Alaskan Owl!!!!!

 Well, I really wanted to see a bird in Alaska.  Any bird, really.  I just thought it would be cool to have a checklist in Alaska.  I got a couple of ravens and pigeons in Fairbanks at our hotel, so at least that much was done.  Excellent!

Then at the igloo, I saw a Canada jay several times, which is a new bird for me, so that was exciting!  A checklist in Alaska with a new bird, what could be better?

Well, it turns out that there is a woman who works in the restaurant who is into birds, and she told me that sometimes there is an owl on the treetops.  So I was sure to be on the lookout!  And in the igloo, one time when a bird flew by, I got my bins on it just for a second, and it was *not* a Canada jay.  It sure looked like an owl!  So we suited up and headed out to try to find it again!

It was not hard to find.  As soon as we turned the corner from our igloo we saw it on a treetop!  It was awesome!  

A northern hawk owl.  We watched it for a while, and then went to do the snow machine, which I did not love.  But after that we were able to find the owl again, and even saw it fly!

It flew closer to our igloo, and landed on someone's railing briefly.  The woman from the restaurant saw us and came over to make sure we saw it, meanwhile Jack set up the scope on the owl, so we all stood on our patio being happy and excited and getting great scope views of the owl.  It was awesome!

The grebes!

 Okay, so there are these duck-type birds called grebes.  And when they are courting, they turn to each other and pop up and run across the top of the water!  I've seen it in videos an dit looks totally fake, like a cartoon.  But I noticed that there is a lake near-ish San Diego where I might be able to see it!  I found a guide, borrowed my sister's car, and gave it a go.

The lake is mostly for fishing, there were no other birders there.  But there were plenty of ducks and other water birds!

My first eared grebe, very cool.  A pair of cinnamon teals hanging out, very cool.  A bunch of buffleheads, a couple of ruddy ducks, a good amount of while pelicans.  All very cool!  A visit by 2 juvie bald eagles, a visit by a red-tailed hawk, a flyover blue heron.  A coot that was very curious about the boat and came right over.  A few ruddy ducks!  

All of this was wonderful.  But the main stars were the western and Clark's grebes, and their crazy rushing, which is what they call it when they run on top of the water.  Awesome!  Hilarious!  Did not disappoint!

Get ready:

There they go!!!!!!!

Sometimes it's not a pair courting, sometime's it a competitive thing.  So sometimes there are 3 or 4 or even more going at once!

It was a wonderful amazing day and a pure joy to see this in action.

Oh, and finally had a good look at a cormorant in breeding plumage.  This is why they are called a double crested cormorant!