The Weekend Off – News You Missed
Alaska ADN.COM – With more Alaska women incarcerated than ever, some moved to men’s jail The number of women incarcerated in Alaska is at an all-time high, with the sole women’s prison in the state overcrowded enough that the Department of Corrections is now housing female inmates at Anchorage’s jail for men. DailyMiner.com – Seven bills and resolutions so far head to Juneau from Interior Interior lawmakers had their names on seven of the 63 bills or resolutions pre-filed in the run up to the start of the 29th Alaska Legislature. Many of the Interior delegation bills included retreads of legislation or…
Bird of the Week – Thick-billed Murre
The close cousin of last week’s Common Murre, the Thick-billed Murre is slightly larger, slightly darker and has the distinctive whitish “gape” at the back of the bill. The Thick-billed Murre is believed to spend most of the year further offshore, in deeper water, than the Common Murre. It’s a challenge to tell the two species apart in the field. Here’s a comparatively rare shot of the two species, side-by-side. All of this is probably more about Alcids than most Mudpuppies ever wanted to know. It’s a peril of hanging around birders. But we’ll set Alcidae aside for a while…
Bird of the Week – Common Murre
But wait, there are more Alcids! Certainly including the very Common Murre. WC has received criticism that he only posts photos of single birds. Well, duh! But for variety, at least, here a group shot of half a dozen of Alaska’s most common Alcid, the Common Murre. A Common Murre colony is a very noisy, crowded place, with many of their long, moaning “Ooooaaarrr” calls. When alarmed by a predator, or an encroaching, careless birder, they stream off their cliff colony is a silent waterfall of black and white birds, calling only as they level out of the ocean waves….
The Weekend Off – News You Missed
Alaska Fairbanks Newsminer – Alaska governor issues order to halt 6 megaprojects Alaska Gov. Bill Walker has ordered a halt to all non-obligated state spending on six major projects: Ambler Road, Juneau Access Road, Susitna-Watana Dam, Kodiak Launch Complex, Knik Arm Crossing and Alaska Stand-Alone Pipeline Project. ADN – Video: Anchorage chef strives to be an example for the disenfranchised Aaron Dollison, 49, grew up in Anchorage and learned to cook from his mother. He went on to cook at Susitna Foods & Spirits and Denny’s, but he learned how to cook in bulk in prison. Juneau Empire – Hunters find…
Bird of the Week – Hoary Redpoll
Around the holidays, WC likes to post a bird that is at least kind of Christmasy. The challenge is that Alaska just doesn’t have that many Christmasy birds, and WC is starting to have to reach a bit. Here’s a Hoary Redpoll. A paler version of its more ubiquitous Common Redpoll cousin, the Hoary seems to prefer more northerly habitat. On a day when WC might have 100 Common Redpolls at this feeders, there might be just one or two Hoarys. There’s some excitement about Hoary Redpolls in ornithological circles; bird researchers haven’t figured out their taxonomy. For WC, it’s…
Alaska to NY in About 10 Minutes with a GoPro
Earlier this year, during the infamous ‘Polar Vortex,’ I decided it would be a completely reasonable idea to drive the Alaska Highway. Starting in Alaska I drove to Dawson Creek, British Columbia (the end of the Alaska Highway), and then on through Canada and the Midwest to Upstate New York. It took me about 10 days. Thanks to a GoPro attached to the windshield of my car now you can watch the trip in a little over 10 minutes. I’ll be posting some photos from the trip over the next couple of days throughout The Mudflats end of the year…
Bird of the Week – Parakeet Auklet
Yes, there are a lot of Alcids. Here’s another one, the Parakeet Auklet. The white line behind the eye is a plume, a very long, narrow white feather, that appears in breeding season. Like most birds, the shape of the bill tells you a lot about the species’ preferred food. The Parakeet’s bill is adapted to gelatinous prey like small jelly fish. Mated pairs have a charming, bill-tapping routine when they greet each other. Camera geek stuff: f16, 1/250 ISO1000 For more bird photos, please visit Frozen Feather Images.
The Weekend Off – News You Missed
Alaska ADN – Jail contractor calls for end to free local phone calls In the jailhouse phone business, the usual practice in the United States has been for the company that provides telephones behind bars to pay a “commission” to the government agency that allows it to serve a captive customer base. Fairbanks Daily Miner – Lockheed Martin wins Alaska spaceport contract The state-owned space agency on Friday named Lockheed Martin the winner of a bidding process to reconfigure a launch pad to accommodate larger rockets than what the Kodiak Launch Complex can currently handle. Juneau Empire – South Korean vessel heads to…
UPDATE – Repub ‘Dr.No’ Stops Veteran Suicide Prevention Act
Updated at 9:30pm est Dr. No has done it. Outgoing Senator Tom Coburn has single handedly managed to prevent the passage of the Clay Hunt SAV Act this Congressional session. IAVA’s Paul Rieckhoff posted this to facebook earlier this evening. Post by Paul Rieckhoff. In a rare bi-partisan show of support, both Senators Murkowski and Begich co-signed a bill that looks to provide 22 million dollars in funding for suicide prevention among veterans. The bill is called the Clay Hunt SAV Act, and if you watched Rachael Maddow the other night [see above] you’d know that a lone Senator is…
Bird of the Week – Horned Puffin
Last week’s bird, the Tufted Puffin, has a close cousin that’s almost as colorful, Alaska’s other puffin, the Horned Puffin. The “horns” aren’t really horns; they are fleshy knobs that appear in breeding season. For a bird that is relatively common, they are poorly studied. but are believed to be the most pelagic of Alcids, spending most of their lives far out in the ocean, coming ashore only to breed, and then only after several years. Camera geek stuff: f18, 1/500 ISO1000 For more bird photos, please visit Frozen Feather Images.