It’s a day for dogging dog scat. Canine poop and the other detritus of winter are emerging from the melting trail snow. Aki loves this time of year when dog snacks dropped months ago seem to just appear. It’s a time for song birds to hunt and peck on newly snow-free gravel. Aki search for treats gives me plenty of time to watch two dark eyed junkos working the ground.

            Ever since a junko pair nested in our carport, I’ve had a special place in my heart for the little guys. All they needed to bread was a plastic grocery bag full of plastic gutter parts that hung on the carport wall. After the chicks fledged I found a tidy little nest lining a gutter end cap. I had limited of the car port all summer but that seemed a small price to pay. 

            The little dog and I push on to Moose Lake, hoping for another chance to watch the swans. But they have moved north, their place replaced by several pairs of bufflehead ducks. I coaxed Aki to following me onto a still snow-covered trail to the Mendenhall River where newly arrived swallows juked and dived on the year’s first hatch of mosquitos.