I decided to bird the Palmer area today, looking for such things as Sandhill Cranes, Wilson’s Snipe and Ospreys, none of which I found. It was a very nice day of birding, however, with a touch of spring in the air with some of the deciduous branches bearing drooping catkins.
My first stop was the old Matanuska townsite road, where I saw my first (and so far, for the year, only) Northern Harrier for the year. Today there were two adult Bald Eagles, a scolding Black-billed Magpie and a talking Northern Shrike, silhouetted high in the area where probably this same Northern Shrike was chasing other birds the last time I visited this site.
I then walked the Reflections Lake trail, where there were four Bald Eagles, a couple of Black-capped Chickadees, a flyover Common Redpoll and a pair of Common Mergansers.
My final birding for the morning was along the Old Glenn Highway. At the Eklutna tailrace roadside area was a pair of Bald Eagles, one on the nest, a couple of Black-billed Magpies and a Black-capped Chickadee.
125 species so far
Lynn Barber's Birding Blog 