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Anchorage Big Day: A Big Day in a Big Place
None of us had ever done an Anchorage big day before, certainly never in mid-March when lots of wintery weather was still likely for the next couple of months. We were participating in Anchorage Audubon’s first ever big day wintertime competition (even though it was officially the first full day of spring). There were only five teams participating, including our four-member women’s team. It seemed like the only rules were that all team members when birding had to bird together and all members who were birding (not napping or off eating somewhere) had to see/hear every bird to count it.
Anyone who has ever heard me talk about my big year (or actually about any bird-thing) knows that owls are my favorite birds. It is no surprise therefore to learn that one of the best things about this big day is that we began and ended with owling, AND that we began and ended with actually hearing owls!
My day, before team members arrived to pick me up, began with me out on our porch hearing a Northern Saw-whet Owl calling (I had only heard one sporadically in our neighborhood before this, one of which had been heard about 24 hours earlier). Between running around and dressing for a cold day of birding and taking out our dog and doing other early morning chores, I kept popping out on the porch to listen, and the owl kept calling. It called until two of my team members arrived and also heard the owl at 4:30. Bird #1 for our big day.
We did not have a very good idea of how many bird species were possible for us to get for the day, particularly since this has been a very unusual warm, low-snow winter, and there were many areas with much more open water than in a normal year, but we were eager to be on our way. We piled into the car and headed north of Anchorage to Eagle River (within the Anchorage count area), and spent time wandering around in the dark not hearing anything at the Nature Center there and looking up at the spectacularly clear starry sky. After a quick stop for coffee, we drove south again to Arctic Valley Road and drove slowly up the road listening and looking for birds as the sky gradually got lighter and the sun began to light up the mountain peaks. At the end of the road, after hearing our first Common Raven, we heard a distant Willow Ptarmigan, and one of them flew across the large parking lot. When it landed it was difficult to find it again against the white snow but then it walked in front of dark branches to give us a better view. On the way down the road we added Hairy and American Three-toed Woodpeckers to our list.
About this time we made phone contact with a man who is a local birder, knows the area and the birds well, and was doing the big day as a 1-member team. Although our team and he were in competition against each other, he was helpful enough to tell us about his sightings, and then we began to keep in contact with him so we could discuss where we were and what we were each seeing. Eventually, our team began coordinating our birding with him and we did some birding together as the day went along.
He and our team explored north Anchorage, mostly together. We added Mallards, an American Dipper, Common Goldeneyes, and new spring arrivals of Herring Gulls and a single Green-winged Teal at Ship Creek. At Government Hill we added White-crowned Sparrows which had been around most of the winter, at least one of which was now singing making the little brush-lovers easier to find, as well as Starlings, White-winged Crossbills, Steller’s Jays, a Red-breasted Nuthatch and a Bohemian Waxwing.
One must-visit site for the teams of big day competitors was a local birding hotspot officially called Spenard Crossing, but this winter being named by birders for the “Odd Couple”, a Purple Finch and a Cassin’s Finch, Anchorage rarities, that have been wintering there for months and which I had photographed earlier many times. Most of us were there at the same time in late morning on our big day, joshing about how wonderfully we were doing and generally trying to unnerve our competitors.
Our team took a quick break to pick up sandwiches in downtown Anchorage before checking back at Spenard Crossing one more time and then exploring a few outlying neighborhoods for birds that we had heard were around or that we expected might be around. After a stop at our house in southeast Anchorage to let out and feed our poor ailing dog, we explored some east and south-east Anchorage neighborhoods, adding Pine Siskins and just one American Robin and one Bald Eagle. By this time (about 4:00), our team’s list was up to 27 species.
Our next planned destination was the area south of Anchorage (south down to Portage). Although we intended to come back to Anchorage for end-of-the-day owling, our birding in Girdwood and Portage went so well that our birding day ended there. As we drove the highway south, we kept our eyes peeled for waterfowl, but saw nothing at all.
In Girdwood, we easily found a couple Northwestern Crows (only one or two are found in Anchorage and are very difficult to find that far north). We then wandered around the Alyeska Resort grounds and through some very nice woods. There we found a Golden-crowned Kinglet, Chestnut-backed Chickadee and Varied Thrush. Spending time in a Girdwood neighborhood near some feeders allowed us to add Pine Grosbeaks, which until very recently had been easy to find in Anchorage, and a Downy Woodpecker (normally very easy to find in Anchorage but not this day). I also convinced my team members and our non-team member birding friend to pose next to a very large tree on the resort grounds.
Before taking a break for a very late dinner, we drove the highway along Turnagain Arm, again looking for waterfowl and finally finding Common Mergansers and a pair of Barrow’s Goldeneyes as the last of the sun’s rays came across the Arm.
After eating at a local dining spot popular with skiers, we drove up an apparently well-known road for birding that leads out of Girdwood into the hills. It was extremely dark, but the road appeared to be surrounded by deep forest. As we were driving, over the noise of the car, we were able to hear a Boreal Owl calling loudly from somewhere very near the road. As we were about to leave the road to return to Anchorage, we stopped one more time and could easily hear a distant hooting Great Horned Owl as soon as we stopped. By now it was nearly 11:00 pm, so we drove back to Anchorage, totally exhausted. I was very happy to begin and end the day with owls, particularly since I had missed Boreal Owl completely during my 2008 ABA big year.
About midday the day after our big day competition we learned that our team had tied another team for first place with our 37 species! We had talked in the car on the way home about how we were going to do the completion next year, assuming that there is a competition next year. While we are wiser now on where birds can be found, it is very possible that next year will be a “normal” year and there will be lots of snow and little or no open water. What we learned this year can only be just a beginning on next year’s planning. It is likely that we will need to do some major adjustments. I would be raring to work on this planning now, but I need to get a lot more sleep….
Join the American Birding Association at www.aba.org!
Source: http://blog.aba.org/2015/03/anchorage-big-day-a-big-day-in-a-big-place.html
