Mr. Rusthead in the Tin

I had hoped to be full time on the new computer by now, but what has probably been the case since KENBAK-1, upgrading/migrating is a total pain in the ass. I lived IT day in and day out for over 31 years – you’d think this would be a walk in the park, especially now in the digital age of 2023. Nope! Now have purged most of the ghosts in the machine (“if it’s something we can’t buy, there must be another way”). Fingers crossed the final bits will fall into place in the coming week – too many January Texas pictures left to process before we head south! In the meantime, thought I would go with a featured feathered friend I was working on before the new computer showed up.

Mangrove Subspecies of the Yellow Warbler found At SPI Birding Viewing and Nature Center in January 2023

Here at Intrigued our motto has always been “Story First, Images Support”. This post is a perfect example of that philosophy as I’ll admit right up front, these shots are not technically sharp. Don’t get me wrong, we strive to bring you the best images we possibly can. In the case of this colorful specimen – this constitutes the best I could deliver given the circumstances (over the last three years!).

Hit the jump to learn about our brightly colored Warbler.

This particular Warbler is a Mangrove habitat aficionado. Translated – good luck at getting more that sporadic glimpses of it and be prepared to waste a lot of digital memory when you do. For those not familiar with the Mangrove, it is a mass of tangled branches with thick bunches of leaves.

Mangrove Subspecies of the Yellow Warbler found At SPI Birding Viewing and Nature Center in January 2023

These particular “Black” Mangroves as I’ve recently learned, are found at South Padre Island Bird Viewing and Nature Center (link here). Yes, one of my top 5 birding destinations and has been featured heavily on Intrigued over the years thanks to SPI being our wintering destination. A beauty to behold, a nightmare to photograph through. Our digital darkroom floor is knee deep with shot after shot that look like this.

Mangrove Subspecies of the Yellow Warbler found At SPI Birding Viewing and Nature Center in January 2023

During our stay on SPI since 2019 I’ve stood at this particular spot hoping and praying for a chance to get this rare visitor to the US in the tin. To finally dispense with the suspense, this tiny bird is often referred to as the Mangrove Warbler. That is not technically correct as it really is a subspecies of a much more common North American Warbler. Try to focus on the upper breast and the light auburn streaks that adorn it.

Mangrove Subspecies of the Yellow Warbler found At SPI Birding Viewing and Nature Center in January 2023

For those lucky to be in their region, you might recognize the similarity to the Yellow Warbler (link here). Discounting the auburn/rust coloring on the head, they pretty much look the same, although this particular one had a darker olive tone that is seen more on the juvenile specimens. It was overcast that day and with all the shadows in between the branches it might have produced more of a darker feel than it really had. This was the best visuals I have had with this particular species since the first one arrived in 2019 – and thus the first time I’m willing to show you the results of those outings ha.

Mangrove Subspecies of the Yellow Warbler found At SPI Birding Viewing and Nature Center in January 2023

A bit of background thanks to the RGV Chapter Texas Master Naturalist Blog (link here). Unlike their parent species, the Mangrove is not migratory, preferring to stay with their chosen Mangrove crop. One specimen showed up in 2019 and set the place abuzz. Finally a chance to witness one of these beauties without having to get on a boat and travel off the southern tip of Texas. Over the years, the Black Mangrove has been moving north bringing with it new territories for their favored species. SPI had developed a very robust Mangrove habitat at the end of its boardwalk (straight out from the visitor center). The best chance of spotting this flash of yellow was just after the first right turn on the boardwalk and at the corner where you can go left out towards the second viewing pavilion (just look for the likely other birders staking out the spot). Stand there, get your camera tuned to the light conditions and prepare to be frustrated. If nothing else, you will get a nice workout if you are sporting big glass.

Mangrove Subspecies of the Yellow Warbler found At SPI Birding Viewing and Nature Center in January 2023

I did not know until reading their web page that they lost a quarter of their Mangrove thanks to the ice storm they had back in 2021 (we got out of there just in time before that hit in January). Truthfully, that worked a bit to my advantage as you can see some of the shots were taken when it passed through the dead areas. They were concerned of the impact that would have on what had become their signature bird – as you know now…it didn’t have an impact on them – in fact, they even had a nesting pair for 2022 which introduced their first offspring into the habitat.

