Shorebird festival entertains birders of all ages and abilites

The 31st annual Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival last week fulfilled its promise to provide activities for birders of all ages, abilities and experience to celebrate the spring migratory return of Alaska’s shorebirds.

Along with traditional “boat on water” and “feet on trails” guided tours, events included casual birding walks that also offered wheelchair accessibility, activities for junior birders such as scavenger hunts and an interactive Pre-K Puffins Early Learning Program, and even options for dogs and their owners such as Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge’s B.A.R.K Ranger program.

Festival turnout seems to have returned to normal by pre-COVID standards, according to festival coordinator Melanie Dufour. In an email to Homer News, she wrote that people came from all over Alaska and from out of state to participate in this year’s schedule of events. According to Dufour, 735 people signed up for the basic festival registration, and there were 2,854 add-on tickets sold.

“Everyone so appreciated the entire community’s welcome,” Dufour wrote. “As the Festival Coordinator and on behalf of the planning committee, I so appreciate the dedication of Homer’s businesses, sponsors, volunteers and continued enthusiasm and support.”

One family, visiting from Fairbanks and attending the festival for the first time, enjoyed Friday’s “Birdability on Beluga Slough” event led by AMNWR ranger Betsy Rogers. They shared that it was “neat to see sandhill cranes in a different place,” as they wouldn’t usually see them in Fairbanks until August.

About 20 people attended the event on the Beluga Slough trail, including some from the Chugiak and Anchorage areas. Attendees ranged in age and experience, from youth to longtime birders. Some had little to no previous birding experience at all, though all came with plenty of enthusiasm.

The Birdability group spotted sandhill cranes, American wigeons, northern pintail ducks, and greater yellowlegs on Friday. A flock of greater white-fronted geese flew overhead about halfway through the event.

Nancy Lord, who was volunteering for the event, also reported that she’d earlier heard a gadwall on the slough, a species which is not seen in this area very often. Another unusual species spotted on Friday were tundra swans.

One attendee spotted a large flock of “peeps,” a general term for shorebirds, on the lower slough that she thought might be small sandpipers. One of the junior birders also spotted a song sparrow perching in a willow bush less than a foot from the edge of the trail.

There were 128 species spotted and reported this year, about the usual number spotted in previous years’ festivals, according to Lani Raymond, festival volunteer and founding member of Kachemak Bay Birders.

Several sightings of a bristle-thighed curlew were reported on Friday from the Anchor River, according to Raymond. She wrote in an email to Homer News that “this species is considered ‘accidental,’ and occurring here at this time is exceptional.”

Another rare sighting reported this year was of a red-necked stint during a guided hike across the bay, Raymond said.

Other sightings throughout the festival included an osprey in Mud Bay, a Rufous hummingbird near the end of the Homer Spit and across Kachemak Bay, where they are much more numerous, according to Raymond, and “all three godwits—Marbled, Hudsonian, (and) Bar-tailed” in many locations. The largest group of sandpipers reported was estimated to be about 1,000.

In addition to shorebird sightings, more songbirds arrived on Sunday, including the hermit thrush and Lincoln’s sparrow, Raymond wrote.

The Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival welcomes suggestions and volunteers for future festivals. For more information, visit kachemakshorebird.org/.