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Every spring for the past five years or so, Bob and Leslie Hajdukovich, as well as other residents on Slater Drive, have been treated to spectacular trumpeter swan gatherings on the Chena River behind their homes.

This year, was no exception. The swans arrived about two weeks ago and spent the better part of 10 evenings camped out on the stretch of the Chena River between Island Homes and Hamilton Acres subdivisions.

The most swans the Hajdukovich’s counted on the river at one time was 15 and the fewest was two,  Leslie Hajdukovich wrote in an email. The swans typically arrive late in the evening and leave early in the morning. The numbers vary from night to night.

“I think they move from Creamer’s (Field Migratory Waterfowl Refuge) to the river in the evenings,” Leslie Hajdukovich said.

The birds definitely make their presence known, she said. 

“They trumpet anytime any are landing and then in the late evenings and mornings,” Hajdukovich said. “It was thrilling to hear their trumpets so close, for those couple nights. It is a glorious sound.

 “There were a pair that landed right over the house and it was as if we were being dive-bombed by trumpets,” she said.

Bob Hajdukovich took several pictures of the swans on April 16, the night 15 swans were on the river, and also made two short videos that show the birds running at one another on top of the water and flapping their wings, all the while trumpeting back and forth. Here's a link to the video:

The swans never came back in the same numbers after that night and the Hajdukovich’s consider themselves fortunate to have experienced such an up close and personal encounter with the birds.

 “We definitely feel blessed,” Leslie said.

Here's a photo of some fresh grizzly bear tracks that Pete Leonard, coach of the Nordic Ski Club of Fairbnaks' FXC training program, took Saturday on the Stiles Creek Trail in the Chena River State Recreation Area about 30 miles east of Fairbanks. The tracks weren't there when the skiers skied to the Stiles Creek Cabin but they were there when they returned a few hours later.

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A group of young skiers on their last ski outing of the season had some unexpected company on the trail Saturday.

Eleven junior high skiers who are part of the Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks’ FXC program, one of whom was my son, Logan, along with their two coaches, were skiing back from Stiles Creek Cabin in the Chena River State Recreation Area on Saturday afternoon when one of the skiers recognized fresh grizzly bear tracks on the trail near the top of the ridge.

Fourteen-year-old Joe Bue was the first skier to recognize the tracks.

“I saw them and I knew what they were,” Bue said. “I wasn’t sure what to think at the time. The tracks were definitely fresh.”

When Bue told the coaches, Pete Leonard and Nick Grimmer, they thought he was kidding, at least until they saw the tracks.

The tracks, which were about 5 miles up the ridge trail, weren’t present when the group skied out to the cabin but they were there when they skied back a couple hours later. The tracks were headed toward the cabin.

“They were right on top of our (ski) tracks,” Leonard said.

They followed the tracks for about 200 yards and could see where the stopped at one point and paced back and forth on the trail and where it had entered the trail, he said.

Coach Nick Grimmer, who is from Australia, seemed to be the one who was most concerned about the bear tracks. As it so happened, Grimmer had brought a can of bear spray with him  just to be on the safe side.

“The bear spray was prominently displayed on his waist belt from that point on,” Leonard said with a laugh.

Added Bue, “Nick was practicing his quick draw with the bear spray. He had it down to two seconds but he didn’t think that was fast enough.”

Fortunately, the situation never came to that. The emergence of the tracks did, however, help prevent any stragglers in the group the rest of the way.

“After that we stuck together a lot better,” Bue said.

The fresh bear tracks, which biologists at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game on Monday confirmed were grizzly tracks based on pictures that Leonard took, provided some added excitement to what was an epic 6 1/2-hour spring ski.

“It certainly added another source of excitement to the trip,” Leonard wrote in an email. “Not that ripping downhills with (bare ground) weren’t enough as it was.”

Department of Fish and Game spokeswoman Cathie Harms said this is about the time bears start emerging from their dens and male grizzlies are usually the first bears to wake up. With the warm weather so far this month, she said she’s not surprised bears are out and about.