Rain, rain, rain…

Temp in the 40s, rain, rain, rain, SSE wind 10-15 mph

The day started off with rain. Not just drizzle or occasional showers, but steady — at times hard — rain. It didn’t let up until late afternoon when it lessened to light rain and drizzle. It never completely stopped until evening.

In spite of that, we added another trip bird today.

Sweeper Cove had nothing new. We headed over to Sweeper Channel. As we stopped on the bridge and scanned the edges of the creek, we spotted a bird that was not a Rock Sandpiper. It was a Terek sandpiper! Our second one on Adak (1st was in May 2007). Both birds were seen on the channel.

Terek Sandpiper, Sweeper Channel, May 25, 2015

Terek Sandpiper, Sweeper Channel, May 25, 2015

This is the kind of bird we like — rare, but easy to identify.

We added no other new trip birds today, but The Black-tailed Godwit is still here. We saw the Dunlin and Red-necked Stint on Clam Lagoon this morning, but the weather conditions were too bad to get better photos (The Terek photos above were taken in late afternoon, once the weather improved. The photos I took in the morning were not so hot).

No Smew today, but the Ring-necked Duck is still here. No Bean Geese today. I’ve received some speculation about the identity of the Bean Goose we had at the airport on the 18th. These pictures were not as good as the later ones. Here is a montage of that bird, one of the birds we found on the 22nd, and and a photo of a Taiga from the net. As can clearly be seen, our bird was a Tundra.

Tundra Bean Goose, Airport, May 18 — Tundra Bean Goose – Contractor’s Camp Marsh, May 22 — Taiga Bean Goose (from the internet).

In the fall, Pectoral Sandpipers are ubiquitous on the island — showing up in almost any wet area — even puddles along the edge of the road. Well, the Wood Sandpipers are channeling the Pectorals. They are everywhere! We have no idea how many there might be here right now.

Likewise, the Hawfinches. We see them around town, but now there is one up at the “Brambling feeder.” (For those of you familiar with Adak, this “feeder” is at the double-fenced building just south of the Navfac creek.) Also, one found the Seal Drive feeder. And another, the feeder behind our lodge.

At the Seawall, we found three Arctic Loons along with the dozen-or-so Pacifics. The Airport Ponds still had 4 Tufted Ducks, but now instead of two pair, there were three males and one female.

Our trip list is now 72!