12 Jun 08 - Ulric's Camp, Keoklevek River
Birded the tundra in a 2.5 mile loop from Ulric's Camp, wandering through a maze of ponds, channels, sloughs and mud. Lots of microhabitats, and strong species preferences among them. Lapland Longspurs are on the dry hummocks among the lichens and berries. Semipalmated Plovers and Dunlin like the grassy places.
A few new birds on the loop walk, including a Willow Ptarmigan we'd been hearing. It was the closest I've gotten to a Spectacled Eider, but still not all that close. Wore some thin spots on the rain gear doing a belly crawl stalk. Hot sunlight and increasingly strong winds from the northwest made photography a little tough. I wore sunscreen but picked up some windburn. Except for the wind, a perfect day for birding.
After supper, we took a boat ride up a couple of sloughs and found a single female Red Phalrope among a crowd of Red-necked Phalaropes and Sabine's Gulls. A very nice evening and lovely light the whole evening. There was a two-thirds moon but the sun was still well above the horizon past midnight. At - well, past - bedtime there was a very high tide, up into the grasses, and a few salmon rolling in the river, with a few more Spectacled Eiders flying by. Lovely.
