The Big Blow Down

To go along with the high winds that we have been experiencing this Fall, there has been an immense amount of rain. Seward is half inundated from the foot of rain it has had in the last week. Talkeetna is currently being evacuated. There is flooding all over, but thankfully not in my part of town.
Today there was a brief respite from the continuous rains, so I walked through Russian Jack Park. The photo above is a Chickadee foraging in the foliage of a blown down tree.

At my first assessment, I estimated that 10% of the mature trees in Russian Jack had blown over. The real number is probably closer to 1%. That's still many thousands of trees.

Some parts of the park have really opened up. There is down firewood everywhere.

Not all of the park shows much damage. From a distance, it all looks normal. The Canada Geese above enjoy the green grass of the park's ball fields.

Autumn is always the prettiest time to do some photography.

The red leaves are not Maple leaves, they are Highbush Cranberry leaves.

This Devil's Club has been somewhat ravaged by the harsh weather of late. It's still better weather than what is coming all too soon.

This is not smoke from a smoldering fire, just steam rising from wet leaves. The whole park has the earthy smell of decaying vegetation and wet earth. A very pleasant odor to me.