Today (5/21/11) was an amazing day on the North Slope, dare I say my favorite day this far north ever! Yesterday there was not much bird activity and the weather was dark and cloudy and eventually very windy. The wind turned to the south late yesterday night, blowing out the clouds and blowing in tons of birds and beautiful weather!
New arrivals today include Short-eared Owl (at least 5), Brant, Pomarine Jaeger, Western Sandpiper, White-crowned Sparrow, Common Redpoll, Rough-legged Hawk, a ton of Pectoral Sandpipers, lots of Semipalmated Sandpipers (as apposed to the one yesterday), a few Long-billed Dowitchers, American Golden Plovers and Savannah Sparrows. Higher numbers of many birds including Lapland Longspurs and hundreds, maybe thousands of Greater White-fronted Geese were seen as well.
This sunny, warm weather is great for breaking up the snow and ponds (which are still pretty frozen), but I hope it doesn't last long. Otherwise we will be up to our ears in Mosquito.
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| Willow Ptarmigan. These look just like the Rock Ptarmigan in the area. I ID'd this guy based on voice. |
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| Pomarine Jaeger cruisin' by. 1 of 5 seen today. |
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| Tundra Swans on the tundra. |
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| This Arctic Ground Squirrel either just got done smoking a bowl or was squinting from the sun. | |
Love your pictures and commentary!!
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