A correlation between cold and random observations?

Perhaps a boreal chickadee

Thoughts these days seem to be more random than coherent, even.  Part of that is probably due to the fact that we have had clear and cold weather  zero to ten below, and no snow for what seems like a month.  Tends to discourage outside activity.

So here's another conglomeration from a reclusive Alaska life.  First, a new bird species.  That fellow on the right, I am pretty sure, is a boreal chickadee, the first one spotted around here.  They've probably been here before but just went unnoticed or unidentified.  Lighting is pretty poor now that the sun has gone behind the mountain until sometime in February so getting the colors right is hit and miss.  Boreals have something of a reddish breast while the others are white.

Also showing up this week a hairy woodpecker.  Only got a fleeting look at him but he held on there long enough for a quick slightly fuzzy photo.  Only regulars that haven't bee around are the ruffed grouse but they have usually showed up later in winter, so there's lots of time.  That plus with only an inch of snow cover, they are probably finding enough food in their usual haunts.

Hairy woodpecker probably.

On the world front, just a couple of things:  First, remember when the 24-hour sports networks started up?  You were as likely to see a Lithuanian men's water polo game as you were to see American baseball, anything to fill the time.  That sure has changed.  Now in between games and a news update here and there all those networks have to offer as a bunch of guys shouting at each other as if whoever Jim Harbaugh picks to start at quarterback is just as important as fiscal cliffs or wars in Afghanistan. 

And given how good they are at predicting the outcomes of games, they have no more credibility than any of the rest of us. Given a choice the networks could dump those characters and show us more of that game in Afghanistan where horsemen fling a goat's head around.

On a brighter side, something cool came out of the Sandy Storm disaster.  I saw two different stories about guys who owned hybrid cars, using the stored electricity run through converters to power things like lights, microwave ovens, cell phone chargers and almost anything else they needed to use.  Mine had a 90-volt battery  and some others go up to 100.  They will recharge on less than a gallon of gas so they are pretty efficient as well.  Then there's one that has solar charging and that just might be the emergency ticket.  Come to think of it, an inverter on a regular car battery would at least charge the cell phone or iPad.  Give those guys credit for inventiveness.

Black-capped chickadee all fluffed out to keep warm.

A while back, there was a post about killer whales with a rather large photo gallery.  In it I said someday I would get my audio tapes of the whales transferred to digital.  Did that. Now trying to figure out how to post them.

And then last, that picture at the right, a regular old black-capped chickadee but taken with a new toy.  More of that to come.