Alaska - Let the Games Begin!

6/5/2009 - The adventure began before we even left Sacramento – an hour delay which made us miss our connection at Portland, a revised flight schedule via Seattle, running back and forth from terminal to terminal and finally arriving at Anchorage at 3:00 am (and hoping our bags make it to Nome)! A 3 hour sleep on the floor of the terminal found us anxious and enthusiastic to go find our target bird for the Anchorage area.

Catching a cab at 5:45 am to Westchester lagoon we were immediately greeted by mew gulls, Glaucous-winged gulls, greater scaup, mallard, American wigeon, Canada goose (either lesser or taverneri cackler), black-billed magpies and the calls of downy woodpecker, tree swallow and American robin. Dark-eyed juncos and orange-crowned warblers (and perhaps Myrtle warbler) called from the poplars.

Crossing to the western end of the lagoon we found a very close and unperturbed pair of red-necked grebes tending a nest.