Approximate estimation is 200,000

The moose is the world’s largest member of the deer family. The Alaska moose race is the largest of all the moose. Moose are generally associated with northern forests in North America, Europe, and Russia. In Europe they are called “elk.” In Alaska, they occur in suitable habitat from the Stikine River in the Panhandle to the Colville River on the Arctic Slope. Moose are most abundant in recently burned areas that contain willow and birch shrubs, on timberline plateaus, and along the major rivers of southcentral and interior Alaska

Don't throw snowballs at the moose; they might just charge you. Follow that rule and you should enjoy your ski at Kincaid Park. When it comes to cross-country ski trails accessible to a major urban area, Kincaid is unsurpassed. Of course, your frame of reference has to be downtown Anchorage, Alaska.

It takes a mere 10-minute drive from downtown Anchorage to get to Kincaid's trails. If you don't have wheels, you can ski there along the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail for an extended 15-kilometer warm-up.

The seasons of McCarthy, Alaska are dramatic and extreme in several ways. The amount of daylight ranges from twenty-four hours on the summer solstice to a mere peak at the sun as it sneaks over the horizon and immediately sets again on the winter solstice. Summer gives birth to thick jungle-like forests, springing forth with a rainbow of wildflowers, sweet wild berries, and the hum of mosquitoes; long full days of summer jobs, hiking, dinner parties, and sitting around campfires drinking beer and socializing; and rivers and creeks flowing full and fast with the melting of glacial ice and snow. In winter the bare trunks and branches stand starkly like rickety ladders reaching for the quiet sky; a blanket of sparkling snow covers the frozen waterways and earth; and the short days are spent tending to fundamental chores like splitting firewood, keeping the fire stoked, hauling water, refilling kerosene lamps; and visiting with the remaining locals over coffee and tea. Around and around the seasons cycle, and like a leaf shutter in a camera the darkness closes in only to open again to the brightness of summer.

Nobody wants to think about it. The days are still warm; the sun still lingers well into the evening.

But the birds of Alaska already have winter on their minds, and if you stop and look carefully, there are signs of their retreat everywhere.

Migration time is nearly here. And one of the best places to view it is Potter Marsh.

"Certainly, activity is starting to wind down, although there are going to be birds there for a couple of months at least," Stan Senner, vice president and executive director of the National Audubon Society's Alaska state office, said of the birds that arrived at the marsh just two months ago.

Then, Potter Marsh was bustling with the arrival of migrant loons, waterfowl, shorebirds and geese. It's probably one of the most productive places to view birds in the Anchorage Bowl. In the spring, it attracts such species as the Pacific loon, red-necked grebe, greater scaup, canvasback, Barrow's goldeneye and arctic tern. Tundra and trumpeter swans can be seen during migration, as well as various raptors.