I probably should have done some research on huskies before we adopted Caster (a small part husky). I now know that huskies have a soft undercoat that sheds in an amazing number of fluffy clumps, after which the long hairs of the rough outer coat shed. That appears to be mostly over, for now. I also did not know that huskies, at least Caster, have unlimited energy, almost always wanting to play, eat, be attended to in some way. Caster also has an extremely piercing bark, which he is increasingly inclined to use, especially if there is another dog or a stranger or a bird in view, and he loves to nip and bite things. Sigh. He is a very loving dog, however, and we (probably) will keep him. Right now he goes to “reactive rover” training once a week. Oddly, at this training he is the model dog, doing exactly what he is supposed to do and mostly ignoring the other people and dogs. Time will tell on whether he will generalize this learning to his behavior at home. Following are a few more pictures that show he does sometimes rest between times of playing and running around, and a video that shows a bit of his playfulness with a new floppy squeaky toy.

In between hours of dealing with Caster I have spent a bit of time looking at our backyard birds. Pictures follow of one of four juncos that came briefly to our yard, a female Pine Grosbeak, and a couple of redpolls, one of which is much lighter in color:

Also, a couple of pictures showing recent snow follow:

 

 

After days of cold and rather boring weather, we finally got snow, about 4 inches last night and this morning, enough to cover up all traces of our usual duck visitors. A couple more inches of snow are expected tonight and tomorrow, I believe.

Our husky-mix, Caster, was very interested in the new world of snow, nearly motionlessly taking in the sounds and smells. He would probably love to stay outside in the snow.

The birds continue to be sporadic visitors. Shown are Pine Grosbeaks, Common Redpolls, and Red-breasted Nuthatches, which along with the Steller’s Jays and Black-billed Magpies, are the most common visitors.

Only rarely do we have Bohemian Waxwings stopping by in our yard, since we have no fruit trees.

The hawks (Goshawk and Sharp-shinned) have not been seen in our yard lately, and the Mallards only come in the predawn and post-sunset darkness.

 

Yesterday (January 15th) began, as many days lately have begun, with birding Anchorage neighborhoods filled with Bohemian Waxwings and a few American Robins, but no Hawfinch.

So, I thought I’d next try one more time for the Northern Hawk Owl, which I also had not been able to find in previous hunts. This time (about noon), however, as I drove the road where it had been reported (Hood Lake Drive), there it was, perched like a little unmoving knob on a light post. Maybe it had been there before?

As I watched, it flew to a nearby spruce, and I was able to get pictures through my front windshield.

I drove closer, and got a few more pictures, and it then flew to another spruce, and then another. Wonderful!

I thought that would be it for raptors for the day. After all, it is Anchorage in mid-winter. But a couple of hours later as I looked out into our back yard (which I do regularly, hoping for a return of the Northern Goshawk), a small raptor flew in and perched in a birch, a slender Sharp-shinned Hawk. It stayed less than 10 seconds and flew off. I was able to get a few blurry photos of it through the branches. Wow, two raptors in less than 2 hours!

About 15 minutes later, about 40 Mallards arrived, followed immediately by the Northern Goshawk, the first time I had seen it in midday (about 2:30). All the Mallards scattered, and the Goshawk disappeared after them, but returned about 10 minutes later to the closest birch in our yard, and then flew to a farther birch. It stayed perched in the birch for about half an hour, preening and glancing about, undoubtedly waiting for the Mallards to come back. But the Mallards did not return. Unfortunately, when it was in the closer birch, its back was to me, and when it flew up to the far birch, the camera focused on the branches and not the bird. Still, I did get a few photos that show that it is a Goshawk.

I also got photos showing a very unhappy Red-breasted Nuthatch (the little dot at the top of the tall photo below) scolding the Goshawk, before the Goshawk flew.

