Wildlife Intrigued

Prairie Island…by Brad Marks

Eighteen years for the children of St. Jude….

Hi everyone, it’s Brad. Normally Brian writes the intros to one of my stories, but this time he’s letting me have a go at it.

Long time Intrigued readers know that Jan participates in the ultimate community-based fund-raising effort in the country: The 45^th annual St. Jude Memphis to Peoria Run (M2P) to raise money for the Kids of St. Jude. In case you didn’t know, Memphis, TN and Peoria, IL are 465 miles apart. Why would anyone voluntarily run that far during the hottest week of the summer? It’s all for the kids.

The St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, TN is the premiere children’s cancer research center in the world (my humble opinion). Danny Thomas (“Make Way for Daddy” fame) said that “no child should die in the dawn of life” and founded the hospital in 1962 in Memphis to treat, and now cure kids with cancer. Forty-five years ago, former Peoria County Sheriff Mike McCoy had “One Crazy Idea” to raise money for the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis by hosting a running relay from Memphis to Peoria. In 1982, 21 runners completed the 465-mile journey raising $22,000.

Fast forward to 2026. This was Jan’s 18^th year participating in the Memphis to Peoria (M2P) Run. Runners leave Memphis about 11am on Wednesday to the thunderous cheering of hundreds, possibly thousands, of St. Jude employees lining the roadway. Runners then run, 24×7 relay style, back to Peoria over the next four days and nights. Two teams of runners, Gold and Blue, tag-team for eight hours at a time all the way back to Peoria. Jan is on the Gold Team. When she’s not running, she’s also showering, eating, helping in a chase van, and driving a motorhome to the next stop for the team along the route. This means precious little sleep time. Because of her spectacular organizing skills, she is able to eek out a couple of hours of sleep (literally only two or three) each day over the four days. As Mike McCoy is fond of saying, “it’s a fund-raising event, not a running event,” but you’d never know it by the number of runners that participate.

The M2P Run ends at the Peoria Civic Center with not only the 180 runners from Peoria (including more than a few former St. Jude patients), there are 35 doctors and staff running from the St. Jude Children’s Hospital, and another 2,000 or more from 33 satellite runs all over Illinois converging on the Civic Center to start the fund-raising telethon. This year set fund-raising records again. Not only did the M2P smash its efforts from the prior year with a record $1.9 million, the entire telethon (all of the satellite Runs, golf outings, talent shows, corn boils, lemonade stands, etc.) raised over $12.6 million dollars for the Kids of St. Jude this year.

Since 1982, the combined efforts from M2P and all of the satellite runs has raised over $101 Million for the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital; much of it from right here in Central Illinois. That’s what I call long-term, unwavering committed communities. This is what a community’s heart looks like when banding together to support Hope for children and families seeking cures.

Now that this year’s M2P Run has completed, the motorhomes have been returned to their respective rental companies, the runners safely returning home, and the confetti cleaned up, Jan can rest. Well, at least until next year’s M2P prep starts. As you would guess, Jan’s more than a little tired. She puts on a brave face when she tries to convince me, “but it’s a good tired.” I’ve made the one-night, no running required, bus trip to Memphis many times. Heck no, I’m not a runner; just a huge cheerleader for her. But I know exactly why she continues to run for the Kids of St. Jude.

For now, Jan is resting and recovering. BTW, in a couple days I’m taking her on a fabulous vacation so she can rest and recover in style. Shhh! Don’t tell her it’s also part of another photo assignment.

Take it away Brad. (that sounds funny coming from me)…

During retirement, Jan and I have taken up various activities besides birding. Shhh, don’t tell Brian, he thinks we focus on birds 24×7. We hike with a friend Trish when our schedule allows. While on spring hikes at a Spring Creek Preserve (SCP), I like to listen to the birds to see what’s out there. I can by no means identify all of them by their call, but I can recognize a call when it’s new to me, or the area.

