Homer Shorebird Festival: Homer News

Our picture is in the May 11 edition of the Homer News. 

We are the two blue coats in the middle of the line.

Sal

My First Successfull Solo Bird Identification (05-15-2023)

Until today, the new birds I saw were with the aide of another person.  Someone who knew what they were doing would identify a bird and point it out to me.  Sometimes the person would even let me look at it through their spotting scope.

This all changed today. Today, for the first time, I identified and located a new to me bird all by myself.  I  feel so proud!

I have the Merlin app on my phone. I learned about the sound identification feature  when BB and I were in Homer for the Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival. 

Since the Festival I've started carrying binoculars with me when I walk.

Today was a nice spring day.  I  heard birds singing as I  walked around  University Lake.  One of the birds sounded closeby.  Merlin told me it was a yellow-rumped warbler. I stopped to look for it.  Searched using the binoculars. No luck.  Continued on my walk.  Told myself  birding was hard and required more patience than I possess.

Kept hearing the same bird song.  Merlin kept saying yellow-rumped warbler.  After walking to the other side of the lake I decide to stop and try again.  Success! I caught it flying between trees and saw where it landed.  I studied it through the binoculars.  It looked like the picture in Merlin!  Yellow in all the right places!

Hi.  My name is Sal and I'm a birder!

A Mother’s Day Walk

I bet Sal was surprised when I suggested a walk for my Mother’s Day outing over a dinner, museum trip or any other less strenuous excursion.  I had recently read about Thunder Bird Falls and the one mile “easy” walk to get there.  Saturday was a beautiful day, and I said “Let’s do it!”  We packed two peanut butter and pickle sandwiches, a couple of LeCroix drinks and off we went.

Just 30 minutes up the Glenn Highway, outside Eklutna, the trail is noted as a popular “first hike” for families with children.  We saw lots of families (parents pushing strollers, parents carrying their kids in backpacks, parents with kindergarten-aged kids) as every single one of those groups passed me on the “easy” trail.  Easy, obviously, is subjective.  The trail had two or three inclines, and going uphill is always a challenge for me.  But, with stops, I did make it.  And it is a nice enough waterfall.  

In the woods, I always have bears on my mind.  Sal said there were enough people on the trail that bears would know we were there and stay away.  Certainly the little boy who ran up the hill past me shouting “I’ve got super powers” was helpful in that regard.  He was shouting that phrase for the entire ten minutes or so we were hiking (I’ve decided it was more a hike than a walk) together.  He was a charmer.  No, he wasn’t, but he was certainly loud, and that counts for something in bear territory.

Once back to the car, I got a call from son John, and we all caught up while Sal and I had our sandwiches.  On the way home, Sal surprised me with a stop in Eagle River at the Matanuska Brewing Company for our favorite raspberry beer.  We took a scenic route home and saw two moose by the side of the road.  It’s always a treat.

Got home and baked some salmon, which turned out pretty good!  All-in all, a very nice day.

Today, Mother’s Day, I know we are all thinking of our moms.  My mom loved bluebirds, sausage gravy and her family, among many other things.   I hope you all have as beautiful thoughts and memories of your mother as I do of mine.

Homer Shorebird Festival (05-07-2023)

 

Today is the last day of the Festival and our last day in Homer.  It's raining, which kind of reflects our mood.  We've enjoyed Homer and the Festival and are kind of sad it is coming to an end.

 Since coming to Alaska we've learned, short of a blizzard, not to let the weather stop us from doing what we want. (BB found this quote and we like it:  There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing). This morning, however, we are hoping for the rain to end.  It isn't a down pour, more of a steady drizzle.  However, our last Festival activity is The Wise and Wonderful Journey, an 8:00am boat tour to Gull Island.  We both think we will enjoy it more if it isn't raining.  The tour offers viewing opportunities of multiple birds (kittiwakes, murres, puffins) and marine animals (seals, otters, porpoises).  Besides believing we will be more comfortable if the rain stops, we wonder if the rain will reduce our chances of viewing wildlife.

