Day 15, September 21, 2006. Day 8 on Attu. New turf and a new bird for all. 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
On this morning we continued with our "normal" departure schedule (7:30, 7:50, and 8:10) for our Ettienne Bay landings, but this time just formed groups on the beaches as zodiacs arrived. One group proceeded up the river valley (which ultimately led to a lake), another started west down the beach, and the last group was going to work the middens, small marsh, and cliff bases nearest the landing site. Our plans were spoiled almost immediately by a radio call from Barry Zimmer. Barry had hoofed it top speed up the river valley to check the lake to see if anything on the lake could justify the one-mile walk. Just 20 minutes after our first landing Barry had found the bird of the trip. His radio call went something like this: "Uh, Victor, you better get people up here. I have something REALLY good. It's a small Phylloscopus warbler with wingbars and crown stripes, maybe Eastern Crowned Warbler." In a rush of excitement, well before I had time to actually think about the best course of action, I turned to my group and screamed "RUN! If you can run, RUN! This is a REALLY GOOD BIRD!" Barry didn't have a book, but from his description in later radio calls it sounded like Yellow-browed Warbler. Victor's group was already in that direction since they were birding the stream valley, and I set a course for my group up the valley. A call went out to the entire boat to make sure that no one missed the excitement of this find. I didn't have much of a sense for how far Barry had made it, but it was easily a mile from the beach. Those of us that started running slowed to a quick walk fairly quickly, and by the time we arrived Victor's group was huddled watching a clump of weeds that would very occasionally twitch with the motion of some critter inside. "There's a bird in there; we aren't sure yet if it is THE bird, since Barry had it farther up the valley, but we think this is it." It took almost 10 minutes of watching before any of us could get enough of a look to be sure that this was THE bird, and the brief look that I had suggested that Yellow-browed Warbler was the correct identification. I had Yellow-browed Warbler on my iPod and tried playing the call. The weeds seemed to twitch more vigorously as I played the suu-weet call of the Yellow-browed, but it still wouldn't show itself. As the masses continued to gather, frustration mounted since no one was seeing the bird well. Eventually it seemed to almost climb out into view, but once it did, it immediately took flight and flew down the ravine.
We regrouped as quickly as possible and the leaders teamed up to try to refind the bird. Despite the bird's secrecy, it didn't take long to refind it and we again tried to gather the group along the edge of the ravine to view the bird from above. A few people had some quick looks. This scenario was repeated perhaps 10 times, with varying levels of success. The bird would be located in a dense patch of weeds and we would watch patiently for as many as 10-15 minutes. Some lucky people would be watching at just the right moment and would get a look at the head, or the wings, or the tail, or sometimes just the moving shape of a bird low in the weeds. On one occasion, after the bird flew a short distance it started calling and continued calling persistently for almost five minutes, but was so well hidden while it was calling that no one managed to see it. The call was incredibly ventriloquial, and each leader had a different impression for where the sound was coming from, but by triangulating the sound we ended up with a pretty good guess. I was amazed at just how furtive this species could be, especially since I had imagined it more like Willow Warblers in Africa that feed conspicuously in the mid-levels of trees. Perhaps it chose these dense weed patches specifically because there were no trees. In any event, persistence paid off for those that stuck around, and after more than three hours of trying, most of the group walked away with something between fair to good looks (almost no one had an excellent look). The bird was even harder to photograph than it was to see, but we really wanted photos to make sure that similar (but less likely) species like Hume's Leaf-Warbler were fully eliminated. The call perfectly matched those on Hannu Jannes' Calls of Eastern Vagrants CD and was helpful in eliminating Hume's. Eventually a few fair photos were captured and we rushed back to the boat since we had already delayed the departure time significantly.
Back on the boat our spirits soared as Japanese and European field guides were pulled out and the identification was checked and rechecked. This was only a third record for the Western Hemisphere, with both prior records coming from Gambell, Alaska (September 23-24, 1998 and August 20, 2002). Only two people had seen it previously in North America, and it was bird #400 for Dave Sonneborn's Alaska list. It turned out to be the only truly rare passerine that we saw during our week on Attu (Sky Lark and japonicus American Pipit are rare but regular migrants). I am still coming down from the high of seeing such an exciting bird and successfully working as a team to show such a furtive bird to a group of 100.
