The sighting of a rare redwing thrush in Seward recently highlighted the extremes to which birders will go to add to their life lists. The redwing is common to Europe and Asia, but not Alaska.
The bird was spotted November 15 according to Carol Grizwold, who was first to notice it while walking her dog on the beach.
Grizwold says the bird was probably blown to Seward’s Lowell point beach by a storm and pinned there by wind for about twelve days.
Grizwold posted the sighting on a birdwatcher’s website, and Birders drove down to the Resurrection Bay town from Fairbanks to see it, others flew in from Kodiak and Juneau.
People even flew in from as far away as Colorado and Texas to get a look, but the bird left the area before they could see it. The redwing stayed around Seward for about a week and a half, but hasn’t been sighted since November 25, but Griswold says she’s hopeful it’ll appear again. The sighting of the redwing is only the second in North America.
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APTI Reporter-Producer Ellen Lockyer started her radio career in the late 1980s, after a stint at bush Alaska weekly newspapers, the Copper Valley Views and the Cordova Times. When the Exxon Valdez ran aground in Prince William Sound, Valdez Public Radio station KCHU needed a reporter, and Ellen picked up the microphone.
Since then, she has literally traveled the length of the state, from Attu to Eagle and from Barrow to Juneau, covering Alaska stories on the ground for the AK show, Alaska News Nightly, the Alaska Morning News and for Anchorage public radio station, KSKA
elockyer (at) alaskapublic (dot) org | 907.550.8446 | About Ellen
