Welcome to July everyone, or as we say here “Grind Month”. With the turning of the calendar page, I am roughly 1.5 weeks out from the first ultra race of the year (link here). This is one of the few times I’ll complain about all the cool temps we’ve been experiencing lately as it is definitely impacting the heat acclamation period essential for these long Midwestern summer races. It’s already a sweat filled grind with the benefit of the conditioning and I am definitely not lucky enough to carry these low 60’s temps much further into this month. Need to get through that ultra and then close the month out with my 20th consecutive and last running of the Bix7 up in the Quad Cities (link here). Although usually hotter, the Bix is 25 miles shorter than CMAR so at least the torture doesn’t last as long ha. I am going to take a break from Intrigued as I finish up the ultra race prep – Linda accuses me of turning into a basket case as I fret the details up until the starter pistol goes off and she doesn’t want me passing that on to our readers. Sooooo, I’ll bring you this pseudo 4th inspired post and then let Brad keep everyone entertained until I’m out of the hospital..I mean done with the race!
With that, let’s get started with a little red, a bit more white and a lot more blue.
Hit the jump for today’s Independence Day themed double feature.
Let’s start with a quick apology for failing to complete the official annual Intrigued Photoshoot checklist. Each year I bring out the list of tins I need to be properly prepared for the coming year of blogging. Shoot a Bunny for the Easter post, something pink/red for Valentine’s day (usually Spoons or Vermilions), White Pelicans in tribute to my father, Cardinals for my mother and something red, something white (not a hard task in the birding world) and something blue to honor our country’s freedom. Fell a little short on the red…somewhat due to forgetting and releasing the Cardinal series too early (link here). Fortunately, I was able to find a (weak) substitute – the Black Skimmer. Their legs can fluctuate between red and orange, but their bill’s tend to be more consistently reddish.
…and they have plenty of white to get that element satisfied as well. The Skimmer is one of those birds you can grab a picnic basket and spend the day just enjoying. A perfect place to do just that is on the South Padre Island Convention Center flats. Pop the top on the Jeep, drive out onto the sand, put the shades on enjoy the hundreds of Skimmers hunting the shallow waters of the Laguna Madre. These are typically social flock birds that will rest and hunt together. Whether simply startled or some secret predetermined signal, the flock will rise up in mass, swirl in a strobe of black and white before either resettling back down convinced the danger has passed or initiate their feeding strafing runs. I covered the Skimmer in more detail in a previous post (link here), but to recap, they have a uniquely hinged bill that allows them to drop to water level, lower their bottom bill into the water and “skim” for fish/shrimp/crab. Once the bill comes in contact, it snaps shut trapping the victim as they use their powerful wings to raise back into the air.
The element I find most fascinating is just how thin their bill is. From the side (see the first shot), one would assume a beefy Toucan-like bill, but nature knows physics and solved the drag effect by making them sleek to cut through the water. You can see that aspect in the second shot where the bill is barely distinguishable.
Best of all, when you have had your fill of the Skims, you can enjoy a refreshing beverage with your favorite person/partner/spouse and watch the amazing sunsets as the sun retreats from on the Gulf. Not sure life gets any better than that.
Red, check, white, check, time for some blue!
There are many blue-themed birds in North America, but I have to say, the brilliant hues sported by the Green Jay is in a class of its own. Definitely not dominant in this Jay, however, the gorgeous yellows and green flavors in the rest of the body with the solid black borders really sets these blues at a higher level.
These shots were taken at Estero Llano Grande State Park in Weslaco, TX. Normally I try to avoid high sun conditions, but with the Green Jays I don’t mind a bit of blow-out in exchange for the nearly neon coloring as the light permeates through the various color layers. As a general rule, I am not a huge fan of the Jay family – especially our resident Blue Jays which are basically one step up from those asshat Cow Birds (link here). Being that I do not get to experience them as often, I am fonder of the Greens and even the Steller’s are pretty amazing (link here and here).
What would probably take some time to get comfortable with is the racket these Green Jays make. Pretty sure they have a fondness for hanging out with the Great-Tailed Grackles as that is probably one of the few birds that could effectively drown out their calls. “Don’t blame me for the ear pain {points to nearby Grackle}, blame that obnoxious chatterbox over there!!!”
Went ahead and added in a couple more shots of the Green Jay – more to give a perspective on the lighting comment mentioned above. This next shot was taken on South Padre Island. They definitely like to partake in free seed. More classic lighting for sure, but it just seems a lot more subdued and less impressive on the color front.
