The group seemed happy walking back to camp after a full morning of hard birding.

Walt had chili, chips and PB&J sandwiches for Lunch. The guys were anxious to get back up and resume our search so our afternoon was spent on the wooded bench this time to the west of the ranger cabin. About ½ hour into the walk a good suspect – a chickadee with significantly more white on the cheek and a hoarser call was seen and heard by many in the group and the chase was on! We leap-frog up a boggy hillside for an hour hope for a diagnostic look but ended up agreeing that the bird – who was seen a number of times by various members of the group – was merely an aberrant boreal chickadee.

The mood was noticeably less carefree as we bird back towards camp – clearly the guys are starting to worry about the possibility of not finding our quarry. After a dinner of stuffed potatoes and Tim’s chum salmon we head to a heavily wooded and shrubby bench between the Kelly and Noatak – still no Siberian tit but we add olive-sided flycatcher and a pair of juvenile northern shrikes to our trip list. Back to camp by 9:45 pm for a restless nights sleep.

August 6, 2009

A cooler 40 degree wakeup but less windy so the mosquitos have increased noticeably. Pancakes and bacon for breakfast. A repeat trip to the ranger station and the hills behind it seem our most promising plan of action but it turns out to be less birdy than the previous morning. We were able to add merlin and belted kingfisher at the productive pond beyond the station but the long morning walk results in not even a boreal chickadee.

The slow mornings yield decides our afternoon plan, so after a quick and early lunch we borrow the beached National Park Service canoe we located half hidden in some willows and I do a test paddle across the swift and wide Noatak. I then shuttle the whole group in just two trips to the south shore – to bird the last unexplored patch of deciduous riparian habitat in the area.