Birds Seen on Cruise of SE Alaska

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Steve Barten
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Birds Seen on Cruise of SE Alaska

Post by Steve Barten »

Most people cruise southeast Alaska on ships like this:
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We cruised on a small ship holding only 32 passengers. The advantage of a small ship is that it can stop and even turn around when wildlife is spotted. It also can get in to more remote bays not accessible to the big ships.
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I posted the mammals from this trip here: http://www.fieldherpforum.com/forum/vie ... 38&t=17532 and some 3-foot-long polychaete worms here: http://www.fieldherpforum.com/forum/vie ... 36&t=17531

We started in Sitka, where Bald Eagles perched on ship masts, trees, building and flag poles.
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We visited the Alaska Raptor Center and saw this cute little Saw Whet Owl being rehabbed.
Note the jesses.
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Fortress of the Bear is a place that rehabs orphan Brown Bears and feeds them salmon, which attracts many dozens of Bald Eagles.
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We hired a small boat to take us to St. Lazaria Island in Sitka Sound. This is part of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge and provides nesting for a variety of sea birds.
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Ancient Murrelets
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Rhinoceros Auklets
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Long-tailed Ducks
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Common Murre
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Common and Thick-billed Murres
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Tufted Puffin
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Bald Eagle catching a fish
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The zip line in Hoonah is 5,495 feet long, drops 1,320 feet and reaches top speeds of 65 mph.
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Pigeon Guillemots
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Still more eagles
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Mew Gull
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Gull ID always challenges me.
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Black Oystercatchers
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Sumdum Glacier
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Dawes Glacier
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In Wyndham Bay our ship was dwarfed by the surrounding mountains.
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Pigeon Guillemots
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Barrow’s Goldeneyes
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Harlequin Duck
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(It’s Norwegian for “speed bumps”)

Thanks for looking.
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pete
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Re: Birds Seen on Cruise of SE Alaska

Post by pete »

Beautiful shots of an amazing place!!! I really love the raft of murres!
VICtort
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Re: Birds Seen on Cruise of SE Alaska

Post by VICtort »

Nice work, I love the murre in flight, and one rarely sees photos of Barrow 's GE, harlequins, long tails and the auklets. I was in SEA in July, and found eagles to be so common we quickly quit commenting on them. Great photo of the eagle with a herring(?) in its talon. Great post, I am just dying to go back after seeing this.
Vic
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chrish
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Re: Birds Seen on Cruise of SE Alaska

Post by chrish »

Wow. Great stuff. Really makes me want to make a trip up to AK, particularly all the alcids.

I really like the water level shots. Were you in a kayak?

Looks like the sea was a bit of an adventure when you went out to the alcid colony. That looks like an impressive swell!
Tamara D. McConnell
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Re: Birds Seen on Cruise of SE Alaska

Post by Tamara D. McConnell »

Your shots of the eagles in flight are glorious. Wow!
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Steve Barten
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Re: Birds Seen on Cruise of SE Alaska

Post by Steve Barten »

Thanks, all.
Yeah, I was in a kayak for the water level shots.
And yes, the swells around St. Lazaria Island were 4 to 6 feet. The captain called it a "washing machine" and it made for challenging photography as everything was moving. Luckily I'm not prone to sea sickness. But the cool thing is if you look closely you can see both common and thick-billed murres in the raft.
The eagles in flight were mostly at the Fortress of the Bear in Sitka, looking for scraps of the salmon fed to the rescued bears. They just kept coming around and around, giving us the opportunity to take lots of images.
I went back to Alaska this year, but to a land-based facility to photograph coastal brown bears. I rented a long lens and got better quality images. I'll post them in the mammal forum one of these days.
I didn't see any herps in Alaska on either trip but wow, was it ever spectacular.
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monklet
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Re: Birds Seen on Cruise of SE Alaska

Post by monklet »

Fantastic stuff! :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

Pretty sure this is a Thayer's Gull.
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Steve Barten
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Re: Birds Seen on Cruise of SE Alaska

Post by Steve Barten »

Thanks, Monklet. What are the determining features?
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monklet
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Re: Birds Seen on Cruise of SE Alaska

Post by monklet »

Caveat: I used to study gull ID and so know some, but have forgotten most. Also, bird identification of difficult complexes has become much more sophisticated in recent years, likely accelerated by the internet, growth in the hobby and the ease of digital photography, and so I am way behind and anything I offer should be taken with lots of salt.

