Snow surveys and nest searching is what my day composed of. The snow is almost gone, except around the big fences. There is still ice on the bottom of the little ponds, making walking on the tundra slippery. On my first plot of the day, I found a Semipalmated Sandpiper nest with two eggs. A little later in the day, as I was conducting one of the snow surveys on the same plot, I noticed some very angry Pomarine Jaegers. They were chasing off every other Jaeger in sight. Then their attention turned to me. The pair consisted of a dark morph and a light morph. The dark morph was the most aggressive toward me, especially when I found their nest! He never made contact but got very close. I got some pictures and video of him swooping in at me.

Here is a picture of their nest, including one really cool looking egg.

Not long after this, I found a Long-billed Dowitcher nest. I watched the female lay an egg, fly off to the male and they copulated again. Here is their nest with two eggs.

I also finally got the Red Phalarope picture I have been wanting for a while. I can never get enough pictures of them.

Here is a picture of a male Pectoral Sandpiper who was giving his hooting display to his female, but I never found a nest.

On my second plot, I found a Parasitic Jaeger. Pomarines always sit, but this was the first Parasitic Jaeger I have seen that wasn't flying. It was really nice to watch the Pomarines harass it and get to see the structure differences.

I also had a grab a shot of this Snow Bunting that just got done taking a bath. Nice to see them in breeding plumage.

This Lapland Longspur sat up on the wire and sang right in front of me. Also nice to see in breeding plumage.

On my way back, this breeding male Long-tailed Duck was close by in a pond on the tundra.

Other interesting birds today were King, Common, and Steller's Eider, Common Redpoll, and Hoary Redpoll, and the first Buff-breasted Sandpiper of the year. This is a good bird here, only a few are seen each year, if at all, but there are sometimes leks. It has been a great year for Pectoral Sandpipers and Buff-breasted Sandpiper could follow the trend. Tomorrow is more nest searching. Who knows what will happen!

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