Date: 04/20/1997

Number: 1

We saw our first robin on April 20. In fact, ALL the spring migratory birds, including shorebirds seem to arrive on the same date! I even heard snipes around the same time and that's early for our part of Alaska! We don't usually hear or see them until after the swans and cranes have arrived. We've had a very early spring this year. Our river ice went out April 30. It didn't actually "go out" either, temperatures have been so warm this year that, well, the ice just melted and floated away. The migration is our life. Our Elders have noticed the decline in the migratory songbird population up here! We had our Dinayetr' Days at our school 2 weeks ago in which we gather many of our Elders for storytelling and things. They were commenting about how many songbirds there used to be in the skies when they were growing up. It seemed that there was no silence in the woods those days; the air was filled with sound all summer. They also commented that maybe the decline is due t

Shageluk, AK

Latitude: 62.6 Longitude: -159.8

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