April showers… snow showers, that is!

It snowed all day Saturday, and half the day Sunday.  Looked more like January 6th than April 6th, except for the increasingly extended daylight.  We had about 3-4 inches of snow here, but some areas of South Anchorage and the Hillside had a foot!  That made for a mix of unhappy gardeners and happy skiers.

Anchorage Daily News article here.

Went on a fun nature hike outing Saturday evening at the Eagle River Nature Center, called an “Owl Prowl”. It was one of the things Lesa and I had wanted to do for years, and finally got signed up for. There were 11 of us in the group, and we had a great time.

After a short orientation talk we listened to a tape of owl calls, then took off down the trail. It was twilight, temperature in the mid- upper 30’s, trail mushy and muddy in places- a far cry from just the previous weekend, when parts of the trail were still covered with a sheet of hard, slick glare ice.  We hiked over a mile out, stopping about every 1/4 mile to listen for owls.

Our first wildlife sighting, though, was a beaver who had built his lodge right up against the edge of the trail.  In the fading twilight we could see him (her? who knows… I ain’t going there) swimming towards us from mid-river.  He must not have liked us standing so close to his lodge (hey, the trail was there first!) because just as he dove underwater to enter the lodge he used his tail to make a resounding loud slap! on the surface of the water.  A cute little Japanese girl in our group about hyperventilated in excitement.  Her male companion appeared more serenely detached.

We stopped there for our last listening, and were rewarded with hearing a Great Horned owl and a Boreal owl calling in the distance.  That was in between the ruckus being raised by three Mallards- two males vying for the attention of a female- next to us in the river or flying back and forth overhead.  Those poor guys were definitely riled up.

Lesa and I decided it would be fun to rent one of the Park Service cabins or yurts and stay out overnight listening for owls.  Don’t want to think too much about what other, larger, wildlife we might possibly hear- or see!  When we go, we’ll go prepared.  After all, this IS Alaska.