It's another get out early morning.  We are at the Ramp 3 parking lot on Homer Spit at 7:30. As we leave the car a woman approaches and asks if we are here for the tour.  We respond yes and she introduces herself as our guide, Monica. There are 6 signed up for the tour and Monica is trying to round everyone up.  Monica points out the restrooms and tells us we can go down to the boat, the Billy Hawk.  We take advantage of the restrooms (always a wise thing to do before getting in a vehicle) then head down the ramp to the Billy Hawk.  We spot the boat and meet our pilot, Emily, with her dog, Beau.  Emily is calling her father to come get Beau.  It's departure time, 8:00am, and no dad picks up Beau and no other passengers show up.  Oh, shucks!  This has become a tour for 2 instead of 6.  And Beau gets to come with!  Emily takes us to Gull Island and Peterson Bay.  Monica points out birds and other wildlife.  We see:

Common Murre

Black Oystercatcher

Surfbird

Red-necked Phalarope

Pigeon Guillemot

Marbled Murrelet

Harlequin Duck

Common Loon

Sea Otters

Porpoises

Monica

Emily and me

Meet Beau!

Surprise! Gull Island has lots of Gulls.

Sea Otter

Emily has us back in Homer at 10:00.  Time to get serious about leaving.  We fill up with gas on the way back to the house.  We pack up and do a final inspection to make sure the house looks tidy and we haven't forgotten anything.  

We can't leave Homer without stopping in at the Salty Dawg Saloon.  This is one of the oldest buildings in Homer. The oldest part of the building is from 1897.  The bar is famous for its walls covered in dollar bills.  The story goes that a patron tacked a dollar on the wall saying that his friend would be by for it later.  BB and I spend about 5 minutes here.  It is too early for us to have a beer and we want lunch!

$Dollar$ Bills ALL over the walls!

Lunch is at Captain Patties Fish House.  We both have halibut.  BB has it as halibut fish and chips.  I have it as a halibut fish sandwich.  Our last meal in Homer is a good one.

This moose is on a wall near Captain Patties.  

Today is Cousin Bob's birthday.  We call from Captain Patties parking lot to sing Happy Birthday.  He doesn't pick up.  We hope he is busy celebrating!

Our drive home is uneventful.  The sky is overcast.  Driving through the snow-covered mountains reminds me of Ansel Adams' photographs.  Without the sun and with the leaf-less trees everything looks black and white.  

We spend some of the 4 hour drive reviewing Alaska trivia.  We signed up for the Welcome to Alaska Trivia activity on our fast approaching inland passage cruise.  We are ready for all the 'What is Alaska's State XXX*.'  Alaska's state land mammal is the moose.  Of course it is!  For some reason I have problems with Alaska's state insect.  It is the four-spotted skimmer, a type of dragonfly.  I remember it is a dragonfly, I forget the four-spotted part. 

Outside of Girdwood the road is lined with cars and people are fishing in Turnagain Arm.  We assume they are fishing for hooligan, aka candlefish.  BB looks it up and we are right!  We will read in tomorrow's paper that a fisherman had to be rescued from the mudflats.  (The ADN article).

We are back in our apartment by 6:00. BB and Grey are happy to see each other.  I am happy they are happy. 

We enjoyed Homer.  Lots.

*Alaska's State:

flower - forget me not

land mammal - moose

marine animal - bowhead whale

official sport - dog mushing

mineral - gold

fish - king salmon

bird - willow ptarmigan

tree - Sitka spruce

flag symbols - big dipper and north star

gemstone - jade

fossil - woolly mammoth

insect - four spot skimmer dragonfly

dog - Alaskan malamute

song - Alaska's Flag

bolt-action rifle - pre-1964 Winchester model 70

Sal

Homer Shorebird Festival (05-06-2023)

 

We are at the AMNWR Visitor Center for the 10:00am program Seldovia: Beyond the End of the Road.  (Seldovia is 16 miles from Homer on Seldovia Bay.  The only access is by boat or plane).  BB and I want to visit Seldovia; however, couldn't fit it in this trip.  We are interested to hear what Cindy Mom of Seldovia Nature Tours can tell us about traveling there as well as things to do in Seldovia.  We take in what she says and file it all away for future reference.

