Red Back, Red Elbow, Red Feet, Red Knees and Redheads

I should probably start by addressing the elephant in the post – another year, another attempt at the 100K ultra run and unfortunately, the exact same results. Last year, extremely disappointed missing the 100K mark, this year ecstatic I made it one mile much less 50. Full summary in an upcoming post, but the synopsis is the master plan of completing the 50 mile race, tossing that finish for a DNF after one loop of the 100 mile category fell short (again). Called it after completing the 50 mile distance and accepted the finisher belt buckle. Too much to overcome – the elbow still in recovery and unable to stand up the day before the race thanks to blowing up the back tearing down the trail. Already missed the 50K this year, wasn’t going to miss this start. Again, details to come, but I lathered up with Tiger Balm before each loop and gritted through the 10 mile repeats. Bad enough, but tragedy struck on the second loop – nailed a hidden root in the middle of a prairie crossing and crashed down on the bad elbow. When it rains it … Anyway, on the 40->50 mile loop the back screamed it had enough, the elbow was pissed and the roots were living rent free in my head ever since the sun went down. Essentially 49 miles more than I had any expectation of completing, declared victory, graciously accepted the buckle and set my sights on next year. All things come at a cost as I am now paying the “pain toll”. Thought it appropriate to get out this year’s Fail collection while I recover (link here).

Going to be a bit of time before I’m back on my feet, so wanted to make the best of it and get a few posts out starting with today’s featured feathered friend.

Redhead at Sunset Park in Las Vegas March 2023

Hit the jump to see a few more shots of this patron duck of ultra runners.

I guess to be truly accurate, this duck would have red elbows, red knees, red feet and a red back to go along with its signature red/cinnamon head to really capture the spirit of a trail runner ha. Well, minimally the bill on the Redhead Duck does look like it has taken its share of tumbles in the dirt.

Redhead at Sunset Park in Las Vegas March 2023

I happen to really like the Redhead. You shouldn’t have to work too hard to ID it in the field beyond easy work of distinguishing it from the Canvasback (link here). It has really clean color lines and that black tipped grey slate bill with the white beauty line is the perfect balance to that exquisite orange eye.

Redhead at Sunset Park in Las Vegas March 2023

I also appreciate Ducks with ranges that cover virtually all of North America. Catch them in the southern states during the non-breeding season, upper west for their breeding months and keeps your eyes open as their migration paths take them through essentially every state but the tip of New England. This year we enjoyed a huge flock on South Padre Island for our January stay and then had a chance to photograph them again during our March Vegas trip. This series comes from that ladder visit, specifically at the pond in Sunset Park.

Redhead at Sunset Park in Las Vegas March 2023

If you recall, this is the same park where we found the female Phainopepla featured in the previous post (link here). The Redheads on SPI tend to hang out in the Laguna Madre waters farthest out from the SPI Birding and Nature Center visitor center. Their boardwalk will take you out into the Laguna, but you’ll still be glad you brought your big glass when it comes to the Redheads. This is definitely not the case at Sunset Park. The residents there are conditioned to humans …well, specifically to humans with food. Honestly, not a fan of that practice, but I will take advantage of it when it comes to getting nice shots of Ducks. This specimen came so close to me I had to back up to get back in the focus range of The Beast. Thinking that eye was brighter than normal with “anger” after finding out it would not be rewarded with food for its posing.

Redhead at Sunset Park in Las Vegas March 2023

Should get to some interesting facts before letting you go. As much as I like the look of the drake (females and immatures are dressed in subdued browns), I have to chastise the females for being brood parasites. Yes, like those asshat Cowbirds (link here), they have a nasty habit of dropping their eggs in the nest of others. This includes intra and inter species making Mother’s Day a gifting nightmare. Also results in a lot embarrassing questions by male Ducks when the eggs start to crack. Lastly, I was completely surprised when I read on Cornell’s site that a large number of the wintering population tend to migrate to the Laguna Madre with flocks up to 60K. That explains the shocking numbers we were seeing down there. They feast on the abundant saltgrass in the bay.

Time for some foam rolling and back stretches. Take care everyone!

33 thoughts on “Red Back, Red Elbow, Red Feet, Red Knees and Redheads”

    1. If I ever catch that witch that put that injury spell on me this year, there’s hell gonna be paid! That is a good description for these Redhead drakes. Much like the Pintails, I really like their clean color separation. The females and juvis, well, they got the short end of the stick ha. As always, appreciate you stopping by Tim.

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    1. Thank you Maggie – I am pretty happy how much I was able to do under the conditions, but just hard to accept not making it to the total goal after all the training. There is always next year to try it all over again. Glad you liked the Redhead shots, I find them to be one of the prettier ducks on the water..well, at least the drakes. Appreciate you dropping in and your encouraging words.

