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An adult double-crested cormorant flies low. (Photo by Bob Armstrong)

Sports

On the Trails: Some January observations

One day, late in January, a friend and I watched two Steller sea lions swimming near Pt. Louisa.…

The author’s hopper and stonefly tying days are behind him. (Photo by Jeff Lund)

Sports

I Went to the Woods: Tie one on

As a kid I threw spinners and spoons, and didn’t bother to learn the impact of bugs in…

A male northern flicker shows his red mustache mark, identifying him as the red-shafted type. (Photo by Detlef Buettner)

Sports

On the Trails: Northern flickers visit Juneau

There are over a dozen species of flicker, living in various parts of the Americas. The species we…

The Dalton Highway winds through the Jim River and Prospect Creek valleys in northern Alaska, where an official thermometer registered Alaska’s all-time low of minus 80 degrees F on Jan. 23, 1971. (Photo by Ned Rozell)

Sports

Alaska Science Forum: Dangerous cold across the land

In late January 2025, meteorologists from the National Weather Service Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland, are predicting…

Naturalists try to identify a small plant — answering the “Who” question, with others to follow. (Photo by Mary Anne Slemmons)

Sports

On the Trails: Naturalists ask many questions

Curious naturalists can ask different kinds of questions about what we see. The most basic kinds consist of…

Sputnik 1 orbits Earth in this artist’s rendition by Gregory Todd. (Creative Commons)

Sports

Alaska Science Forum: The first satellite’s Alaska connection

The first satellite’s Alaska connection

Destination angling often creates an unhealthy feeling of incompleteness and desperation. Fishing goals I knew what it was going to be, but I clicked anyway. “What are your fishing goals for 2025” was an advertisement for a lodge in an area I have longed to fish but I’m priced out, have priced myself out or however you write “it’s expensive and probably won’t happen.” (Photo by Jeff Lund)

Sports

I Went to the Woods: Angling for goals to appreciate in 2025

This is somewhat devastating because saying you might not do something at 23-years old is just youth speaking.…

A female acorn woodpecker. (Charles J. Sharp / CC BY-SA 4.0)

Sports

On the Trails: Making hay and storing food

Many animals store food in preparation for winter or just to be eaten later. Bears and wolves are…

Boaters paddle Kenai Fjords National Park in summer 2024. The park was created in 1980 as part of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act. (Photo by Ned Rozell)

Sports

Alaska Science Forum: Jimmy Carter, the man who preserved Alaska

Right about now, within a shrub in southern Texas, a ruby-crowned kinglet twitches to face northward.

Licorice ferns often grow on tree trunks and branches. (Photo by Bob Armstrong)

Sports

On the Trails: Licorice ferns

The understory of our forests is graced with lots of ferns in a variety of shapes and sizes.…

The author’s wife grew up in Lexington, Massachusetts where she had more classmates go to Harvard than the author had classmates total. But that doesn’t mean her upbringing was better. (Photo by Jeff Lund)

Sports

I Went to the Woods: Different, not better or worse

A seven-foot minuteman stands on a rock base where Massachusetts Avenue splits at the end of Lexington’s main…

Horned grebes in winter plumage float on the tide. (Photo by Bob Armstrong)

Sports

On the Trails: Sea lions, horned grebes, and brown creepers

I often walk out to Pt. Louisa for the great vistas and a good chance of seeing some…

Juneau sees common loons more often in winter than summer, when they are nesting on lakes. (Photo by Bob Armstrong)

Sports

On the Trails: Loons

One misty day in mid-December, a friend and I walked the little Fish Creek Trail. At the side…

Evening walks are great. Put a few pounds in a backpack and you’ll increase the health benefits of light exercise. (Photo by Jeff Lund)

Sports

I Went to the Woods: Numbers worth noting

Everything is being reduced to numbers which my math department friends down the hall cite as evidence of…

Neve Baker stands beside her poster on discovering ancient evidence of beavers in Grand Tetons National Park while she was at the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union in Washington, D.C. in December 2024. (Photo by Ned Rozell)

Sports

Alaska Science Forum: Ancient beavers, sea floor bumps, thick air

It’s time to start emptying the notebook following the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union, which happened…

A pygmy owl in the snow outside the doorstep of a Juneau home. (Photo by Denise Carroll)

Sports

On the Trails: Pygmy owls

This little owl was quite frequently detected in the trees at the edge of the wetlands this fall.…

A male downy woodpecker pecks at a suet block with its small bill. (Photo by Steve Willson)

Sports

On the Trails: Hairy and downy woodpeckers

A male hairy woodpecker is a regular visitor to my peanut butter feeders, also sampling from the suet…

On Aug. 6, 2024, an outburst flood from the Mendenhall Glacier caused major flooding in the Mendenhall Glacier Basin. Multiple homes and roads are inundated. No reports of injuries have been reported. The City and Borough of Juneau (CBJ) issued an evacuation order on the evening of August 5 and established an emergency shelter for residents displaced by the flooding. (Alaska National Guard courtesy photo)

Sports

Alaska Science Forum: Alaska continues to change, fast

With his eyes on Alaska weather and climate for many years, Rick Thoman saw a need for a…

A good life in Southeast Alaska is often made better with good gear. (Photo by Jeff Lund)

Sports

I Went to the Woods: ‘Buy gear not stuff’

If anyone needs shopping clarity this holiday season, quote writer Michael Easter who champions the idea “buy gear,…

A climbing goby known as ‘o’opu ‘alamo’o, or Hawaiian freshwater goby. (Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources photo)

Sports

On the Trails: Fish locomotion

There are about 28,000 species of bony fishes — the largest taxonomic group of vertebrates — and they…