It is not often I write up an entire post and then decide to pull it from publication at the last minute, but that is exactly what recently occurred. Pretty much everyone knows about my running mishap, so I am going to pretty much gloss over that setback beyond simply stating the recovery is going well and I’m doing my best to listen to Linda (she no longer frowns when I head out for a long run in the woods ha). There was, however, an unfortunately side effect that was probably worse than the injury itself and that is the “abundance” of time that it brought. Time normally spent keeping the country homestead up, working on Halloween props or the myriad of other physical activities that fill my normal days. I promised myself I wouldn’t do it and I still did it – the void ended up being filled with “the news”. I put that in quotes because I no longer believe we have resemblance of what that used to mean. It didn’t take long to become completely infuriated and without a good hard run to burn off the angst, it just continued to simmer into a full boil. My now shelved post (for the Mothership blog) outlined the hypocrisy that has inundated me for the past 6 or so weeks. As far as bodies of work goes, not too shabby of a post. Then I managed to sneak out and go for a long run – the same location and trail where the Ent broke me. While I was taking a picture (for posterity and future late night navigation when I revisit with a tree saw), it dawned on me I was smiling. Here I was at the scene of the crime and instead of being bitter and down, it was a feeling of relief and joy – I was back where I belong, standing in the dirt, surrounded by nature and thanks to the long time off, sweating profusely. No longer beholden to the lame stream media or political influencers my interest in reliving that crap had now disappeared. A previous run had already produced the title, just needed to repurpose it ha!
Hit the jump to learn more about today’s substitute feature!
Hopefully you agree this is sooo much better than talking about the propaganda pump and I also get to post it on the Wildlife sister blog – win, win! This rather accommodating White Ibis comes to you courtesy of our annual January trip to the Texas Gulf Coast – “Look over there, shiny object” back in 2022. I know, beyond the glowing Scorpion post (link here), I have not had any other posts on this year’s trip. Maybe I should have been working on my backlog during my time off ugh.
I am not sure what everyone’s familiarity is with this long snouted species, but they do tend to be a bit skittish – at least in a majority of the places we have encountered them. One of the few exceptions is at South Padre Island Bird Viewing and Nature Center. Likely due to the acclamation from the constant flow of bird enthusiasts at this hotspot, the large waders are quite accessible and accommodating. This particular specimen was more than happy to post on a nearby boardwalk railing while I tried to dial in a setting that worked with the dreary overcast conditions.
Guessing it will not be pleased to find out all that pretty posing was going to be used in a fallback post about a lying dummy ha! Unlike Pinocchio, the White Ibis does not call Italy home. Note, I did look it up just to make sure I didn’t make my own lie (that would have been embarrassing). They do have the Glossy, African Sacred (apparently invasive link here) and Northern Bald varieties. I think it is safe to say our White variety is much more of a stunner with their Sinatra eyes. According to Cornell, the White’s primarily hang out in Florida and along the southeastern coastline, down into Central/South America. Here’s a tidbit I was not aware of before penning this post – the Ibis does not develop the bill’s downward curve until about two weeks after birth. Never personally seen an Ibis chick and Cornell didn’t bother to provide a shot of one on their page, nor did Audubon. That sent me down an Internet rabbit hole looking for an image of a chick to show you and let’s just go with “trust me” for now and I’ll put that on my list to get a picture of next year!!
What I did find down that “hole” was the “truth” about something I had, up to this very minute, assumed wrong. Quick quiz (and no search engine cheating): What is the mascot of the Miami Hurricanes? If you answered “A duck” then, like me, you have seen their mascot and know it looks exactly like a DUCK. Mind blowing to me, it is supposed to an Ibis (link here). If you think Sebastian looks like an Ibis, I’d avoid renewing your driver’s license before seeing an optometrist. If you are curious, the reference site explains adoption of the Ibis because it has historically been a symbol of knowledge and, per the referenced site, “the last sign of wildlife to take shelter before a hurricane and the first to reappear after the storm”. Long story short, they liked this bird’s big cojones.