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  3. Kudos for giving it your best shot B despite carrying those injuries, next year could be your time to nail it.
    For me a Redhead would be a lifer. They look so much like our Pochard so picking one out would be a challenge though they have been recorded in the UK.

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    1. Right now I am wincing a bit at the amount of training needed for next year’s attempt, but that may just be the back trying to persuade me to take up a less demanding hobby ha. As I mentioned to Tim above, need to get these pain gremlins forced out of the body and then start the slow rebuilding process. Hopefully without the 2+ month gap that occurred because of my stupid fall that happened this year. I had to go look up the Pochard and wow, you are absolutely right, that would be a difficult ID between the two. Your’s may have a slightly redder eye and darker bill, but beyond that, doppelgangers. Appreciate you coming by and introducing me to a new species of Duck

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        1. You are welcome to it. As a note, your site is rejecting my WordPress authorization for some reason – rejects all my comments on your latest posts. Trying to figure it out as it is happening on a couple other blogs as well. Clearly someone is f’n with my mind.

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            1. I was able to successfully comment on your post using the Jetpack app so that might have fixed it. I’ll try from the desktop and see if I am still getting the anomaly on that platform. I’ve fought with WP numerous times on the security front and suspect it is more me than anything on your particular site.

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            2. Well…never underestimate how much the “happiness engineers” can f*** things up. Case in point…there used to be a blog plan selection called the “Pro Plan.” If you dig into the plans page, you will notice that it doesn’t exist, anymore. About a year and a half, ago…maybe less, I moved from the Premium Plan to the Pro Plan. It was an upgrade with a cut price and had some plug-ins with it. OMG. What a disaster THAT thing was. The “engineers” attempted some kind of server migration that failed, miserably. One of the things this “migration” did, was, foul up posts in the Desktop Reader (or in a browser). My posts directly on my site were not affected but, I have videos in posts on the Reader that are frozen, stuck, won’t play, can’t delete them or…videos that are just a picture, that link to my actual site. After a round on chat with an “engineer”, Pro Plan disappeared and I got a cut rate for my first foray into the Biz Plan.

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            3. I haven’t looked into the other plans, I have the Personal plan which the lowest I could get without allowing any adds. I really do not need much space as all my images are up on our Smugmug gallery and just link referenced back to WP. As someone once an IT professional is totally pisses me off when I see poor systems or support – absolutely no excuse for it.

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            5. It is a photographer gallery service (Brad uses it as well). We have used them since the early days for our photography business storefront and then I have hidden directories off of it that I use to store all the images used in this blog (that wouldn’t normally be in our gallery). That way I have one service fee for both the galleries and our two blogs and do not need any additional storage on the wordpress side.

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            7. If I remember correctly, it is $13/mo – at least the plan we get which gives us unlimited storage. So we need Smugmug for our photography galleries and then we simply leverage that for the WordPress photo storage.

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  4. True sartorial excellence on that Redhead! Good job getting the detail of the fine “tweed” pattern on his back and wings. I will be at SPI and Laguna next week, doing a fall tour of the lower Rio Grande, so I hope to catch sight of these beauties. Sorry to hear about your running “fail”, but as others have said, what you were able to accomplish far surpassed what us ordinary mortals are capable of. Take care, heal up, the Beast wants to go out for walkies!

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  6. Nice shots of the redhead, especially the eyes. Sorry the root decided to bring you down to its level. I love the scent of Tiger Balm. It brings back good memories.

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  8. The color red looks a lot nicer on the Redhead than on your various body part, Brian! I can’t even imagine what kept you going for 50 (!) miles, especially after you took a fall, so I think you should be proud of yourself for finishing that distance that is out of reach for the vast majority of humankind.
    I hope you will give your body all the time it needs to heal.
    Best wishes,
    Tanja

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    1. Thanks Tanja, for a change I am taking a little break and giving the body some extra time this year. As a whole it has felt like a struggle this year and just need to reset and take some time to plan out the approach to next year’s races. Just disappointing to put so much time into training and then coming so close to the goal – such is life I guess. Appreciate you dropping in and enjoyed your latest round of posts (I’m a bit behind as you can tell).

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    1. Don’t feel sad for me, all my setbacks are self-induced so I only have myself to blame. Nothing compared to the grief I get from my wife who immediately ties my injuries to a deliberate attempt to get out of housework ha. Glad you enjoyed reading about the Redhead. Like the Pintails I find them very dapper and stoic in their clean lines and colors. Take care and appreciate you dropping in.

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