ALASKA 
In Alaska, many of the gulls resembling Western Gulls that are found in the 
Southeast exhibit signs of hybridization with Glaucous-winged Gull, but this bird 
at Sitka 31 March 2009 (and later) had a chrome-yellow bill, very dark mantle, 
and solid black outer primaries. Photograph by Matt R. Goff. 
eluding a male at Dutch Harbor, Unalaska 1. 4 
May (ph. AL), 2 at Adak 18 May (Wilderness 
Birding), and a female on St. Paul 1. 22 May 
(Wilderness Birding). Attesting to the late sea- 
son were aggregations of thousands of Long- 
tailed Ducks inshore at Glacier Bay N.M. Il- 
ls (NKD), where most typically depart winter 
sites by the third week of Apr. On Attu, 4 
Smews were noted 13 May, with at least one 
lingering through the 19th (DWS, JW). 
Aleutian Arctic Loon reports included one 
at Attu 14-17 May (DWS, JW), 2 at Adak 17 
May (Wilderness Birding), and a very few for 
the season from the Point at Gambell. Al- 
though annual mainly in migration and win- 
ter in small numbers, up to 9 Yellow-billed 
Loons in Glacier Bay 13-22 May (NKD) was 
considered exceptional for Southeast. A lone 
Western Grebe n. of Juneau in Berner’s Bay 2 
May (RJG) was late and n. of the normal Alas- 
ka distribution of wintering birds, in South- 
east s. of Sumner Strait. 
ALBATROSS THROUGH ALCIDS 
/. 
Early Laysan Albatross reports were wide- 
spread and in strong numbers, highlighted by 
2 on the Fairweather Grounds in the e. Gulf 
27 May+ (ph. JB-P), where they are rare in 
very small numbers, and a concentration of 
100-H birds from Amutka Pass in the e. Aleu- 
tians 25 Apr (AL). Laysans have shown a dra- 
matic increase in the past 23 years in Alaska 
waters. Unprecedented were several Mottled 
Petrels in Apr, with 2 in Amutka Pass on 25 
Apr (AL) and another farther n. in the s. 
Bering Sea at 55° N two days later (AL). These 
are apparently the Region’s earliest records for 
this uncommon summer visitor, perhaps by 
up to three weeks; most begin to arrive in late 
May, coincident with warming sea surface 
temperatures in the North Pacific. Details sup- 
ported another sighting of 2 Manx Shearwa- 
ters at the Fairweather Grounds 31 May (tJB- 
P). This species is now nearly 
annual somewhere in North 
Gulf waters. Single Leach’s 
Storm-Petrels were notably 
early in the s. Bering Sea in the 
vicinity of Bering Canyon 26 & 
27 Apr (AL). 
Up to 10 Great Blue Herons 
at Kodiak into early May (DH, 
RAM) was the archipelago’s 
largest assemblage of local win- 
tering birds; they were likely 
headed eastward to Alaskan 
breeding areas. Great Blues 
reach their extreme w. winter 
limits each year at Kodiak. A 
Great Blue in the e. Interior at 
Quartz L. near Delta Junction 
19-20 May (SG, ph. LD, Jidc ND), one of very 
few Interior records, was probably an over- 
shooting migrant. It was a quiet raptor season, 
with few concentrations or highlights, al- 
though consistent coverage at the now popu- 
lar Sheep Mt. hawkwatch up the Glenn Hwy. 
from Palmer produced fine counts. Notable 
otherwise was a lone female Northern Harrier 
headed northward into headwinds over pelag- 
ic waters 141 km w. of Unimak 1. 3 May (ph. 
AL). Gibson and Byrd (2007. Birds of the Aleu- 
tian Islands, Alaska) describe harriers as 
“probably casual or intermittent” in the e. 
