Absolutely outrageous is a good way to describe today, if words could even describe it. I slept in until 12:30, seeing as it was my day off. I decided I would go down to the bluff in town to do some seawatching. As I was on my way out, a local saw my scope and asked "You going to look for the Polar Bear?" I replied "Well, yea that would be nice to see one." She then replied "Its coming down the shore now." My heart jumped and I bolted down to the shore, where I could see people on ATV's looking out into the ice. I ran down to them and they said it was in town and some other locals had to scare it back to the ice. They said it was on the first ice ridge behind the ice. I began scoping with shaking hands and watched its backside go behind an ice clump. It then came out and climbed up on an ice mound and began eating something. I ran back to get the rest of our crew, and everyone watched it for the next half hour as it slowly walked further into the horizon. The one thing I wanted to see in Barrow, over any bird, butterfly or anything else, was Polar Bear. It's funny to think that Polar Bear was my first bear species I've seen in the wild. Anyway here are some pictures.

After the excitement of the Polar Bear wore off a little, I went out to do some birding. Highlights were Red-necked Stint, 11 Spectacled Eider (my lifer), 9 Steller's Eider and 3 King Eider. Here is a picture of one of the Spectacled Eiders.

It was quite an exciting day. If this week was any indication of how the rest of the field season will go, it should be a great summer!

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