Although I can't compete with the awesome list from Texas (making me even more determined to get there in spring someday), I though folks might be interested in a report from SE Alaska. Spent last week there on business and went up early to get in some recreational time over the weekend. Had the good fortune to get in on a naturalist trip organized by some folks at Sheldon Jackson College aboard the Raven's Fire. We spent about 5 hours in the inlets, bays and passages north of Sitka on a mostly sunny and rainfree afternoon (fairly unusual this time of year). I knew it was going to be a good day when the first bird I saw in the harbor was a pair of Harlequin Ducks.

Probably the most unusual sighting was found in Sitka Harbor itself. I looked down from the window of my B&B to watch the bald eagles chasing gulls in the harbor, and saw a flock of smaller grey birds swooping around among the gulls. Thought to myself "looks like some kind of pelagic bird". Later, it turned out to be a whole flock of fork-tailed storm-petrels! They stayed all day, right in the harbor amid the passing boats. Also very enjoyable to me were the songs of ruby-crowned kinglets, singing all over Sitka (I don't get to hear these sing in my yard, so I had fun figuring it out). Another new sight for me was winter-plumaged common murres, which we encountered on the water (not yet moved to their nesting sites). Some were just putting on their breeding plumage. A great day for birds, but no whales, bears, or other notable wildlife.

In Sitka: Bald eagles everywhere, eyeing the occasional robin with the nerve to sing loudly from a tree right in front of an eagle! Northwestern crows (if there is such a thing), ravens croaking loudly outside our window, and ruby-crowned kinglets singing everywhere in the town. Very few other birds seen on land (thought I heard some golden-crowned kinglets, and heard/saw one winter wren). A few rock doves and starlings, but no house sparrows (Yay!). Apparently SE Alaska up to about Anchorage is the northernmost extremity for many of these introduced species.

>From the boat:
Red-necked Grebe
Fork-tailed Storm-petrel
Double-crested Cormorant
Pelagic Cormorant
Canada Goose
Brant
Mallard
Greater Scaup
Barrow's Goldeneye
Harlequin Duck
Bufflehead
Red-breasted Merganser
Great Blue Heron
Bald Eagle
Black Turnstone
Mew Gull
Herring Gull
Glaucous-winged Gull
Black-legged Kittiwake
Common Murre
Marbled Murrelet
Pigeon Guillemot
Belted Kingisher
Common Raven