Flock of our pet Harlequin Ducks

Beautiful Hooded Merganser

Hi Friends!

In October and November we were seeing a lot of seabirds.  There are a variety of birds around the island, but for now I would like to focus on the migratory and exotic Sea-Birds that frequent Kodiak.  The whole checklist of identified Kodiak bird Species consists of 237 species that have been recorded.  Kodiak has the greatest diversity of wintering birds.  In the winter Kodiak is home to sea ducks and other water birds whos combined population is well over 1 million.  This information was gathered by and noted by MacIntosh R. 1998 Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge & Kodiak Island Archipelago bird list.  http://www.npwrc.usgs.govkodiak.htm.

The wide variety of upland and marine habitats and temperatures moderated by the Gulf of Alaska give Kodiak the greatest diversity of wintering birds in the state.  I would like to focus on the Fall and Winter birds of Kodiak for now.  George and I spend a lot of time out doors on the water.  We get the opportunity to see a lot of wildlife.  Even though we see birds all summer in particular the winter seabirds are very interesting.  We start seeing Puffins and Auklets in the spring.  Auklets kind of look like small puffins.  We tend to see the Puffins thinning out in September and are gone by October except for a few stragglers.  It is common to see Loons and Comorants near where we live.  We see a family of Harlequin Ducks that live in the lagoon in the front of our cabin.  It is a family of a mom and dad with about 12 chicks.  They were there all summer feeding every day and by December the chicks were almost as large as the parents.  Harlequn Ducks are a migratory bird, but with most species some do not migrate and live in an area year round. 

We see quite a few Hooded Mergansers, and Common Mergansers in flocks.  We see Murres in singles and in flocks of about 12.  When we are out in the boat we usually see Marbeled Murrelets, Kittliz’s Murrelets, and Ancient Murrelets.  We do not see flocks of them, usually we only see them in pairs.  In the winter exotic birds migrate through Kodiak.  We saw a flock of about 30 Old Squaw and a Flock of Bufflehads.  The Buffleheads mix in with other sea birds like Harlequin and Goldeneyes, but we noticed that the Old Squaws stick closely together.  Another exotic bird that migrates through Kodiak are the Eider Ducks.  They are very beautiful.  Great Blue Herons are amungst the birds we see, usually with Cormorants.  All in all we have identified ourselves about 37 seabirds including ducks and Geese.  I do want to mention that this is not including the birds that live inland.  That is another story! 

Kodiak Island Comorants

We look forward to sharing more of our adventures with you!  If you would like to see a cool blog post from the Kodiak Audubon they have an interesting post- Results of the 18 December 2010 Kodiak Christmas Bird count.  http://www.kodiakaudubon.blogspot.com/

Thanks, and take care from the Wilds of Alaska Jill & George Davis

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