Audubon Seward Birding trip

Over the weekend I took my family down to Seward to join in the Annual Anchorage Audubon Seward field trip. We arrived on Friday evening around 4pm and after checkin at our lodging, took our son for a walk. We made our way to the boardwalk at Benny Benson Park where Common Goldeneye's where swimming in the half frozen water. After stretching our legs, we made our way back to the car to return to our room when my wife calmly informed me that there was a bird on a wire above the boardwalk. Sure enough, a Belted Kingfisher perched high above with a great view of it's fishing area. That was a "first" for 2016 of which there would be many more in the next 24 hours.


The next day, Saturday, the 20th, we woke to about 2 inches of fresh snow.  I took my son for a short sled ride down the snow covered road and discovered some White-crowned Sparrow's not far from our room. We also saw Dark-eyed Junco, Pine Grosbeak, and Redpoll nearby as well.

At 10am we gathered near the Harbormasters building with the other birders and began our adventure. The first stop was about two miles up Nash Road where we had hoped to spot a Killdeer which didn't show up (the tide was likely to high). However we did spot quite a variety of other seabirds, most of which were quite a ways out. Those with spotting scopes were able to confirm positive ID's on the various birds that were seen.

We continued our trip, heading about 5 miles up Nash Road were we saw a Great Blue Heron sitting still as a statue the whole time we were there, affording many photo opportunities to those of us with cameras. This area proved to be quite a busy stop, as we identified a wide variety of seabirds, ducks as well as Northwestern Crows and bald eagles.

We had lunch at the Seward Sea Life Center as we listened to a presentation on a long-term project to reintroduce the Steller’s Eider to the Yukon Flats by Tasha DiMarzio. Afterward we wandered around the Center, visiting the live bird area, where there was a variety of captive seabirds. This afforded us the opportunity to get some up close photos of some otherwise hard to shoot birds. However, these great birds do not count toward my 2016 list.

Our next few stops were at Seward residences where we observed a number of wintering songbirds visiting feeders. Songbirds are always my favorite, so seeing them was the highlight of my trip. At the first stop we saw Pine Siskin which were a first for me this year. Our second stop, I had hoped to see a Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch but it did not show up. Instead, I got to see a White-throated Sparrow and a Song Sparrow, as well as Chestnut-backed Chickadee all of which get added to my 2016 list.

I also need to mention that I saw a Sharp-shinned Hawk sweep down into the thicket at a place we were watching for Sparrows and fly away empty handed.

We ended the day as we began running out of light, but what a day it was! I had a great time and met other friendly Alaskan birders. I am looking forward to returning to Seward for more birding adventures.

My Seward Bird list includes:
Bald Eagle
Belted Kingfisher *
Black-capped Chickadee

Black-legged Kittiwake *

Bufflehead Duck *

Chestnut-backed Chickadee *

Common Goldeneye
Common Loon *
Common Merganser
Common Murre *

Common Raven

Common Redpoll
Dark-eyed Junco (both slate colored and Oregon subspecies)

Downy Woodpecker

Glaucous-winged Gull *

Golden-crowned Kinglet

Great Blue Heron *
Hairy Woodpecker

Herring Gull *

Harlequin Duck *
Horned Grebe *
Northwestern Crow *

Pelagic Cormorant *

Pine Grosbeak

Pine Siskin *

Red-breasted Merganser *

Red-breasted Nuthatch
Sharp-shinned Hawk

Song Sparrow *

Steller's Jay
Surf Scoter *

White-crowned Sparrow *

White-throated Sparrow *
Yellow-billed Loon *


This trip marks the biggest day yet for me in my birding experience thus far with 22 new species.
New species marked with *. And I might ad, that I am already 1/3 to my goal for this year, and we are not even two months into 2016. Considering last year I saw 70 species, I would say I'm going to kick my own butt.