Just sitting here relaxing a bit before tomorrow’s race. Giving the ankle one last rest before strapping on the Nimbus’ and walking to the bottom of Brady Street hill in Davenport Iowa for my 18th running of the Bix 7. Quite shocked the weather gods decided to take pity on us and give us some decent temps for a change. One of my faithful readers mentioned in a comment she was familiar with the race and noted the winners usually hail from Kenya (or Ethiopia). Don’t be fooled, they are all training at top tier schools in the US. It is true, they definitely dominate the podiums at this race, but typically they are not prepared for the humidity that accompanies this race (as well as the Steamboat Race in June link here). I am always surprised to see how hard they are having to push themselves as they are returning up the 2 mile hill as I’m coming down – yes, I’m at around the 2.5 mile mark and they are heading into their 5th mile. An elite road runner I am NOT! My speed days are long past replaced with the fun of grinding out ultra distances. There are not that many road races that interest my anymore, however, the Bix was the first race I ever entered and hands down it has the BEST post race party of any event out there. Linda is from Davenport and told me about this race when I was looking for something to fill the gap when I hung up my gi.
Good weather, a course completely lined with onlookers cheering us on (yes, even the slow ones like me), a distance that should be a walk in the park for me and a great afterparty – can’t think of a better way to spend a Saturday. Oh, did I mention that Linda participates as well – they have a two mile option that takes you up the .8 mile long steep hill at the start and then directs you back down at the next block. Wish us luck!
In honor of the stress free Bix distance, thought I would feature a real “walk in the park” for today’s final post of the month.
Hit the jump to see this small collection of shots that normally would have gone straight to the archives.
It is likely you have noticed by now, but we here at Intrigued tend to focus on a single species for our wildlife posts. This gives us a chance to stretch out and bring a more thorough look at whatever bird, insect or animal that makes it onto our radar (and in or tins of course). We try to give you various perspectives and usually something interesting about the pursuit or intriguing facts you can take with you into the field. That also means a lot of shots go straight to archive if I didn’t get enough to fill a post. Going to change it up today and bring out some of those shots at the expense of depth. If you like the variety, let me know and I’ll try to do more of these in the future.
To start things off we have the Common Yellowthroat or as I like to say, the Hamburglar of the Birding World (link here). Second only to the Field Sparrow when it comes to easily identifiable songs, the Wichety, Wichety, Wichety chorus rings out across all our prairies. This specimen was busy singing away just a few weeks back at Jubilee College State Park.
Jubilee has a really nice prairie/wildflower habitat that is filled with the standard Midwestern fare. There has been a recovery of sorts of our next spotlight. The Eastern Bluebird was becoming scarce around here 10 or 15 years ago. A local birder/naturalist decided to try and do something about that and started putting up nest boxes at a number of local parks and wildlife sanctuaries. In tribute to his hard work, it is nearly impossible to go to places like Jubilee and not see at least a pair. This male was keeping a watchful eye on me to make sure I didn’t mess with his selected box.
In contrast, the American Goldfinch has has no population issues in this timeframe. Their sunshine coloring brightens up all our fields and brings smiles to our faces as they belt out their sweet chorus.
I also appreciate the fact they are quite comfortable with people hauling big glass into the field. A lot of birds will get a bit jumpy when they see a big o’l black barrel pointed directly at them, often taking flight just before you hit the shutter button. These Goldens will take perch in highly visible places and linger there while you get your settings dialed in – how gracious of them.
Completely opposite to the Goldfinches are the Scarlet Tanagers (link here). I noted in their feature post how surprised I was that the Scarlet we found at Dauphin Island was so accommodating to us. Low and close, two things not often associated with Tanagers in general. They are canopy birds and often heard but not seen. Even if you do finally spot one, getting an unobstructed shot is harder than finding an unbiased journalist. Ron and I were at Jubilee College SP defending our mancards from batsized Horseflies when the Scarlet song came up on our Merlin app. Ron already had this bird in the tin this year, but it was a huge miss on my list. We probably spent an hour plus trying to locate that bird – hear the song, move to the suspected tree, hear it down the trail, dash down to locate it, damn thing starts singing back up the trail… and on and on until Ron spotted it fly high over his head and off into another part of the woods DAMMIT. If I didn’t know better I think he was purposely trying to scare it off …just saying.
