ALASKA 
A Turkey Vulture in Alaska is a rare sight, as there are only about five previous sight re- 
ports for the state. This bird at Juneau 24 September 2C08 (here) remained through the 
27th and turned up again 3 October; it represents the second record for Southeast 
Alaska. Photograph by Mi W/se. 
site’s first fall Common Merganser, a flyby off 
the Point, 11 Sep (PEL). Still casual in the fall 
were 2 Ruddy Ducks in Southeast, at Juneau 
20 Oct (GBV, DM, PMS, RJG), the only report 
for the fall. 
The Gambell seawatch went without loon 
highlights. A Yellow-billed Loon was a rare 
find on the Chena R. near Fairbanks 26 Oct 
(ph. NH); there are few prior interior reports. 
Normally rare and annual in Southeast in fall, 
only one Pied-billed Grebe was found this sea- 
son, at Juneau 12 Sep (RJG). A Western Grebe 
flock built to 1000 birds near Wrangell in ear- 
ly Nov through the 7th (BHD), at a site that 
regularly supports winter concentrations. 
Westerns can often be locally common at fa- 
vored passes in inside waters of Southeast, 
usually s. of Sumner Strait. Fall season storms 
typically push tubenoses into the fringes of 
Southeast’s inside waters, with examples this 
year including a Northern Fulmar in Clarence 
Strait off lower Ketchikan 28 Oct (SCH), only 
that site’s 2nd local record, and a deceased 
Leach’s Storm-Petrel at Sitka 24 Sep (ph. 
MRG), where casual. Nearly always coincident 
with the early fall peak incursion of the year’s 
warmest sea surface temperatures in the North 
Gulf of Alaska are the season’s notable finds, 
with highlights this year including a late Mot- 
tled Petrel 80 km off Kodiak 19 Oct (IB) and 2 
Buller’s Shearwaters in the same area 18 Oct 
(IB). A research ship traveled a transect due 
south from Seward 225 km into the Gulf in 14- 
18 Sep, with a nice trip tally of 60+ Buller’s 
Shearwaters, 5 South Polar Skuas (more than 
112 km out), and 25 Mottled Petrels (ph. BB). 
(Further attesting to the offshore drift that we 
have recognized at isolated Middleton 1. and 
from shipboard accounts, Benter also experi- 
enced a passerine fallout on the ship’s riggings 
at dawn on 16 Sep, with dozens of Yellow War- 
blers, a single Townsend’s Warbler, and an 
■ Alder-type Empidonax, all near the transect’s 
southerly terminus.) 
A female/imm. frigatebird in Lynn Canal 
[ near Funter Bay 23 Aug (HM) was a spectac- 
ular find and a first 
frigatebird report for 
Southeast. There are five 
prior Alaska Fregata 
records, all between late 
Jun and mid-Sep, but 
only one has been con- 
clusively identified — a 
Magnificent Frigatebird 
photographed on the 
Alaska Pen. at Belkofski 
Bay 15 Aug 1985. While 
most Alaska reports were 
likely Magnificents, other 
Pacific Coast reports from 
California and the Baja California Pen. have 
included Greats and one Lesser, so presum- 
ably all represent possibilities here. Equally 
surprising was an ad. Turkey Vulture in 
Juneau 24-27 Sep and 3 Oct (ph. JW, ph. PAR, 
BW) — a first Juneau area record and only the 
2nd to be documented in Southeast. Vultures 
have been reported, usually as flybys, between 
late Apr and Sep from most sections of the Re- 
gion; however, there are fewer than five well- 
documented records. What may well have 
been the same Swainson’s Hawk seen earlier 
in summer around Barrow, was likely refound 
(or moving back through the area) in the 
vicinity of previous sightings 27-28 Aug (ph. 
JP) and 22 Sep (CT-H). This account follows 
an earlier fall 2006 sighting. A dark Merlin re- 
ported in the Bering Sea at St. Paul I. 8-14 Sep 
(fide St. Paul Tour, SS ph.) was only the Pri- 
bilofs’ second ever. 
