In preparation for a church nature walk that was held this morning, I have recently gone to Potter Marsh boardwalk a couple of times. Things are usually pretty slow at this time of the year, with few birds singing, and most birds having fledged their young, but it is still fun to see what might be around.
A week ago I photographed a few of the Canada Geese that were around and Black-capped Chickadees. It was interesting that there were a couple of Tree Swallows still feeding young in one of the bird houses, but most were gone.
Yesterday was a very foggy morning when I came back to check one more time before the nature walk.
I could hear Alder Flycatchers through the fog. The Canada Goose family was there, way out in the long grass, and Yellowlegs were beginning to gather on the mud.
When I drove along the highway, I could see that there were two distant Sandhill Cranes. There were also two Trumpeter Swans out in the marsh. I don’t recall every seeing them there in summer, and am not sure whether they nested there or not this year.
This morning for our nature walk was gorgeous and clear and warm, for Anchorage (over 70 degrees), with a slight breeze. A beautiful day for a walk, and great people to walk with!
Alder Flycatchers were still noisy, with a family in the trees around the parking lot, and others along the walk.
There were more Yellowlegs at the water’s edge today, mostly sleeping, probably waiting until the water level went down enough for there to be exposed mud along the edge.
Other visitors to the boardwalk informed us of a moose that was down toward the end of the walk noisily munching on the very deep grass, so we quickly went down there. While we were there we also watched a bald eagle carry a stick into a tree a long way from where their nest was this summer – maybe practicing for next year.
Down toward the other end of the boardwalk where the river flows out of the marsh, we could see a few different types of fish, little troutlike things to quite large salmonlike things, but not being fish-experts, we did not attempt to identify them.
Lynn Barber's Birding Blog 