I drove north of Anchorage today, birding along the Matanuska Townsite Road and Inner Springer Loop Road and then on the way home along the Reflections Lake trail. Birds were few and far between, but the day was a crisp sunny fall day and very enjoyable. Most of the mountaintops were snow-topped, new since I was last in the Palmer area.
I only counted four bird species at the Townsite Road and only photographed two: Black-billed Magpie and a distant Northern Shrike (not photographed: Common Redpoll and Black-capped Chickadee).
Driving in Palmer I only saw Canada Geese, a very large flock of a couple of hundred wandering far away from the road at the State Fair Grounds.
At Reflections Lake, I had more Canada Geese fly over and heard a Common Redpoll and Black-capped Chickadee. It’s sort of obvious that summer is past and winter is not far behind. People I talked to last night were saying that Alaska has only two seasons: a very short summer and winter, and it seems close to true.
297 species so far
