MAY 20 - Friday On Adak

Shep and I slept in a bit, and left for some birding around 8:30 a.m. on a rainy 36º sort of day.

We started the day's birding behind our duplex on Amchitka Drive, where we heard a Pacific Wren in full song on the cliff behind the house.  A Bald Eagle watched us while we were looking for the Pacific Wren. He didn't seem too concerned . . 

I did not get a photo of the wren, but these birds are the large Aleutian subspecies, and their song is somewhat ‘throatier’ than that of our Pacific Northwest birds, and they are half-again the size of our western Washington birds.

A Grey-crowned Rosy Finch at the Seal Drive "feeder". Again, the red milo is worthless as a bird seed. Even the rats won't eat it.  We birded around town, hoping to find something new that has stopped in during its northward migration.  Unfortunately, the winds have all been out of the north and east, which doesn’t bode well for getting numbers of Asian bird species blown to our little rock.

We were surprised that the Pine Siskin was listed as 'rare' on Adak. Not *too* surprised, as there are very few trees on the island, but the paucity of reports of the species may well be due to the paucity of birders who go out to the end of civilization on the Aleutians . . .

We checked along the old waterfront, where we spotted a Black Oystercatcher using a sunken piece of equipment as a roost in the mostly-abandoned harbor at Adak.

Making our way past the airport beach and the mouth of , we sorted through every sighting of Semipalmated Plovers, hoping to find a similarly-plumaged Common Ringed Plover blown in from Asia, but to no avail.

Above is a pair of Glaucous-winged Gulls. Back in Puget Sound, birders are constantly puzzling over hybrids between this species and Western Gulls. Here on Adak, we work under the presumption that these are ALL Glaucous-wings.  I realize that I’ve been a bit ‘tough’ on our Washington State gulls, where some of my ‘mentors’ suggest that the birds having even a little dark pigment in their primaries skews the ID toward a “hybrid”. 

Seeing these ostensibly ‘pure’ Glaucous-wings with varying shades of light-to-darker grey primary feathers leads me to consider that many (most?) of the ‘questionable’ birds I’m seeing in Puget Sound appear to be no more hybridized than these.  Some are, of course . . .

Around noon, we decided to drive over the hill to Finger Bay, which is an interesting little fjord extending about 2.5 km from Kuluk Bay.  At the end of the unpaved road, a trail leads up the Creek to Lake Betty.

Finger Creek drains out of Lake Betty and empties into Finger Bay.

The trail to Lake Betty followed along the old water line from the lake to the head of the bay. The pipe is made of wooden slats held together with iron rings, and is in amazingly good condition after 80 years. Not that it conveys water nowadays...  

Shep approaching the end of the trail at Lake Betty. The falls are immediately below the outlet of the lake.

        Lake Betty

There were a number of flowers blooming, as well as the "trees".  All of 2 inches (5 cm) tall!  I think these Dwarf Willow blossoms are on tundra willow - Salix arctica

This is the local Anemone or May Flower: Anemone narcissiflora.  The  Aleut name for the plant is chix'udangix'.     According to "Plants of the Unimak Area" the Roots were boiled and juices used to treat hemorrhaging, and its white blossoms were once used as fishing lures.

In the gorge below the outlet of the lake and above the falls, I found a Raven's nest with at least 2 nestlings. It is always a good day when you can interact with Raven!

We enjoyed the hike and the flowers for a bit, then headed back toward the ‘main’ birding spots, stopping by the Contractors’ Marsh, but not finding much new in the way of birds.

In the Marsh were blooming Marsh Marigolds (Caltha palustris).  This forb's Aleut Name is given as anim kangag'a. According to the above source, its roots were chewed for strength."  The plant is considered poisonous if not cooked.

We hadn't seen too many birds this morning, so decided to make our way toward Lake Andrew, where we arrived at the old Navy Rec Center.  Astonishingly, a fire had burned right up to the building, without causing apparent damage.

The old Recreation Center is north of the town above Andrew Lake. The blacked area is from a recent (2 weeks ago) fire caused by the contractors disposing of UXO (unexploded ordnance) and burning off the entire area around Mount Adagdak. This fire eliminated nesting cover over several square miles, but the tundra grasses were already beginning to re-sprout, and will certainly provide good forage for Aleutian Cackling Geese this fall.

The lake had few birds on it, and the tundra habitat had been scorched which precluded much avian activity, so we returned  to Clam Lagoon.  Here's another shot of a Black Oystercatcher.  How can I resist taking photos of an all-black bird with a glaring red bill, red eyes, and pink feet?

There were "just" the usual birds at the Lagoon, as well as many dozens of Sea Otters in Clam Lagoon. Most of them were Moms with half-to-mostly-grown kits.  Sam Brayshaw and Steve Noseworthy believe they may have seen a Gray-tailed Tattler at Clam Lagoon that we attempted to find again this evening without success.  We will try to relocate tomorrow for a confirmed ID.

After a couple of days of cooking and making sandwiches without butter, we stopped at the local grocery when we got back to town.  There had been a Pizza Hut in the place when the Navy was here, but it had been abandoned and was re-purposed as the local store.  It is only open from 5-7 pm on non-airplane days (Wednesdays and Saturdays) because the clerk is also the TSA Agent and doesn’t work on Plane Day!  Shep attempted to buy a pound of butter from the full case that we saw in the cooler, but she wouldn’t sell him any because the butter hadn’t been entered into their cash register system.  We offered to pay the last price of when they had butter in inventory.  No dice.  We offered to pay an extra $5, and she called the store owner who just said no . . . !!!

There was no arguing, so he bought a quart of corn oil for $11 and will have to make do.  He also bought a bottle of shampoo (he has hair) for $12, only to find that other people had left barely-used bottles of the stuff in a bathroom cupboard.  He left his there as well when our Adak visit was over.  If you rent from Aleutian Outfitters, don't bring your own sh'poo...

We decided to eat tonight at the Underground Bar and Grill, which served burger baskets and pizzas; we opted for $23 cheeseburgers and bottles of Alaska Amber, and were somewhat amused to find that rather than pretzels or peanuts, they handed out red vine licorice.  Apparently, the Aleuts and other locals & natives prefer a sweet hors d’oeuvre.  This place is only open from 6-8 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays.  Which is why we brought our own food for most meals on Adak.