How could we possibly follow a pelagic trip, in terms of species and sights seen? In short, we couldn't, but we were going to do our best to see as much as possible before we ended up back in Anchorage.
Seward is an interesting place since the northernmost extent of the Pacific coastal rainforest surrounds it. With this habitat comes its birds. To see these, we first hiked at Lowell Point State Recreation Area. This tract of land juts out into Resurrection Bay and offers a chance to see some of the pelagic birds in addition to interesting ones on land.
The trail was a lot of uphill at first. We passed moss-cloaked trees and periodic views of the bay. It was in one of these openings that we looked out and spotted three Marbled Murrelets. We had seen these the day before, but it's always a treat to see this species that so well represents a success story of the Endangered Species Act. We could hear birds calling around us and they came from several different species. The complex, too-long call came from the minuscule Pacific Wren. The simple, graceful three-note call came from one of my favorites, the Varied Thrush. Then, we heard a high-pitched warbler-type call. Heather and I were completely stumped, and we knew that we had to spot the bird if we were going to get an i.d.
We looked high and low, and pished to hopefully draw the bird in. Pishing worked. I caught a glimpse of bright yellow and there it was...our first Townsend's Warbler! This species has a resplendent yellow cheek patch that brightens the forest, if you get lucky enough to see it.
Nearby, another warbler-like call emanated from along the trail. This bird proved to be much more common as the hike progressed and much easier to see. Still, the first view excited us because this would be our first Wilson's Warbler. With its little black top hat on top of an otherwise yellow body, this bird epitomizes cuteness. I had seen this species a couple times at Lake Elberta, where a vagrant bird had been hanging out, but Heather had repeatedly missed it. Phew. We had it.
I had read that Lowell Point was great for Chestnut-backed Chickadee, a bird that we were unlikely to get anywhere else. Ok...then where was it? We walked and walked, and never did see one. However, at last, we heard a couple of chickadees calling high up in the trees. We played the Chestnut-backed call and got a match. These birds aren't supposed to be hard to find, but they were way, way out of sight. Oh well.
The trail finally went downhill, where it reached a bridge over a salmon spawning stream. When I was 16, I had hiked here alone after hearing reports of a bear family fishing there. I never did see those bears and panicked my mother in the mean time. This time was much of the same...no bears and no birds of note. We decided to turn around and head somewhere else. On the hike back, though, a bird that wasn't even on my radar surprised us both. A huge Steller's Jay landed right in the middle of the trail, looked at us, and flew off. Woohoo!
We hiked back to the car and took off, leaving downtown Seward behind us. On the way out of the city limits, however, we did make one more stop. According to eBird, Ava's Place, was the most reliable place to see Rufous Hummingbird in the area. When we pulled in off the highway, this somewhat ramshackle place didn't look like much. We saw a few feeders, sure, but there weren't any birds on them and I honestly wasn't sure we were allowed to be there based on its layout. Still, we got out and scanned.
While scanning across the front of Ava's place, a few birds flew in. I immediately recognized their sharp little beaks and knew we were looking at our first Pine Siskins! While I looked at these, Heather enthusiastically pointed out her first Violet-green Swallows that were swooping overhead. As if these two new birds weren't enough, some hummers fly in. These were, of course, Rufous Hummingbirds. What these birds lack in size, they more than make up for in aggressiveness. We watched as they speared each other off the feeders in their never-ending quest to guzzle more and more calories. This place was the last place I expected to see three new birds in Alaska but, again, we'll take it!
One of the species I really wanted to see on this trip was a Spruce Grouse. I had seen them only once, out in the Wallowa Mountains of Oregon, and their secretive nature enticed me to find them again. I read through the book I purchased, "A Birder's Guide to Alaska" and it basically said that Spruce Grouse are where you find them. Great. However, along the Seward Highway, numerous trails and roads accessed their habitat. We drove through the Trail River Campground which, supposedly, had all kinds of stuff but found nothing but our first Alder Flycatcher. We drove on, until we arrived at a trail that supposedly led to a nice population of a carnivorous sundew I had wanted to find.
The trail led to a lake, and then wound its way through an open forest that looked like something you'd see in a fairy tale. We were commenting on this when Heather stopped dead in her tracks and tugged on my arm.
"Look!", she said, pointing forward on the trail. And there, right in the middle of a trail, was a female Spruce Grouse! I was truly in disbelief. We hiked some random trail and actually found one! That wasn't all. Next to the momma were two tiny baby grouse! We carefully took photos, taking one step at a time to get a bit closer. Shockingly, mom let us get pretty close. We snapped photos, even after they flew into a nearby spruce to join another baby that was already there, and took in the scene. I still can't believe we 1. saw them and 2. were able to get such incredible views for ten minutes or so. To minimize disturbance, we left them after we took some photos. We were so happy.
Next, we poked around a bog that supposedly harbored Drosera anglica, a relatively-uncommon sundew that I'd only seen a couple of times previously out in Oregon. No luck with finding that, although we did see huge examples of the closely related Round-leaved sundew (Drosera rotundifolia) growing on some mossy mats nearby. The mosquitoes were...ferocious. Because of this, our time was limited in the bog and we made our retreat back to the car.
Heather and I could have birded all day, but it was time to get to Anchorage and set up shop in our Air B'N'B that we were sharing with Heather's advisor, his wife, and another graduate student. And, most importantly, it was time to NAP!
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