The last few springs, usually from May to late June I heard a bird call that rises in pitch and accelerates the higher the pitch. At first, it reminded me of a staccato slide whistle, stopping to hit all the notes all the way to the top of its range. This song definitely stands out from the chirps and chips and warbles we normally hear on our hikes.

SCP consists of three reclaimed farm fields that have been allowed to go back to nature. Each is full of young trees and grasses native to the Illinois prairie surrounded by mature woods tucked into the folds of the river bluff. There are also plenty of hiking trails through the woods for all ability levels. We seldom have to worry about water in the creek separating the fields, but when it runs, it runs full.

In the first of the hiking fields next to the parking lot, let’s call it Field A (that’s its real name anyway), I can usually hear an escalating song. As we walk along, I hear it again. But by the time we’ve reached the end of Field A, I can no longer hear it. Hiking the path around Fields B and C, I don’t hear the song at all. Turning around, and taking the fields in reverse alphabetical order, C to B to A, I begin to hear the song again once we near the end of Field A by the parking lot. Taking out my trusty bird listening app, Merlin, it identifies the singing bird. But when I go to enter it into eBird later, it tells me it’s very unlikely to hear that bird at that location. Ever. One app says it is, the other says it isn’t.

Prairie Warbler found by Brad and Brian at Spring Creek Preserve

Talk about calling your [bird] shot, hit the jump to read more about this rather pretty rarity..so the experts say.

Just Waiting on a Flame

Nothing like getting in just under the wire. We’ve come to the end of another month or as we say here at Intrigued, officially HT-2 – only TWO months before the annual Haunted Trail event. We have been working hard on creating props, new power solutions and trail prep since we made it home from our western foray, but now the pressure really starts to build. Sleep is becoming a luxury even before mixing in this month’s stepped up run training cycle. I would liken it to being back in the corporate grind if it wasn’t so damn fun hahaha. Oh, speaking of a physical “grind”, the Intrigued family extend their best wishes for “happy feet”, clear skies, cool temps and emotional fortitude to Jan (and Brad) during their annual charity event. I will let Brad comment more on that at a later time – fingers crossed they are not getting the current downpour going on here.

Now let’s get to today’s featured feathered friend and put a wrap on this month’s colorful theme!

Anna's Hummingbird found at Santa Rita Lodge, Madera Canyon, AZ in March 2025

Watching Hummers go passing by
It ain’t the latest thing
I’m just standing in a blind
I’m just trying to make some sense
Out of these Hummers that passing by
The tales they tell of nectar
I’m not waiting on a lady
I’m just waiting on a [male to] flame

Yes, I took some liberties on a classic song, but that was me in March of 2025. Hit the jump to learn more.

Bugle Birds…by Brad Marks

Wow, July is really “cooking” by – literally ha. We were spoiled with a few recent mornings/nights in the low 60’s but today’s morning run was a return to the humidity wall – the “feels like” section in the weather report shot to 106F degree by mid-day. To be honest, beyond the trail of sweat left on the pavement, I didn’t really notice the heat as I was completely captivated by today’s podcast selection. Not a big surprise as Mike Rowe’s ‘The Way I Heard’ It is a masterclass in how to find and interview intriguing individuals. Thanks to the distances I train at, I go through ravenous amounts of podcasts and interviews on some form of running, self-improvement, psychology, behavioral, technical and on rare occasions just something fun and light. The more thought provoking, the better or I might start thinking about what I’m physically doing and NOBODY wants that hahaha. At times though, something or someone about knocks me off my feet with an insight or topic that blows me away – today was one of those days. If you are curious, the name of the episode was Todd Rose – One Good Thing. He is the author of Collective Illusions – a book that was put on my wish list the moment I got into dry clothes. His company works in the “private” polling arena which attacks the blatant flaws in assessing public opinion. If you want to know what Gen Z is REALLY thinking, Todd is at the heart of the matter and it will absolutely surprise you. I will not waste print on the details, but if are interested have a listen on your favorite podcast service, Mike Rowe’s website (link here) or if you are not consuming while running, it is on YouTube (link here). There is one thing I know that is definitely not an illusion and that is Brad and Jan out in the field bringing you another great story from their travels afar. While I attempt to replenish the fluids in my body, Brad is going to take over and force birds to play the bugle for us…wait..is it play the bugle for the birds..hmmm, a classic from the Buggles (link here) or maybe just some happy Budgies singing (link here). I really need to start paying more attention at our weekly planning meetings.