From the Ibis perspective will leave it there, but I’ll go ahead and paste in the last paragraph of the original post as I think it stands alone.
“If what they profess is true, then they wouldn’t have to lie about it. If they lie today, they have lied in the past and they will lie in the future. Debate is paramount, skepticism is critical to understanding and it is your responsibility as a member of society not to be deceived by Pinocchio.”
Wildlife Intrigued 
Catching up is hard to do. Lovely White Ibis.
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Here’s something cool for Halloween: https://waterthrone.fr/
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that is absolutely AWESOME! Took me a minute to figure out what it was and then quickly moved into “Take my money now” mode. Went running to Linda to show her this wonderful addition, all excited and .. and .. well short story short, she immediately stomped all over that enthusiasm, Thinking this might be a guy thing, but I will continue to work on it.
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Wive’s just don’t get it.
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NAILED IT!
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Thank you Tim – one of those birds that is so unique you just find yourself staring at it…eventually you remember to makes some clicks ha. Appreciate the stop by.
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I see flocks of Ibis fly by along the Rio Grande, but I’ve never seen them land in my area.
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According to Wally below, they apparently like grubs, lizards and snakes so throw a bunch of those in your yard and see what turns up!!
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We have lots of lizards, grubs and snakes in the yard. The mulch is all dug up every morning from the skunks digging for grubs.
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I forgot you have Skunks!! Every once in long moon one of those striped stinkers will show up, but thankfully move on fairly fast. I want no part of those things. Do you have Armadillos in your area, I heard those can be really destructive as well.
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No armadillos here were too far north. The porcupine are the really destructive critters, — giant stickery rodents they are.
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I have to admit, I have NEVER seen a Porcupine in the wild. I even went to the Porcupine Mountains and didn’t see a single one of them. If you are going to name a range after a creature that creature better be there to view…just saying. Note, I did later find out it was simply named after the silhouette of the mountains.
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You have to know what you are looking for to find porcupine in trees. On the ground in twilight they are the moving bushes. I use an Airsoft pistol to shoot raccoons to get them to leave and the run away when I shoot them. I once shot a porcupine that was chewing on our rose bushes and it charged me. Porcupine are big rodents.
One of our architects who worked for the forest service decades ago said they shot porcupines on site. The porcupines climb up into the tops of pine trees to eat the tender growth making the pine trees susceptible to beetles, moths and diseases.
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Okay, first of all I didn’t know they climbed trees nor was I aware of how destructive they are – thanks for the enlightenment. Raccoons that leave our acres and acres of sanctuary woods and enter the no-go zone near our house and bird feeders get what I consider a very considerate escalation scale – first occurrence a stern warning, second firecracker at its feet proceeded by BB gun with escalating pumps until it is clear that it needs to be “taken care of” and will leave it at that.
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The owls have taken care of a lot of the raccons. I don’t see them much anymore.
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As much as I like Owls, I must say, they do give my wife serious concerns with our 4lb and 6lb Poodles. They do not get to go out unsupervised, especially at night because of all the Barred Owls we have in our woods.
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I’m sure the owls would like some Poodle pie. Your two poodles combined weigh the same as Marble, our smallest cat.
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As they say in the Replacements movie..our Poodles are wiiireellly
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At least we can rest assured that the long snout of the ibis is in no way attributable to lying.
I’m happy for you for being able to run again and to get to enjoy those endorphins. It’s definitely a better use of your time than doomscrolling.
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Good point, no reason for the Ibis to lie to me, I wouldn’t even understand it if it did ha. Love the doomscrolling term – think that is the first time I’ve heard that reference and it fits perfectly (do I have to pay royalties if I use it in the future?). Running is my key to sanity – when working it was the method I used to solve the hardest problems that came up, now I just get to enjoy nature as I glide by..and to solve problems, but those seem a lot less now that I am away from the grind which is a good thing! …and it tires me out which Linda really appreciates more than anything – drives her crazy when I’m flitting about the house.
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Running definitely releases a lot of those good-for-our sanity endorphins, so run on!
