I went to Spenard Crossing (Anchorage) for a short while this afternoon. It was fairly cold (mid-teens above zero) and most of the creek was frozen.
There were large flocks of American Robins (no other thrushes found) and Bohemian Waxwing flying about over the bridge when I arrived, but they headed off shortly after I got there.
I could hear distant magpie and raven sounds so I walked downstream to see if they were fussing over an owl. When I got there, a single Common Raven was periodically croaking. In the same tree as the raven and in a couple of nearby trees, there were at least 24 Black-billed Magpies squawking and flying about but seeming to ignore the raven. They seemed more to be chatting with each other than to be scolding or upset about anything.
On the walk back to my car, it was silent in the woods, and I only saw a couple of munching red squirrels.
Because of the cloudy skies, it seemed almost like evening, although it was only about 2:30 when I left the area. There are only about 13 days until the days slowly but surely start to get longer.
307 species so far
Lynn Barber's Birding Blog 