Hey… Where’s this thing going?
Hey… Where is this thing going? As several journalists have pointed out – August is supposed to be a slow news month. But like many other things in Alaska, that’s been turned on its head. The Dunleavy steamroller is juiced up and going full speed. And so is the recall effort. Almost 40,000 signatures have been gathered so far in the first phase of the recall which will draw to a close on September 2. Phase 2 will come after the application is approved, and will require over 70,000 signatures (which looks extremely do-able at this point), and then after…
Return of Bird of the Week: Lemon-rumped Tanager
Not everyone agrees that the Lemon-rumped Tanager is a species. The International Ornithological Congress does; that’s the world bird list that WC follows. The folks over at Clements think it is a subspecies of the Flame-rumped Tanager. Not to be confused with the Flame-coloredTanager, a completely different species. There was a failure of imagination in the naming of some tanager species. But either way the Lemon-rumped Tanager is a handsome bird. Jet black, with a brilliant lemon yellow rump, it is unmistakeable when you see it. The species – subspecies, if you prefer – ranges from Central America to southern…
FAKE NEWS COMES TO ALASKA! SAD!
Gov. Mike Dunleavy didn’t come out and call it “fake news” but he may as well have. In his journey down the Trump copycat trail, he’s now blaming the media as a convenient excuse to not have to answer uncomfortable questions. Here’s the headline that got the governor’s nose out of joint. He said it was inaccurate. He would have preferred a headline that read: “The legislature chose that $1600 value of the Permanent Fund Dividend and he decided not to veto it.” And for the want of that awkward headline, he’s decided not to talk to the press anymore….
Return of Bird of the Week: White-shouldered Tanager
The White-shouldered Tanager is a close cousin to the White-lined Tanager featured here two weeks ago. It’s distinguished from its cousin by the much larger, white shoulder patches instead of the thin, sometimes invisible, white wing lines. The White-shouldered often shows a bit more purplish iridescence in its black than does the White-lined. Like the White-lined, this species is strongly sexually dimorphic. Females are yellow with a gray face. Or so WC has been told; WC has never seen one. White-shouldered Tanagers have a wide distribution, from Honduras in the north to central Brazil in the south and from the…
Governor Arsonist/Firefighter is ready for your praise
TALL TALES from Juneau Eyes on the Dunleavy Disaster ABOUT FACE! THE GOVERNOR LAST WEEK THE GOVERNOR TODAY A CONVERSATION Remember the “unapologetic” governor, who two weeks ago all but assured us he’d re-veto his terrible budget cuts despite thousands of Alaskans showing up to testify, writing, and calling to oppose them? Apparently, he doesn’t exist anymore. The shiny new governor that made an appearance this week is now furiously walking back everything he’s said about how necessary these cuts are and how everyone knew exactly that this would happen when they voted for him. SPOILER: Neither of…
Return of Bird of the Week: Flame-crested Tanager
Back in early May, when the Bird of the Week shifted to Tanagers, WC warned that there were dozens of species. Here’s the fifteenth. This is a species WC has only seen one time; it’s a canopy dweller, spending most of its time in the upper canopy, a hundred feet or more over the heads of would-be birders. A birder can get around that problem by visiting a canopy tower, a platform that takes you up into the tops of the trees (after a hot, sweaty climb of hundreds of steps, of course). Sometimes, as here, there are as many…
The Corrupt Bastards are back!
TALL TALES from Juneau Eyes on the Dunleavy/Babcock Ben Stevens administration A trip to the WayBack Machine CORRUPT BASTARDS 2.0 If anyone had a momentary sigh of relief when they heard that former Republican Party Chair Tuckerman Babcock was demoted from Governor Dunleavy’s chief of staff to “adviser,” it was short-lived. We’ve gone from extremist Koch Brothers lackey, straight back to the Corrupt Bastards Club of 2006, only without the official hats. Yes, none other than Ben Stevens – black sheep son of former U.S. Senator Ted Stevens – is now in the coveted role of governor’s right-hand man. If…
Return of Bird of the Week: White-lined Tanager
To some extent, the White-lined Tanager is an odd species. It is very widely distributed, ranging from Costa Rica to Argentina, and across the width of South America. There are isolated populations scattered in the Andes. Yet there are no subspecies. It is monotypic. It is strongly sexually dimorphic; the bright, rufous female looks unrelated to the jet-black male. Those white wing coverts are not usually visible in the field. Because it adapts well to deforested areas, its range and population is expanding. And its genus, Tachyphonus, has only three species. And, unusually for a tanager, the White-lined Tanager forages in mated…
High Drama in the Legislature!
TALL TALES from Juneau Eyes on the Dunleavy/Babcock administration HIGH DRAMA in the Legislature This may, or may not be an actual photo of Lora Reinbold ACT 1 – The House Today the House voted to rescind their previous vote, and in one final last-ditch effort managed to cobble enough votes together to pass a capital (construction) budget, and a “reverse sweep” to re-fund all the accounts that had been drained at the end of the fiscal year on June 30th. The governor can still line-item veto items in the capital budget itself, but programs re-funded by the reverse sweep…
Return of Bird of the Week: Blue and Yellow Tanager
This is a somewhat drabber tanager, but after last week’s bird almost anything is gong to look drab. This is a male Blue and Yellow Tanager, a widely distributed species found from Argentina northwest to Andean Ecuador. It’s a generalist, found in may kinds of habitats from scrubby edges and parks to pure forest of varied types. And frequently around fruit feeders; it’s an enthusiastic attendant to feeders. The species is identified by its blue head and wings, blackish or greenish back, and yellow underparts and rump; females are less colorful than males but show the same general pattern. Common and…