Day 9, September 15, 2006. Day 2 on Attu. Sep 07—24, 2006
Posted by Marshall Iliff
Marshall Iliff
Marshall Iliff, a lifelong nature lover, began birding at age 11 after attending a National Wildlife Federation Camp in the mountains of North Carolina. He attended VENT...Related Trips
Our second full day on Attu, this was our first day exploring the Massacre Bay/Coast Guard Station area. One team of 35 checked the Casco Cove and Murder Point area; another team worked Peaceful River, the runways, and the Coast Guard Station; and a third team hiked the Henderson River valley. An additional team of two leader scouts checked out Alexai Point, where little seemed to have changed from the previous day and the rare birds were actually scarcer. Their most exciting find was a single painted lady (butterfly), which is known from southeast Alaska, but may not have occurred in the Aleutians before. Which direction did that animal come from?
The bird excitement started early again today. At first landing, some groups had a cooperative pair of White (Black-backed) Wagtails foraging along the beach. This species has nested irregularly on Attu in recent years, and this pair was certainly behaving like nesters. It got even better later. Sometime around 9:30 a Tringa sandpiper flew over the "wagtail" group giving a mellow, two-noted call. Thede Tobish, who has the most western Alaska experience of any birder on the ship, quickly called the ID—Spotted Redshank! The bird was followed with scopes until it landed briefly on the beach of Loaf Island, and a few individuals in the "wagtail" group had a quick look at it before it took off. The bird then flew overhead again (giving its chu-weet call the whole time) and disappeared in the direction of Henderson Marsh. Afraid of scaring the bird, we set in motion a transfer of all passengers to the Henderson Marsh area. Zodiacs had to pick up participants at each of the other two landing sites and shuttle them to Henderson. This became a massive operation, but ultimately everyone that wanted to see the bird was assembled and the Henderson Marsh search was initiated. It took a long time, but the bird was flushed once and heard calling distantly once. Finally, at 2:30 p.m., the bird came flying in and landed in the marsh. Leaders locked on the spot and waited. Another massive assembly was underway and by 4:00 we had 40 people ready and waiting for the second grand redshank flush. Victor himself explained the plan: we would sit quietly and watch, Thede Tobish and Lisa Oakley would flush it towards us for in-flight views, and surely the bird would select Smew Pond (right in front of us) as its next landing site. Thede and Lisa slowly worked their way towards the bird or, at least, the place where it had landed an hour-and-a-half earlier! They canvassed the entire northeast side of Henderson to no avail and, eventually, a backup team joined them. Three leaders and several participants fanned out to cover the unchecked portions of the marsh. One person walked up a small creek and when he came around a bend suddenly found the bird quietly feeding in the stream. It stayed put for a minute or so before finally taking alarm and flying out. Fortunately for all, it is a distinctive species in flight, looking quite a bit like a Greater Yellowlegs but with a plover-like call and a white wedge up the back like a dowitcher. Magically, the bird landed exactly where Victor had predicted and the search was over. For the next two hours we had scope studies of the redshank in perfect light, and were even able to shuttle additional people who had chosen not to come earlier. This was a classic Attu experience, with teams of people assembling on a rare bird and maneuvering to get good views for everyone. Spotted Redshank is a rare migrant in the western Aleutians, primarily in spring where the Attu high count is four. Attu has but one previous fall record, from September 26, 2000. It has turned up rarely across the United States, in places like California, Massachusetts, and New Jersey, but is predictably seen only in Alaska.
The grand Henderson Marsh stomp turned up other goodies as well. Chief among them was Wood Sandpiper, another rare Asian shorebird that was a life bird for most of the group. An eclipse-plumaged Eurasian Wigeon landed in Smew Pond with the redshank at one point, and a good number of Common Snipe (the Eurasian species recently split from Wilson's Snipe) were flushed by the various parties.
The weather today was, if anything, too nice: sunny, temperatures in the upper 50s and low 60s, with very little wind. Although the fine weather made for enjoyable birding, we were all hoping it would deteriorate. Bad weather brings good birds, and a little bit of rain, fog, snow, sleet, hail, or wind would work in our favor for the next day's birding. We all went to bed praying for a storm to add to the excitement even more.
Attu bird list for September 15, 2006:
Cackling Goose
Eurasian Wigeon
Mallard
Northern Pintail
Green-winged Teal
Tufted Duck
Greater Scaup
Common Eider
Harlequin Duck
Red-breasted Merganser
Rock Ptarmigan
Red-throated Loon
Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel
Leach's Storm-Petrel
Wood Sandpiper
Spotted Redshank
Gray-tailed Tattler
Ruddy Turnstone
Rock Sandpiper
Common Snipe
"Kamchatka" Mew Gull
Glaucous-winged Gull
Black-legged Kittiwake
Common Murre
Thick-billed Murre
Pigeon Guillemot
Marbled Murrelet
Kittlitz's Murrelet
Tufted Puffin
Horned Puffin
Common Raven
Winter Wren
White (Black-backed) Wagtail
Song Sparrow
Lapland Longspur
Snow Bunting
Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch
harbor seal
sea otter
minke whale
painted lady