I squeezed in a quick drive through the refuge after taking the girls to their dentist appointments this morning and before heading to work this afternoon. ​We were blessed with the opportunity to watch seven sandhill cranes and a great blue heron in various places along the way. Always fun to see and hear the wildlife. :)

A nice sunny day after a streak of dreary ones, and my first thoughts after work are to get in a walk at the refuge on the Kenai Nature Trail. It's a great place to soak up some sunshine while looking for wildlife and enjoying a beautiful view of the mountains.

​Some of the snow has definitely melted since our last trip a couple of weeks ago, so we had a good mix of snow and bare ground, along with some standing water and mushy mud. I think it might be possible that spring could have officially arrived. 

On today's outing we had the opportunity to see a porcupine, a muskrat, a couple of ground squirrels chasing each other, along with plenty of ducks and geese. :)

Which are your favorite photos? I'd love to hear... so leave me a comment. :)
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The girls and I got out for a quick trail run on the Kenai Nature Trail yesterday after I got off work. It was overcast and looking like rain/snow for the most part, but we did enjoy a beautiful view of the Sapphire Mountains to the east.
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Well ... we took a quick evening trip to the refuge to look for the great-horned owls again this year, but no success on spotting them this time out. I knew that was a possible outcome, so my secondary plan was to simply walk along quietly to see what else we could see.

We always see something ... this time it included a mallard duck enjoying a little solitude on the water, several robins (a couple with a bit of character), a yellow-bellied sapsucker playing peek-a-boo, various butterflies fluttering about, and a porcupine hanging on for dear life up in a tree. We also saw a large herd of deer and a few other things I didn't get photos of, but I had a bit of fun with the ones I did manage to take.

There were many butterflies fluttering about ... landing only for a moment or two here and there. This one actually remained still for a little bit. He seemed to think he was camouflaged with these pebbles as he sat motionless.

We always enjoy spotting porcupines, as we find them to be very interesting animals. This one looks like he's hanging on for dear life on that skinny little branch. He certainly doesn't look very comfy up there.