View from the AWCC

I'm guessing I ignored this picture of the mountains behind the wildlife center because I'd already posted so many pictures of mountains, but it's still pretty.

Flashback: Alaska

I posted some pictures from the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center back in 2014 when I visited it, but I somehow ignored this disconcerting creature.

Reindeer are not native to Alaska; as in South Georgia, they were originally imported as a food source. Alaska Native populations were starving because the whaling industry was disrupting their traditional food supplies, and arrangements were made to bring in reindeer from Russia to supplement the increasingly scarce caribou. Reindeer and caribou are the same species, but different subspecies, and since all of the reindeer in Alaska are semidomesticated, a century and a half of breeding has increased the visible differences between them.

There are less than 20,000 reindeer left in Alaska, and by law only Alaska Natives are allowed to keep them.

If I ever knew how these two ended up in the AWCC, I've long since forgotten it. Perhaps they needed rehab to learn to walk with those ridiculous antlers on their heads? They remind me of Max the dog in the original cartoon of How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

Sunday bird blogging

Another Alaska picture: a kittiwake in Prince William Sound in 2014.

Saturday reflections birthday do-over

Okay, this is much better.

This is Wonder Lake in Denali National Park in Alaska in 2014, with the namesake mountain there on the right. Alaska is the next stop on the flashback and it's been a lot of fun to go through those pictures. I've been able to visit so many beautiful places in my life, and I am grateful for every one of them.

Saturday reflections

Today is my birthday and I wanted to post a really cool reflection shot to celebrate, but this is the best I can find: buildings in lower Manhattan.

Urban poetry

A chain-link barrier hanging off one of the piers in the Hudson. I love the colors.

More black and white Badlands

Badlands in black and white

I posted this picture before but I think it works really well in black and white.

Flashback: Custer State Park

I posted some pictures of the strange rock formations in this South Dakota park, but these slightly blurry bison are also worth seeing.

Sunday bird blogging

A brown skua hanging out on King George Island in 2018.

Saturday reflections

Layers of reflections through the windows of the Fifth Avenue bus, a few months ago when it was still dark in the early evening.

The in-betweenish spring weather is lingering longer than usual this year: a day in the 80's is followed by one in the 50's. I met some students in Central Park today, and when I walked outside it was much colder than I had expected. As there was no way in hell I was walking back up the four flights of stairs to get a jacket, I made a quick stop on the way to buy a hoodie at the gift shop at the zoo. And I congratulated myself on this very clever solution, right up until the moment the cashier rang it up: $60!

I wasn't kidding about the guns

There was an entire wall of these guns. They also had quite a few bow and arrow sets—I guess for a game of Cowboys and Indians. And for a mere $15, you could buy a rope that had been used by a genuine cowboy.