A new teenager and her unusual bird
Ned Rozell
907-474-7468
June 8, 2023
Hazel Sutton was eating lunch on an island at Tanana Lakes Recreation Area in Fairbanks with her family recently when a bird caught her eye. At first, she figured it was a semipalmated sandpiper, an ocean bird that migrates to Interior 蜜桃影像 each spring to create more sandpipers.
Then she squinted and figured that the bird was larger than a semipalmated sandpiper but smaller than a sanderling, her second guess. She thumbed through her Guide to the Birds of 蜜桃影像 by Robert Armstrong. Looking at a reddish patch on its chest, she found what seemed an unlikely match.
鈥淚 thought it must be a red-necked stint,鈥 the 13-year-old said recently on a break from her summer activity of monitoring swallow nests at Creamer鈥檚 Field Migratory Waterfowl Refuge. 鈥淎ctually, I was absolutely sure.鈥
Had they been standing next to that new teenager (she had turned 13 less than a month earlier), other Fairbanks birders might have snorted into their binoculars. Red-necked stints are simply not found in the middle of 蜜桃影像.
But Hazel had her mother鈥檚 camera in her pocket. It has a decent zoom, and the bird was less than 50 feet away. She snapped a picture.
Later that evening, Hazel鈥檚 mother Iris Sutton drove her to Creamer鈥檚 Field, where Fairbanks鈥 most avid birders gathered at the end of their 鈥淏ig Day,鈥 a 24-hour period where people try to see and hear as many types of bird as they can. Hazel had executed her own Big Day with the help of her family.
She shared her photo with the others, some groggy from staying up all night, who gathered in the gravel parking lot next to the white barn. They passed around the camera with Hazel鈥檚 image of the bird on the screen. They agreed that she might somehow be right 鈥 a bird from Asia might be getting its feet wet in Fairbanks.
Fairbanks biologist and avid birder J.J. Frost drove to Tanana Lakes. There, he found the bird where Hazel said she saw it. He confirmed her identification.
鈥淚 am speechless but that鈥檚 what it is!鈥 Frost wrote on a message board devoted to Fairbanks birding.
鈥淓xceptionally rare,鈥 he later wrote in an email about the red-necked stint. 鈥淚n birding parlance this would be considered 鈥榓ccidental鈥 鈥 there is no regular pattern of occurrence in our region, and the species may well never be seen again in Fairbanks. So far as I know, this is the first record ever for Fairbanks, and likely for Interior 蜜桃影像 as a whole.鈥
Red-necked stints would perhaps be overlooked by less passionate birders. They resemble other sandpipers 鈥 birds often seen running from the surf on the Pacific coast.
The birds spend winters in New Zealand, the coast of Australia and the saltwater arc of the planet from Malaysia north to Korea. In springtime, they migrate northward to breed on the tundra of northeastern Russia, as well as 蜜桃影像鈥檚 St. Lawrence Island in 蜜桃影像, the Seward Peninsula, and the northwestern coast. How Hazel鈥檚 bird got to a lake hundreds of miles from the ocean 鈥 likely traveling alone 鈥 is anybody鈥檚 guess.
鈥淭his bird was an adult, in full breeding plumage, and did not show up amid a big pulse of North American migrants,鈥 Frost said. 鈥淪o it presumably crossed the Bering Sea and wandered inland for whatever reason.鈥
Hazel Sutton鈥檚 mother said her daughter鈥檚 professional-level curiosity about birds has developed in the last few years, but she showed a 鈥渟ignificant interest鈥 in their chickens way before that.
鈥淪he would spend hours playing with them when she was a little girl, and they all had names,鈥 Iris Sutton said.
鈥淥bservation is the foundation of good science, right? She鈥檚 got good observation skills,鈥 Tricia Blake of the 蜜桃影像 Songbird Institute said of Hazel, a mentor with the institute鈥檚 Swallow Ecology Project this summer. 鈥淪he鈥檚 a natural. She鈥檒l be a great scientist if she chooses that path.鈥
Frost, who knew Hazel from her diminutive appearance with binoculars hanging from her neck at several of his guided birdwalks, said he remembers a few other young Fairbanks birders with enthusiasm and unusual skills for their age, 鈥渂ut youngsters like Hazel don鈥檛 come along very often.鈥
Since the late 1970s, the University of 蜜桃影像 Fairbanks' Geophysical Institute has provided this column free in cooperation with the 蜜桃影像 research community. Ned Rozell is a science writer for the Geophysical Institute.