Date: 4/23/26 11:54 am From: George Matz via groups.io <geomatz41...> Subject: [AKBirding] Shorebird Monitoring 2026 Session #3
Kachemak Bay Shorebird Monitoring Project
2026 Session #3
Thaw is Over at Homer Spit
On Tuesday, April 21 the Kachemak Bay Birders had its third of nine
scheduled shorebird monitoring sessions for this year. Our sessions last
two hours. This session started at 7:30 AM. For consistency, starting time
is when the outgoing tide approaches 15.0 feet, or high tide if less than
that. This morning when we started monitoring, the high tide was 15.3 feet.
High tide was 20.0 feet at 5:46 AM. This is our 18th consecutive year of
monitoring, following the same protocol each year. Because our monitoring
dates try to bracket the spring shorebird migration, the first and last
sessions tend to have just a few shorebird sightings. All observations are
submitted to eBird and the ISS portal.
This session we had 16 birders at Spit sites, 3 at Beluga Slough, 7 at the
Anchor River, and 2 at the Kasilof River. Due to small-craft warning
conditions there was no monitoring at Seldovia or across the bay. The total
was 28 hardy Homer birders.
Monitoring started this year with winter still in charge. But by the second
session, high temperatures for the day were in the 30’s and low 40’s and
the snow and ice were rapidly melting. This session continued the thaw.
According to the NWS station at the Homer Airport (
https://forecast.weather.gov/data/obhistory/PAHO.html ), at 6:53 AM winds
were from the W at 13 mph with gusts to 24 mph, the sky was overcast, the
temperature was 37°, and the barometric pressure was 29.97”. At 9:53 AM.
the wind was variable at 6 mph, the sky was fair, the temperature was 41°,
and the barometric pressure was 30.0 ”. The average high for this date is
49° and the low is 34°. Attached are shots from the Mariner Park Lagoon
taken on the first and third sessions, illustrating the difference. This
site is where the observation platform used to be. The property is now
owned by Doyon who has been quite cooperative in agreeing to our being on
the site.
The blustery winds kept the ducks and geese on the ground, foraging on the
vegetation that had been covered with ice for months. While the weather may
have slowed down the migration, it still moved ahead. Shorebirds that were
seen include the following.
· Black-bellied Plover – Green Timbers (8), Louie’s Lagoon (8),
Anchor River (1).
· Greater Yellowlegs – Mud Bay (12), Mariner Park Lagoon (11),
Green Timber (9), Louie’s Lagoon (1), Beluga Slough (8), Anchor Point (60),
Kasilof River (41).
· Rock Sandpiper – Green Timbers (1), Fishing Hole to Boat Harbor
(102).
· Peeps -Louie’s Lagoon (3)
This was the Greater Yellowlegs session. As you can see from the data
above, the Spit had some good counts. All of these sites are close together
and GRYE do move around, so there may be some double counting. However,
because of the gusty winds, there wasn’t much movement of birds that
morning. Also, I got an interesting email from Toby about the large number
of GRYE he and Lauria saw.
“Along Bridge Access Road on the more vegetated east side (with ephemeral
snowmelt ponding) we had a very concentrated flock of 150+ Greater
Yellowlegs (and one Pacific Golden Plover). I only bring this to your
attention as I noticed on eBird that Anchor River had 60 GRYE, Kasilof
River 41, and Bridge Access (Kenai Flats) 150+. It seems there was quite
the concerted movement of Yellowlegs yesterday.”
To provide some perspective, I thought it would be useful to show our GRYE
data for the Homer Spit area sites for the past 17 years (see attachment).
I think this data illustrates the usefulness of having a monitoring network
that is all out in the field at the same time, though the Kasilof monitors
at a different time than Homer Spit monitoring times due to differences in
tides.
It’s also interesting to note that a few Rock Sandpipers are still around.
I think their late departure from Kachemak Bay is because of wintery
conditions well into what would normally be spring in recent years. To me,
this demonstrates that unlike most shorebirds, Rock Sandpiper migration is
somewhat dependent on weather conditions. This seems to be verified with
our data from when we had some really warm springs and hardly any Rock
Sandpipers when we started monitoring.
Listed below are non-shorebird species seen during session #1. A highlight
is the number of Brant we have been seeing. The Louie’s Lagoon team counted
46. The day before, Randy Weisser posted on eBird a shot of 54 Brant flying
over the Spit.
