Chilly mornings, Lonely evenings

Sunrise - 4:57am
Sunset - 10:59pm

Reindeer lichen

Well the days are getting longer, but they don't feel much warmer yet!

I helped with a migratory bird count this morning, which was awesome.  My group saw about 45 species - a lot that were new to me.  Mostly waterfowl, which was great since I haven't been able to see a lot of waterfowl before!  I'll post a list up here later.  :)

The morning started out quite brisk though.  The "feels like" temperature when I woke up was about 23.  Plus it was windy.  Somehow my underarmor, thick fleece, and mid-weight synthetic jacket (with beanie and gloves) still weren't quite cutting it for the first part of the morning.

Brisk is quite the understatement.

Rock Creek Trail

It warmed up into the afternoon, but with the wind, the feeling of winter still held it's grasp.  The cool air is refreshing.  Being here, it almost feels like a sign of the lack of tourism.  With warm weather comes the "migration" of people in and out of the park.  Not excited for that!

Anyhoo.  Not much to update on besides that.  The weather being this cold seems to come as a little bit of a surprise to the locals.  But my roommate says it's already green in Fairbanks (about 2 hours north of us) so I anticipate an epic and sudden change here within the week or 2.  The cottonwoods are thinking about it for sure.  Their buds are swollen and ready to pop any day now.  AND to top it off, all next week is supposed to be in the 60s.

Can't wait.  :)

"Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf,
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day
Nothing gold can stay."