Similar to this last shot, I snapped the next one while waiting for the Audubon’s Oriole to make an appearance at the National Butterfly Center in Mission, TX. No blowouts, slightly more vibrancy than the SPI shot above but meh..the greens pretty much dominate. This matches the shots typically used for reference on sites such as Cornell.
Light preferences aside, hopefully we can all agree the Green Jay is still one impressive looking bird.
Time to head out for one of the last hard runs before starting the taper. Hope you enjoyed this small taste in tribute to America’s Independence celebration. Catch you again after the race and looking forward to what Brad will bring you in the meantime.
Take care!
Wildlife Intrigued 
Fun birds the Green Jays. Such vibrant colors. Sometimes bright sunlight can be a blessing against all the “sage”advice that photographers might offer.
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Thank you Jerry – I decide early on I was going to simply shoot sun up to sun down and deal with what issues I could in the digital darkroom if I really needed to (or rather get comfortable with tossing a large number of captures – thank god for digital eh) . I find wildlife doesn’t really care about my struggles behind the camera ha. As always, appreciate you dropping in and have a great 4th celebration.
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The Green Jay looks like he is wearing war paint on his face. Beautiful photos. I hope it hots up for you to get heated for the race. Happy 4th.
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Hahaha, never even thought of that before – the Braveheart of the birding world! It’s pretty brutal out there today, that’s for sure, so Mother Nature definitely doing its part so at least I know what to expect.. getting through it will be a different story ha. Linda keeps reminding me I CHOSE to sign up for this race….apparently not getting any sympathy from her if I go down!
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Wives don’t get it. I think you will enjoy my I’m A Man post.
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I need to get caught up on your posts.. will definitely check it out!
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I’m off to catarct surgery in the morning.
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One thing after another seems like for you. Good luck tomorrow and a best wishes for a speedy recovery!
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I started the process for the cataract surgery last October.
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That’s some serious prep time.
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It’s all done.
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Good to hear and the fact you were able to respond means you still have some level of vision. I’ll try to get caught up on your posts this weekend (dog show) – I am sure you have provided us additional detail. Take care and wishes for a speedy recovery.
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I’m doing well. You keep going to the dogs.
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Good to hear and yes, the pups (and Linda) keep me moving, that’s for sure.
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The Green Jay is gorgeous. I’ve never even heard of it before. Maggie
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Thank you Maggie! The Greens are rather stunning with their myriad of colors – hopefully you will get to experience one sometime in the future..take ear plugs as they can put up quite a racket ha. Appreciate you coming by and have a great rest of your week!
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Nice (and unique!) combo of red-white-and-blue! Love the radiant bounced light hitting the Jay’s belly in the first three Jay shots – couldn’t have done better with a whole truck-load of fancy lighting equipment!
I followed the link to your write-up on Cry Me a River. Holy cow! I have no idea what conditions to wish for you – just hope you make it through the next race in one reasonably healthy piece. Good luck, and God bless!
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Yeah, I was stretching it a bit on the theme thanks to falling down on the Intrigued tin list – hopefully the boss will still give me a good review at the end of the year …and continue fixing me dinner ha. I really liked the radiant light as well, which is why I was willing to overlook the tail blowouts along the edges – was hoping there was some detail in the RAW I could pull out, but nope, pure burn ugh. Not sure there is really a “good” condition for CMaR as they purposely put it in the dead middle of the Midwestern bake. I thought rain would be refreshing over the heat, but 6 hrs of that and I was liking it to CIA waterboarding. With going down with a heat stroke, then heat exhaustion in the past my thermostat is a bit over-reactive (errors too quickly on the you are going to die, let’s dump all the fluid out of the body at once side) so I have to be careful and run up to the edge but not go over. I was able to get my 25 mile simulation run done successfully so all things considered I should be in pretty good shape to make it through. Thanks for the encouraging words and I’ll assuredly give everyone feedback… good or bad. Main thing is to get a decent amount of rest and hopefully get get any “annoyances” worked out before the start. Appreciate you dropping by Sam and Happy 4th!
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Brian, hopefully you make it to this event in once piece, and make it THRU this event in one piece. I can see the green on the Jay, but am surprised all three major colors weren’t used in it’s name. At least green is dominant and very obvious, unlike a red-bellied woodpecker for example. Nice plops of color, like a painter’s palette gone wild.
