ALASKA 
Documented by holding a camera to binoculars, this Rose-breasted Grosbeaks at Craig on 
Prince of Wales Island, Alaska 22 June was one of two in the state's Southeast in summer 
2009. Photograph by Paul Coffey. 
er Glacier Bay 6 Jun (NKD), But more inter- 
esting in midsummer in that area was a feed- 
ing group of 23-1- near Columbia Glacier in 
Prince William Sound 11 Jul (MB), where 
there are occasional records of mostly single 
birds, probably non-breeders. Up on the 
North Slope at the Colville R. delta, the local 
breeding Sabines Gull population was 100% 
wiped out by Arctic Foxes, an event never 
witnessed there before OH)- Of the season’s 
average 3 Franklin’s Gulls, 2 ventured into the 
Bering Sea, both ads., at St. Paul 8 Jul (St. Paul 
Tour) , the Pribilofs 3rd ever, and at sea about 
240 km e. of the Pribilofs 14 Jul (ph. RAM). 
Another ad. in the Kenai Fiords just off Aialik 
Glacier 24 Jun (DG, Field Guides) added to 
the handful of previous summer reports in the 
North Gulf of Alaska. Just within Alaska wa- 
ters in the w. Bering Sea some 278 km w. of St. 
Mathew I., an ad. Kamchatka Mew Gull rode 
the M/V Oscar Dysan for a few hours 29 Jul 
(ph. AL). This subspecies from ne. Russia is a 
rare summer visitor, mostly at the Bering Sea 
island outposts. Notable Thayer’s Gull reports 
included one in transition to second cycle at 
Safety Sound near Nome 22 Jun (Field 
Guides, ph. DS), one of very few Bering Sea 
summer observations, and a first local sum- 
mer bird for the Ketchikan area 22 Jun (ph. 
SCH). Exceptional Bering Sea Slaty-backed 
Gull counts included 6 for the season at St. 
Paul 1-4 Jun and 30 Jul (St. Paul Tour) and 
15-f in various plumages in the Nome area 20- 
22 Jun (Field Guides). 
Small numbers of Aleutian Terns foraged in 
Glacier Bay’s lower West Arm for the 3rd con- 
secutive summer, mostly near Lone I., with a 
maximum count of 6 
from 26 Jun (NKD). 
Aleutian Terns had only 
recently been confirmed 
breeding in Glacier Bay 
(North American Birds 
59: 641). Two ad. longi- 
pcnnis Common Terns 
were noted in the Pri- 
bilofs around St. Paul 13 
& 23 Jun (St. Paul Tour, 
Field Guides), where 
this subspecies is nearly 
annual in summer. The 
Aleutians’ 3rd White- 
winged Tern in Adak’s 
Shagak Bay tern colony 
5 Jul (ph. IH) adds to 
the Archipelago’s prior 
records from Attu and 
Nizki; other summer 
records in the Region 
are from considerably e. 
of there (Homer, Fair- 
banks). There are now six Alaska records. 
Two summer skua reports came from the 
North Gulf, waters that produce most of the 
occasional summer records: a South Polar 
Skua was confirmed off the outer Southeast 
coast w. of Kruzof 1, 30 Jun (GS, ph. JC), and 
a brief flyby (probable) South Polar was off 
Kodiak’s e. side 23 Jun (ph. RAM). An ad. Po- 
marine Jaeger off Anchorage’s shores 1 Jun 
(Field Guides, tDS) was a first in Upper Cook 
Inlet and far from normal near-shore migra- 
tion waters. A lemming crash on the North 
Slope meant essentially no jaegers at most 
sites for this summer. Casual in the s. Bering 
Sea and away from the St. Lawrence I. sites, a 
Dovekie in the Pribilofs at St. Paul 27 Jun was 
probably the same individual as the one lo- 
cated on nearby Walrus 1. 28 Jul (fide St. Paul 
Tour). A rare Marbled Murrelet nest was lo- 
cated when an ad. was flushed off an egg on 
the ground below towering evergreens near 
Eagle Cr., on Douglas I. near Juneau 30 Jun 
(MFW, ph. KH). This nest and the young bird 
were then monitored through fledging in 
Aug. Forty Horned Puffins counted in Windy 
Bay on Coronation 1. off the outer Southeast 
coast 19 Jul QB-P) was a strong showing — the 
entire Southeast population had been estimat- 
ed at 270 birds from 15 small colonies. 