Aleutians. Single dark-morph Harlan’s 
Hawks were located at Juneau 14 Apr 
(ph. GW) and in Ketchikan 22 Apr 
(AWP, SCH); the subspecies is very rare 
in Southeast, and there is only one pre- 
vious Ketchikan area report. A Golden 
Eagle was rare offshore in Southeast at 
Sitka 29 Apr-9 May (MH, MLW, MET). 
A Sora was at Juneau’s Pioneer 
Marsh 7 May (ph. GW), and up to 3 
could be found later through the peri- 
od, in the same site where locals docu- 
mented nesting in 2007. Sora is a rare 
migrant, local summer visitant, and oc- 
casional breeder in mainland South- 
east. Probably mostly related to weath- 
er systems, the season produced a fair- 
ly average shorebird migration, with 
just a scattering of rarities. Normal small 
numbers of Pacific Golden-Plovers were noted 
in Southeast late Apr-mid-May at Gustavus, 
Juneau, and Ketchikan, with peaks of 5 at 
Juneau 26 Apr (ph. M'WS) and 6 in Gustavus 
10 May (ph. NKD). One near Tok 9 May (ph. 
PK) marked the Interior’s first spring record 
and one of few ever for this subregion. Reports 
of Asian shorebirds were average and mostly 
confined to the 3rd week in May: a Common 
Sandpiper at St. Paul 1. 21-22 May (St. Paul 
Tours, AL); a Green Sandpiper at Gambell 22- 
23 May (High Lonsome Tours, ph. DM); mul- 
tiple Common Greenshank reports, including 
up to 4 on St. Paul 1. 20 May+ (St. Paul Tour, 
ph. AL); decent Wood Sandpiper numbers, 
mostly from one storm system in the Aleu- 
tians, with peak counts of 5 at Adak 20-21 
May (AL) and 15 on Attu 18 May (DWS, JW), 
plus one on the Mainland, where there few 
records, near Pilgrim Hot Springs, inland from 
Nome 29 May (ph. GV); 2, then 3 Black-tailed 
Godwits on Adak 21-29 May (ph. AL, IH) and 
another on St. Paul 1.21 May+ (St. Paul Tours, 
ph. AL); a casual Long-toed Stint on Adak 19- 
20 May (tAL); and up to 7 Common Snipe for 
the season at St. Paul 22-28 May (St. Paul 
Tours) and one on Adak 15 May (Wilderness 
Birding, ph. AL), where rare. 
Gambell birders found a Spotted Sandpiper 
5 Jun (WINGS, tCC), a St. Lawrence 1. first 
and one of few from the Bering Sea islands. 
Also noteworthy out in the Bering Sea was a 
Greater Yellowlegs on St. Paul 1. 22-23 May 
(AL). In the same vein and essentially un- 
known w. of the e. Aleutians was a lone Least 
Sandpiper documented on Adak 19 May 
(Wilderness Birding, ph. AL). Five Bristle- 
thighed Curlews counted at St. Paul 1. was a 
good count in the typical migrant window 
there 17 May (St. Paul Tours). The spring sea- 
son’s biggest concentrations of shorebirds that 
favor rocky habitats typically materialize in s. 
wT 
This Black-backed Woodpecker at the end of the North Douglas High- 
way near Juneau 13 April 2009 was the first to be documented in 
Alaska's Southeast since 1920. Photograph by Paul M. Suchanek. 
Prince William Sound and a few other outer 
coastal sites. This year’s fiock of 800 Black 
Turnstones at Ketchikan 3 May (SCH) was un- 
usual and furnished that locale’s new record 
high tally; the 3500 Surfbirds at Juneau’s 
Mendenhall Wetlands 8 May (RJG) was equal- 
ly impressive. Six Semipalmated Sandpipers at 
the Ketchikan airport’s shorebird draw 17 May 
(SCH) provided a new local spring maximum 
where this species is rare, with most spring 
records coming from the n. end of Southeast. 
The regular spring sandpiper flocks seemed 
VOlUME 63 (2009) • NUMBER 3 
485 
