Photography

Listening to and seeing birds offers proven mental health benefits, reducing anxiety, stress, and paranoia while enhancing mood. In early February, I put up a bird feeder that I got for my birthday - it’s one of those ones that has a camera in it so you can login and watch the birds dig through the seeds, finding the ones they like best. Every day since, there has been a feeding frenzy of redpolls, red breasted nuthatches, chickadees, Steller’s jays, European starlings, magpies and the occasional squirrel. ...

In midwinter, Anchorage’s Campbell Creek corridor becomes a lifeline for fruit‑eating birds. The trail entrance at Greenhill Way, where residential plantings meet native trees, often holds onto berries longer than the deeper forest sections. This overlap creates a seasonal buffet that draws in nomadic flocks like Bohemian Waxwings—sleek, masked songbirds known for their synchronized movements and soft trilling calls. When the fruit peaks in sugar and softness, waxwings descend in coordinated waves to feed, turning quiet branches into a flurry of motion. ...

I got some more photos of some robins and dippers today along the Campbell Creek trail. Unfortunately I lost my glasses while crawling in the snow by the riverbank - let me know if you find them.

While out on a walk today, I saw a peculiar bird doing a little dance by the edge of the water and actually swimming down under water. Apparently, these birds are not all that uncommon, but it was my first time seeing one. A bird that walks underneath the water, the slate-gray American Dipper is North America’s only truly aquatic songbird I do not consider myself a birder or a bird person - but it is another reason to carry a camera with me and get outside. And I do have the Merlin app on my phone to identify birds by their calls and songs or by a photo, and I think that’s also interesting and fun sometimes.