Thursday, December 15, 2011

There They Are!

I have been wondering where all the Auklets were, turns out they are in the southern Bering Sea. Today we were significantly closer to the Aleutians, and the weather broke allowing me to do a decent survey. To my surprise and amusement, it was very birdy. The best bird was my lifer Parakeet Auklet but Least and Crested also put in appearances, with Least being most common. Common Murres were the most abundant bird of the day, and a Horned Puffin almost got ran over as we hustled by. Fork-tailed Storm Petrels fluttered by sporadically throughout the day.

I'm not 100% sure what our plan is, but we are closing in on Dutch Harbor, only about 100 miles away. We can't get into Dutch until the 17th, so my hope is that we hang around the island tomorrow, allowing me a chance to find a Whiskered Auklet, but I'm not counting on it.

Unless by some miracle a Short-tailed Albatross flies by tomorrow, it looks like that one escaped me this time around. Oh well, one day...

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