My Twitter Feed

March 28, 2024

Headlines:

No Time for Tuckerman -

Thursday, August 3, 2023

The Quitter Returns! -

Monday, March 21, 2022

Putting the goober in gubernatorial -

Friday, January 28, 2022

Bird of the Week – Boreal Owl

Male Boreal Owl, Fairbanks

Mrs. WC is somewhat famously “the owl lady.” We have three educational owls living with us, which is why there are mice thawing in our refrigerator at this very minute. But this is a wild owl, a male Boreal Owl, photographed in Fairbanks a few years ago. WC was trying to photograph the female, who was on eggs in an owl box, waiting for her to stick her head out. Instead, this handsome little devil flew out. Great, WC thought to himself, you’ve put the female off of her eggs. But when WC looked back at the box, she was…

Bird of the Week – Wilson’s Phalarope

Wilson's Phalarope Male

There are three species of Phalaropes in Alaska; this one, by a considerable margin, is the least common. Phalaropes are unusual in that sexual roles are reversed; the male is drabber, and does all of the brooding of the eggs and raises the chicks. The more colorful female lays the eggs and leaves. This proto-feminist male was photographed at Creamer’s Refuge in 2008. For more bird photos, visit Frozen Feather Images.

Bird of the Week – Sharp-tailed Grouse

Sharp-tailed Grouse Male, Dancing for the Ladies

The very first Bird of the Week posted here was a Sharp-tailed Grouse, but since we’ve been looking at Alaska’s grouse species the last few weeks, here’s another photo of a male Sharp-tailed Grouse lekking – competing with other males for the attention of a female: The sound effects are pretty impressive, too. The dancing behavior, technically “lekking,” is done in the early morning before the raptors are out and flying around. Which is just as well, because the males aren’t focused on anything but the display and the ladies. WC admits the composition of this photo leaves a lot…

Bird of the Week – Spruce Grouse

Spruce Grouse Male

Sometimes overlooked among its more common cousins, the Spruce Grouse is arguably the most handsome of Alaska’s boreal chickens. This handsome fellow was strutting his stuff along Quartz Lake Road. Perhaps more than his cousins, the Spruce Grouse seems to favor crepuscular light, the times around sunrise and sunset. The low light makes photographing this species a bit of a challenge. Because these birds dine mostly on spruce needles, their meat has a turpentine-like flavor. As a result, there’s not much hunting pressure. Yet there’s not a lot of Spruce Grouse around. For more bird photos, visit Frozen Feather Images.

Bird of the Week – Just Kidding Around

Willow Ptarmigan Chick, Denali Nat'l Park

Sometimes we forget that birds have their own agendas, which is usually the task of making more birds. This hatchling Willow Ptarmigan was just coming into his adult plumage in late June.  The little guys are almost impossible to see on the tundra, but on the gravel bars you can sometimes spot the kids, with mom and pop doing their best to make you pay attention to the adults instead. For more bird photos, visit Frozen Feather Images.  

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.

Bird of the Week – Arctic Tern

Arctic Tern, Deception Island, Southern Ocean

The Arctic Tern is, beyond question, the grand champion migratory bird in the world. The species breeds in spring and summer in the latitudes of Interior Alaska. It winters as far south as Antarctica, including Deception Island, at 63° S latitude, where this photo was taken. Graceful, elegant and buoyant in flight, WC will metaphorically ride the wings of the Arctic Tern back to Alaska for the next series of Birds of the Week. For more bird images, please visit Frozen Feather Images.

Bird of the Week – Chinstrap Penguin

Chinstrap Penguin, Pygoscelis antarctica

There are birds whose appearance is so distinctive that you automatically understand how they got their name. That would include the Chinstrap Penguin. Chinstraps breed on a swatch of stormy islands from South Georgia to the South Shetlands. Among the breeding sites is a series of colonies on Deception Island, a huge, drowned volcanic caldera, breached on one side by the Southern Ocean. You can see the cinders underfoot in this photo, taken on the shore of Deception Island. There are an estimated 16 million Chinstraps. So long as humankind leaves the krill alone, the species should do well. Unhappily,…

Photograph Aurora Like a Pro

  Alaskans tend to take advantage of their long days in the summer by getting out and hiking, biking, camping, hunting, and fishing.  We savor the opportunity to have six hours of sunlight to enjoy on a weekday even after the work day is done.  Farther north, the sun never even goes down.  But as winter comes, the light goes down sooner and the nights grow longer.  Temperatures drop, chills set in.  And while some types of activities go away, they are simply replaced by others that can be pursued in the winter.  Nordic skiing, snow shoeing, trapping and snow…

Bird of the Week – Light-mantled Sooty Albatross

Light-mantled Sooty Albatross, Phoebetria palpebrata

If there is a family of birds that, to WC, epitomizes the ocean, it’s the Albatrosses. Coming ashore only to breed, this is a family of birds that lives on the wind and waves. And surely the most handsome of the albatrosses is the Light-mantled Sooty. It’s one of the smaller albatross species, but it isn’t a small bird. An adult is about three feet long and has a wingspan of more than seven feet. For a big bird, it is elegant and grateful in flight, its wingtips just fractions of an inch above the waves. Like far too many…