We have several hours until our next Festival activity.  Chocolate bread made a big impression.  We are back at Two Sisters Bakery for chocolate bread and coffee.

Homer has a winery, so when finished with pastry and coffee at Two Sisters we head for Bear Creek Winery.   We pass The Art Shop Gallery on the way.  We stop so BB can take another look at a Sandhill Crane pin she saw there the other day.  Sandhill Cranes and Homer will always be linked together in our memories, making the pin a great memento.

Bear Creek Winery specializes in blending grape and fruit wines.  The wine tasting allows us to sample 8 of them, including Trinity Berry Blend, Black Raspberry and Pomegranate.  We leave with two bottles, Alaskan Chardonay, blended with rhubarb, and Blue Zin, blended with blueberry.  Our server hears us talking about what to do before our next Festival activity and mentions the Motherbird Fair at the Homer Middle School.  Off we go!

The Motherbird Fair benefits SPARC, the South Peninsula Athletic and Recreation Center.  We check out all the vendors.  It is a nice variety of crafts and foods.  We do our bit to support the cause by purchasing a jar of Fireweed Jelly.

I'm especially excited for our next Festival activity, Canine Officers of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.  Dogs at a bird festival....who'd a thought it?!  Officer Rob Barto and K9 Officer Eider tell us about the work they do for U.S. Fish and Game.  Their work covers a wide range, from finding lost individuals to locating evidence of poaching.  They give a demonstration and it is amazing to watch the human and canine partners work together.  Check out this article to learn more about what they do.

K9 Eider has his own business card.

I knew not to pet him.  But it was hard not to!

At the demo

When Eider alerts he puts the evidence between his front paws.

It is hard to leave Eider but the next activity, the Annual Bird Calling Contest, should be a fun one.  It turns out to be a real crowd pleaser.  The contest has 3 categories: youth, adult and not serious.  The not serious category is whatever the contestant wants it to be, from the call of a pterodactyl to a cawing rendition of Happy Birthday.  The MC is amusing and particularly good with the young kids.  Kids as young as 4 years old do quite realistic bird calls.  The adults do a good job too; however, it is the adults that seem to enjoy performing the not serious calls.

The contest is at the Homer Brewing Company

The MC with a young contestant.

This contestant dressed for the part.

I always find the dogs!

We leave before the results of the judging to get to the keynote speaker presentations at the Homer High School.

The High School is a nice looking building.

This quote is in the main hall of the High School 

Featured Author Julia Zarankin, a writer, lecturer and birder from Toronto, speaks on An Ode to Common Birds:  On Cherishing What We've Got.  She speaks on the roundabout way she became a birder and how appreciating and taking care of the common birds helps all birds.

Key Note Speaker Diego Calderon-Franco is a biologist and birder from Colombia.  He speaks on his adventures researching birds and being kidnapped by FARC. (Spanish: Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia - A Marxist guerrilla organization in Colombia).  It has a happy ending.  He works with former FARC guerrillas on current research projects in Colombia.

The end of another great day.

Sal

Homer Shorebird Festival (05-05-2023)

 

Today our Festival activities start at noon.  We have an easy morning and decide to go out for breakfast.  Several people have said good things about Two Sisters Bakery.  We decide to give it a try.   We aren't disappointed; the pastry look delicious! We pick out a pastry for ourselves and a chocolate bread to share.  I definitely enjoy my cinnamon roll but the chocolate bread is my clear favorite.  We eat our pastries at a table with a couple, Steve and M.A., that we met on yesterday's Beginner Bird walk.  

