Bird of the Week – Long-tailed Duck
WC has been accused of neglecting waterfowl in his selection of Birds of the Week. Ironically, WC is a graduate of the University of Oregon, a Duck – a Fighting Duck. So WC will post a few duck photos, honoring his alma mater and answering certain carping quacking critics. We’ll start with the Long-tailed Duck. Formerly known as Oldsquaw, the Long-tailed Duck spends most of its life at sea. In the winter, you can find rafts of thousands of Long-tailed Ducks off shore of Kodiak Island, so many that despite the distance you can hear the calls. Which does indeed sound…
Robocalls are Like a Box of Chocolates
WARNING: Contains graphic audio. Adult situations. May not be suitable for children under voting age. Ok, so I got a call from a number I didn’t recognize, and decided to let the answering machine get it. (Yes, I still own a land line because cell phone reception at my house on the mountain is spotty at best). Forrest Dunbar is the latest candidate to go up against the Congressman for All Alaskans Who Voted for Him, since 1973 – the walrus penis bone gaveling, beanie propeller wearing, fed hating, EPA waffle stomper nemesis, Don Young. After the robocall was…
Eric Cantor Got “Joe Millered” by Tea Party
Anyone in Alaska watching Tuesday’s primary shocker in Virginia unfold couldn’t help but draw comparisons to the Senate race in 2010. That year, Tea Party candidate Joe Miller set the Republican establishment back on its heels with a victory shocker over incumbent Republican Lisa Murkowski. Democrats scrambled while institutional Republicans, mouths agape, tried to comprehend what had just happened. On Tuesday in Virginia, Dave Brat, an underfunded Tea Party candidate cleaned the clock of the 7-term Republican incumbent House Majority Leader Eric Cantor by double digits. Brat had been predicted to lose by a wide margin. By many accounts Cantor…
Palin and #WTF Foreign Policy
by Jeanne Devon and Zach Roberts Half-term Governor Sarah Palin has once again decided to demonstrate the flexibility of her intellectual consistency, and take a firm stand on two sides of a controversial issue. Last week she claimed that President Obama “blew it again,” with a deal that traded five members of the Taliban for the return of captive U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. Bergdahl stated that he had been tortured and kept in a cage during his nearly five years as a prisoner of the Taliban. That didn’t seem to be reason enough for the President to work for the…
Bird of the Week – Black-legged Kittiwake
A handsome, delicate-looking gull, the Black-legged Kittiwake breeds in southcentral and southwestern coastal Alaska. Generally a colonial breeder, some of the rookeries are immense. The species’ name probably comes from its call, which does sound very much like “kittiwake”. A small number of non-breeders can usually be found along the bridges on the easterly side of Valdez Arm. The lemon-yellow bill, jet blacklegs and black-tipped wings are reliable field marks for this species. For more bird photos, please visit Frozen Feather Images.
Bridge The Gulf with Alaska’s Riki Ott
Ed. Note: Please check out the wonderful work that’s being done at Bridge The Gulf. They’re one of the few groups really looking into the long term effects of BP’s oil spill and much more – witnessing what happened in Alaska thanks to Exxon unfold in the Gulf. Interview by Bridge The Gulf’s Cherri Foytlin “I will share my personal story of flying over the Exxon Valdez and seeing this little three-football-field-long tanker in a sea of oil, and going, ‘Okay, I am going to spend the rest of my life working on this and I am not going to go…
Judge Confirms Lt. Gov’s Incompetence
The job of Alaska’s Lieutenant Governor really has only two duties to speak of. 1) Care and maintenance of the state seal. Not the animal – that would be hard, and require lots of work. I’m talking about the little round metal disc that turns stuff official. I don’t really know what care and maintenance that seal requires, but I’m guessing there might be buffing involved, or maybe some kind of chemical paste and a soft lint-free cloth. Perhaps it’s nestled in a velvet-lined wooden box, and needs to be checked on from time to time, to make sure nobody’s…
Bird of the Week – Red-legged Kittiwake
There are only a handful of places in the world where you can see this gull. The Red-legged Kittiwake is found in the Pribilof Islands, a few of the Aleutian Islands and parts of Siberia. A small, handsome gull with the signature bright red feet, it nests on St. Paul Island. This bird’s bill is dirty from hauling grass and mud 3/4ths of a mile to a nest on the steep, high cliffs known as Kittiwake Condos on the northwest corner of the island. It’s two miles uphill from where the guides park the van, but it’s worth the walk….
Former ADN Editor Speaks About Sale
This is my edited version of a radio interview of me by Lori Townsend of the Alaska Public Radio Network. The original transcript made for pretty rough reading, so I edited and elaborated on the original transcript. That’s what follows. Even if you heard the original radio report, or read that transcript at APRN or in the Anchorage Press, I think you will find this more detailed and different enough to be worth reading. I hope so. Pat Dougherty Former Editor, Anchorage Daily News (1998-2014) It has been a little more than two weeks since the Alaska Dispatch took ownership of theAnchorage…
Bird of the Week – Sabine’s Gull
A much less common gull than the ones we’ve seen the last two weeks, the Sabine’s Gull is a very handsome species that breeds in Western and Northwestern Alaska. The species winters at sea in the Southern Hemisphere, flying to the coastal Arctic and Subarctic to breed. The striking white margins on the wings, the black hood, the red-rimmed eye and the yellow tip on a black bill make this an easy bird to recognize. Like most long-distance migrants, Sabine’s don’t build much of a nest, just some packed grass on a high spot on the tundra. Sabine’s Gull is…