More Birding news

The Juneau Audubon has started their Spring Migration Saturday morning hikes. We thought this would be a good way to be introduced to some new hiking spots plus get the advantage of some locals who know when and where you might see different birds.

Last week we met at the Airport Dike Road (click to see location - look for Mendenhall Wetlands marker) and walked along the pathway and through the wetlands area. We saw quite a few birds. Our guide was Steve Zimmerman (tan coat) and he really knew his birds. We all introduced ourselves and Tim and I were just about the only ones who weren't professional biologists, naturalists, or involved in other science-related professions, retired or otherwise.

This picture is along the Mendenhall river – you can see the glacier in the background. I also tried very slyly to get a group shot of most of the guys. There were many younger guys on the walk and any encouragement I can do to get my young nieces to come to visit is always worthy of a picture. I'm thinking there was some good lumberjack material here!

A new bird for us was the Eurasian Wigeon.

Later than evening we were deciding where to go for a Sunday walk by reading the American Bird Association's Guide to Alaska. The ABA puts out these great guides by state or locale that gives really good details about where to see birds. Its like the milepost of birding. I can't tell you how many times in our travels I've been reading along and where it say's, "This is a good place to see Phainopepla" or "The Plain Chachalaca can often be seen feeding in the ground cover at space 28A in the campground" when we've spotted the target. Its almost like being at the zoo! Anyway my point is that I realized that the Juneau section had been written and complied by…Steve Zimmerman, our guide for the day. Now that's impressive!