Juneau 6/11--NORTHWESTERN CROW, Mew Gull, Common Raven, Varied Thrush

Our port of call, Juneau, didn't work out as well as I had hoped. It started off propitiously coming up the harbor, Mew Gulls, Bald Eagles, & crows that were definitely NORTHWESTERN CROWS.

But, while Shari went panning for gold (too touristy for me), I had planned to bird Gold Creek Basin, not realizing what a hike it would be nor just how quickly Juneau peters out to wilderness.

15 minute walk outside Juneau

Once I had crossed this plank bridge I was still only about 3/4 of the way to destination, so I did some arithmetic in my head & realized that wouldn't have enough time to the bird the trail & be back in time to meet Shari.

I was beginning to bird along the road itself but along came a rain shower and looking into a tree for birds through water droplets on glasses and binoculars was not going to work. 

Walking out of town I hadn't huffed & puffed so much since the last time I was in San Francisco. They have impressive hills in Juneau. Still, people are determined to live on these hills. How these people expect to get their groceries into their new home, much less their furniture, I don't know.

Photo: Shari Zirlin

Back downtown I did run into a lot of Common Ravens--they are humongous and really quite impressive if you enjoy looking at ugly birds.

In the harbor, there were Pigeon Guillemots and even though they're relatively common, I just don't get to see alcids very often. 

Shari & I rendezvoused @ 4 & rode the Mt.Roberts Tramway 1800 vertical feet to the top. It was very much like riding the A train @ rush hour.

We had planned to walk & bird the 1/2 mile Alpine Loop, but it has been a cool spring in SE Alaska and snow has not melted, leaving parts of the trail covered with slushy snow over ice. Neither of us  felt like dealing with winter walking conditions in June, especially as we would have been slogging behind 50 non-birding, bird scaring tourists. 

We did take some pictures

Juneau from Mt. Roberts
Photo: Shari Zirlin

MS Westerdam from Mt. Roberts

So the only bird we added up there was Varied Thrush--we heard a couple clearly singing. There were other birds to be found up there, I'm sure, but every time we'd stop to look & listen, we'd be hit by an onslaught of tourists & their kids, so we had a drink & a snack at the restaurant & rode down the mountain, back to the ship.

Juneau

Black Scoter	Juneau Harbor
Great Blue Heron	Juneau Harbor
Bald Eagle	Juneau Harbor
Bonaparte's Gull	Juneau Harbor
Mew Gull	Juneau Harbor
Pigeon Guillemot	Juneau Harbor
Rock Pigeon	Juneau--downtown
NORTHWESTERN CROW	Juneau Harbor
Common Raven	Juneau--downtown
Tree Swallow	Juneau--downtown
Barn Swallow	Juneau--downtown
American Robin	Mt. Roberts Tramway
Varied Thrush	Mt. Roberts Tramway