This season the birch pollen has been particularly bad. Some people with asthma have had to leave the state. The peak was May 18 when pollen counts were 974 grains per cubic meter.

I was watching a flock of redpolls at my feeder when I noticed one unusual member with a huge white body. See photo.

"I am seeing spittlebugs deposits everywhere I look in the Sand Lake area."

Invasive pigeons have made their way out of Alaska's large cities to fish camps on the west side of Cook Inlet.

We are seeing these little flies every outdoors. I don’t recall them like this in the past.

River otters (Lutra canadensis) observed in a lake that typically is home to beavers.

The forest on the East side of Cheney Lake is changing and the biggest change is the proliferation of May Day trees.

Spruce beetles damaged nearly 600,000 acres of forest in 2018, and the damage continues to grow.

In Southcentral Alaska, wasps seem to be everywhere. One Anchorage clinic has seen more than 250 sting patients this year.

In Anchorage, the city logged 68 bed bug complaints in 2013, a decrease from the 84 in 2012. There was just one complaint in 2007 and 2008 combined, according to city data.

Each spring, it seems, the air of Alaska is filled with the buzz of mosquitoes and the whines of people declaring that this is undoubtedly the worst bug season they've ever experienced. This year they may have a case.

The outlook for blueberries in Southcentral Alaska this year is bleak, scientists say. The reason: Two species of moth have damaged berry patches, as well as native deciduous trees, from the southern Kenai Peninsula to Mat-Su.