It’s been a while since WC indulged in some really geeky geology. But WC was recently near a handsome outcropping, and couldn’t resist snapping a few photos and crawling around with his hand lens while trucks roared by five feet away on Idaho 55. Hey, it’s safer than COVID-19. In geology, a “complex” is “a…
When WC was a pup – a young pup – living in Bethel, Alaska, WC’s parents decided to take in boarders to make a little extra money. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was busy supervising construction of the Distant Early Warning Radar System, the DEW Line. Bethel was the southwestrn Alaska hub for construction…
Least Chipmunks are very cute. Watching a Least Chipmunk scratch an itch or three is way beyond cute. WC thought it might cheer us all up to share. There was the itch under the chin. With the back leg scratching on air, the chipmunk discovers an itchy spot in the hard-to-reach middle of his…
For the last year or more, the City of Boise has been “improving” Kathryn Albertson Park, one of the prettiest (and birdiest) of the string of parks along the Boise River through the greater Boise area. For many years, prior to moving here, WC and Mrs. WC would visit Mrs. WC’s Boise family in the…
Another member of the Puffbird family, this is the Lanceolated Monklet, one of the rarest birds WC has photographed. “Lanceolated” means “spear-shaped,” a reference to the chest and flank streaking. “Monklet” is a play on the name of its cousins, the Nunbird, but the Monklet is pretty small, so instead of being a monk it’s…
The COVID-19 pandemic is sickening tens of thousands of Americans, killing thousands of us and Americans can’t even agree to the most elementary steps to controlling the pandemic. The country has hopelessly screwed up management of the disease, and tens of thousands have died as a result. The experts in the federal government who might…
As WC mentioned earlier, he spent part of last week at Mrs. WC’s family cabin on Payette Lake, in central Idaho. At 5,000-plus feet, it’s about 20 degrees cooler than Boise, and a completely different set of habitats for birds. WC spent a lot of time on the cabin’s front deck, photographing the Ponderosa Pine…
WC has promised for some time to re-visit the matter of logical fallacies. As we approach the November general election, it’s more important than ever to sharpen our critical thinking skills. Identifying logical fallacies is an important tool in the critical thinking toolbox. So WC will help you practice your critical thinking skills by looking…
This past week, WC had a chance to take closeup photos of Red Crossbills, both juveniles and adults. This species of bird feeds almost exclusively on seeds of evergreens, extracting the seeds from the cones. From a Crossbill’s perspective, evergreen cones – pine, spruce, fir and larch, for example – are a kind of locked…
WC had a question from a reader, noting that WC writes about plate tectonics “all the time” but has never explained what makes the various plates move. Oddly enough, plate tectonics as a geological theory was well developed before the mechanism that causes the movement was understood. If the evidence for plate tectonics was not…
WC notes that the Last Frontiersman, the newspaper of the Mat-Su Valley, reports the Mat Su Valley had only one COVID-19 positive test the week of July 17. Down the road in Anchorage, by contrast, there were some 59 new cases. It’s bad enough in Anchorage that Mayor Ethan Berkowtiz has issued an executive order…
Here’s another member of the Puffbird family, and close cousin to last week’s White-fronted Nunbird, the Black-fronted Nunbird. At least in WC’s experience, this is a much more common species, and unlike its cousins, hangs out in the lower understory, making it a little easier to photograph. It’s also a little more active than its…
In some ways, WC felt like July would never end. The unrelenting dumpster fire of the Trump Administration made each morning a worrisome anticipation of the next God awful announcement from the Trumpster, the CDC, William Barr or worse. In another way, it flew by in a blizzard of disasters. The months between now and…
WC has been accused of being a speciesist, exalting birds above all other critters. That’s probably true, but WC scarcely cares. But in an effort to at least partially redress that emphasis, WC introduces an occasional feature, focused on marine mammals. We’ll begin with the cutest and smartest: the endangered Sea Otter. Sea Otters, not…
WC has loved the Amphitheater Mountains since first visiting them in 1963. Geologicaly, it’s a small batholith located near the suture where Wrangellia docked with the North American craton in Cretaceous time. It’s Amphitheatre Basalt, a gorgeous dark-green, massive fine-grained basalt. It was subsequently uplifted and exposed as a part of Denali Fault development and…
WC is convinced the Idaho Legislature, a body overwhelmingly dominated by Republicans, hates, distrusts and ignores Idaho voters. Exhibit A: The Legislature refused for years exercise the option of states to expand Medicaid coverage to make health care more widely available under the Affordable Care Act. Idaho voters went ahead and did it by the…
Dear Idaho Statesman – WC has your renewal notice for the delivered, paper version of the Idaho Statesman. It is, as you know, $1,306.34 for a year, more than $325.00 a quarter. WC recognizes McClatchy is in Chapter 11. WC recognizes advertising income has sharply declined. On the other hand, the newspaper is less than…
Old age brings perspective, WC was told. Well, WC has achieved old age, and what it has mostly brought is a sadness that so little has changed. WC will illustrate his point with some photos from another of his heroes, Margaret Bourke-White, a great photographer of the first half of the 20th Century. Here’s her…
There are whole families of birds that are only found in the Neotropics – Central and South America – that are almost unknown to all but hard core birders. One of those families of birds is the Bucconidae, the Puffbirds. They take their English name from their somewhat puffy appearance. It’s called “lax plumage” and gives…
John William Kirby Kelley is a 19-year old member of the far-right group Atomwaffen Division, one of the seemingly endless series of would-be paramilitary squads composed of thugs, racists and neo-Nazis spawned by Trump’s election. The Southern Poverty Law Center classifies the Atomwaffen Division as a hate group. There are reports that Atomwaffen Division is…
The thing to remember as we struggle with COVID-19, Trump’s lies, Trump’s Brownshirt tactics and the country’s seemingly ongoing descent into chaos; the thing to remember is those aren’t even the biggest crisis. WC doesn’t know about you, but the unrelenting bad news is exhausting. It all sucks the energy and compassion out of WC.…
President Donald Trump has committed a long string of truly evil acts since his inauguration. But this past weekend, he set a new low mark. It wasn’t his continuing denial, obfuscation and outright lies about the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 140,000 Americans are dead as a result of his Administration’s grossly incompetent mismanagement of the…
WC went out comet chasing last Friday night. To escape the light pollution in the Boise metropolitan region, WC and Mrs. WC headed out onto the Snake River Plain, at the westerly end of the Morley Nelson Birds of Prey area, along Swan Falls Road. We found a bumpy, dusty side road, and settled in…
Wickersham’s Conscience reader AB passed along a link to an article that proposes using Wandering Albatrosses as spies to sleuth out illegal fishing in the Southern Ocean. Can we think about this, please? Some background. The Wandering Albatross is a gravely threatened species. They are also one of the largest flying creatures on the planet:…
Major League Baseball starts up its shortened season next week. WC is a huge Chicago Cubs fan, and misses the game badly. It’s been a part of WC’s summer since the early 1970s. There’s a major league hole in WC’s summer. But, really? Baseball? Now? Sean Doolittle, a relief pitcher for the Washington Nationals, put…
