What a Day!!

I hate to be boring but I went for a walk today.  I walked around this little lake that is surrounded by pine and birch forest.  It had mountains in the background that were covered in snow.  I spent my lunch hour walking around the lake.  My eyes peeled for something.  I saw a raven fly over head.  He called as flew by.  A lonely, single cry.   I met other walkers with their dogs.  I saw a few trees that had been beaver chewed.  What I did not see was a moose.  How sad is that.

The rest of my day was spent learning about the fact that shorebirds are disappearing.  11 to 29 species are disappearing in the Midwest, 22 to 30 species are disappearing in the north Atlantic.  In Alaska we have 20% of the worlds shorebirds.  Yet even we are seeing declining numbers.  One of the problems is that we don't have enough information about the birds that fly thousand of miles just to build nest, lay eggs and raise chicks then fly back south. I did learn that Alaska biologists and Russian biologist are doing great work at trying to figure out what we don't know.  I am hoping I can do that too at Katmai.  But first I have to figure out what shorebirds we have and since they won't be around till May I will have to keep trying to find that elusive moose.