And I don’t own the right to the term doomscrolling, so feel free to use it (not sure where I first heard it).
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Yes, someone that understand, we are not simply escapees from the asylum ha…well, at least those who don’t run the 100+ mile races, those people are definitely insane haehehe. Since I first heard it from you I’m still going to give you credit for introducing it to me – with the upcoming election year, me thinks it will come in handy.
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Very nice B. Apart from in zoos only Ibises I’ve seen in the wild are a couple of Glossy Ibis and one weird encounter when a Sacred Ibis flew past at my local wetland!
Do you get Scarlet Ibis there? They are super neat!
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Thanks B.! Oddly enough I didn’t even know a Scarlet Ibis even existed until two years ago when we went to the San Antonio Zoo. Was cruising through their bird exhibit and caught sight of one – about dropped The Beast it was such a stunner of a bird. Looks like it stays in South America and the Caribbean. but I have been keeping an eye on the ebird rare bird sightings to see if one got lost. Now that bird is one I would likely travel a good distance to see in the wild. As a bit of a tease on an upcoming post, we did get to witness our first Flamingo in the wild earlier this year…but don’t tell anyone yet! Thanks for dropping in B! hope the weather starts cooperating for you better over there.
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I think I’ve seen that guy before. I recognize that schnoz from other photos I have taken. Very glad, like Linda, you are able to hit the trails again.
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Hmmm, let’s refrain from using the term “hit” in reference to the trail running – that has an all new meaning to me now ha! The best news of all is I located the scene of the crime (sent you pic) and kicked the damn tree that broke me just to show it who was boss. Between you and me, I don’t think it even winced.
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It was one of those stealth trees. Skinny enough to be ignored yet strong enough to seriously injure or maim. The big ones everyone watches out for. It’s those middle school trees you need to be mindful of.
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Perfect assessment – went to a flea market today and Linda bought a fairly large piece of furniture. Guy helping me out heard Linda ask me if I could lift with my elbow. Linda then felt obligated to tell him I had broken it which simply brings up the embarrassing ask “how did you do that?”.. “I ran into a tree” I’ve come accustomed to the weird look that follows that response. I just picked up my end of and proceeded to the car. I still can’t believe it myself, I certainly don’t expect someone else to ha!
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It’s so wonky it has to be true. Who would make that up?! Oh right, endurance runners. Hehehe
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From our perspective, everyone that doesn’t run ultras are the weird ones ha!
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Glad that you are making progress and getting back out where you belong.
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Thank you Steve, it feels really good to be back out there – still need to get more confidence running fast with the roots again, but I am sure that will come with time. For now, just trying to stay focused and trying to hold back when the conditions warrant it.
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As I type, there are six White Ibises marching across the yard in formation. They probe for grubs and other things that like to destroy lawns and plants. I like White Ibises!
Your frustration with our modern-day and ubiquitous technically savvy Pinnochios is shared. No matter on which side of the political spectrum we stand, we all hunger for that most elusive of objects: Truth.
Incredibly happy to hear you are “out there” again!
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Hmmm, I didn’t know they are grub eaters, I definitely need to get some of those out here!!! You are absolutely correct on the political spectrum, it doesn’t matter where you land these days the art of understanding, compromise and god forbid coming up with a reasonable solution has left the building so to speak. All we are left with is hyperbole, fear, name calling and division – tools of the weak minded. Thankfully I’m back in the dirt now so most of that growing angst has started to melt – none more happier that Linda of course ha. Thanks for coming by Wally ..now I have to go wrangle me up some Ibises and put them to work on my yard. Wonder if I could train them to eat moles as well!?!
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Don’t know about moles, but they routinely snag lizards off our patio and around the lake I’ve seen them with frogs and small snakes, so – maybe a mini-mole?
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Ooohhh, even better, this will definitely move the Ibis up in Linda’s favorite category if it takes out lizards (snakes with feet as she refers to them as) and actual snakes. Unfortunately, our moles are toxic waste dump sized so probably a bit much for the their bills. Just set out my string of scissor traps tonight to fend off the horde coming in from the deep woods. One nasty and destructive creature – need the Coyotes to lay off the Foxes as the latter are quite deft at plucking those claws with a bodies out of the ground.
