The morning's seawatch revealed a few Slaty-backed Gulls among the previously-seen cast of characters. Unfortunately, fog dealt us the biggest 'miss' of the trip on this day. A White-tailed Eagle was seen and photographed by a few birders at the south end of the lake. A little later, it was refound by a lucky group of birders who happened to catch a look at it as it appeared through an opening in the fog. Despite a lot of searching, it was never seen again after that. Later in the day after the fog burned off, a pair of Rough-legged Hawks was seen near the top of Sevuokuk Mountain, a Peregrine Falcon was seen cruising over the area, and a Gray-cheeked Thrush was found along the base of the mountain.
The rest of the day I observed the seabird colony on the cliffs east of town. I spent a good amount of time sitting in the rocks at the base of the cliffs watching and photographing the large numbers of alcids there. I was starting to get hungry and looked at my watch to see what time it was. No wonder I was hungry; it was 12:30 AM! I hiked back to the house, ate, and turned in at around 2 AM. And yes, it was still light outside.
This view from Gambell towards Siberia was taken at 1:00 AM(!) during my trek back from the alcid cliffs. Note that the sun is still well above the horizon, behind the top, dark gray layer of clouds.
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