The bird show was good too. Here are some highlights. Lots of tufted puffins and a pair of horned puffins. Numerous pelagic cormorants, both breeding adults with their white flank patches and non-breeders perched on cliff ledges, flew about in small groups, and sometimes swam. Black-legged kittiwakes nested on rocky ledges. Oystercatchers perched on a few rocky reefs. There were several eagles, two of which got into a fight. Way up the bay, we saw Arctic terns sitting on the ice. On South Marble Island, relatively far from the mainland, song sparrows and fox sparrows were singing.
, where we saw millions of strawberry flowers and little c level contact list white sandwort flowers, along with lots of nagoon flowers.
We visited the little lake near the airport known locally as Lake Gustavus. Here we found many small toad tadpoles in the shallows. There were three or four broods of mallards with about 17 chicks, and a lazy male canvasback. A kingfisher appeared and disappeared. In the soft sand of the roadbed, we saw a remarkably huge bear footprint. Crossbills foraged in the conifers. Yellow-rumped warblers hawked insects in mid-air and sang. Distant sandhill cranes called. We found (both here and on the Forest Loop Trail at Bartlett Cove) lots of recently emerged damselflies (still to be identified) that had not yet acquired their full adult colors. They rested on the walkway in danger of being stepped on, so we carefully lifted some of them up to a higher perch.
On land again, we walked the beach meadows
-
- Posts: 379
- Joined: Tue Dec 24, 2024 5:57 am