Rain, rain, rain…

Temp in the 50s, rain all day, overcast, wind S 30-40 mph

It has rained all day today and the wind was a steady gale. Although the clouds lightened a bit an hour ago (it is now 8:30 pm), it quickly clouded in again and there is a fine drizzle now.

It is supposed to clear overnight and be sunny tomorrow, with WSW winds.

In spite of this, we added a bird today — Pacific Loon. There were two at the Seawall. Unlike all of the other loons we have seen this trip, these still had much of their breeding plumage.

We had two more Emperor Geese on Clam Lagoon and one Parasitic Jaeger.

We had NO identifiable shorebirds today — this may be a first! We saw a couple flying by the Seawall far out, but could not tell what they were.

The shearwaters continue to fly by at a great distance, but a few still come within binocular range. We even saw a few from Candlestick Bridge. Still no other pelagics.

At the north end of Clam Lagoon, the south winds were casting a lot of stuff on the shoreline, to the delight of the gulls. We saw gulls dining on a crab, a starfish, and some sort of other crustacean.

The conditions today did not lend themselves to photography!

When we went to get gas yesterday afternoon, there was a sign that said “Out of Order — we are trying to fix it as fast as we can.” The notice was dated the day before. It is still not fixed, but we expect whatever parts were needed arrived on the flight from Anchorage this afternoon. We found someone with gas reserves to lend us, so we are not stranded yet

Speaking of the plane…

The weather here when the plane was due to arrive was rainy, very windy, and fogged in. We were not sure it was going to land. We were out at the Kuluk Bay Overlook when the plane was due. At the very last minute, it appeared out of the fog and touched down. Thank heavens for instrument landing technology! A few years ago, the plane would not even have left Anchorage with these weather conditions.

The triplist is 50.