Temps in the 50s, mostly cloudy, wind W 5-15 mph

Not many photo ops today, but a couple of good birds.

I went down to Finger Creek first thing this morning. Didn’t have anything new.

On the way back I stopped at the South Quarry where there were numerous Snow Buntings flitting about. I had stopped here on the 17th and had none. Then on the 19th there were a couple.

While I was sitting there enjoying the show, Aaron pulled up and informed me that they just had a Merlin at the North quarry (chasing Snow Buntings!). He said it flew off in this direction.

Merlin would be an Adak bird for me. Alas, I did not relocate it.

Also at the North quarry, on Lake Leone, one of the Tufted Ducks was present.

Back up in town, I saw the Gyrfalcon, but it vanished before I could grab the camera and jump out of the car.

Gerry and Linda left today. Aaron’s group will be here until Wednesday.

I worked my way up to Clam Lagoon and, just as Aaron’s group arrived, realized I had left my radio at the house. So I raced back to town, got the radio, and sped back up to the lagoon.

No sooner had I re-established radio-contact than Aaron told me they were looking at a Steller’s Eider!

I had one here before, but what a great trip bird it would be.

I went to their location (South Lookout) and saw it in the scope. I later measured the distance on a map. It was 1235 feet away. With heat waves! I never would have picked it out myself.

When I got around to the east side of the lagoon, I looked for it again (a little closer) but could not find it.

I will leave you today with a photo of the Adak Geyser. They call it Old Not Faithful, as it is totally unpredictable and I never had a photo-op before.

Or maybe it is just a broken water pipe down by Finger Bay…

The trip List is 56! and The Year List is 82.

You can see today’s eBird list at https://ebird.org/checklist/S150609995