That said, Most importantly, the wing tip pattern which appears as a narrow gray sort of trailing edge. Also the super saturated bubblegum pink legs. Put that together with the region there's really nothing else that fits. Thayer's, at least at one time, was considered part of the Iceland Gull complex (not quite sure how that see it now). I suppose this might also be Kumlien's Iceland Gull ..which is very similar, but the expected form in AK would be Thayer's. Hope that helps :)
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Andy Avram
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Re: Birds Seen on Cruise of SE Alaska

Post by Andy Avram »

WOW! Read all your Alaska accounts and loved them. Great pictures and beautiful country. Provided my wife and I can get a new house this winter we want to get up there next June.

As for you gull. Not sure what month you were there, but a Thayer's fits the bill best, but seems a little out of season for them. The only other option I think would be a pale Herring Gull. A close-up of the eye may help - Herring typically pale with yellowish orbital ring, Thayer's darker with a reddish orbital ring.
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Steve Barten
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Re: Birds Seen on Cruise of SE Alaska

Post by Steve Barten »

Thanks for the gull ID lesson. This trip occurred in May.
Here’s the same bird as the one in the previous image. I’m thinking Thayer’s.
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I’m thinking this is likely a Thayer’s too.
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This one seems more like a Herring Gull.
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This one is different. Maybe Glaucous-winged Gull?
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I cropped these all very heavily to attampt to show more of the eyes. Again, thanks for your help.
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Steve Barten
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Re: Birds Seen on Cruise of SE Alaska

Post by Steve Barten »

How about these? I’m guessing Mew Gull for the first. Not sure of the second – the same?
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monklet
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Re: Birds Seen on Cruise of SE Alaska

Post by monklet »

I say all right-on Steve ...but as I stated previously, I am NOT a gull expert ;-) ...you've probably exceeded my abilities already :lol:

Of course the real gull challenge is pulling out rarities from a flock of thousands all of 1st, 2nd, 3rd year and adults birds in winter;-)

Once again, more GREAT pics!
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Andy Avram
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Re: Birds Seen on Cruise of SE Alaska

Post by Andy Avram »

I could buy all those gull IDs. The last few years I have been working on gulls, as the southern shores of Lake Erie is becoming known as one of the best gull watching spots in the country (world?).

While the good species keep evading me, right now within a 20 minute drive from my house we have Herring, Ring-billed, Bonepartes, Greater Black-backed, Lesser Black-backed, Little and Black-headed. Species diversity will increase as winter kicks in.
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monklet
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Re: Birds Seen on Cruise of SE Alaska

Post by monklet »

It can be a fun game. We used to have a great spot for gulls here in Ventura, CA when the landfill was operational right on the coast. The birds would roost at a local estuary an there'd be hundreds. Pulled out a couple Glaucous, and an Iceland (never accepted due to insufficient photo documentation, but almost a sure thing) and my friend Don DesJardin got a pic of the first state record of Slaty-backed. Funny thing was he was just photographing gull plumages and didn't have a clue until he got home and realized he couldn't turn it into any of the usual birds. Took years for the California Bird Records Committee to accept.

We've had one record of Little Gull in the county and that was the year before I started birding :( ...I'd love to see that.
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chrish
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Re: Birds Seen on Cruise of SE Alaska

Post by chrish »

monklet wrote:It can be a fun game. We used to have a great spot for gulls here in Ventura, CA when the landfill was operational right on the coast. The birds would roost at a local estuary an there'd be hundreds. Pulled out a couple Glaucous, and an Iceland (never accepted due to insufficient photo documentation, but almost a sure thing) and my friend Don DesJardin got a pic of the first state record of Slaty-backed. Funny thing was he was just photographing gull plumages and didn't have a clue until he got home and realized he couldn't turn it into any of the usual birds. Took years for the California Bird Records Committee to accept.

We've had one record of Little Gull in the county and that was the year before I started birding :( ...I'd love to see that.
I've always thought about learning to ID gulls and their plumages better . I always see the records of things like Thayer's and Glaucous Gulls from the Texas coast and think....hmm...I wonder how many of those I've seen. Somehow, I'm always a little bit skeptical of some of the 2nd winter oddities that seem to show up. I ask myself "which is more likely....a second winter bird of a normally occurring species with abberant plumage or a wandering bird that is 2000 miles out of range?" I know that statement is practically heresy among many in the birding world, but then again, if I want to see an Iceland Gull, I can always go to Iceland. :lol:

But somehow I've never managed to get motivated to start looking at tertiary patterns and gonydeal angles and the like. Birding is supposed to be fun. :sleep:

Little Gull is an exception. I did chase one on the Texas coast two years ago because I knew it would stand out like a sore thumb. That is one tiny little seagull!

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monklet
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Re: Birds Seen on Cruise of SE Alaska

Post by monklet »

Don't forget about the possible hybrids which confound the whole mess even more. I don't quite have the energy/motivation anymore either:(

The guy makes those Laughing Gulls look huge!
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