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Wish there was a “double-like” button. Agree with you that what passes for news these days is very frustrating. Don’t let it get you down, glad you can run it off. Re the shape of the Ibis bill, I think I read that it starts out straight, and then the constant angular pressure of the probing action into firm mud looking for lunch is what smooths it into the downward curve. Same story with the flamingo’s smile, shaped by the pressure against the bottom as they filter the water for lunch. Looking forward to fall (not falling)!
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Today, I had my first really good run day since the injury (15 miles on the trail in the morning and another 5 miles on the road tonight in the dark). Now I have what I call the good tired and my frownies are replaced with a huge grin – Life is Good! I think you might have mentioned the bill bending from the pressure in a previous comment and I had completely forgotten about that (on the Yellowlegs if I remember correctly) – I think that is a perfect explanation for the delayed effect. Sometimes it takes me a few times but eventually new bird knowledge breaks through my cranium. Fall is definitely fast approaching and now with the rapidly shrinking days before our big Halloween event, all focus goes to finishing up all the new props scattered about the house and getting the trail ready. I thought life got simpler when you retired ha! Always look forward to your visits Sam.
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This is a very beautiful ibis! We only have White-faced ibises where I live, and they look good too. But this ibis is exceptional and you have captured its beauty so nicely, Brian.
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Thank you very much Kaya. Every once in a while, we get a Glossy or a White-Faced to show up at one of our waterway hotspots, but for the most part we are too far north for any regular visit for any of the Ibises. Luckily we get to spend our Januaries in Texas which has an abundance of them along their Gulf Coast. Appreciate you dropping by!
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Well said!
I want a hug given to the Ent! Not a saw or an ax. It most likely saved you from something way far worse and knew you had to keep going to give Linda something to do. Haha (I am sure she has her hands plenty full without an Ent interfering but…)
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Sorry CJ, this Ent must be punished. Someday I’ll post the “scene of the crime” and you will understand it was the only thing in the way or I would have simply bruised my pride and possibly a rib or two had it not moved into that strategic position right before I got there. I am also certain I heard the other Ents in the forest laughing as I went buy holding my arm in serious pain. If I let this breach of etiquette go, the next thing I know they’ll start distracting me with their waving limbs and then pop their roots at the “wrong” time. I’m probably going to have to do something special for Linda for all she has had to deal with as of late – I’ve been working on my “puppy eyes”.
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😂🤣👌
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Your words are so true in this post. One can get caught up in stuff on the internet like so called news. I could feel your frustration in your words. I believe many of us have been there. But, your answer to peaceful times is in nature as is mine. I quite listening to the news a long time ago, because it seems nothing ever changes, the same story a different day.
So I gave that up and just stay in my yen of nature and photography. That I can control. 🙂
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I was doing pretty good avoiding the news before the injury and then fell victim to filling the extra time to the point I was boiling due to the constant hypocrisy. It is only going to get worse as the election draws closer – thankfully elbow good enough now to get back out doors and as you stated, more control doing the things that keep my happy. Thanks for dropping in Sandra, hopefully the crazies are back under control now that I am getting the miles in.
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I’m with you regarding the propaganda pump. I never watch or read the news anymore because… Well, you know. I do think that Sebastian looks like a duck, and I always thought he was until I read your post. Fabulous photos of the white ibis. I’ve never seen one in the wild and hope to one day. Glad you’re recovering nicely.
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As I mentioned in a comment above, I was doing pretty good avoiding the news before the injury and then found myself trying to fill the boredom as I couldn’t do any real physical activity – clearly a mistake! Much better now that I am back out on the trails. Glad you agree on Sebastian – it is clearly a duck and whoever came up with the design apparently never bothered to look up what an Ibis bill looks like. Good luck on having your own experience with the White Ibis and appreciate the well wishes!
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