RAILS THROUGH 
CUCKOOS 
Following a summer 
report at the same loca- 
tion, a Sora was in 
Juneau’s Pioneer Marsh 
8 Sep (PMS), where the 
species also bred in 
2007. Soras have be- 
come rare migrants 
and local summer visi- 
tors, and they occa- 
sionally breed primari- 
ly on Mainland sites in 
Southeast. Peak Ameri- 
can Coot tallies for the 
season included 6 in 
Juneau 11 Nov (MB) and 7 offshore at Sitka 
18-30 Nov MLW, MET). Given this season’s 
decent coverage at the Bering Sea periphery, it 
had to have been weather that influenced a 
rather poor shorebird passage. Palearctic taxa 
were poorly represented or missing, and weak 
counts of most species were typical. Most 
shorebird highlights came from the North 
Gulf and Southeast, including: a late and 
strong showing for 30 Black-bellied Plovers at 
Gustavus 13 Oct (NKD); a casual Upper Cook 
Inlet Upland Sandpiper report from Palmer 2 
Aug (DL), where there a half dozen fall sight- 
ings, and up to 4 from intertidal and alpine 
sites in the Juneau area 18-30 Aug (GBV, 
PMS); a high count of 13 Hudsonian Godwits 
in Juneau 1 Aug (RJG, PMS), where they are 
sporadic; peak Stilt Sandpiper tallies in the 
North Gulf Coast, where annual but rare and 
local, with one and then 2 in Gustavus 25 & 
26 Aug (ph. NKD, BBP), up to 21 injuneau 25 
Aug (PMS), a single at Kodiak’s Narrow Cape 
20 Aug OBA, ph. RAM), and 4 in Homer 18- 
25 Aug (AL); a Buff-breasted Sandpiper near 
Juneau, where always notable, 29-31 Aug 
(RJG, PMS); a Ruff also injuneau 19-27 Aug 
(PAR); and the season’s lone Wilson’s 
Phalarope from Juneau 11-12 Aug (ph. PAR, 
PMS), whence nearly all of Southeast’s reports 
come. Even with good coverage, shorebirds 
simply missed Gambell this fall' — e.g., it was 
the worst ever fall for Pacific Golden-Plover, 
Western Sandpiper, and Dunlin there. But 
waders showed reasonably well farther s. in 
the Bering Sea from St. Paul I. habitats. Asian 
shorebirds of note included: a Lesser Sand- 
Plover at Gambell 25 Aug; one of the Bering 
Sea’s latest ever Semipalmated Plovers at St. 
Paul 27 Sep (St. Paul Tour); a rare fall Terek 
Sandpiper with an even rarer Bering Sea Surf- 
bird at St. Paul I. 15 & 22 Aug (St. Paul Tour, 
ph. SS); a Little Stint from St. Paul 3-9 Sep (St. 
Paul Tour, ph. SS), where nearly annual in fall; 
up to 7 ad. Sharp-tailed Sandpipers in the sea- 
son’s 140+ at St. Paul 1., a great haul for the 
season; and Gambell’s 3rd fall Common Snipe 
3 Sep (PEL, AL). While birding in poor weath- 
er, St. Paul observers found a very large snipe 
along the road there 10 Sep, which they iden- 
tified as a Solitary Snipe (St. Paul Tour, ph. SS 
ph.). The fair photographs are still being re- 
The northeastern Asian subspecies of Mew Gull, sometimes called Kamchatka Gull (Larus 
canm kamtschatxhemis), is a scarce visitor to Alaska. This second-cycle bird (at left, with 
two American Mew Gulls, subspecies brachyrhynchus, on the right) was first found on 
Juneau's Mendenhall Wetlands in late July 2998 (here 8 September) and represents the first 
record for Southeast Alaska. This subspecies is distinctly larger than American Mew Gulls, 
with greater bulk, longer legs, heavier bill, and also shows darker gray upperparts. The fine, 
sharply demarcated brown shading on the head, neck, and chest are unlike the North Amer- 
ican subspecies and more reminiscent of Ring-billed Gull. Photograph by Paul M. Suchanek. 
VOLUME 63 (2009) 
NUMBER 1 
139 
