A foggy day in Adak town…

Temp in the 50s, mostly sunny (see below), SW wind 10-15 mph.

We have spent 165 days on Adak since 2005. In all of that time, we have not seen a ground fog like today. The cloud ceiling is often very low, only part-way up the surrounding mountains, but not at ground level.

Today was different. We awoke to a pea-soup fog, with visibility only a hundred yards or so. We usually get out about sunrise (which is 8:30 right now) and birding was difficult at first. However, by around 9:30, we had made it up to Contractor’s Marsh and the fog had dissipated there, but not over town.

Fog bank over Adak, Sept 18, 2013.

An hour or two later, it had rolled out of town and out to Kuluk Bay towards Mount Sitkin.

Fog bank rolling out towards Mount Sitkin, Sept 18, 2013.

It was really weird, as the skies were sunny and windy.

But, back to birding…

Not much to report today. We relocated the Red Crossbill (yes, it is confirmed) at the little spruce trees at the Blue Building up near Clam Lagoon. Although it remained in shadow, a little photo-tweaking shows the bird full side-on to show no noticeable wingbars that a White-winged Crossbill would have had. Thus confirming our initial identification as Red Crossbill.

Red Crossbill, Blue Building spruces, Sept 18, 2013.

The Brambling also remained at the Naval Administration Building feeder today.

Brambling, Naval Admin Bldg feeder, Sept 18, 2013.

Brambling and Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch, Naval Admin Bldg feeder, Sept 18, 2013.

Doris McGovern sent us the following link http://birdcast.info/forecast/special-forecast-bering-sea-18-21-september-2013/ showing a weather pattern bearing down on Adak the next few days that promises to bring all sorts of wondrous Asian birds to the island!

Unfortunately, we are leaving tomorrow and there will be no more birders left on the island to record this event.

Question. If an Asian bird arrives on Adak and there are no birders there to see it, did it happen?

This is our last post until we get home. Starting tomorrow around 5 PM, we will be in airports and planes and cars until we arrive home Friday afternoon.

If I am not totally exhausted by then, I will post the final summary. If not, it will have to wait until Saturday.