We had made a point to save time for Stalemate Bank, which is renowned as one of the best seabird spots in Alaska. The deep waters west of Attu are thousands of feet deep, but at Stalemate a seamount rises suddenly to a minimum depth of 33 meters. This upwelling makes it a huge gathering point for seabirds, and albatrosses in particular. We started chumming vigorously as we approached Stalemate and our efforts were well rewarded. A one-time count of 380 Laysan Albatrosses in a 180-degree scan suggested that we may have had nearly 1,000 at once around the boat. Fulmars, Short-tailed Shearwaters, and Black-legged Kittiwakes were also present in the thousands. A smattering of Mottled Petrels were seen at Stalemate, but we had done even better on that species in the hour or so prior to our arrival at Stalemate, and several of the 25 or so that we saw made very close passes. A "Vega" Herring Gull and a couple of Red-legged Kittiwakes comprised the gull rarities at Stalemate. Black-footed Albatross was scarce, with only about 10 seen at the bank; this was a stark contrast to the eastern Aleutians where Black-footed dominated only slightly over Laysan. Best of all, we had two more Short-tailed Albatrosses. One was a subadult, with only a little bit of white coming in on the central back, but the other was a spanking, full-on adult, gleaming white underparts and underwing set off by patches of black in the upperwing, a caramel colored head, and a bubble-gum colored bill. It made a distant pass along the starboard and, for an encore, made a close pass on the port side. We left Stalemate at about 18:00 and had one hour of cruising or so before dark. During that time I counted 48 more Mottled Petrels, giving us a one-day total of 75-100.
Attu (Ettienne Bay) bird list for September 21, 2006:
Cackling Goose
Mallard
Northern Pintail
Green-winged Teal
Common Eider
Harlequin Duck
Red-breasted Merganser
Common Loon
Arctic Loon
Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel
Leach's Storm-Petrel
Pelagic Cormorant
Red-faced Cormorant
Peregrine Falcon (pealei)
Glaucous-winged Gull
Black-legged Kittiwake
Common Murre
Pigeon Guillemot
Marbled Murrelet
Least Auklet
Tufted Puffin
Common Raven
Winter Wren
Yellow-browed Warbler
Song Sparrow
Lapland Longspur
Snow Bunting
Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch
redpoll sp.
harbor seal
sea otter
orca
Pelagic bird list (including Stalemate Bank) for September 21, 2006:
Short-tailed Albatross
Laysan Albatross
Black-footed Albatross
Northern Fulmar
Mottled Petrel
Solander's Petrel (? – 2, distant probable dark Pterodroma)
Short-tailed Shearwater
Sooty Shearwater (? – 4 possible)
"Vega" Herring Gull
Glaucous-winged Gull
Black-legged Kittiwake
Red-legged Kittiwake
sperm whale
orca
Dall's porpoise
northern fur seal
Cumulative Attu list, September 11-21, 2006 (67 species):
"Aleutian" Cackling Goose
Eurasian Wigeon
American Wigeon
Mallard
Northern Shoveler
Northern Pintail
Baikal Teal
Green-winged Teal (both ssp.)
Tufted Duck
Greater Scaup
Common Eider
White-winged Scoter (deglandi)
Harlequin Duck
Red-breasted Merganser
Red-throated Loon
Arctic Loon
Common Loon
Yellow-billed Loon
Horned Grebe
Red-necked Grebe
Northern Fulmar
Short-tailed Shearwater
Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel
Leach's Storm-Petrel
Red-faced Cormorant
Pelagic Cormorant
Peregrine Falcon (tundrius and pealei)
"Evermann's" Rock Ptarmigan
Pacific Golden-Plover
Spotted Redshank
Gray-tailed Tattler
Ruddy Turnstone
Western Sandpiper
Red-necked Stint
Pectoral Sandpiper
Sharp-tailed Sandpiper
Rock Sandpiper
Ruff
Long-billed Dowitcher
Common Snipe
"Kamchatka" Mew Gull
Glaucous-winged Gull
Black-legged Kittiwake
Parasitic Jaeger
Common Murre
Thick-billed Murre
Pigeon Guillemot
Marbled Murrelet
Kittlitz's Murrelet
Ancient Murrelet
Least Auklet
Whiskered Auklet
Tufted Puffin
Horned Puffin
Snowy Owl
Common Raven
Sky Lark
Winter Wren
Yellow-browed Warbler
Yellow Wagtail
"Black-backed" White Wagtail
"Siberian" American Pipit
Song Sparrow
Lapland Longspur
Snow Bunting
Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch
redpoll sp.
Mammals:
minke whale
Dall's porpoise
sea otter
northern fur seal
harbor seal
Others:
Painted Lady