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

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 24 May 1998 16:22:16 PDT
From: Mark O'Brien <mark1137 at hotmail.com>
Subject: Sunday, 17 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.

Sunday, 17 May Report

Suppose some of us Attu veterans had sat around in Anchorage drinking
one night last week before heading out here. And as we got more and more
inebriated, we began imagining more and more fanciful versions of the
best possible results we could ever hope to have. I doubt that even in
that state, with all caution thrown in the winds, we would not have
fantasized the numbers of birds we are seeing.

This morning was sunny, with scattered clouds, and the winds continued
from the west. I headed early to the Coast Guard station to get
yesterday's phenomenal results faxed to our web site maintainer. But now
it is not only the computers whose handshaking signals cannot be
synchronized over the phone lines leaving here-the fax machines will not
communicate with each other, either. Perhaps the line condition will be
better tomorrow.

As I headed down the runway back to base, I saw a lot of people biking
the wrong way. They should have been heading out from base to other
areas, but they were biking back home. They gave me the news: two
Pechora Pipits had been found, one near base and one by the Oriental
Goldfinch (still in the same spot). Asian species #27.

Later in the morning, Steve Heinl reported over the radio that he had
just spotted a Gray Wagtail at the beginning of Gilbert Ridge. No. 28.
We found some more Greenshanks. At about 3 in the afternoon, Paul Sykes
radioed news of a snipe he and another person had just flushed. It
appeared to be, and almost certainly was, a Pintail Snipe.
Unfortunately, at that time the weather turned foul. Snow started
falling, and the wind picked up. Since we heard that the Coast Guard was
expecting 45 knot winds from the southwest, we though it wise not to
organize a sweep for the snipe, but to go back to camp and look for it
tomorrow.

Tonight's bird count was clearly going to be very interesting, because
we continued to see large numbers of birds today. Walking down to the
count from the upper building, a number of us were delayed by the
Pechora Pipit along the road.

Those who found it hard to believe yesterday's numbers will find today's
even more unbelievable. Almost all the numbers I am about to give you
are described by Steve, a modest, conservative, serious person in these
matters, variously as "not even close to the real total", "a gross,
gross underestimate", "actually must be double", and so on. Another of
our leaders is afraid that everyone will think we are on drugs, or at
least are not being careful with the figures.

For example, yesterday we recorded 95 Olive-backed Pipits, as compared
with our previous high of 15 on May 20 in 1982. (Remember 1982, our best
year ever, the year that prompted the article in Birding magazine
titled, "An Attu diary, or welcome to Fantasy Island"?) Well today, we
had 225, in Steve's words "a gross, gross underestimate". There were 30
or 40 tonight along the block-long road between upper and lower
buildings.

Here are some more: 17 Common Sandpipers (a new high, but only by 1), 35
Temminck's Stints (we'll have to work on that, since we had 43 on
05/23/91); 58 Long-toed Stints-yesterday's record didn't last long; 29
Yellow Wagtails (a new high by a few); 7 Pechora Pipits (about what
we've had in total over the years, beginning in 1979); 18 Hawfinches
("actually must be double", and 10 more than our previous high).

And finally, these totals for today, which you can compare to the record
totals in our 16 May Report: 193 Rustic Buntings ("also a gross
underestimate"); 366 Bramblings; and most unbelievable of all,
considering that yesterday's all-time high daily total was 19, we
recorded 180, that's one hundred and eighty, Eye-browed Thrushes ("not
even close to the real total").

We never got our high winds. The snow stopped before dinner. The wind is
still from the west and south. I hope we find the Pintail Snipe
tomorrow. We need some more good birds.

______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com