Chocolate Bread is GOOD!

This sign is at the Bakery:

Today we get educated.  Our first two activities are talks at the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center (AKA Islands & Oceans).  We see several people we met on our walks.  The couple that helped us ID birds at Beluga Wetlands Overlook, M.A. and Steve who shared a table with us at Two Sisters, Christina and Lori.

We arrive at noon for the talk on A Hemispheric Perspective on Local Bird Migration.  I am prepared, based on the title, to not understand any of it.  I am pleasantly surprised.  The speaker, Melanie Smith from Audubon Alaska, uses maps to show us the paths that migrating birds take to reach Alaska.  Some migrate here from South America! (Check out the Bird Migration Explorer if this stuff interests you).  Melanie explained the different ways that migratory data is collected.   Methods used to collect data include banding, tracking, telemetry and genetics.  The method that interests me most is tracking using light-level geolocators.   Geolocators use daylight to estimate location.  The geolocator has a light sensor, an internal clock, a battery and a computer that stores a measurement of the amount of light that the computer is exposed to.  Researchers determine a bird's location using the date and the sunrise and sunset times. After showing us the migratory routes and explaining how the data is collected, Melanie spoke on several current conservation challenges (AKA, bird dangers; such as wind turbines, cell towers, coastal modification, agriculture).   She quoted alarming facts about bird populations. More than half of U.S. birds are in decline.  The U.S. and Canada have lost more than 3 billion birds in the past 50 years.  This October 2022 Audubon Report has more information on the declining bird populations.

Doug Wacker from the University of Washington is speaking on The Language of Crows and Ravens.  BB and I know ravens are clever.  Ravens remember people and use tools. We are interested in finding out if ravens and crows also have language.  Doug explains how he records the calls and documents the circumstances present during the call.  He talks about an experiment on alarm calls involving a researcher wearing a scary mask around crows.  The crows made their alarm call every time they saw the scary mask.  What is interesting is that the crows teach other crows about scary mask.  This experiment, along with interesting crow facts, is mentioned in this NPR article.

Shorebirding by Ear, our next activity, moves us from the AMNWR Visitor Center to Beluga Slough and Biship's Beach.  Expert birder Dave Erickson gives tips on identifying birds by their calls.  With the help of Dave and other participants, we see:

Western Sandpiper

Semipalmated Plover

Least Sandpiper

Sandhill Cranes

Birdwatching ends with the incoming tide.  When the group heads back to the Visitor Center BB and I take time to visit Bishops Beach.

Dinner Time! We head to AJ's  Oldtown Steakhouse   for an early dinner.  Halibut is a favorite and although this is a steakhouse halibut is on the menu.  We go all out and have a cocktail, halibut and dessert.

Dinner was GREAT!

Today is a First Friday and Homer has First Friday activities.  When we saw Christina this afternoon, she mentioned First Friday and that all the art galleries would be open late today.  After dinner we check out two of them.  Bunnell Street Arts Center is next door to AJ's so we go there first.  There is a lecture going on, not conducive for browsing, so we quietly leave and go back to the Art Shop Gallery.  This is our second time here.  We like it!  We browse until it closes at 7:00.

We aren't ready to call it a day so decide to try again for the sandhill cranes down East End Road by Wasabi's Bistro.  Success!  We see a pair flying a block up and across the street.  Off we go!  We turn on Morning Star Road, slowly making our way up the hill.  We see beautiful homes on this road but no cranes.  We are about to give up when we see a field with 50 or 60 cranes.  Wow!  They were noisy and awesome!

Seeing the field full of cranes was a wonderful way to end the day.  However, we have another surprise when back at the house.  We see movement through a window.  We head outside to watch a moose cross the road and stop in the next-door neighbor's yard to snack on some shrubs.  While still on the deck we notice a big bird flying towards us.  It's an eagle! It looks like it is going to fly right into us.  It didn't.  But it got close enough for a good look.

The end of a great day in Homer!

Sal