Several participants from Nathan Goldberg's Red Hill Birding Tours had arrived on Friday, so a third van was in use. After several days of trying to locate a Bristle-thighed Curlew, one was found in the Novastoshna area. Everyone enjoyed nice looks and got good photos of this bird as it flew around the area, calling as it went.
On the way back south, a Long-tailed Jaeger was found sitting in the road near the Polovina Wetlands!
It eventually lifted off and flew north.
David took us back to the Reef Cliffs so we could use the seal blind to check Gorbatch Bay again for Ancient Murrelets. Three very distant ones were found, but thankfully, they eventually flew in and fed much closer to shore where I was able to get fairly good photos of them.
A Pacific Wren sang right next to the seal blind, and this time it was better lit by the partial sun.
Northern Fur Seals were also jockeying for position just out from the seal blind.
After dinner, we checked the Salt Lagoon and I got some photos of the first-year Glaucous Gull. A Glaucous-winged Gull was also there for comparison.
We left there and were headed for the Antone Slough when David got a call that Mariah had spotted 2 Sandhill Cranes flying over the hill away from the lagoon. That happened to be the way we were headed and, sure enough, both cranes were walking through the grasses just off the road.
Also in that area were 3 Cackling Geese of the "Aleutian" subspecies, which show a white neck band.
At the slough, I spotted the 2 Long-billed Dowitchers that had been seen there earlier in the day.
Back out at the van, a Semipalmated Plover was doing a distraction display to keep us away from the nest.
Back at the hotel, I started doing some preliminary packing for tomorrow's flight back to the mainland.
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