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Birdwatchers flock to shore towns
Migrating dunlins and sandpipers highlight shorebird festivals
By Natalie Phillips / Anchorage Daily News
They come by the thousands. No, make that the millions.
Not the people; the birds.
Every spring, shorebirds -- mostly dunlins and western sandpipers -- battle storms and travel as far as 1,900 miles in 48 hours to layover and feed on Southcentral Alaska tidal flats for about a two-week period before setting flight for their nesting grounds in western Alaska, specifically the Yukon-Kuskowim Delta.
Their layover is short.
''It all happens quick, in about a 10-day to two-week period,'' said Stan Senner, executive director of Audubon Alaska. That period comes in early May.
Some of the same shorebirds can be seen near Anchorage on the Upper Cook Inlet mudflats, but to see ''the main pulse'' of the migration, a trip to Cordova or Homer is in order, Senner said. The shorebirds favor the vast tidal flats of Homer and Cordova for the small invertebrates and fly larvae on the surface or down in the mud.
Festivals for all
Both towns host shorebird festivals in early May. The Copper River Delta Shorebird Festival and the Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival.
At both events, numerous workshops and viewing opportunities are planned. And in both places, birdwatchers will see thousands of dunlins and sandpipers, but each site offers distinct advantages, said Senner, who is a guest speaker at the Cordova festival.
''I usually tell people that the attraction of Cordova is a larger number of birds, a smaller number of people and a more wilderness setting. You can get off the road in Cordova. In Homer, you're pretty much limited to the Homer Spit.''
As many as 2,500 people attend the Homer festival.
Homer's easy to reach
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