As I write this, however, at about 8:45 AM on January 16th, the Mallards are back. There are about 50 of them out in the dark in our yard, eating food that I put out for them earlier on the snow. I guess they are gambling on the Goshawk not flying around in the dark, and on no nocturnal raptors happening by.

Although I have spent time looking for other rarer things since I last posted, what I have seen mostly lately is the same old, same old, including a few Pine Grosbeaks and many Common Redpolls, plus two more appearances by the Northern Goshawk in our yard, and miscellaneous moose sightings. Rather than go into more detail, following are pictures of these things.

Pine Grosbeaks and Common Redpolls (at the end of the second video, you can hear our dog barking at all the Redpolls on the porch):

Northern Goshawk (again in the half-light just before darkness on two different dates):

Two moose in the Turnagain neighborhood of Anchorage:

Moose along Northern Lights in Anchorage (I saw six (!!!) moose there that day in a 1/4 mile stretch, but only photographed these three):

Tomorrow we take our dog Caster to his first “reactive Rover” class, the primary goal being to teach him to be less antagonistic to other dogs. Should be interesting.

 

Actually what is happening is that I’m regularly feeding Mallards, many of them, and it appears that a Northern Goshawk has come to our yard to dine on the Mallards. I first saw the Goshawk about 1:15 today. I looked up into the trees behind our house and saw a large bird that did not appear to be a raven. Before I had a chance to study it more, it flew and I could see that it was a large long-tailed accipiter. It appeared to be a Northern Goshawk. But it was gone so I couldn’t study it further. Two hours later, I was watching Mallards arrive into our backyard, but when they immediately departed I could see a large raptor right on their tails. Still no photo and not a very good view. A couple of hours later, at about five o’clock and considerably past sunset, more Mallards were briefly out there again and I saw a silhouetted large bird back in the trees behind our house. It was the Goshawk. I was able to get diagnostic, but crummy, photos of it before it was completely dark out. I’ll be keeping an eye out for it tomorrow, of course.

Otherwise, yard birds have been the usual ones, but with a greater than usual number of Black-billed Magpies.

Other photos are of Pine Grosbeaks and Common Redpolls.

Weatherwise, we have not had any new snow for the past couple of days, and the temperatures have been in the 12-20 degree range. The mountains are beautiful, as always.

 

 

On January 2nd, I birded a few Anchorage sites north of where I live, including a neighborhood swarming with American Robins and Bohemian Waxwings:

On the morning of January 3rd we awoke to snow, which lasted all day and into the night. We ultimately received something over 3 inches of soggy, wet snow – nothing compared with what people far south of us have received. Following are a few pictures taken during the snow, including of the hungry Pine Grosbeaks and Common Redpolls eating as fast as they could before the newly scattered seeds were covered with snow:

The next morning, way before dawn, immediately after I scattered seed on the snow, hungry Mallards descended into our yard.

Now the snow is frozen and crusty, and winter continues.

 

 

Today was in the low 20s during the day, not a bad way to begin the year in Anchorage and much warmer than many places in the Lower 48. It was very dark, however, with heavy clouds (difficult to get good photos).

My 2018 bird list so far looks much like my December 2017 list. The first bird of the year was a loud Red-breasted Nuthatch in our yard, long before it was light out, an every-day bird in most of Anchorage.

Both my December, 2017 and my January, 2018 lists include the wonderful Sharp-tailed Grouse in west Anchorage that probably all Anchorage birders have gone to see at least once. Today it was perched high in a crabapple tree, at first motionless, and then slowly munching.

Other birds photographed today were Bohemian Waxwings, Pine Grosbeaks, Mallards and a Downy Woodpecker. Today the grosbeaks found my Christmas present to my little backyard birds, another flat-bottom feeder, which most of them seem to prefer.

Yesterday’s photos include those of a Hairy Woodpecker and Common Redpolls, both of which were on one of the seed feeders but at different times.

Nonbird photos were taken yesterday of Caster (and Dave)(the spotty toy on the sofa beside Caster is his new squeaky giraffe toy):