Owling and Skiing
This has been a remarkable winter for birds in Anchorage. A Dusky Thrush was blown in from Asia and has spent the winter hanging out with a large flock of Robins in an Anchorage Neighborhood. The Dusky Thrush is the kind of bird that bird watchers go mad for. It’s an accidental in North America - usually only seen in the Aleutian Chain (if at all). To have this bird on one’s North American Life List is a very big deal. Serious birders have been flying up from all over the US to nab a sighting. I saw it on a bitterly cold late afternoon on New Year’s Eve. Pretty darn nifty.
Another bird, not an accidental, but damn neat, is the Great Gray Owl. It’s a northern owl, found in Alaska and Canada with very occasional sightings in the lower 48. The Great Gray is North America’s (and perhaps the World’s) longest owl. It is Harry Potteresque: the Weasley’s old exhausted owl, Errol is a Great Gray. This winter we have four of them hanging out in Kincaid Park - one of the United States’ great cross country skiing facilities. Which of course means, to see the bird, one must ski to the bird.
How awesome is that??!!!
Yesterday, our friend Dave, a lifelong uber birder, and I took advantage of a slight warming on the temperature front, 1 degree above zero (whoo hoo!) and headed out onto the Sisson Loop in search of a Great Gray. The day was gloriously beautiful, achingly blue skies, hoar frost laden trees, and brilliantly white ski trails. Alaska at its best. The Sisson Loop is about 7K and we skied almost the entire loop before we spied our big fluffy quarry. He was sitting in a tree, not shy at all, busy listening for the sound of little rodent feet under the snow. He was a magnificent sight. A very special treat. We had such a great ski and the Owl sighting was the icing on the cake.
A perfect Alaska day!
The Great Gray! I shot this with a 104mm lens. I don’t have a bigger lens. Besides, carrying a large lens while skiing would suck.
But nevertheless, I’m quite pleased with this shot.
Here’s Dave out on the trail
The Slat Rat having a glorious time on “slats”
Apres ski. My nose was bleeding because I forgot my “NoseKone.” A year after surgery, the ol’ schnozz is still very sensitive to cold.
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