Date: 5/13/26 4:15 pm From: George Matz via groups.io <geomatz41...> Subject: [AKBirding] KBay Shorebird Monitoring Session #7
Kachemak Bay Shorebird Monitoring Project
2026 Sessions #6 and 7
Shorebird Festival Week
As mentioned in my previous report, I was not anticipating having time to
write a report for session #6 which was the day before the Kachemak Bay
Shorebird Festival started. Not only did I have to finalize my presentation
for the next day at the festival, but I didn’t want to miss out on the
activities. Also, one of the purposes of these reports is to give birders
some idea as to what they can expect in Kachemak Bay in the next few days.
But this task was well covered by the Kachemak Bay Birders daily report for
each site. See https://kachemakbaybirders.org/ for a summary which is more
inclusive than what my 6th session report would be.
With regards to the shorebird festival, as they say, you had to be there.
As predicted, the peak of the shorebird migration overlapped with the
festival. Every day, new arrivals scrambled over the mud flats looking for
food. Not only was there a good diversity of species, but a growing
abundance of sandpipers and other shorebirds. The numbers increased to the
point that murmuration’s (i.e. birds flying in massive, shifting, and
synchronized groups) would spontaneously fill the horizon. But a picture is
worth a thousand words; so, go to
https://www.facebook.com/groups/314325294719990 to see for yourself.
Complimentary to what was happening outside, were presentations inside,
which covered a wide variety of subjects of keen interest to the birding
community. A highlight was the inspiring keynote address by Alvaro Jaramillo
who reminded us that “There is perhaps no activity as complete as birding,
in that it can be enjoyed in a multitude of ways, by essentially every type
of person.”
Not on the agenda, but definitely a crowd pleaser was finding an Ivory Gull
on Sunday afternoon, the last day of the festival. This rare bird, last
seen in Homer in 1963, was an easy-to-get lifer. You didn’t have to climb
steep slopes or wade through murky bogs to see it, you just had to get to
the end of the harbor where there is a fish processing facility. There it
was, on the dock placidly looking for scraps of fish.
So, now on to post-festival. On Monday, May 11 the Kachemak Bay Birders had
its seventh of nine scheduled shorebird monitoring sessions for this
year. Our sessions last two hours. This session started at 10:30 AM. For
consistency, starting time is when the outgoing tide approaches 15.0 feet,
or high tide if l2 in Seldovia, ess than that. This morning when we started
monitoring, the high tide was only 12.9 feet, which is the same as the high
tide for day that occurred at 10:38. 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 18 birders at Homer Spit sites, 4 at Beluga Slough, 2
in Seldovia, 8 at the Anchor River, 2 at the Kasilof River. A total of 36
birders participated in this session. A boat trip to the other side of the
bay was not scheduled due to festival demands.
According to the NWS station at the Homer Airport (
https://forecast.weather.gov/data/obhistory/PAHO.html ), at 9:53 AM winds
were from the S at 8 mph, the sky was mostly cloudy, the temperature was
43°, and the barometric pressure was 29.95”. At 12:53 PM. the wind was E at
8 mph, cloudy with light rain, the temperature was still 43°, and the
barometric pressure rose to 29.97”. The average high for this date is 53°
and the low is 38°.
Still lots of shorebirds around. This session we had 22 species including
Wandering Tattler and Red-necked Phalarope as FOS. Neither Surfbirds nor
Rock Sandpipers were seen, which tend to be seen more often on the other
side of the bay which wasn’t monitored this session. A total of thousands
of Western Sandpipers and Dunlin were present at all sites. The big
surprise was how many sandpipers were in Seldovia; 1,000 Dunlin and 4,000
peeps which were mostly Western Sandpipers.
Here are the species we saw this session, plus the count by site.
· Black Oystercatcher – Louie’s Lagoon (1), Seldovia (5).
· Peep – Green Timbers (318), Beluga Slough (664), Seldovia
(4,000). Anchor (61),
· Wilson’s Snipe -Kasilof (2).
· Red-necked Phalarope – Kasilof (2).
Below are the non-shorebird species reported for the seventh session. One
thing that should be noticeable is the presence of more songbirds. Also,
the Ivory Gull was not seen during the monitoring session.
Loons and Grebes; Eagle Common Loon, Horned Grebe.
Alcids: Marbled Murrelet, Pigeon Guillemot.
Gulls; Short-billed Gull, Glaucous-winged, Gull.
Raptors; Bald Eagle.
Songbirds; American Crow, Common Raven, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Varied
Thrush, Hermit Thrush, American Pipit, Fox Sparrow, Savannah Sparrow, Song
Sparrow, Lincoln’s Sparrow.
*Anchor Point/River*
Waterfowl;. Greater White-fronted Goose, Cackling Goose, Northern
Shoveller, Gadwall, American Wigeon, Mallard, Northern Pintail,
Green-winged Teal, Greater Scaup, Harlequin Duck, Surf Scoter, White-winged
Scoter, Black scoter, Common Merganser, Red-breasted Merganser.
Looks and Grebes: Horned Grebe, Red-necked Grebe, Common Loon, Pacific Loon.
Gulls;
Alcids: Marbled Murrelet.
Misc.: Sandhill Crane, Pelagic Cormorant.
Raptors; American Goshawk, Northern Harrier, Bald Eagle.
Songbirds; Black-billed Magpie, American Crow, Tree Swallow, American
Pipit, Lapland Longspur, Fox Sparrow, Savannah Sparrow, Song Sparrow.
Loons and Grebes: Horned Grebe, Red-throated Loon, Common Loon,
Raptors; Osprey, Northern Harrier, Bald Eagle, Merlin,
Songbirds; Black-billed Magpie, American Crow, Common Raven, Ruby-crowned
Kinglet, American Robin, American Pipit, Dark-eyed Junco, Savannah Sparrow,
Lincoln’s Sparrow.
Details, including photos, of these birds can be seen via eBird. Go to
Explore, enter Kenai Peninsula, and then to More Recent Visits.