In any case, take it away Brad…

On assignment in the Southern Caribbean (I know, don’t feel sorry for us) Jan and I had been riding on a tour coach for a couple of hours when we stopped at a secluded beach area. If my notes were correct, we had just stopped at Playa Kenepa Grandi on the island of Curaçao. The coach parking lot is a couple hundred yards from the beach and is elevated about 100 feet above the water. Getting to the beach itself involves a hike down to the water from the parking area. We only had about 15 minutes off the coach to stretch our legs and use the facilities, so a beach visit was out of the question.

After taking selfies with the beach in the background, Jan and I wandered to the right a little bit to see if we could find the bird Merlin was telling us was in the greenery. We left the pavement to walk a little way along the path when something bright orange caught our eyes. Merlin was having trouble hearing over the people and sounds of ocean.

There it is. I tried to get the camera on it, but it was gone already. Over there. Lifted the camera, but I was too late, again. This bird was teasing us quite a bit by staying inside the foliage on the edge of the cliff. Then Jan spotted an orange flash leaving the bushes and heading across the parking lot to the shady side of the greenery. Dang it, we missed our chance. We walked towards the shade (it was quite warm outside) and were rewarded with a bright orange bird sitting openly on a branch about eye level.

Venezuelan Troupial found by Brad and Jan Marks at Playa Kenepa Grandi

Now that is what I call a video (err, picture) star. Hit the jump to read more about this colorful find!

Keep Your Chin Up!

Howdy ya’ all! I have to say, it feels like a stress weight has been lifted as of noon today. Got through the anniversary celebration event earlier in the week and that all went very well beyond a bit of a let down on our chosen fancy pants dinner location – a LOT of dollars for a mediocre experience which is disappointing when you are ordering “market” priced entrees. Beyond that, a great day just confirming why we both said “I do”. That only left today’s physical to get through and then it was days primarily filled with training and prepping for the haunted trail (that is actually coming at bullet train speed). Didn’t know what to expect at the doctor’s office – late start to training, pushing to the edge in our humidity trying to get caught up, just got back from 2 months living in a tin can and in a battle since January to cut the weight from the sedentary ankle recovery months. A bit shocked, but every diagnostic test indicator came in excellent (some cases better than my peak performance years) and weight was 8 pounds less than last year – apparently rucking mountains, daily core work and limiting yourself to only two if not one meal a day is the ticket – a bit of work, but rewarding! Which brings us to today’s featured feathered friend.

Black-Chinned Hummingbird found at Santa Rita Lodge, Madera Canyon, AZ in March 2025

Hopefully you have picked up on my featured theme as of late – Hummers. Like the last several training months, this purple chinned beauty comes with a bit of work. Hit the jump to read about the latest in this rocket-propelled series.

Magnificent by Any Name

Greetings from the heat wall of the Midwest! Finally getting settled back in after our long trip – had to harvest my yard for the second time yesterday and finally appears to be tamed..for the time being. Along with the catch-up work around the homestead, the body had been quite upset its relative “time-off” from training is over. Back on the road now including two-a-days whenever possible. Typically there is a slow(er) transition to the high heat and humidity typical of the area allowing the internal thermostats to readjust and condition for the mid-year training and races. Being gone for two months, this has been an abrupt introduction and basically getting sweat-spanked on the outings even with the early mornings and darkness sessions. This is a bit tricky for me as you recall from my previous race posts as my internal thermostat is damaged, so I have to be careful not to go over that fine knife edge between training and…well, ambulance. Imagine running with Linda’s voice in your head “Make good choices!“. To my credit, I did pass up this weekend’s big ultra-race (CMAR link here) as hard as it is to admit, just not ready for that distance with the heat or the ankle – next year, no question as I need redemption for that last DNF.