DOVES THROUGH THRUSHES 
A flock of 25 Band-tailed Pigeons near 
Ketchikan 17 Jun (TG) provided one of that 
locale’s highest counts. Although Band-taileds 
summer regularly in the Ketchikan area, there 
is little breeding documentation from really 
anywhere within their Alaska range. Thus, 2 
juvs. with ads. at a feeder there 24 Jun (CAF) 
were noteworthy. 
Several observers noted an abundance of 
Short-eared Owls concentrated on Seward 
Pen. coastal tundra, e.g., 14 along 3 km of 
road near Nome’s Safety Sound in early Jun 
(ED). Two Vaux’s Swifts at Gustavus 10 Jun 
(NKD) were at the extreme nw. edge of the 
species’ range in n. Southeast; they are not an- 
nual there. The season’s only Yellow-bellied 
Sapsucker was a drumming individual along 
the Alaska Hwy. near Scottie Cr. 11 Jun (NH, 
LD) just w. of the Canadian border. 
An Olive-sided Elycatcher overshot the 
species’ nesting habitat on the Bering Sea 
coast to Shishmaref 6 Jun (ph. KS). All of the 
three prior Seward Pen. documented sight- 
ings have been on the Bering Sea coastal 
fringe. A B.B.S. team tallied 5 singing Yellow- 
bellied Flycatchers within the Kanuti 
Canyon in the n.-cen. Interior n. of the Eu- 
reka area in the Yukon R. watershed, where a 
small colony was discovered in 2005. Nearly 
annual from somewhere in the e. half of the 
Region, lone Least Elycatchers were singing 
along Ketili Cr. on the lower Stikine R. 8 Jun 
(AWP, EWC, JDL, JED), in Hyder 19 Jun 
(LP), and near Juneau 18 Jun (RJG, PMS). 
An Empidonax song at the Dyea Camp- 
7 j a Following a long Pacific Coast population expansion, Caspian Terns began to wander into North Guif of Alaska coastal 
J p) areas in the 1 980s and eariy 1 990s, with local nesting at several coastal colonies in the past few years (Gill and Mewaldt 
1983, Auk 100: 369-381; Gibson and Kessel 1992, CondorH: 454-467; McCaffery et al. 1997, Pacific Seabird Group Bulletin 24: 
71-73; Johnson et al. 2008, U. S. Forest Service, Genera! Technical Report PNW-GTR-739; Lohse et al. 2008, Western Birds 39: 
94-96). However, this summer's reports and peak counts distributed across the species' now regular North Guif coast range are 
unprecedented. Summering birds noted away from colony sites included 12 in the Juneau area 5 Jun (PMS), 16 near Gustavus 
16 Jun (NKD), 4 in Ketchikan from S Jun (AWP), and singles at Hyder 2 Jun (JDL) and near Haines 2 Jul (PMS). The traditional 
Copper R. delta colony included 250 pairs by 10 Jun (DR, fide GBVV), about half with chicks. To the e., the Icy Bay colony in- 
cluded about 190 birds this season [fide GBVV). Quite a few banded Caspians were also noted, including one banded as an ad. 
in 2006 on the East Sand Spit, Columbia R. colony where it bred in 2007 and 2008 before moving to the Copper R. colony where 
it was tending an egg this year. Other banded birds included 3 single ads., banded as chicks at the same Columbia R. colony, 
that turned up at Juneau 12 Jun (PMS; b. 2004), at Gustavus 16 Jun (ph. NKD, b. 2005), and another in Juneau 6 Jul (PMS, b. 
2006). Summer reports away from Prince William Sound remain sporadic and span the Alaska Pen. to Nome. 
640 
NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS 
