Paul Lehman writes:

The news out of Gambell the past 5 days includes the following:

Spectacled Eiders continue to pass by in reduced numbers, with the recent high being 715 birds on 4 Oct. The ratio of females to males in slowly increasing.

Some impressive late dates being set (despite the cold and strong northerly winds the past week) were topped by a NORTHERN WHEATEAR photo’d on the extraordinary date of 4 October. My late date had been 17 Sep (2002)! Also record late were a Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel on 1 Oct, Parasitic Jaeger on 3 Oct, American Pipit on 3 Oct, and Ancient Murrelet and Red-necked Grebe on 4 Oct.

New one-day high counts set include 157 Yellow-billed Loons (all alternate adults) on 4 Oct, 1080 Pigeon Guillemots on 2 Oct, and 207 Common Eiders on 4 Oct.

Other miscellanea include 2 Black Guillemots (first of the season this year), a couple more whitish Gyrfalcons, another Ruby-crowned Kinglet through 3 Oct, Slaty-backed Gull, and 7200 Crested Auklets on 4 Oct being a large number for this late in the season.