"It's like a Madonna sighting for some people," says Joe Staab, a Seward resident who owns a bed-and-breakfast that caters to birders in the area. ...
Three people from Fairbanks heard about the sighting, got into a car and drove [almost 500 miles] straight to Seward. Others flew in from Kodiak and Juneau.
For 11 or 12 days, the redwing was seen around the same area consistently, munching on mountain ash berries and gleaning protein tidbits from the beach, swept in by the tides.
During that time, word spread about the highly unusual sighting. People continued to gather, flying in from as far away as Montana, Texas and Colorado.
The bird vanished from Seward before all of the fly-in birders got a look. Tough luck. Birders speculate a storm blew the bird to Alaska from Russia. Read more at KTUU.
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