SPM/403 1976 Journal 40 GRID 3, Barrow Alaska 27 July 0830 - 1100 censusd GRID 3. temperature 32°, a light E wind and fog - the first morning with fog since for some time. It moved in yesterday afternoon and has blanketed the furna ever since: An unusual weather pattern this year, it dominated the scene last year. We have had a remarkable series of sunny days and the tundra suffers from them. New levels of dryness have been reached. GRID totals Polyptera stellaei 2 Fluviali domunca 6 Cardiis alpina 21 8 C melanotos 4 19 Ph.fulicaria 19 0 9 Artemia uterpus 5 2 Stecorarius pomarius 3 Calcarius lapponicus 2 GRID to to 1KPik Slough, Barrow, Alaska 28 July 0800 began walking from vicinity of GRID to to the east side of Pt. Barrow at 1KPik Slough. See map, journal page 1976-5. Although 1KPik is not on the map, it is located ~1.5 km SE from the mouth of Central Marsh Slough. Temperature ~40° rising during the afternoon as a southerly wind picked up, bringing hard rain by 1500 hrs, just as I was returning. This is the first rain all month, indeed since before TAP left on 28 June. Anyway, my first distraction en route was to photograph the foxes at their den. They allowed me to approach within 20m before actually fleeing, even through the E, on 3 legs, circled around me again 15 m second times. I should have some reasonable photography. Walking to the E, I paused in several places to photograph vegetation. Saxifraga hircula is now blooming profusely in low wet areas, especially within stands of Eriophorum angustifolium: E of tran 10, on the plateau onto which it vines, I found both Ovvia stellata & Ovvia andina, the latter of 2 chicks. Shorebird fauna becomes much less frequent beyond the first set of extensive ponds — it vines to a dry ridge-like plateau at the edge, dominated by Carox- Daa, until it drops abruptly off in a 15' or so mud bank along B3m Lagoon. Golden Plovers were among the most common birds here. Even jaegers did not seem as abundant as they are toward the lab. In fact, Made Anderson tells me that