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Getting to the starting line is prime directive at this point – a few short runs to keep the mechanics lubed up (heading out on one right after this) and then rest and prep. As far as the race goes, they expect it to be a slog, I know it will be a slog, it is always a slog and just need to slog through ha. Main thing is to make sure Linda doesn’t get in my head and cause me to be too hesitant – you still need to attack the course to survive or it will beat the crap out of you. It definitely goes greener in the softer light, but good point, they definitely ignored the other color characteristics when it came to handing out the name – not sure there are other Jays with the green tinge, but there are definitely a handful with the blue hues so it does cut out some of the confusion. Don’t get me started on the R-B Wp name – that absolutely drives me nuts as I probably see that feature about .000001 percent of the time I encounter it in the field and that is usually in the middle of windstorms! Rain has finally stopped, time to get some easy miles in.
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You slogged 30+ years in the cutthroat corporate environment, this should be a piece of cake in comparison. We are all rooting for you, no pun intended.
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Hahahaha – I do remember looking forward to getting out of the office and onto the trails.
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See? This trail stuff should be a piece of cake. Hehehe
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“should” is a pretty ominous word.
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Happy Indepence Day to us all.
No worries on falling short of any colors.
Red, white and blue is a state of mind for some of us.
Love all your photos. I still remember the morning I saw my first Green Jay. I was convinced it was some sort of escapee from a tropical pet shop.
Y’all be careful with all that running. Sounds dangerous.
Gotta go now and check on a ‘gator’s nest we found last week. The little ones should be up and about.
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Green Jays are one of those birds you don’t forget your first encounter – I was also thinking some kind of exotic during my first encounter at Laguna Atascosa – an absolute stunner. As long as I am diligent on the training front end, most of the time the races are more about overcoming the mental aspects versus the physical ones – I am sure Linda will keep a close eye on me ha. How cool on the nest. I have only encountered one family of Gators before. The babies were ranged between maybe a foot to 2 feet and scattered about with one of the biggest mothers I’ve ever seen. Linda was convinced the mother was going to rush us to protect her babies so we had to leave pretty quick. I get the impression they really do not do that, but there was no convincing Linda otherwise. Appreciate you dropping in Wally and yes, red, white and blue is a state of mind.
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Don’t tell Linda, but she is right. Mama gators will do that. My adrenaline level still hasn’t returned to normal after several years.
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Ugghh, I am definitely not telling Linda she is right (for many reasons I am sure you would understand ha). Thanks for the info though, I’ll be sure to stand BEHIND any fellow observers should we come upon a similar situation. I just wrongly assumed with large breeding numbers there wasn’t as large of a defensive mechanism…g o o d to know!
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Oh so wonderful to see all these lovely photos highlighting the green jay, Brian. Although I have seen the green jay numerous times, the U.S. range is tiny and I seem to never get enough of them–so this series was great. Also liked your opening photo of the skimmer, nice profile showing a bit of sky between the mandibles. Best of luck with the ultra race.
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You are quite welcome Jet! The Green Jay is not the “bluest” of bird options to celebrate the iconic colors of our Independence celebration, but what it lacks in breadth, it makes up in depth of the blue hue – and paired nicely with the rest of their palette. Glad you enjoyed the Skimmer shots as well. They are such an intriguing bird, their grace in flight, their social bonding, their uniquely adapted hinged lower bill and of course that strangely thin profile. As a bit of foreshadowing you will likely be reading more about them in a future post from Brad. Always appreciate you visits Jet and have yourself a wonderful and adventurous weekend.
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Love all your photos of both skimmers and Green Jays. But the color combo of the jay really speaks to me. Another reason to finally make that Texas birding trip a reality . . .
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Thank you Tanja. I can’t stress enough how great the birding is in South Texas and along the Gulf Coast. We never tire of our time down there and quite honestly, wouldn’t be surprised if we take up roots in the future and make it a more permanent home. Whenever you do get the opportunity to make the trip, be sure and reach out to us and we’d be glad to give you some tips on places to visit while down there.
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I didn’t realize the Skimmer’s bills were so narrow. The green jays have such gorgeous color! I liked your last shot showing a very jay-like profile view.
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Isn’t it amazing how different that bill looks straight on versus profile. I am pretty familiar with the Skimmers these days and I am still taken aback when I see it in the field. Definitely agree on the Green Jay front and they are even more stunning in person – the camera can’t pick up all the nuances between the color transitions. Always appreciate your visits SoyBend and have yourself a wonderful weekend.
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