Birding
Major stop on the flyway

Get out your bird guide and tick off a few more lifers. From Homer hills to across Kachemak Bay, the odds are good to see a possible 241 species of birds -- over half the possible 471 species in Alaska. Some of those species are pretty odd, too, like the yellow-billed loon or ancient and Kittlitz's murrelets.

Start birding at the Homer Spit, with its mix of land, shore and sea habitats. Visit in early May for some intense birding with the annual Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival, when 100,000 shorebirds in 25 species pass through the bay.

A short boat trip brings close-up viewing on Gull Island and other rock outcroppings of black-legged kittiwakes, tufted and horned puffins, red-faced cormorants, murres and, of course, gulls. You also can watch the Gull Island rookeries through the Pratt Museum's remote camera. Kayaking in small bays offers intimate and silent birding. Bird by ear in the spring on hiking trails like the Calvin and Coyle Trail near Paul Banks Elementary School on East End Road.

Winter and fall birding shows off hardy Alaska birds like ravens, crows, Steller's jays, magpies, black-capped chickadees, nuthatches, pine grosbeaks and bald eagles. After the Christmas bird count -- up to 67 species in some years -- Homer's Eagle Lady, Jean Keene, begins feeding eagles out of the yard of her home on the Homer Spit, the only person legally allowed under city regulations to feed eagles. See hundreds of eagles on the beaches and buildings of the Spit -- or even at the Kenai Peninsula Borough dump at the top of Baycrest Hill.

Alaska Islands and Ocean Visitor Center maintains the Bird Alert Info Line at 235-7337 (235-PEEP). A checklist of Kachemak Bay birds, with birding hot spots and other information, is at "A Birder's Guide to Kachemak Bay," www.birdinghomeralaska.org.