First off, want to extend a belated Happy Mother’s Day to all the wonderful moms out there. I can’t imagine the stress and willpower it takes to raise a child, especially one like me – hats off, keep up the good work. I purposely waited to publish this post as this weekend brought with it a tremendous amount of sadness. Yesterday officially marks the end of a complete cycle of holidays/celebrations since losing my mother on Mother’s Day last year (technically a week ago because of the floating holiday – link here). As the year went by I would slowly come to terms with the emptiness and then a holiday or event would immediately bring it back front and center – major holidays – one less gift to ponder, birthdays – one less card to receive or buy, exciting life accomplishes – one less phone call and most of those are coupled with one less visit. I think it was extra hard as Mom was the last of the parental figures in our lives – we were officially on our own. Decided to go for a short five mile run yesterday to be with my thoughts. Eleven emotional miles later I had remembered numerous good times, reminded myself all the sacrifices she had made, recommitted to all the life lessons she lovingly bestowed and gave one last thanks for the moral foundation instilled in me. Acceptance will be easier from this point on. Our Mom and Dad were a true blessing.
In recognition of a long year, thought I would go with a featured feathered friend that also knows a thing or two about “long”.
Hit the jump to learn more about the prolonged hunt for this long-billed one.
Kind of feeling bad bringing you another rather monotoned bird after featuring the Juniper (link here) and the Townsend’s (link here) just last month. At least today’s feature does break up the grays with a reddish rump common in this family of Thrashers and Mockingbirds. It also has a black and white mustache which I think is a nice touch.
To be honest, it is the shape of this bird that gets all the attention – in particular that long slender curved bill you have probably been staring at since you saw the first image. I can just imagine the amount of taunting and name calling this species has to endure from fellow classmates – kids can be harsh, it’s what gives us thick skins to deal with idiots in the future. It is very clear when you witness one of these Crissal Thrashers in the wild that they are quite comfortable in their bodies and there isn’t a shy feather on them as they NEVER … and I mean NEVER seem to stop chattering away.
Oddly enough, the real problem is actually finding one. When I made my list of targets for this year’s trip to Vegas back in March, I quickly added the Crissal Thrasher near the top of that list. I was lucky enough to find one during a previous trip back in 2013. Going to spare you the link back to that as those pictures are definitely subpar. This year it took a solid three days to tin it.
That previous find was at Henderson’s Bird Viewing Preserve which has held a position in my top five birding locations since the day a coworker recommended we give it a visit. A set of retention ponds in the middle of the desert directly under the flight path of a major airport. These are dream conditions – a strong habit to draw the birds in and then a steady drone from the airplanes that results in the inhabitants being conditioned to human noises – our footsteps are essentially ignored by a majority of the residents – with the exception of those “Chickens of the Sea” the Coots – damn are those annoying (link here).
Speaking of annoying, Linda and I have been noticing something while out in the field. It might be due to our heavy use of the Merlin Sound ID App or maybe we are just getting old. Time after time we encounter kids that are essentially screaming at the top of their lungs to each other. Two little girls at Spring Mountain State Park nearly shattered my eardrums and all they were doing was walking across the picnic area. The preserve was hosting several large groups of school children involved in some form of community clean up – note, they should be applauded for participating in that. We heard them coming at least a half mile out. The crescendo continued to build on their approach – this was even too much for the airplane condition birds, they all left for quieter ponds. As they passed, Merlin pegged solid black from the cliques trying to drown out each other. Turned and asked Linda – “What could there be about picking up trash that requires one to scream!?!”. Even the volunteers in the office were annoyed as they warned us on that third day to get out to a certain area before the kids arrived.
Each day we came up empty we were taunted by eBird reports to the contrary. It was there and decided to get an assist from the volunteers before heading out on our third and final attempt. We quickly made our way to the recommended area. Ten minutes later, my ears pricked up – there was the signature chatter, now where the hell was it. Linda gets the credit for locating it first, I was running around like a headless chicken trying to triangulate the calls – quite the humorous show to behold. Anyway, once she sighted me in, the really hard part commenced- getting something in the tin. It promptly moved into a dense tree, purposely chosen to generate as much frustration as possible for anyone trying to get a picture. Now the headless chicken movement was partnered with an award winning tapestry of cursing and pleading. These shots are the best of the lot – you can at least tell it is a bird and the important bill shape is fairly distinguishable. Thankfully tinned just under the time wire.
Need to get you some interesting facts before you head off. Crissals are a year round resident of the southwest. The tip of Nevada is roughly the northern limits with the western portion of Texas representing the farthest to the east. The black and white mustache is a good field indicator to distinguish it from the Curve-Billed Thrasher (link here), although, to be honest, the bills are far enough different to easily distinguish the two overlapping species. True to most Thrashers, the Crissal prefer the ground. The grief generated from the dense tree would be nothing compared to trying to get a picture had it opted for all the scrub at Henderson. My assumption they would still be at Henderson aligns with Cornell’s comment that their banding records indicate they rarely travel more than a mile or so from their capture point. They take the “stays in Vegas” slogan to heart.
With that, better let you go. Take care and have a wonderful rest of your week.
