WC had a second target bird for his recent Panama trip: the Crested Eagle. While not quite as large as a Harpy Eagle, it’s still a very large raptor with an impressive head crest and near-six foot wingspan. As with the Harpy Eagle, these birds were at a nest, with a chick, and it was…
WC hopes to make this part of an irregular series of blog posts discussing the impacts of climate change on the United States, with a focus on some of the unexpected impacts. Because climate change is as real and as serious as a heart attack, no matter what some may say. The National Flood Insurance…
Alaskans elected Mike Dunleavy as governor because he promised them big, fat permanent fund dividends. They voted their greed. Those chickens are now coming home to roost.1 The problem Alaskans face is that the laws of economics are as harsh and unforgiving as the laws of physics. One of those laws is sometimes abbreviated TANSTAAFL.…
The Pan-American Highway, as most folks know, runs from Prudhoe Bay on Alaska’s North Slope to Ushaia, on Tierra del Fuego, at the tip of South America. Near enough to 18,000 kilometers. Except there is a gap. The Darien Gap. Between Turbo, Columbia on the east and Yaviza, Panama, on the west. In Yaviza, the…
Puffbirds are a fairly exotic family of birds. Some 37 species exist, all in the Central and South America. One of those species is the White-whiskered Puffbird.1 On Saturday morning, WC got to watch a White-whiskered Puffbird have a late morning snack. WC will let the photos tells most of the rest of the story.…
Crikey. WC leaves the internet for a few days and returns to find that Gov. Mike “Sucker Punch” Dunleavy has kicked Alaska and the Alaska economy in the fork. You have to wonder how many times Alaskans will elect a governor from Wasilla before they learn their lesson. It’s too much to deal with right…
This is a pretty wretched photo; WC includes it only because it’s the best image WC has of this distant cousin to last week’s Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, the Fork-tailed Flycatcher. It’s a vagrant species in the United States, but fairly common in Mexico and Central America, and much of South America. The tail is even longer…
North America boasts two very long-tailed flycatchers. The first is the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher. It’s found in the summer throughout he southcentral United States, and year-round in Mexico and Central America. It’s a bit of bug-eating specialist, targeting mostly grasshoppers and beetles. The male’s tail is longer than the female’s and the colors on the female…
WC is off chasing birds. There may or may not be internet access the next couple of weeks. Posts, if any, will be irregular the next few weeks. Regular posts will resume when WC gets back.
The anti-vaxxers, parents who refuse to vaccinate their children, whether for religious principles, the anti-science belief that vaccinations cause autism or sheer orneriness, create terrible risks that childhood diseases will resurge, and that neonates and babies, too young to be vaccinated, will catch child-killing diseases. You can watch it happening in eastern Washington right now,…
The song is by Hoyt Axton, of all people. But it was made famous by Steppenwolf. Oh but the pusher is a monster Good God, he’s not a natural man The dealer for a nickel Lord, will sell you lots of sweet dreams Ah, but the pusher ruin your body Lord, he’ll leave your, he’ll…
Venezuela is cursed with an abundance of crude oil, the most in South America. That crude oil has attracted major oil companies since at least 1895. The United States has never hesitated to act to protect U.S. corporate investments in Venezuela. Most of those actions are simply shameful. For example, there’s Juan Vicente “the Catfish” Gómez…
