Big Day (Bird Race)
06 November 1999
by Nathan Senner
Big Day Statistics:
The biggest surprise of the day was a single Pectoral Sandpiper in the grass along the run way at the airport. This is one of the latest dates ever for South Central Alaska for this species. We were all hoping it was a Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, but I guess we can't complain. The Sanderlings and Common Snipe were also a surprise. We went down to Seward for our annual early winter trip hoping for a unusual sparrow, and we found it in the White-throated, only a couple of other Seward records for this species (maybe only 1?). Good day, wasn't meant in any way to rack up a big total! Only disappointment was lack of rare gulls (first time in a couple of years that we didn't see a Thayer's or Glaucous).
Species List:
Red-necked Grebe
Horned Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant
Pelagic Cormorant
Gadwall
Green-winged Teal
Mallard
Greater Scaup
Harlequin Duck
Oldsquaw
Surf Scoter
White-winged Scoter
Common Goldeneye
Barrow's Goldeneye
Bufflehead
Hooded Merganser
Red-breasted Merganser
Common Merganser
Bald Eagle
Northern Goshawk
Common Snipe
Sanderling
Pectoral Sandpiper
Rock Sandpiper
Dunlin
Mew Gull
Glaucous-winged Gull
Herring Gull
Black-legged Kittiwake
Pigeon Guillemot
Marbled Murrelet
Common Loon
Yellow-billed Loon
Rock Dove
Great Horned Owl
Northern Hawk Owl
Belted Kingfisher
Downy Woodpecker
Steller's Jay
Gray Jay
Black-billed Magpie
Northwestern Crow
Common Raven
Northern Shrike
American Dipper
American Robin
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Brown Creeper
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Black-capped Chickadee
Chesnut-backed Chickadee
Pine Siskin
Pine Grosbeak
Fox Sparrow
Song Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Golden-crowned Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Rusty Blackbird
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The Senner Family
Anchorage, AK
senfam@customcpu.com