a few photos of the palm warblers the three warblers flew kind of tords us. I went to get some photos of the palm warblers and the suspected yellow rumped warbler I got a few more photos of the palm warblers but nun of them very good but I did get photos of the other warbler and it was a yellow rumped warbler.

  1. Question were the two palm warblers that dad saw at castle hill?
  2. Question if they were why did they move?
  3. Question is the cape may warbler with them?palm-war                                         the two palm warblersyellow-rmp                                           yellow rumped warbler
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not the park

Today I walked down to the breakwater. It was cloudy and the ground was wet. The ice I had dumped out of two of the buckets in our yard still had not melted yet. When I was walking down to the breakwater and I was by and on the sea walk, I saw a lot of people running or jogging. When I was on the breakwater, it was high tide, and I saw some seagulls and ducks. I thought I saw some shore birds on the rocks by sage rock, but they were a little to far out to really tell and I didn’t have my camera with me. I also heard some of the people that were running farther back on the sea walk, talking. I also heard a car honk and some people cheering up by the library when I was on my way to the breakwater and on my way back from the breakwater. Were also some ravens and crows that I saw. When I was walking back into our yard, I saw some juncos and a song sparrow in our brush pile. The birds flew away when they saw me.
Why were the people running?
Why was the car honking?
Why were there so many people running?
Happy Thanksgiving!

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Park Birds

Today I went down to the park to see what birds were down there it was fairly windy down there but not really bad and it has warmed up a bit so the ice is melting. I went out on to the break water to see wha t was out there. I saw some buffleheads and some mallards and some harlequin duck out there along with a few gulls. Once I got to the visitor center I saw a big flock of goldeneyes and I also saw a big flock of mallards there as well. There was an american wigeon and green wing teal mixed in with the mallards. I went out to the battle sit bench and when I got there there was a bird that got up and flew away that looked a little like a bluebird but I did not get a good look at it so I am not sure if that is what it was or not. I walked down the beach to the mouth of the river then I got back on the trail and found Rowan sitting on a bench I asked her if she had seen the bird and she said no so I went on down the trail. When I got to the estuary I saw some ducks out in it so I looked through them and I saw a couple of american wigeons and I also saw the eurasian wigeon along with some mallards I took some photos of the eurasian wigeon then kept walking. I looked for the possible bluebird on my way back home but did not find it.

  1. Question where did the mystery bird go?
  2. Question where did all the mallards come from?
  3. Question when will it freeze again?eur-wig-hen
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Rare Birds That I Have Seen In The Last Couple Of Weeks

In the last couple of weeks I have seen three rare birds. One is a white throated sparrow. Two is a palm warbler. Three is a eurasian wigeon. I will first talk about the eurasian wigeon. I saw the eurasian wigeon down at the park a week or two ago with a bunch of american wigeon the eurasian wigeon was a female so it was not super oveaus but I saw a female wigeon that had a bit of redish brown head compared to the grayish colored head of an american wigeon. I was still not one hundred percent sure that it was a female eurasian wigeon so when I got home I look in a few different bird books and online and decided that it was indeed a eurasian wigeon. The next bird it a palm warbler. I have seen two palm warblers in the last week week and a half one was down by the lake and the other was up by price street. The one at the lake I had been looking for the cape may warbler that dad had seen a week or two ago but had not been able to find it so I was going to look around the lake to see what birds I saw there. I was at the low end of the lake when I saw a warbler fly in to a bush. I realized that it was a palm warbler it was only the second palm warbler I had ever seen in sitka so I took some photos of it a followed it around for a bit then I went to the lake and went home. The second palm warbler that I had seen I saw up by price street and I saw it today while I was on my bike. I got a few photos of it but not many before it flew away. The finale rare bird I saw a was a white throated sparrow I was in the park and rowan told me the bird she had seen the day before was over there and so I went over there and took some photos of then went home.pw                                                 palm warbler by price streetwhite-throated-sparrow                                       white throated sparrow at the park palm-warbler-at-lake                                                  palm warbler at the lake eurasian-wigeon-hen-jpgthere is an american wigoen on top and a eurasian wigeon on the bottom in the top photo eurasian-wigeon-hen                                                      eurasian wigeon

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park

Today when I went down to the park, it was cloudy and windy. When I was on the breakwater, I saw some seagulls and ducks. When I was in the park, I saw some varied thrushes on the side of the trail. I had my camera so I stopped to take some photos of them. I only got two decent photos, the others were blurry so I deleted them. When I was nearing the battle site bench, I saw some black oystercatchers, crows and seagulls out on the beach, and Connor who I walked with for a little bit. When I was at the battle site bench, it was low tide and Connor walked out on the beach and I went back into the forest trail. When I was by the trail by the river, I saw some seagulls and it was winder than it was on the other side of the park. When I was on the trail by the river, I saw some ducks and seagulls on the other side of the river on the shore line. When I was on my way back home, I saw a raven.
Why was the White throated sparrow I saw yesterday not there?
Why was it windy?
Why was it not as cold today?

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White Throated Sparrow At The Park

Yesterday Rowan, mom and, I went down to the park. It was sunny and cold that after noon and the sun was going to be setting soon. There was ice on the pools of water that were in the pot holes. We went in to the park by a fence on the other side of the river. We went down the trail a ways when I saw some ducks out in the estuary so I let mom know that I was going to look at the ducks. I looked through the ducks and the only unusual ducks that I saw was a eurasian  wigeon and a wood duck both of which I had seen recently. I caught back up with mom and Rowan and we walked a bit more then I went out on to the beach to see what birds were out there there were some gulls and mallards out there. After I got back on the trail I went to find mom and Rowan. I found them then I started to try to sneak up on them but that did not work. They toled me that the bird Rowan had seen the day before was in front of them I looked for it I did find it. It was a White Throated Sparrow. I had seen one before but not for many years so, it was nice to see one again.

  1. Question why was there a white throated sparrow at the park?
  2. Question why was the wood duck not at the lake?
  3. Question why is the eurasian wigeon still around?white-throated-sparrow
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