January 4, 2014

Returns the Raven

Each afternoon, hundreds of ravens return to roost in the Chugach front range overlooking Anchorage, a spectacular thing to observe.  The big black birds start arriving around 3 p.m. at this time of the year. They come up from town, calling and soaring in circles as more and more arrive. As the sky darkens, I have seen many roosting in cottonwood groves on the southern flank of Near Point.

Birdwatching was better than the skiing today. The Anchorage snowpack is thinner than normal, and the recent snowfall is nonexistent. The trails have been dusted with a very thin light coat a couple of times, but no measurable snow has accumulated in a week. Traffic on the trails has been accumulating, and the trails are packed hard into an unsmooth, fast track with few options for checking speed.

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