It Say’s I’m the Best

For the last two weeks I’ve woken up, looked at the day’s to-do list, covered my dog’s ears and let out a string of colorful words. In big bold letters is the word “POST”. Although that probably is obvious but it is short for “Get your lazy butt into the den and get a post out you lily-livered, bow-legged, flea-bitten varmint”. Yes, I’m retired, yes, I still have to-do lists and yes, my to-do list entries mock me. This month it isn’t so much procrastination, just too much stuff going on, but today we are going to take another bite out of the self-imposed monthly post quota.

Going to start with another brag introduction. I previously mentioned Raven did well in the TDAA National competition held last week in Minnesota. He is starting to slow down a bit, but he is getting the job done qualifying in 4 out of his 6 runs. I’d be sleeping on the couch if I didn’t give some of that credit to Linda ha!

I think Raven is starting to feel the pressure from the newest member of the agility family. A long way from the steady runs of his brother, Ruger is just starting out, but showing amazing talent – Linda just needs to get him focused. We laughed at this shot of him “doing” his first ever weave poles. By “doing” we mean running right through them to get to his favorite obstacle the teeter-totter. “That isn’t how it’s done Ruger!” Raven was absolutely embarrassed and went and hid in his crate after that fiasco.

As they Say’s, hit the jump to see today’s featured feathered friend!

Ruger ended up getting the last laugh on him as he won an award for his effort. Here he is showing off his “Dog Gone Wild” achievement along with another participant who was also awarded this “major” award from the judge.

Ruger was busy strutting his stuff in front of Raven’s crate – “look at the big winner, who’s the star puppy? oh right, that’s me… ” on and on until Raven reminded him why he got the reward. The other Poodle was given the award for absolutely crushing the course time – one fast dog. Ruger was given it for being …how should I put this .. hmmm.. let’s go with bat-shit crazy. If you didn’t know it, you’d think that every obstacle was infested by a squirrel – let’s do that one, hey, that looks fun, is that a tunnel on the other end of the ring, gotta do that. Gave quite a laugh for the spectators. Now every time Ruger walks by the award he proclaims “That Says I’m the Best” Linda is going to have her hands full.

Okay, now that I’ve distracted you with the brags, time to get to today’s featured feathered friend. Apologies for the long intro, but today’s shots are, contrary to Ruger – NOT our best work.

It does, however, represent a new check in my life list! It is also a bit of a happy surprise. While we were spending our January in Texas, we headed over to the Progresso Sod Farm in Hildago County. There were some sightings of a wintering Burrowing Owl there and I’ve been hunting that bird for a looong time. They also had a Say’s Phoebe which would be a nice bonus.

When we got there, we were a bit surprised that it isn’t really a sod farm anymore, rather a developing subdivision that still had a number of vacant lots/fields where the birds were hanging out. They had several Long-Billed Curlew (link here), wandering about providing a good add for the year. Unfortunately, couldn’t find the Say’s. We didn’t get a chance to get back there before heading home – a missed opportunity… so I thought. While processing a set of pictures taken in February of 2020 at Red Rock Canyon Conservation Area in Las Vegas, NV, I spotted something very interesting on a pole outside the visitor center. Quickly went to the reference books and confirmed I had this Phoebe already in the tin (imagine Bri strutting around like Ruger with his major award).

This would never have been an issue if I didn’t have such a backlog of images, but a pleasant surprise for sure. Just wish I could have executed better as I managed to lose a lot of the feather detail and muted the colors a bit. It is quite beautiful with its cinnamon colored belly paired with the brownish/grey uppers. In that first shot you can see that it can raise its feathers into a cute peaked crown. These Phoebes are primarily a western half of the US bird with a breeding region that includes Alaska and some expansion into Canada. Fairly common in Central America year round. According to Cornell, Charles Bonaparte (Napolean’s nephew) named this Phoebe after American naturalist Thomas Say, the “father of American entomology”. They are quite tolerant of people and will often nest in urban settings like mailboxes and buildings – in fact, they are known to nest on the Alaskan Pipeline which is likely fueling their expansion along that path into Canada (see what I did there ha).

Need to get to other items on the to-do list (can you hear the taunting hehehe), so will put a bow on this post. Hope you enjoyed the update on the puppies and thanks for suffering through the shots of a bird that really deserves better. Next time we are in Texas or Vegas I’ll try to get you better shots.