Day 7—Today was a very windy day and the birds were hunkered down for the most part.  I headed out Council Road and Safety Lagoon once again. There was little activity at the Nome River Crossing and there were no birds visible from Nome Point.  Once we reached the Lagoon it did pick up but not very exciting as the most numerous species was Northern Pintails.  My objective was to confirm the nesting Gyrfalcon under the bridge at Salmon River.

This  was the extent of travel out Council for the time being.  The total lack of snow or ice remains striking to me.  There was some snow pack left in the higher elevations.

On the return I did find a few interesting birds.  The Common Eiders were out in great numbers.

Along the shoreline in a large group of gulls I found a nice Sabine's Gull.  There were many Black-legged Kittiwakes among the raft of gulls as well

And to complete the day we had a small group of Harlequin ducks at Nome Point.  This is one of the most beautiful ducks in my opinion.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day with less or no wind.