Bird of the Week – Common Redpoll
The very Common Redpoll, WC gets counts in the hundreds at his feeders. Still, the males, with the reddish wash on their chest, bring a bit of color to an Interior Alaska winter. The winter of 2013-2014 has already been a tough one for Redpolls. Their primary winter food is birch mast, the seeds of the Alaska Paper Birch. The windstorms devastated the birch mast, so food supplies are short. And it takes a lot of food to keep these little guys moving at sub-arctic temperatures. Happily, they are enthusiastic breeders, double- and sometimes triple-clutchng each summers. For more bird photos, please…
Good Tidings & Great Pain – Ch. 5, You are Bad
It’s still Christmas. 9 Ladies Dancing Day. I still have a few days to finish blogging Sarah Palin’s book. I took a little intermission, but the 12 drummers loom, and it’s time to git ‘er done. The title of Chapter 5 is “Bad News, Good News.” The last three words are unnecessary. The chapter begins with an inspirational quote. “This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism.” ~Martin Luther King, Jr. This particular quote is taken from his famous “I have a dream” speech in 1963. Because when Dr….
Mudflats’ Top 13 of 2013
Since it’s two millennia plus a baker’s dozen on the calendar, we thought that it seemed appropriate to give a nod to the top 13 Mudflats stories of 2013. We noticed that six of the top 13 posts are about a certain former half governor who used to steer Alaska’s ship of state. We’re not quite sure what to make of this. We’re not ones to pat ourselves on the back, but that option is less horrifying to us than thinking that Sarah Palin is still all that important. We prefer instead to believe that she has simply morphed, devolved…
Duck Dynasty Duplicity?
Seems like the boys of Duck Dynasty done forgot where they come from. Usually, that means a feller’s gone and got uppity. In this case, it’s the reverse. Before the inexplicably popular show hit the airwaves, the beard-wearing, camo-doffing, red white & blue waving hillbillies lead a life of shame that they choose to forget, but because of photography, and the internets, past sins live on in perpetuity. Let’s take Jep. Here’s the prince of redneck reality TV in what you thought was his natural swampy habitat. Turns out, just one eight inch beard ago things were different. Remove the…
Time Flies
I’m not sure why 2013 seemed to fly by. I’ve always heard “the older you get …,” but this year seemed to go faster than some months in 2012. Some years it’s better to close the chapter and start writing the next but indulge me for a minute of retrospection. One year, while I was home from university, mother asked my sisters and me what we had resolved for the New Year. I said my resolution was to say whatever I thought, to not keep my opinions to myself. Mom shuddered. My sisters laughed. I was just aiming for something…
Palin’s Book & My Xmas Pilgrimage to Wasilla
Christmas Eve was a bitter night. Despite my best efforts, I knew it wasn’t going to happen. I was not going to make it through blogging all of Sarah Palin’s Christmas book, Good Tidings and Great Joy, before the big day. There just wasn’t enough eggnog in the world to keep up the pace. I had debated at one point handling this predicament like that children’s hide-and-seek trick, where they’re supposed to count to a hundred before they come find you. “One, two, skip a few, ninety-nine, one hundred!” Chapter 1, almost done, skip the crap, I’m fin-ished! But I…
Bird of the Week – Pine Grosbeak
A bright color in our monochromatic winter, and a truly lovely song besides, the Pine Grosbeak is a favorite winter bird. The females and immature birds are grey with a goldish wash across their crown and nape. They are wary and not present every winter or all winter. You will hear them much more often than you will see them, but they are a treat on a grey winter day. For more bird photos, please visit Frozen Feather Images.
Mayor Sullivan’s Christmas Carol
Dan Sullivan, especially during his tenure as Mayor of Anchorage, could arguably qualify as “Dickensian.” In the past, Sullivan has funneled funds to his “friend” the “Party Planner,” made sure he got paid before he started the job, and signed a Municipal check for his family trust through a fake “insurance policy.” And that was just the first year! Scrooge would be so proud! Since then, he’s helped gut the schools by slashing the budget, lowering the tax cap and charging exorbitant fees; and caused Municipal employees to abandon city service like passengers on the Titanic, through the anti-union and…
Good Tidings & Great Pain, Top 10 Atrocities Ch. 4
Yes, I’ve seen it. I have seen Dan Savage’s review of Palin’s book. It’s been sent to me on Facebook, posted to my wall, sent to the Mudflats page, emailed to me, tweeted at me, left in comments. It’s very funny. Dan Savage got off easy. That’s all I’m saying. Spoiler Alert: His husband threw the book away before he’d even gotten to Chapter 1. He wrote a review of the introduction. I wish I had Dan Savage’s husband, but Dan Savage was the better man and got him first. And so here I sit, egg nog in hand, as…
Bird of the Week – Boreal Chickadee
The Boreal Chickadee is the flashy, belligerent cousin of the more widespread Black-capped Chickadee. As its name says, this is bird of the boreal forest. It’s call is more nasal –”snee snee snee” than its Black-capped cousin “dee dee dee.” Less is known about Boreal Chickadees. Apparently, they aren’t as cooperative study subjects as their cousins. Good for them. For more bird photos, please visit Frozen Feather Images.