Date: 5/3/26 5:57 pm From: George Matz via groups.io <geomatz41...> Subject: [AKBirding] Kachemak Bay Shorebird Monitoring Session #5
Kachemak Bay Shorebird Monitoring Project
2026 Session #5
Many New Arrivals
On Friday, May 1 the Kachemak Bay Birders had its fifth of nine scheduled
shorebird monitoring sessions for this year. Our sessions last two hours.
This session started at 5:00 PM. 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 15.2 feet. High tide
was 17.4 feet at 3:33 PM. 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 14 birders at Homer Spit sites, 4 at Beluga Slough, 5
at the Anchor River, 3 via boat across the bay on Saturday morning when the
small craft warning lifted, and 2 at the Kasilof River. Due to small-craft
warnings no monitoring was attempted at Seldovia. A total of 28 birders
participated in this session. Pretty good considering the weather.
Conditions were quite gusty, especially earlier in the day. The wind
affected waterfowl and shorebirds; most stayed on the ground and foraged.
According to the NWS station at the Homer Airport (
https://forecast.weather.gov/data/obhistory/PAHO.html ), at 4:53 PM winds
were from the S at 8 mph, the sky was overcast with light rain, the
temperature was 41°, and the barometric pressure was 29.45”. At 6:53 PM.
the wind was variable 5 mph, light rain continued, the temperature was
still 41°, and the barometric pressure rose to 29.51”. However, just before
monitoring began winds at the airport (which are less than the Spit) were
from the E at 15 mph with gusts to 26 mph. During monitoring the wind
shifted to SE at 9 mph with gusts to 20 mph. The average high for this
date is 51° and the low is 36°.
Despite the winds, we had good birding and we are definitely getting into
the peak of the migration (just in time for the shorebird festival). We saw
18 species of shorebirds this session, compared to only 12 last session.
Plus, many more of the common shorebirds. One species we didn’t see this
session is the Wilson’s Snipe, which really isn’t a shorebird and common in
wet, marshy woods around Homer. New species include Semipalmated Plover,
Hudsonian Godwit, Long-billed Dowitcher (though no yet confirmed), Ruddy
Turnstone, Surfbird, Least Sandpiper, and Ruff. The Ruff is the big news.
It’s a bizarre looking Eurasian bird that is rare to all of North America.
It’s on the Kachemak Bay Birders checklist (so I assume it has been seen
here before) and listed as accidental.
Here are the species we saw this session, plus the count by site.
· Black Oystercatcher – Islands and Islets (2).
· Black-bellied Plover – Mud Bay (1), Louie’s Lagoon (16), Green
Timbers (18), Outer Spit (1). Anchor Point (59), Kasilof (27).
· Pacific Golden-Plover – Louie’s Lagoon (2), Green Timbers (1),
Outer Spit (1), Anchor Point (1). Kasilof (1).
· Semipalmated Plover – Louie’s Lagoon (3), Green Timbers (9),
Anchor Point (6), Kasilof (1).
· Hudsonian Whimbrel – Mud Bay (2), Louie’s Lagoon (4), Outer Spit
(1), Anchor Point (2), Kasilof (12).
· Marbled Godwit. – Mud Bay (8).
· Hudsonian Godwit – Mud Bay (3), Kasilof (11).
· Greater Yellowlegs – Mud Bay (1), Mariner Park Lagoon (3), Beluga
Slough (7), Anchor Point (27), Kasilof (33).
· Lesser Yellowlegs – Anchor Point (4), Kasilof (7).
· Ruff – Anchor Point (1).
· Short-billed Dowitcher – Mud Bay (12), Louie’s Lagoon (3), Green
Timbers (7), Kasilof (65).
· Long-billed Dowitcher; Anchor Point (3).
· Ruddy Turnstone – Louie’s Lagoon (3), Green Timbers (1).
· Surfbird – Islands and Islets (72).
· Dunlin – Mud Bay (1), Louie’s Lagoon (16), Green Timbers (6),
Anchor Point (5), Kasilof (11).
· Least Sandpiper- Louie’s Lagoon (54), Anchor Point (6).
· Western Sandpiper – Mud Bay (23), Louie’s Lagoon (36), Green
Timbers (12), Anchor Point (34), Kasilof (140).
· Peep – Louie’ Lagoon (200), Green Timbers (2), Outer Spit (25),
Beluga Slough (8), Anchor point (40).
· Rock Sandpiper – Islands and Islets (2).
Below are the non-shorebird species reported for the fifth session. New
species include;
The big news is the Garganey that was reported at the Anchor River. That’s
two biggies for the Anchor River team this session. However, I caution, it
has not yet been confirmed. It is not on our checklist.
Audubon says the Garganey is a “A long-distance migrant in the Old World,
the Garganey sometimes goes off course, and might turn up almost anywhere
in North America. Most likely to be seen in spring, on marshy ponds of the
sort favored by Blue-winged Teal. In the western Aleutian Islands, Alaska,
occurs as a rare migrant in spring and very rarely in fall.”
It seems there were more raptors present, especially Merlin. Big flocks of
shorebirds look appetizing to them. Also, a Eurasian Wigeon at Anchor Point
is recent, though some have been reported earlier. An Arctic Tern at the
Kasilof is a FOS for this project..
