Birding on the Kenai Peninsula
Bruce Glick is still in Alaska, reporting on birding in that part of the world. Check out this weeks Gone Birding column.
The Kenai Peninsula is a wonderful place, with many glaciers, mountains, bays and excellent fishing. And there are some really interesting birds. There isnt enough space to cover them all in this column but Ill mention some of the most interesting.
I finally decided to do some halibut fishing last week. We left from Deep Creek and the boat held six people plus the captain and a deck hand. The fishing was fun and our freezer in the RV is now completely full with 30 pounds of fish. But it was the birds that really got my attention. There were lots of pelagic birds on the way out to the fishing sites, and again on the way back.
Fork-tailed Storm-Petrels were quite common. These small oceanic birds have lovely gray markings and flit over the ocean a bit like butterflies. There were also small flocks of Red Phalaropes plus the usual Marbled Murrelets, Common Murres and Pigeon Guillemots. However, the birds that stole the show were Northern Fulmars. I was not very familiar with these gull-like birds but they obviously are used to fishing boats, coming quite close to the boat every time someone caught a fish. Glaucous-winged Gulls were also on the scene, sometimes so close that we thought they would interfere with the fishing.
After our daughter Kimberly and our niece Lindsy arrived in Anchorage for a wedding, we had a chance to spend a few days with them. One activity was an eight mile hike up above Exit Glacier to the Harding Ice-field. The day was cloudy with some drizzle from time to time. The hike took us up 3000 feet vertically in four miles and we were really tired by the time we made it to the incredible ice-field.
At a small emergency shelter near the top we found one lone Snow Bunting. It was fun to see this bird high in the snowy peaks, far from the fields of Wayne and Holmes Counties where we see them on snowy winter days. On the way down Kimberly noticed a female Spruce Grouse and six very small young birds, right beside the trail. They were not bothered by us being so close to them and the tiny birds were fun to watch.
Soon it will be time to head for home. Hopefully we can make it in two weeks. Good birding!
Bruce Glick
birderbruce@yahoo.com
