Yes, that’s right.  Adak.  We should be on our way to Attu now, but the north winds that have been continuing the past several days — and today’s were the strongest yet — has slowed our boat’s progress.  It should be arriving sometime tomorrow, probably in the morning.

No new Asian birds today, but Eurasian Wigeons were in several locations, and other groups reported that the Smew is still here.  Another new bird today was a drake Common Merganser (i.e., not a Goosander) found by Mike “Tooch” Toochin.  A few shorebirds were around, too: a male Pacific Golden-Plover at Contractors Camp, and a Sanderling and four Bar-tailed Godwits (probably the same that have been around for awhile) at Clam Lagoon.  Clam Lagoon also gave us our first terns of the trip: two Aleutian Terns and at least four Arctic Terns.

Due to grocery shopping duties, I missed out on one of the most bizarre bird sightings on Adak.  While checking out a report of a possible Common Ringed Plover this afternoon, Rich MacIntosh spotted a Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel flying up Sweeper Creek, giving great looks to about 20 birders.  After that, Susan Clark found a Short-eared Owl hiding on a roadside cut bank.

p.s. The possible Common Ringed Plover turned out to be a Semipalmated.

I was able to see the  Northern Wheatear last night around 10 PM.  We tried looking for it this morning, but didn’t find it.  Instead we found one Common and one Hoary Redpoll.  Late today I heard the wheatear was found in a different spot today, so maybe there’s hope for tomorrow.

The Tufted Duck has returned once again to Smew Pond, plus more Eurasian Wigeons appeared to have arrived today.  Also apparently arriving today was a Goosander (the Old World Common Merganser), found on Lake Andrew by Isaac Helmericks, and a Smew on Shotgun Lake found by Forrest Davis’ group.  The Smew was too far away for a photo, but here’s a shot of Adak’s biggest twitch.  Luckily, just about all the birders on the island were nearby, so most were able to converge within five minutes of the discovery.

Adak's biggest twitch

Not much going on today, some new additions to the Cackling Goose flock and now two Wandering Tattlers on Finger Bay Creek, but that’s about it…

…as I type this I’m being told about a Northern Wheatear that was found here today.

Great day today.  The weather was very nice, so we headed over to Little Tanaga Strait for Whiskered Auklets.  We saw several hundred, with two of them within 6 feet of the boat at one point.  (The following photo is a different pair.  They were about 50 feet away.)

Despite about 35 birders combing the island (and southwest winds), nothing much was found today.  Three Bar-tailed Godwits are hanging on at Clam Lagoon, and the Cacklers are still at the airport (and still no Bean-Geese joining them).  A few more Common Redpolls were found and my group kicked up a Common Snipe at Contractors Camp.  We did another seawatch from the Loran Station and saw a few more Laysan Albatrosses, but it was otherwise pretty quiet.

Another day where my best bird would probably not be terribly interesting to anyone else: I found a pair of Common Redpolls at the Adak National Forest.  I’ve seen Hoary here twice before, but not Common.

It seems other birds are arriving, and winds have shifted to the southwest, so I feel like we’re due for something “good”.  There was a Tufted Duck next to a Eurasian Wigeon on Smew Pond today.  It could be the same one that was there a couple of days ago.  Or not.  There are also a few new Bar-tailed Godwits here.  There are now 4 at Clam Lagoon and another two on the beach just south of the airport landing lights.  The Cackling Geese at the airport is also growing with at least 33 there now.  Male Mallard numbers seem to be growing as well.

Today was our first trip to the old Loran Station on the north end of the island.  We saw 3 Laysan Albatrosses in about 10 minutes and also one of the resident Winter Wrens.

Not much new to report today: Red-faced Cormorant and Wandering Tattler.  (And that reminds me, I forgot to mention Kittlitz’s Murrelet yesterday. )  The Eurasian Wigeon from yesterday are still around, as are the Bar-tailed Godwits and Emperor Geese.  The Cackling Geese are still at the airport too, plus three more at Clam Lagoon.

The winds should be shifting more to the west soon.  In the meantime, we’re still getting regular snow showers.

First, I forgot to mention the most exciting bird we found yesterday: American Green-winged Teal.  OK, maybe it’s not that exciting to anyone else, but it was the first one I’ve seen on Adak.

Waterfowl were the only newsmakers today with some new birds arriving.  Eurasian Wigeon numbers are building with some found at four locations.  There was a small flock of Cackling Geese at the north end of the airport.  On the east side of Lake Andrew, there were three American Common Mergansers (Goosanders are probably the more likely subspecies here).  While the Tufted Duck was MIA, the two Emperor Geese are still here, too.  With north winds continuing, there were also a few new Bar-tailed Godwits at Clam Lagoon.

In non-avian news, there have been snow showers all day, and a small earthquake woke me up last night around 2:30 AM local time.

I’m putting a shot of two Bald Eagles here because these were the only birds I photographed today.

North-northwest winds today.  Not usually great conditions for Asian vagrants, but northerly winds will usually knock down a few trans-oceanic migrants, and today was no exception.  There was one Bar-tailed Godwit on Clam Lagoon all day, plus another flew over Contractors Camp, and late in the day we found 4 Pacific Golden-Plovers along the road near Palisades Lake.

Some other highlights include 1 male Tufted Duck (found by Isaac Helmericks a few weeks ago), 3 Eurasian Wigeon, 2 Emperor Geese (also found by Isaac), an Arctic Loon…

Not a high-quality shot, but it shows the flank patch

…Ancient Murrelets are also showing in numbers close to shore.  Two were in the small boat harbor.  Here’s one of them:

My battery is running low, so that’s it for today.