Frustrated, we finally had to call it as guests were coming over for a small 4th of July gathering. Annoyed, I went back to that same place two days later (without Ron) and once again Merlin signaled its presence. I was bound and determined to get this in the tin. At one point I was up to my armpits in weeds trying to get an angle on it. It finally took pity on me and dropped down just long enough for me to claim it for this year’s check. What a relief, clawed away some of the gap between us. “Competitive birding” who?, whaaa?, me? crazy talk.
Our next specimen comes to you courtesy of Tawny Oaks Visitor Center. If you recall, that is where the Kentucky Warbler was captured in the previous post. After being poured on, we were making our way down into the valley when we spotted this Thrush. Several Thrushes are already checked off our list for this year, but the Wood had eluded us this far. The problem with Thrushes, finding one is only half the battle, figuring out which one can be just as daunting. There are unique traits about each. Some you need to see the fronts, other the backs or tail feathering and one requires a good luck at the cheek. This one thankfully started singing for us and Merlin quickly verified we had found the Wood variety. A good check for each of us for the year.
The Ruby-Throated Hummingbird below was found while we were waiting under the pavilion for the two storms fronts to pass while at Tawny. As you would expect, there were plenty of dark clouds about, making for a dark setting. This Hummer came flying up and landed on an open branch maybe 30 feet from us. Grabbed The Beast, cranked up the ISO and took a few shots as a reference when we made our eBird entry. In the midst of getting those shots, the Hummer lit up its throat (yes, technically it just shifted its prismed feathers, but quite shocking to see it still have that much brilliance in such a drab setting. Must have caught a single ray of light that had fought through the cloud’s defenses.
Lastly, throwing in another new bird for the year, the Chimney Swift. This specimen was actually found in the Tawny Oaks parking lot and the first check on our field list. At first we didn’t think much about it as we have almost all the local Swallows checked off this year. Once again Merlin came to our aid and properly ID’d the previously overlooked blurs that were busy patrolling back and forth. Now we knew what it was… getting a picture of one was a completely different story. Over the years, Ron and I have learned to stand a few feet away from each other in the field – all that sweating, unexpected trips into horse patties, quick escapes if a stranger corners one of us with birding questions or extra distance should a Bear want a snack….or perhaps just because we value our skulls. Perfect example with aerial acrobats like these creatures you tend to whip your cameras all over the place just trying to get the autofocus to lock on one. Stand too close and WHACK – barrel upside the noggin.
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Note, ANY comments that might imply this has or would be done intentionally to keep your brother from getting the check are pure lies (you know, like the ones that say we are not in a recession). Eeesh, getting late and probably should get some good sleep tonight. Hope you enjoyed the slight change of pace for today’s post. See you again after the race!
Wildlife Intrigued 
You added some beautiful bird to your collection. We don’t have such an intense colloured bird over here. Great idea of the guy who putted some nesting boxes out in the park…. there must be more people like him. Have a lovely sunday and many greets.
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Thanks Rudi! We definitely need more people like the guy with the Bluebird boxes. It didn’t even take a huge drawn out process, rather looked at the situation, decided that maybe they just needed a more inviting habitat and started making houses – put them in the field and sure enough, they showed up and stayed. There are probably a lot of opportunities like that – just need motivated people. Appreciate you coming by and have a great rest of your week.
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I fully agree ! Have a nice sunday.
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Nice variety of beautiful birds. Since the weather will be nice all your faithful readers are expecting you to set a personal best. Eighteen years. That’s a lifetime for some, and almost time to retire for others.
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Unfortunately, my PR days for road races are probably past. Tossed my 7s pace and retooled for the the ultra trail circuit and traded in foot turnover for stability and endurance. I won’t make the podium with the Kenyans in these races… but I bet I could outlast them … well, “maybe” outlast them, they are definitely machines but don’t think they are used to racing for consecutive days. The Bix is a rather unique race. Once you experience it, you will always want to come back – the entire community (quad cities) lines the race course, cheering you on, bands playing on the route, many participants in costume and the best after party – you haven’t lived until you had a Whitey’s root beer Popsicle. I’ll put up a summary in an upcoming post, but the good news is I made it through the Bix this morning – as expected, no PR, but happy with the results. Have a great rest of your week Tim.