Mangrove Subspecies of the Yellow Warbler found At SPI Birding Viewing and Nature Center in January 2023

The resident female and their now juvenile sightings were being reported while we were there, but no luck in getting those in the tin. I did see the juvenile briefly once when I first arrived, but mistakenly took it for a female Yellow-Rumped Warbler (link here) – we all have too many shots of those ha. Note, that article ends with vibes this new Mangrove family is getting more comfortable with all the birders on the boardwalk. Excited about that, but cautiously optimistic based on the battle it took to get these few shots at the beginning of the year.

Mangrove Subspecies of the Yellow Warbler found At SPI Birding Viewing and Nature Center in January 2023

I do need to thank the two guys that were there with me the day these shots were taken. You may be aware of the birding adage “One must sacrifice for the benefit of others”. More specific, at least one of the birders in the group must leave before the sought after target will appear. Okay, maybe I just made that up, but the number of times it comes true is shocking. In this case, those two guys gave up after an hour or so – 10 minutes later Mr. Rusthead came out for the show. Yes, they came back soon after it had darted back into the darkness never to return that day. I tried to hold it back, but they saw my smile and proceeded to stream an equally colorful string of vulgarities (I sympathized).

Mangrove Subspecies of the Yellow Warbler found At SPI Birding Viewing and Nature Center in January 2023

You can see that deeper olive coloring down the back and into the tail in the shot above. That shot is more out in the open so they definitely have a darker tone than our standard Yellow Warblers. Also noticed this specimen has quite the wear on its tail feathers – probably from flying through all those thick groves.

Hope you enjoyed this look at a fairly elusive rarity to North America.

As a parting note, you might want to check out the full lyrics to Spirits in the Material World (link here). Rather shocking how prescient philosopher Arthur Koestler was.

Meanwhile I’ll be cranking this while continuing to battle this new Alienware beast.

43 thoughts on “Mr. Rusthead in the Tin”

  1. That’s a pretty mangrove Warbler. Don’t tell Linda, but I’ll bet the Mangrove Snake find them to be delicious little birds. Setting up new computers is a pain in the butt. Especially if you only want the necessary stuff off the old computer in an effort to keep the new computer as pure as possible. When I got my MacBook Pro M1 Max a couple of years ago, I only copied some data to it from my old MacBook Pro. I downloaded and installed all the software fresh, updated the licenses, reestablished bookmarks, etc. It was a pain, but I got all M1 native apps installed except for Adobe products, which were still behind at that time.

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    1. Shhhhhh, there is no such thing as a Mangrove Snakes, it’s a giant myth, wives tail, a fabrication if you will (are you trying to get me in Trouble Tim, she does read this blog from time to time !?!?!). I am with you, I want all clean installs on all the tools..and in some cases I am forced to go all new thanks to Windows 11 that came installed on it. My biggest issue at the moment is Microsoft Office products. Refuses to install because somewhere it still thinks there is a Microsoft 365 product installed somewhere and thus will not install my non-cloud version.

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      1. If your “non-cloud” version is one that did not require a subscription, it may be a nice way of telling you Microsoft now accepts subscriptions only. I had issues with trying to reinstall a stand alone MS Office off a CD with the serial number. When I launched Excel, I got a registration page, but that page was no longer supported. I clicked register later, Excel opened, but New, Save, Save As, etc. were greyed out. I had to install MS 365 from the web and login as an active user for office to work on that computer.

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        1. I think that is where I am at. I still have my disk and my key, but it doesn’t matter, there is nowhere on Microsoft’s site that even talks about it and everything redirects to the 365 side. Definitely on purpose by MS. I am going to let my Cyber Security expert better half take a crack at it before I give into that subscription boondoggle.

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          1. Bondageboondoggle! I have to have different levels of licensing at the office because Microsoft is a jerk-off company. I went in circles with Microsoft because they want everyone to use their stupid authenticator app to open progams like Teams to simply join a Teams meeting. No one at the office will use it. I spent three hours on the phone with a Microsoft convincing a tech how stupid the security is and then digging down deep into my Office 365 dashboard to turn off all that security crap. I had to get a special license for the President and another staff member to create Teams Meetings, because the general licenses I got for all the evaluators didn’t include creating Teams meetings. We generally use Zoom which is simple and reliable, but our State and Labs clients require us to use Teams. Other than Teams, we use Excel. I could get stand-alone Excel licenses, but they were outrageous, so we have Office 365 when most staff only use Excel. But I we can install Office 365 on 25 devices per license on the general license.

