Senior Leader Paul Lehman writes from Gambell with the latest sightings–and some disturbing news:

After eight straight days of blowing northerlies, we finally had a calm day yesterday–and the dense fog rolled in! But we also all got to see a fairly cooperative SIBERIAN ACCENTOR in the far boneyard area. This species has proved to be annual in the fall, with 14 records since 1999. A trickle of Sharp-tailed Sandpipers and pipits also continued.

Yesterday, September 14, I also counted 127 Ancient Murrelets passing the point, blowing out of the water my previous one-day high count of 31 birds. These birds are all or almost all post-breeding dispersers from the Aleutians region far to the south; a few may now be breeding slightly farther north in the Pribilofs. Annual in very small numbers, one or two Red-necked Grebes are also around.

The news from the Aleutians is not good. It has been very slow out at Shemya the past two weeks, with nothing particularly good to report.

And the news from Adak is dire: the “town” has basically run out of money, energy, etc., and they are basically closing the place down. Whether this is a “long-term temporary” situation or  permanent I’m not sure. I had heard rumors of this a few days ago, and then there was a story to this effect in an Alaska newspaper today. In any case, if there’s not a turnaround, there may be no more bird tours to Adak.