Wildlife Intrigued 
Good find Brian. I’ll add Henderson preserve to our list of places to visit this fall during our SW National Park tour, part 1. Heartfelt tribute to your mom.
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I don’t think you will be disappointed and depending on the timing, should be a big boost to your bird count! Warning, there isn’t a lot of shade there so you might want to take a hat.
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I always have a hat. And sunscreen. And spare batteries…
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Regular ol’ boy scout!
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Not really. I can burn with SPF 50.
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That is quite a beak. It looks like you were getting a little lip from that beak as well. Wonderful photos.
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Oh yeah, this specimen was quite lippy – they sound like two R2D2s fighting over who gets their gears oiled first. They apparently want all the attention based on their chatter but clearly do not want to be easily photographed. Appreciate you dropping in Tim, thanks to all the race training lately, I’m falling behind on my post reading.
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Training happens. And it can be quite racy, too.
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..and I definitely like the racy hehehe.
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Brian, I forgot to ask earlier, just how close could you get? I know what The Beast can do, but these photos look like you were on the next branch?!
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Very close..well, once it decided to leave a fenced in levee area where we first found it. It had no issues with me being directly under it and pretty sure quite entertained as I kept circling around the tree trying to find any direct line to it without having to cut through leaves and branches – as you can tell from the shots there wasn’t any ha.
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And it was probably laughing as you became dizzy.
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Hahaha – yes, I think it was purposely positioning itself in order to laugh when I fell – devil birds I tell ya!
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Yep, I too have added Henderson’s Bird Viewing Preserve to my “Bri recommends” list. I agree, kids raised in crowded echoing indoor spaces seem to be much louder than I remember… it’s as if their voices are calibrated to being heard in a gymnasium surrounded by screaming fans – they apparently don’t go hoarse as quickly as I did :-). Thanks also for sharing a poignant memory of your mom… brought mine to my mind very vividly.
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As I mentioned to Brad, I highly doubt you will be disappointed with a visit to Henderson. Be sure and let me know if you head to Vegas and would like some additional recommendations on what places to visit. There are a number out there we have found after are many years of birding there – we also have plenty of more “traditional” Vegas nightlife recommendations as well hehehe. Appreciate you dropping in Sam and glad I can provide you locations in thanks to all the suggestions I get on Texas birding from your posts.
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Well, what a strange bird!
Not sure why kids think it is great to scream in public areas without understanding there are others that would not appreciate. Maybe a “Mom” needs to get them in a car and give them the life lesson of respect to others speech! I use to use those type of kids behavior as lessons for mine on how not to act in public places.
Sad that not all Moms are remembered as fondly as yours is to you. She sounds like she was a wonderful person.
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A patron totem bird for those of us long nosed humans ha! You are absolutely right, I rarely directly blame a kid for anything, most times the responsibility lies with the parent(s). From what I can tell, the parents in the area had zero bother. I joked to Linda that today’s inside voice is twice as loud as our outside voice when we were growing up. Mom and Dad were definitely special people – they had their hands full..well, makes that two hands full worth with me, I am sure. Their first two children were saints and set the expectations too high hehehe. Appreciate you dropping in CJ.
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Very nice find! Really good photographs of a Crissal Thrasher.
Thank you for a touching tribute to all Mothers. It sounds as if you had a very special relationship.
Take care.
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Thank you Wally, I would have appreciated it if my specimen had chosen a perch I could have gotten a clear line of sight to. One of the aspects that make wildlife photography so enjoyably frustrating. We were blessed with having a very close family while we grew up and then stayed as close as possible as we started are careers which naturally put physical distance between us. Oddly enough, there was NEVER any outward show of our bonds as our Father would have none of that – how we used to run and hide whenever our cousin would visit and come looking for hugs to share. Appreciate you dropping in Wally, take care.
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That explains a whole bunch.
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Belated happy mother’s day too. The photos you posted are all inspiring photos. Keep going and enjoy. Have a great day.
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Thank you very much! Glad you enjoyed visit.
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You’re welcome. You can visit my blog too if you have extra time. I hope you will like and follow it.
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That’s some bill, Brian! They seem to be using it to vocalize in most of your photos, as you noted. Sorry for the loss of your mom a year ago. Nice tribute to her in your first paragraph.
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Thank you Siobhan, it was a difficult year (we lost Linda’s brother also). Going through all the “firsts without” events over that time has been difficult. On the bill front, definitely! One of those birds where there is no mistaking what it is when you see it in the field – well, first you hear it and then you see it ha. Really appreciate you dropping in, have a great rest of your week!
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I like your photos, Brian, even if you aren’t totally happy with them. Thrashers are a fascinating group of birds. I saw my first (and only, so far) Crissal at Bosque del Apache NWR in New Mexico. I assume you have visited there, but if you haven’t, you should plan in a trip. I also need to plan a birding trip to Las Vegas.
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Thank you Tanja, I just like to try and give my readers the best visuals I can for their time, but this specimen was ninja skilled at keeping branches in front of it. We have yet to make it down to Bosque – sounds like an incredible place. We are thinking of changing up our January Texas routine and might head further west, maybe we can build it into those plans. Feel free to reach out if you ever want some advice on birding Vegas – we have been birding there for many years and would be glad to highlight some of our favorite spots. As always, very appreciative of your visit.
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