We took the road up to Lake Jean, which is actually the southern tip of Andrew Lake.
Two of the 5 Common Loons found there were fairly close to shore, which made some decent photos possible. Unfortunately, the birds were backlit.
We also took the road up along the southwestern shore of Andrew Lake where we didn't find anything other than the expected species. We backtracked down the road and went south to Sweeper Cove where a small group of Harlequin Ducks were hanging out.
A Rock Ptarmigan displayed along one of the roads just north of there.
The other birding group of six had scheduled a boat trip to go out and see Whiskered Auklets this afternoon. The boat was only allowed to take six birders. I was hoping to be able to go out with them since the auklet would be a 'lifer'. A week or so before the trip, I had talked on the phone with one birder in their group, Steve Price. He had seen the auklet in Dutch Harbor, so he offered me the chance to take his place on the boat. It was so nice of him to do that, but I was worried that I would take his place and we would see something that would be a 'lifer' for him. He still insisted that he was fine with it, so I was all set to go with the rest of his group. However this afternoon, we met up a little beforehand and Steve told me that the owner of the boat, Scott Bullock, would not let me take his place because I did not book my lodging through his company, Aleutian Outfitters. When he showed up with the boat, I walked up and personally asked him if there was any way I could go on the boat and he said, "No", because he had to "promote his own business". That didn't make any sense at all since he still would have gotten paid the same amount for the trip, plus I would have given him an extra tip for allowing me to go along. And, I would have actually promoted his business by letting others know about it, but he was basically being spiteful because I didn't book through his company. So, he ended up losing money, and there's no way I will ever mention his company in a positive way. I left pretty bummed out, got in Frank's car, and we continued birding on the island.
While checking the airport's "Landing Lights", Frank spotted and followed a group of Bar-tailed Godwits flying over Kuluk Bay that eventually landed on Navfac Beach. We drove about halfway up the beach to a notch in the dunes and slowly walked out to where they were. The nine godwits were unconcerned with us taking photos of them. They kept coming closer and closer as they fed along the shoreline to the point where I couldn't keep all nine of them in the frame.
We continued up to Clam Lagoon. The tide was high when we drove around it today, so there were no mudflats.
One of the Marbled Murrelets was close enough for a photo.
After dinner, we found one of the Hawfinches at Frank's Seal Drive feeder.
Another check of the airport's "Landing Lights" produced 3 Ruddy Turnstones and 8 Rock Sandpipers.
We ran into one of the other birding groups that told us they had found Bramblings, Hawfinch, and the White Wagtail up at the Andrew Lake Recreation Area. We headed up there and found 6 Bramblings and a Hawfinch, but we didn't find the wagtail.
We checked Navfac Beach again on the way back to the house, but it only held a few Glaucous-winged Gulls.
No trip list birds were seen, so the total remained at 58 species.
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