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You have to set your sights on reality plus a little fantasy to keep you going. I know where you’re coming from on the endurance. In my kick boxing days, which was pre-cancer and I still had my bicycle racing endurance. The pros loved to spar with me because I could do five minute rounds easily. By the end of the rounds I started kicking the pros butts because I was still fresh at 4.5 minutes and they were sagging.
The pros were prepping me for tournaments. Then I asked the question about how they matched fighters by skill levels. They said there are no skill levels. After I discovered I could be matched against the pros in a tournament I said “No!” and “Hell NO!”
The pros dicked around with me sparing, they would have knocked me out in a match in a matter of seconds. “A man has to know his limitations,” I think old Clint said once.
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Yikes, I would never enter a competition that didn’t have defined skill levels. I spent many years in Tae Kwon Do and Hapkido and my school always elongated their training rounds so we wouldn’t get tired if it took extra time to finish an “engagement” or we decided to enter a competition – we eventually stopped going to the competitions as they kept restricting techniques and areas of attack – we trained for the streets. As far as limitations go, I was reminded of those every time I went to class. Had to give up the dojo when someone accidentally ripped all the cartilage in my shoulder – also have a lower right rib broken and healed in two places thanks to letting my guard down at the wrong time. Did learn how much of an advantage those on Creatin had back in the day – never followed up to see if they had any bad side effects, but damn, the muscle and endurance they got from that was too much to overcome.
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So,this sounds like either you just pushed ahead in the bird count from Ron or he is very far ahead of you and this post was going to close the gap? Either way it was a nice collection of birds. That tanager was beautiful!!
Best of luck and a pain free run to both you and Linda! Davenport hills are not something I would run! Driving up and down them was enough.
Safe travels!
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Good luck today! Strong ankles.
We, the readers, appreciate the variety of birds in the post, but you can only count this as ONE post, not one for each. And just made the target for the month.
Have fun on the run today!
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Wait, wait, wait, you mean I don’t get credit for the different species!?! That doesn’t seem fair. I did just make the quota – I was sweating it all week. Will have to get on it earlier in August so I don’t have to rush to get through them like this time.
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Species count – YES. Monthly post count – only ONE tick mark.
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Sigh – you know you are just giving me more work to do ha!
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Well, I do have a slight lead of him for the overall Average Year count thanks to our extended stay in Texas after he left for home at the beginning of the year. He does have a set of birds that I do not have which is troubling ha. The Tanager was a big catch-up as he got that pretty quick up in Chicago. Meanwhile he has been ticking off some birds that I had on him so we are slowly converging on our counts as we are running out of accessible birds – my trip to Minnesota got me 1 bird he already had but 2 new ones which helped a lot. I like to focus on the fact that every uphill in the Bix has an equal downhill and nothing feels better than when you get into mile 6 and see that steep downhill of Brady Street – pain in the ass when you start the race at the bottom hehehe. Good news is we both made it through today’s race – will give a summary in an upcoming post. Meanwhile I’m going to go look up what a “pain free run” is – never had one of those before ha!!! Appreciate you dropping in CJ – good luck on your “weed patch”.
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I would love to know what you find on “pain free run” as well. The entire reason I refuse to run anywhere for anything or anyone, anymore! Had my full range of “fun runs” in my former professional career and I now would like to know what a “pain free wake up” is like.
I kinda knew this post was about the Ron list. Hummmm… maybe an island vacation is needed to get birds you know won’t make it to the mainland?😂
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Well captured! 👍
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Thank you Luisella! They were a lot of fun to find and photograph. Appreciate you coming by and have a great rest of your week.
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Very nice collection 👏👏👏
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Thank you Ted. As I mentioned in the article, I normally would have put these in the archive and moved on to the next series since they were one-offs. Readers seemed to enjoy this type of variety, so will look for more opportunities in the future. Appreciate you coming by and joining the conversation.
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Wonderful set of photos!
And I hope the race went well!
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Appreciate it Belinda. Will try and feature similar one-off collections in the future as readers seemed to enjoy the variety. The race did go well and we both successfully completed our respective distances. I’ll likely summarize in a future post, but we had great weather for a change – especially for the hear of summer. Take care and thanks for stopping by.