Speaking of Linda, Monday will be our 35th anniversary and just over 37 years since we met on our first day of our new careers – fingers crossed our bosses and HR do not find out we are in a relationship hehehe. Joking aside, we did keep it a secret for a VERY long time not knowing what that might do to our work situation. You can say or training class was really close…we and the 15 other individuals in the training program were all sworn to secrecy – many of which are still close friends today in retirement. In honor of that first day I laid eyes on Linda decades ago, I thought it would be fitting to go with a featured feathered friend that I will also never forget the first time I met and equally beautiful.

Rivoli's Hummingbird found at Santa Rita Lodge, Madera Canyon in March 2025

How is that for a stunner of a Hummer? Hit the jump to learn more about this new Hummingbird on the lifer list.

Couldn’t Eat Another Bite…by Brad Marks

Howdy everyone! As noted in my last post, I am officially home from our excursion through the West. There have been moments of pure happiness throughout my life, beating our competitors in the solid modeling innovation realm, passing my 9 hour multi-discipline second degree black belt certifications, crossing the 50 mile finish line for the first time and more recently, getting a good nights sleep in my own bed after two months of living in a tin can – that was aided by a late night run I was able to get in before that to jump start the humidity conditioning. Unfortunately, now having to harvest my yard, get the woods beat back into submission and deal with every critter in the neighborhood that decided to take advantage of my absence sigh. While I deal with the homestead entropy, Brad is going to step in to keep you entertained with another of their adventures from the absolute opposite direction from our recent travels. This also gives my brother Ron some extra time to work on a video I think you are going to like. I would like to thank you folks for kindly dropping in, set a spell, take your shoes off, you all come back now (link here).

Take it away Brad…

This is the second time I have tried to write this story. The first time, as brilliant as it was, seemed to disappear when my PC restarted itself during a mandatory update and set my story back to a nearly blank document that was several days old, even after being saved multiple times in the meantime. I checked the backups and they only had the version from the prior days before I did very much writing. I have auto-save turned on, but there was some sort of kerfuffle between my PC and my backup software. Not sure Windows 11 is being my friend at the moment. I’ll try to recreate the facts as best as I can remember them. Trust me, the first version was a brilliant rendition of our visit, truly Pulitzer worthy. Hehehe

Jan and I were on one of our annual trips to escape a week of February weather in Illinois. We like the Hilton Head area in South Carolina that time of year. Temperatures along the Atlantic Ocean are just enough warmer that we don’t need parkas, but not so warm we need short sleeves and sunscreen all the time. There seems to be a sweet spot right before the Spring Break throngs descend on the area and precisely when the hotels are deeply discounted. Yet not so early that state parks and activities aren’t available. We still see gators all over, but they haven’t really warmed up for summer levels of activity, thankfully. And I think I’ve finally figured out most of the roads we use and which traffic lane to use in the round-abouts. This is certainly not meant to be an advertisement, but if someone from the Hilton Head Bureau of tourism wants to sponsor future trips . . . just sayin’.

One of our favorite gems to visit is Wigeon Point Preserve, about 30 minutes away from Hilton Head towards Port Royal. I think Ted Jennings may have guided us to this location in the past, thanks Ted. It can be tricky to find while driving as there is precious little signage, and no separate right turn lane. The preserve is on a bend in the road between bridges spanning two large marshy areas. At the risk of making the preserve much more popular, we are usually the only people there.