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            1. I was actually still using Office 2013 on my existing machined as I just needed Word and Excel at home – could use the more current versions on my corporate laptop if I needed it. I keep thinking that is 10 years old – still works fine and would have cost my 10yrs*$99/yr to be on an office 365 copy that long for features I don’t even need at home. “Bondageboondoggle” is a perfect summary!!

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            2. I used Office 2011 Mac for as long as I could. When I had to switch to Office 365, I lost all the great keystroke combinations that were super efficient. MS Office was originally developed for Macintosh before Windows existed. Macs had one button mice at that time, so Microsoft built in a lot of keystroke combinations that were really helpful.

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            3. I’ll admit to being an Office “user” vs “superuser”. I knew how to get done what I needed for my reports, tracking etc, but nothing real fancy beyond Excel formulas, pivot tables and charts needed to convince my management to allocate me money to get what I needed done or usually more likely to prove/support our architecture positions. Luckily my staff and coworkers would always be there to calm me down off the ledge when that damn software wouldn’t do what I wanted it to ha. Software people using purchased software is a recipe for disaster because we know how it should work.

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            5. I never let a salesmen get by with using the word should while I was working. Like with politicians I want to know what you are willing to do if you are found to be wrong or your promise was hollow. As my brother always adds to the end of every politician’s sentence..”…or what?”.

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  4. Nice sharp colors. If I had some of that fancy CSI software I think I could make out your reflection in its eyeball. I think I’ve just gotten over the migration blues from my current PC from nearly 6 years ago, and it’s almost time for a replacement. I can feel my shoulders calling for more exercise before we hit SC this February.

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  5. Congratulations! That is a terrific find. Your detailed background is really interesting.
    Good luck with the new machine. Just completed my own transfer from old-to-new and still finding a few “ghosts” to exorcize. Technology is fun. So I hear.

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    1. Thank you Wally – it took some work, but finally got it into the tin. Probably one of the favorites from the entire month long trip. It is so frustrating being in the IT business for so long and then having to deal with bad execution from other companies. Things should be getting easier, not harder – but then again, this administration just thinks you can pluck a person out of the oil fields and poof you have great software. Appreciate you dropping in – hope you are enjoying your warmer weather down there.

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    1. Thank you Belinda. This one was definitely a battle and fortunate enough to come back with something I was willing to show people. I sure hope they continue their nesting habits down on SPI – they are such a treat to experience. Appreciate you dropping in!

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  7. Wonderful and lively photos of a very colorful warbler. I can picture the exact place on the boardwalk where you must have been standing and waiting… and waiting… Really great fieldwork! Since there is likely at least one nesting pair, I look forward to trying to see them again, when I’m there in January. Thanks for the link to the RGVCTMN blog website, always good to have a local source for up-to-the-minute information. Thoroughly enjoyed this post!

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    1. I was actually thinking of you when I was writing this post. Tinning this dude would have been some serious work with your 600. Bummed you didn’t get a chance to at least experience it – fingers crossed when you are there in January. Normally we would be there at that time as well, but we decided to switch seasons and hit Arizona for winter and then hit Texas for migration in April. As a note, Javier actually works at the Birding Center. If you get a chance, try to find him and he’ll let you know where to look for the hot things. I think he also gives a bird walk/talk there as well. Thanks for dropping in Sam and be sure and hit the convention center flats to the north of SPI – that is an incredible spot for Piping Plovers, BB Plovers, Semipalmated Plovers, Black Skimmers and many more Peeps, Stilts, Godwits etc.

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        1. If I get time I’ll try to send you some places you might try out near there if you have time. Not sure if you have the Aplomado Falcon, but that is generally accessible and for some reason rarities have been showing up at Laguna Vista (got the Rufous Hummingbird there last year, but missed the Tropical Parula after several attempts).

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    1. Thanks Sandra, it was a true joy to experience and incredibly pleased I got to take some of those visions home with me. I didn’t know all the parts of that song until I went to reference it here. Got to reading them and then started down the rabbit hole of listening to it, researching the background. learning about Sting’s influences etc, etc. I must say, the Internet can be great at times…at the cost of time ha. Appreciate you coming by and have a great rest of your week.

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            1. Hoping we get a huge snowfall while we are down south so our wells will be fully replenished – finally getting some rain here, but we need the white stuff to soak into the ground.

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