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I thoroughly enjoyed this collection. I waffle between preferring your single-bird posts versus your multi-bird posts. I love the different poses and angles you provide when focused on a single bird, but also relish these “samplers” for their comparison of color and form. Perfect solution: keep them both coming 🙂 Good luck in the Bix, and stay healthy.
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This one-off collection has been well received, so I’ll definitely try to throw them in from time to time in the future. Our bread and butter is still the more in-depth look at our featured creatures so that will will still be a primary focus. Always felt bad when I had to shelve shots just because there was not enough to fill a post – the collection approach will provide an avenue to share those now. I like the sampler concept – like Whitman’s Chocolates ha. Bix went well today – more to come on that front. I always try to be as healthy as I can … my hobbies have a tendency to make me work at it heheh. Appreciate you coming by and joining the conversation Sam.
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wow ! these are amazing pictures.
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Loved the photos, Brian! ❤ For one season, bluebirds inhabited the Purple Martin house my father made for me many years ago. They were lovely, and your photo of a bluebird brought back memories! ❤
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Thank you Cheryl, glad I could bring back some good memories. I really enjoy seeing Bluebirds and lucky enough to see them on all my training runs – they often come out to the edge of the road when I am running by and hurl insults and jokes at my running abilities – cracks them up at my expense ha! Appreciate you coming by and have a great start of your week.
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Awesome photos and new colorful birds for us to see. Hope the ankle held up, I don’t know how you run on an ankle that is swollen. Seems like medical people always said stay off your foot until the swelling is gone. I have never been a runner, sometimes when I see people jogging they don’t look happy, they look like everything hurts. 🙂 but people walking are smiling. 🙂
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Another vote for the collection posts! Getting good response on this type of post so hoping to bring more in the future. The ankle did, indeed, make it through the race – was doing great until a washing machine fell on me the next day, but that is a story for another time hehehe. Mind over body, we runners are usually dealing with some issue of one kind or another and if we let it get to us we’d never make it to a starting line. My doctors, chiro, therapist usually want me working an injury as fast as possible to keep the blood flowing and making sure it doesn’t lock. There are trade-offs for sure and definitely have to take into account the degree of injury, but for the most part … run, run, ice, run, run, ice, more ice, run…you get the picture. Next up is the big ultra in October. Thanks for dropping in Sandra.
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Oh so lovely to see these beautiful bird photos, Brian. The common yellowthroat has such a heart-melting song, it’s really a pleasure to see this beautiful bird singing in your photos. Also enjoyed the crisp scarlet tanager photos and hearing about the revival of the eastern bluebird by a determined and dedicated individual’s resolve. Great hearing about your adventures in spotting and photographing the birds, something I am very familiar with and so appreciate what it takes. By now you will have completed the race, and I trust you did well. Many thanks.
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Glad you enjoyed them Jet! The Yellowthroats are out of control around here. Growing up I don’t remember them too much, but these days you can’t go past a prairie setting (we have lots of those around here ha) without hearing at least 4 or 5 singing their little hears away. One of the joys of wildlife photography as you are well aware of. Made it to the finish line still vertical so that is always a good race! One of my shorter races at 7 miles (none of my training runs are less than 7) so it was more fun than stress for a change. Didn’t push the ankle too much on the big hills, but it felt firm all the way to the end, so now I can start pushing it on the trails – yeah! Take care Jet and always appreciate it when you drop in.
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Beautiful collection of birds to go with your humor, Brian. How did you & your ankle do in the race? 🌞
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Thank you Lisa, it was fun to just let loose over several different species this time. As I mentioned to Jet below, I finished the race vertical and that is all I…well, really my wife.. asks for every time I lace up the shoes for a race. Not my fastest time for sure, but I purposely didn’t push it as hard letting the ankle settle in – also wanted to build up my confidence I could put th3e injury out of mind and not do something stupid like over-stride or drop in an open manhole (a reoccurring sweat producing nightmare for me ever since reading Nicholas Irving’s The Reaper book ha). Best of all, there was Whitey’s popscicles waiting for me at the finish line – what ankle!?! hehehe. Appreciate you pointing your browser my way Lisa and have a great rest of your week.
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