Remembering that the park entrance sneaks up quickly at highway speeds, I slowed down and signaled to make the turn into the parking lot. This time, there was just one other car in the lot, but they were already headed to the trails. The couple was walking a new puppy who was rather excited to be in the middle of nature. We could hear the puppy proclaiming its joy as it romped along the trails. When we couldn’t hear the puppy, we could track its progress by the clouds of birds flying up from the trees wherever it went. At this point, we realized there would be no birds to photograph unless we waited several minutes for them to return to their perches. Or took a different path through the preserve, which is precisely what we did. If the crowds go left, go to the right, or vice versa. This strategy has served us well at various Disney parks.

Cedar Waxwing found by Brad Marks at Wigeon Point Preserve

Imagine you just heard an extremely high pitched twill, the calling card of today’s featured feathered friend. “Wax on” the jump button to learn more about this rather dapper find.

Not Violent, Violet

Been a few, my fault, upmost apologies. Free time has been at a premium as of late since we started are final drive east for home. In fact, by the time you are reading this we will either be officially back or minimally less than a state away. I’ll likely provide a more thorough recap of our foray through the west, but some key summary (at at least very close) statistics:

In total – 13 states visited
6 new states lit up on my eBird account
140+1 new birds for the year
54 new lifers
Current annual bird count – 440+4 (a new record)
Hit #125 on top US birder list for 2026
Over 6500 miles driven

This has been quite a trip, the longest we have been away from home and have to admit, looking forward to a good night’s sleep in a large, stationary bedroom. Then up bright and early to get my ass back into hard training. Although I rucked several mountains, wedged in a few 10 miles runs, did my cardio/core routine 6/7 days a week and mostly kept myself to 2 if not 1 meal a day, the body took the holiday to heart and needs a quick reminder it has a big race later in the year. Oh, and the Halloween Haunted Trail work is waaaay behind schedule.

…but you are here for birds and we have another Arizona specialty for you to kick off this new month.

Violet-Crowned Hummingbird found at Paton Center for Hummingbirds, Patagonia, AZ in March 2025

Pretty eh!?!, hit the jump to learn more about this beautiful creature.

That is One Good Looking Broad

Greetings once again from the road. By the time you read this we should be out of California and somewhere in Arizona. Picked up a number of birds during our first “official” trip to the state lighting up the 6th new state this trip on my eBird profile. Have to admit, Linda’s bribe of birding opportunities for agreeing to go out to Washington for the CPE Agility Nationals has materialized far better than ever imagined. I am getting a bit homesick now and looking forward to getting back…but not until we hit a few more of my favorite birding spots in Arizona. Fingers crossed the heat doesn’t chase the birds away.

This month is coming to a close and surprisingly it was spent entirely on the road. Big thanks to Brad for keeping the post quota pressure from adding additional stress to the trip. For this 6th and final post of the month, I am going to feature a member of a bird family that doesn’t get a lot of attention on this site. This has absolutely nothing to do with our fondness for this group of birds – we love them actually – but it comes with a great deal of work both during the encounter, inevitable work in the digital darkroom and then depending on a number of conditions (gender/lighting/breeding/etc), the potentially painful ID process.

Broad-Billed Hummingbird found at Patagonia, AZ in March 2025

To get the ball rolling, this post is going to focus on a Hummingbird that is pretty easy to identify if you can find the male. Hit the jump to learn more about this distinctive speedster.

PIE-lay-ted…by Brad Marks

Hi folks! We said farewell to Vegas and made our way west again. We had a list of things planned for our stay in the desert, but somehow that city has the ability to crumble up itineraries and set them on fire – this year that was almost literal as the day temps went to 109 and beyond. Ended up being a daily scramble thanks to some RV repairs, additional time spent hunting birds I thought would be easy checks and then a host of other things that gobbled up the time. I am sure we will get back there before too long – note to self, allow more time! On the bright side, birding has been outstanding – 109+1 annual birds since start of the trip, 43 of those being lifers. That puts me at 409+4 for the year – a personal record and we are still relatively early in the year. Oh, an that puts me at #211 in the US Top 100 Birders standings. The downside is the field days have been long and the gravitational force of the pillow strong – my apologies for the delay in responding to comments (I promise to remedy that as soon as I can) and now I will be out of pocket for a bit as we have a family event to take in. Fortunately, Brad is always at the ready to bring you another of their adventures and today’s feature is one of my favorite local feathered friends.

