Date: 4/28/26 12:03 am From: George Matz via groups.io <geomatz41...> Subject: [AKBirding] KBay Shorebird Monitoring Session #4
Kachemak Bay Shorebird Monitoring Project
2026 Session #4
New Songbirds
On Sunday, April 26 the Kachemak Bay Birders had its fourth of nine
scheduled shorebird monitoring sessions for this year. Our sessions last
two hours. This session started at 11:30 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 14.7 feet.
High tide was 14.7 feet at 11:42 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 20 birders at Spit sites, 4 at Beluga Slough, 6 on a
boat across the bay, 7 at the Anchor River, and 2 at the Kasilof River. Due
to small-craft warning conditions no monitoring was attempted at Seldovia.
The total was 39 Homer birders.
Again, cooler than normal weather conditions prevailed. According to the
NWS station at the Homer Airport (
https://forecast.weather.gov/data/obhistory/PAHO.html ), at 10:53 AM winds
were from the S at 3 mph, the sky was overcast, the temperature was 42°,
and the barometric pressure was 29.96”. At 1:53 PM. the wind was SE at 10
mph, the sky was still overcast, the temperature was 45°, and the
barometric pressure was 29.91”. The average high for this 50° and the low
is 35°.
I had expected that some of the sandpipers would show up this session, but
it barely happened. We did have 12 species of shorebirds, which is better
than just four species that we had last session. Here is what we had.
· Black Oystercatcher – Islands & Islets (6).
· Black-bellied Plover – Mud Bay (3), Louie’s Lagoon (1), Anchor
River (3),
· Pacific Golden-Plover - Anchor River (1).
· Marbled Godwit. – Mud Bay (2).
· Hudsonian Whimbrel – Anchor River (1).
· Greater Yellowlegs – Mud Bay (1), Mariner Park Lagoon (2), Beluga
Slough (6), Anchor River (22). Kasilof River (22).
· Lesser Yellowlegs – Kasilof River (1),
· Short-billed Dowitcher – Louie’s Lagoon (1).
· Dunlin – Mud Bay (10), Green Timbers (2),
· Western Sandpiper – Mud Bay (9), Kasilof River (1).
· Rock Sandpiper – Islands and Islets (3), Kasilof River (2).
· Wilson’s Snipe – Kasilof River (2).
Listed below are non-shorebird species seen during session #4. Some new
birds are Snow Goose, Northern Shoveler, Belted Kingfisher,
Double-crested Cormorant, Tufted Puffin. Bonaparte’s Gull, Parasitic
Jaeger, and Horned Lark.
