Subject: Thursday, 14 May Report (fwd)
Date: May 25 15:33:46 1998
From: Jim Elder - jime at eskimo.com


Attu report number 2 follows:

Jim Elder (jime at eskimo.com)
SEA, Inc.
7030 220th St SW
Mountlake Terrace, WA 98043

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 24 May 1998 16:33:19 PDT
From: Mark O'Brien <mark1137 at hotmail.com>
Subject: Thursday, 14 May Report

Due to technical difficulties personalized email from Attu is not
possible. You will receive regular updates (the same as the world wide
web postings) by email. Please do not reply to these postings unless it
is an emergency. In an emergency you can reply but it would be faster
to call the Attour emergency number. These email messages are also
posted at http://www.attu.com/attu98.htm.

Thursday, 14 May Report

We finished installing our new diesel generators and oil-fired water
heaters on schedule, but with no time left for much birding before our
first group departed Anchorage at 7:30 am 10 May. Some numbers of
previously reported species increased, with our Whooper Swan total
reaching 9 and the number of Smews on the small pond reaching 8.

Our first group arrived without delay, bringing 61 new birders, our
badly needed roofing materials, but absent 75 dozen eggs that were
supposed to be on board. We off-loaded another 15,000+ lbs of people and
supplies and turned the plane around in just under an hour. Then into
the field for most of the group, while some of the advance party moved
gear and material to base, and others immediately began repairing the
100 sq ft of damaged roof. That was a tough job, since we were working
in strong southerly and westerly winds, and it was not finished for a
day and a half.

In the next two and a half days-Sunday through Tuesday-our newcomers
managed to rack up all the Asian species our advance group had found,
although the Hawfinch eluded many. They added Long-toed Stint to our
list, and rediscovered our 5-year-resident male Spectacled Eider. We had
little snow almost every day, and it was quite breezy. On Wednesday, we
awoke to find the heaviest snowfall I had seen since first coming to
Attu in 1997, about 2 inches. It soon turned to steady rain, and most
people stayed in. A few hardy souls hiked 2 miles to the mouth of the
Peaceful River, recording 3 Hawfinches, seven Wood Sandpipers, and other
already-recorded species along the way. That was about all of our
birding activity, however. Attu is a love-hate experience, and this was
not a love day. Another way I have often characterized our stays on Attu
is that when not birding, we are preoccupied with either moving water in
(to
our buildings) or moving water out (of our buildings). We had struggled
to get our water supply going several days before; now we were working
at getting the rainwater leaks out of the quarters.

We had more luck with that than with communicating with the outside
world, however. Effort after effort to connect our computers to email
has failed so far; and we cannot post these updates directly to our web
sites. If you are reading this before we leave on May 24, it is because
we have managed to fax the reports to someone else for posting.

Wednesday night, just after we turned in, the winds started from the
north. A raging gale with gusts of at least 70-80 mph (who was measuring
at that hour) shook our quarters, and I was afraid it might blow away
our lunch tent. On awakening this morning, however, the tent was still
standing, but it did have a bent frame. And now we were back to the
moving water in effort. Our water supply line was frozen. Usually when
that happens, it is on very clear nights; now it was because it was
COLD. In fact, we continue to run 4-5 degrees below normal for this
time. Yesterday the temperature ranged from 35 degrees to a high of 38.
This morning, it was below freezing. But that was only early. By the end
of breakfast, the winds had diminished greatly, switched to the
southwest (hurrah!), the sun was out, and we were treated to another
love day. At one in the afternoon, I was doing deskwork in the front
yard, it was so pleasant.

That was also about the time a new bird was reported: a Dusky Thrush on
Navy Town Beach. Of course, everyone headed immediately to see it.
Shortly thereafter, another top-notch bird was found. An Oriental
Greenfinch was at the beginning of the Gilbert Ridge road a couple of
miles away! By the time we returned to dinner, 100% of the group had
close telescope view of both birds. Both are early records for Alaska.

So we are having a great year so far. With the Pacific Golden-Plovers we
found today, we are now up to 21 Asian species, plus goodies such as
Yellow-billed Loon, Emperor Goose, Spectacled Eider, Laysan Albatross,
and so on! And we have 24 days to go. I am fudging a bit by counting the
Dutch-split but not AOU- or ABA- recognized Gallinago gallinago
gallinago as a separate species from what we call Common Snipe, but even
so, it seems that our all-time high of 32 Asian species is likely to be
topped. We are also having good numbers of birds, and many early
records. Now if only we could get connected to the rest of the world.

Can't wait until tomorrow, what with these southwest winds.


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