The pillow beckons, take it away Brad…

A couple of years ago, Jan and I were driving on our first trip to Hilton Head Island to escape a week of February winter in Illinois. We decided to drive to take all of our camera gear. Driving to Hilton Head takes 16+ hours from where we live, so we broke the trip into two days. The first night we stayed in Asheville, NC to could go to one of our favorite restaurants for dinner, the Tupelo Honey Café. We were not disappointed. On the second day, we planned to stop at Congaree National Park in South Carolina we found on a poster our daughter Allyson gave us when we retired. When we go to a new park, we can cross it off the poster, checklist style. The park poster contains some of the biggest National Parks (Yosemite and Yellowstone) and some of the lesser-known parks as well. That’s where we found ourselves.

When we finally arrived at Congaree, we were quickly rewarded with a bit of humor. There was a sign saying the park wide speed limit was 27 MPH. Not 25 MPH or 30 MPH, but 27 MPH! How cool is that! Arriving at the small parking lot, Merlin was telling us there were many birds in the trees, if only we could see them. I learned much later that Congaree National Park is one of the nation’s top spots to see very large firefly displays during late May and into June.

When I had finished assembling my camera (Jan was already off taking photos), a family was wandering by from their distant parking space. The grandfather in the group, seeing the big cameras, asked if I’d seen a specific bird pointing to the other end of the parking lot. Sometimes the local names and pronunciations of words can catch me off-guard. British English and American English often have different syllables emphasized. But when American English (Midwestern) and American English (Southern) collide, I sometimes have no idea where to start.

Here’s where I have to go to phonetic spelling because my ear was simply not tuned into Southern English so early in our trip. Absolutely no offense intended, things are pronounced differently all around our country. Pronunciations in the Northeast are sometimes the hardest because they remove certain letters and add them to the ends of other words. For example, the phrase “park the car” becomes “pahk the cah”. But the word “area” becomes “airy-er”. See what I mean?

Pileated Woodpecker for by Brad Marks in South Carolina

In any dialect or accent, that’s a BIG bird! Hit the jump to read more about the PIE!

An Arizona Specialty

Continued greetings from the road! We are in the second half of our western jaunt and I have to say it has been a bit tiring. The long drives, the continual up and downs from one mountain range to another and the temperature fluctuations … well that is probably the real story right now. After spending so much time at altitude and fairly pleasant temps (if not cold) weather conditions at elevation, we are now in the hot desert, more accurately, the torturous hot box. I have a history of heat “issues” and it takes the gradual temp changes back home to get the internal thermostats calibrated. This process has been short circuited to a 2 day cycle – one day 70sF followed by a steady 105-109F. Probably should have thought the plan through a bit more, but we are really in wait mode now until we make our sprint into California for a wedding and then point the RV east(ward). Early morning birding only at this point. Still managing to get some good checks and even broke through the 300 mark as I now sit at #268 in the top US birder rankings thanks to the now 92 birds added this trip (only 8 more to hit the Average Year goal of 400!!)

Thought I would introduce you to one of my favorite feathered friend finds from last year’s trip to Arizona while I try to get the internal body temperature down.

Arizona Woodpecker found at Santa Rita Lodge in Madera Canyon, Arizona in March 2025

Your eyes are fine, that really is a brown Woodpecker. Hit the jump to read more about this very regionally limited bird!

	wordsfromanneli on Just Waiting on a Flame
	doerfpub on Prairie Island…by Brad…
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	doerfpub on Keep Your Chin Up!