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

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 24 May 1998 16:16:16 PDT
From: Mark O'Brien <mark1137 at hotmail.com>
Subject: Monday, 18 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.

Monday, 18 May Report

Since anyone you know who went to Attu this spring is essentially out of
communication, you may be tempted to think that our reports so far are
part of a giant hoax. Let me assure you they are not. Wonderful birding
continues. I am writing this at 8:40 in the evening, when our second
dinner seating would normally be ending, and the bird count about to
begin. But dinner will be a little later for at least 25 people, who are
still out in the field chasing some birds found at about 6:30 in the
evening. But more on that later.

If you've read all these reports, you know what I mean when I say that
the Moving Water In Team is getting more of a workout than the Moving
Water Out Team. Last night our water supply line froze up at 9:30 in the
evening as the water was running in the sinks. Never have we had that
happen, but never has it been this cold. On a normal trip, we might get
a water freezeup early in the morning 2 or 3 times when there is
radiated heat loss to a cloudless sky. But we've had freezeup almost
every morning, just from the temperature dropping below freezing. When
we awoke this morning, there was a half-inch snow cover, and it looked
like the wind might switch to the north. It soon went back to west,
though. We've never had such a long stretch where the winds were only
from the west and southwest. The rest of the day was one of those highly
changeable days we've had so many of: sun, almost-horizontal snow, sun.
Right now, it's gorgeous.
But the sky is clear, and I guess there'll be no water again in the
morning. I'd better wrap this up and head for the showers.

Oh, yes, the birds. We have more. Several people reported getting five
lifers today, their ninth day here! On my early morning ride to the
Coast Guard station, it was clear that great numbers of birds were still
here. Rustic Buntings, Olive-Backed Pipits, Eye-browed Thrushes, and
Wood Sandpipers skittered out of the way as I drove along the road. One
Wood Sandpiper type seemed quite dark-backed, but it was gone before I
could stop.

When everyone got out in the field, they had no luck finding the
possible Pintail Snipe. The first new bird they did see was a Northern
Wheatear. We have never had a spring record of that species, and only
one fall bird. I don't think we'll count that in the running Asian
species count. A short time later, Mike Gray spotted a Gray-spotted
Flycatcher flycatching. Oh, I'm sorry, his name is Mike Toochin. Anyway,
it was near Brambling Bluff. That is our earliest record by five days.
In the meantime, others were kicking Rustic Buntings and Eye-browed
Thrushes out of the way in order to get closer looks at the very
cooperative Gray Wagtail first found yesterday.

Farther south, a gorgeous black and tan Ruff was displaying his full
white ruff near the intersection of the two runways. That's close to
Puffin Island, where the Slaty-backed Gull and the Spectacled Eider have
been found recently. Nearby, a Red-necked Stint was found on Casco
Beach, and then three Mongolian Plovers.

By now, 2 in the afternoon, the pace of discovery has slowed. A
wind-driven fine snow started, and by 3 or 4, many people were back at
base, satisfied with having seen four or five lifers for the day.

There were two more out there, however, and one is a lifer for almost
everyone on the island. At about 6:30, Mike Toochin heard a Green
Sandpiper call and looked up to see it flying towards Henderson Marsh.
He and others decided to head over there to at least look around Smew
Pond. 45 minutes later, they got a radio call from Bob O'Brien (our
webmaster) that there was a Green Sandpiper at the mouth of Henderson
River. That's where they finally caught up with it. It's our third
spring bird (one fall), the last being on May 18 in 1982, our best
previous year, and a year which has now been clearly, decidedly, and
totally eclipsed by this one. And that in little more than a week. We
note that some of our strong-flying, regular migrants such as Bar-tailed
Godwit and (Eurasian) Whimbrel have not even appeared yet.

Back to Henderson Marsh. Terry Doyle found the last new birds of the
day; three Spotted Redshanks on the crossroad just west of Smew Pond.
Handsome birds, and our first in seven years.

Stepping outside at 10 pm (midnight Anchorage time-we have our own
private time zone), a corner of the building shelters me from the
still-west wind that leaves the wind sock just short of straight out.
Sunlight glistens on the tops of snow-covered peaks along Gilbert Ridge,
and a few pink, fluffy clouds behind it are almost the only clouds in
the sky. A very few patches of green are beginning to appear in the
tundra near base.

We have seen 33 Asian species now, and the pace is not yet slowing.

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