Only a birder would complain about there being “no good storms”! Paul Lehman updates us from Gambell:

This year’s weather is the WORST I’ve had here in the more than ten years I’ve been coming to Gambell in fall: since my arrival on August 22, we’ve had no good storms and no appreciable wind from anywhere between the W and SE–the best here for Asian and North American landbird vagrants.

And so, despite depressingly steady 20-25+ mph N/NE winds for a bunch of days now, I’m quite happy with what we’ve seen so far this year given the lack of meteorological support. On Friday we had the fifth Dusky Warbler of the season, plus two brief Bramblings, the first of the season. From the Alaska mainland, A very wayward Red-breasted Nuthatch showed up Thursday from the Alaska mainland (we get one or two here about every other year), as well as another White-crowned Sparrow.

From the seawatch, Thursday’s Common Merganser of the North American race was the first ever in fall for Gambell and St. Lawrence Island. The first half of last week saw a large push of 32+ Ancient Murrelets, and another Kittlitz’s Murrelet appeared on September 10. Typically peaking in mid-September, Short-tailed Shearwaters have been seen in numbers of up to 500,000 per day, and we’ve recorded several more Yellow-billed Loons and Spectacled Eider.

Recent miscellanea have included a McKay’s-type Bunting on Thursday, the presumably last migrant Bluethroats, Arctic Warblers, and two White Wagtails still hanging on. There have also been several more Red-throated and japonicus American Pipits.

Birders visiting Nome since the end of August have turned up as many as three Northern Hawk Owls along the road to Safety Sound. An even better wanderer was the Gray Jay seen perched on a pole at the Nome River mouth (!) on September 8. And there have also been the “usual” one or two Arctic Loons in the usual area on Safety Sound, several Spectacled Eiders, Emperor Geese, Slaty-backed Gulls, and Yellow-billed Loons, plus a couple of Red-throated Pipits.