Chena Lakes Observations 2025-05-17 (publ. 2025-05-17)

Emily and I visited Chena Lakes today while the kids were with cousins, which has an artificial sand beach for relaxing and for swimming. Chena Lakes is about a 10 minute drive from Fairbanks, near the city of North Pole.

The sun was high and bright today, though unfortunately that was offset by a strong, cold wind, so that it was not quite the relaxing sun-bathing experience I was aiming for. We came out a little too early in the season. Nevertheless, it was nice to walk along the beach. Because the beach was mostly empty, we got to see a few birds that normally wouldn't be around.

11:48am

A large, imposing hawk-like bird perches on top of a tall spruce tree near by. From head to tail it looks to be around 3 feet long. It has a pronounced hooked beak, and its head and neck bend around dramatically as it looks for its next meal. Its feathers are a mottled brown and light brown, and the edges of its wing appear dark grey and light grey. When it eventually flies off, its wingspan is huge, appearing to be around 5 or 6 feet wide. Later, we identify this as a golden eagle, which along with the bald-eagle is one of our most impressive birds.

12:14pm

A small bird walks in the shallow water next to the beach. It's most striking features is its long, narrow beak, which looks like a thin straw, but with a little curve to it on the top. It pokes this long beak in the water occasionally, no doubt eating bugs or such like. The bird appears to be about eight inches long, head to tail. The top of the back is a dark grey, speckled black, while the belly is a light grey. Later we identify this as a "lesser yellow legged sandpiper", though to me the rubbery, thin legs look orange rather than yellow.

12:42pm

A bird, somewhere off in the spruce trees, gives off a rapid, high pitched "tweet tweet tweet tweet..." Each string of tweets consists of about 10 tweets over about one or 1.5 seconds. Emily's whoBIRD app identifies this as a "wood lark".

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