Stopped in Motion

We are finally back from Colorado!! Although it took a serious chunk out of my haunt time and helping Linda photograph the TDAA Petit Prix was a lot of work, it was good to spend some time out West enjoying the views and even got a couple of mountain trail runs in. Truth be told, those runs nearly killed me – can someone please turn the oxygen mixture up out there, you are making us sea level runners suffer ha. Brad and Jan are back out on assignment and starting tomorrow my pillow will be filing a missing person report. To give Brad a break, thought I would put out a quick post before taking the next couple of weeks off.

Been running a lot at night lately. A bit cooler to relieve some of the stress on the internal temp regulator after the “July incident” and it gives me a full day to work on the props and other items on the 262 step project plan. Every once in a while something will happen or catch my attention that stops me in my tracks. Those moments remain embedded in the synapse mesh never to be forgotten. In that category, all all my major childhood injuries (ex. I was pretty sure I cut my leg off at the knee when I was like 8 – still have the massive scar today), recognition for a hard earned accomplishment (no participation trophies for this kid), getting to close to that afterlife spotlight (my running escapades are well documented) and several instances when something read or heard hit me right between the eyes. For example, Malcom’s Blink book finally put to bed all that Gallop BS of being defined at at age 5, Carol’s Mindset masterpiece explained everything I was seeing in the ranks of the corporate world, Steve’s masterpiece Do Hard Things summed up my thirst for more challenges, Michael’s The Comfort Crisis is hands down my favorite read of the year (if not the decade) giving me the perfect one word answer for anyone who inquires about my ultra addiction – Misogi. In the last two weeks I’ve had two occurrences where I stopped running to appreciate what I had just heard on my selected podcast for that trek – both courtesy of Mike Rowe’s The Way I Heard It. The first was Are We All Lab Rats (link here) and today’s agony distractor, Meet the Stoics (link here – not posted on youtube yet). Spitting truth as they say.

In light of those personal life stopping moments, going with a quick montage of our feathered friends suspended in time – more due to my camera than any words of wisdom permeating their body, although, I think tiny bird headphones is an untapped market! No theme beyond “in flight”, just some shots I pulled out of the queue I thought you might like to see. Let’s begin shall we…

Starting off our little series is a Bonaparte’s Gull.

Hit the jump to see more images honoring my latest stopped in my tracks moment.

This specimen was found while visiting Texas City Dike back in January 2023 – note, all these shots were from that particular Texas trip. These Gulls were everywhere and basically gorging themselves just off the dike.

They are a smaller Gull which is why I think they are so cute. That smaller statue will often get them confused with a Tern if one doesn’t note the slightly thicker bill (although thinner than the Gull-Billed Tern). Look for the spot behind the eye on the nonbreeding adults and the black tail band will reveal a first winter.

The Red-Crowned Parrot (above) had been on my target list for many a year. It wasn’t so much a difficult hunt as just finding time to head over to Oliviera Park in Brownsville, TX. Don’t bother to go until around dusk as that is when the flocks come in to roost for the night in and around the neighborhood.

Next up the Forster’s Tern found at the West Jetty Port in Aransas, TX. You can see the similarities with the Bonaparte’s above.

Look for the deep forked tail, the black mask and not seen in this shot, but they are entirely white underneath. Love seeing these birds when we head down to Texas… getting them in the tin with their erratic flight patterns can be a lot of work.

Honestly, I do not take a lot of Gull pictures when I am out in the field. There are pretty much everywhere (at least on the Gulf Coast) and any attention you give them turns into a shakedown for food. I did snap this Ring-Billed Gull as it was heading in to harass a small child with an ice cream cone on the South Padre Island beach. Mine, Mine, Mine, Mine.

You will have no difficulty IDing the Ring-Billed in the field. The bird namers got this one right – look for the …wait for it … wait for it.. black ring on the bill on the mature adults (juvs have more of a solid black tip). Seal the deal with the pale eye and yellow feet. You can also just ask them what they are when they are rifling through your picnic basket.

Who doesn’t like a pretty Spoon? This one comes to you from the auto-loop at Anahuac NWR.

This one’s feather coat was a deep pink alluding to a more mature specimen – I learned from Ted over at TPJ Photography (link here), that their pink hue is not impacted by their diet as in the Flamingos.

If you are going to have a Spoon, you might as well include their watering hole mates the Great Egret. This one happened to be at Brazos Bend State Park in Needville, TX. Not as entertaining as the Spoons with their frilly colors and frantic dancing, but stoic (see what I did there ha) and beautiful in their pure white garb.

How about a Monk couple to check off another easy to find bird in Texas. Some birds you have to track down in remote places, traversing through muck and engaging in mortal hand to hand combat with swamp vermin – Monk Parakeets, not so much. Locate their colony, drive up to the designated street and look for the mass of sticks on the nearby transformer. These two happened to be hanging down the street from the Old Hidalgo Pump House.

Another Texas favorite is the Harris’s Hawk. Easy to spot with their pretty much solid dark wing feathering with the rufous leading edge. That will pretty much get you where you need to be with the ID, but if you want the full experience, look for the white on the tail tips and a thicker white band at the base of the tail. This one happened to be taken at Santa Ana NWR, but if you don’t want to fight the Mosquito horde there, they are typically hanging out on the telephone poles just off the parking lot at Estero Llano Grande State Park.

This next shot is not my best effort by far – downright soft, but this Vermilion (yes, only one ‘L’) Flycatcher was giving a hell of an aerial acrobat show the day Ron and I were at Santa Ana. Thankfully my elbow had not been damaged back then or it would have been hurting just trying to keep focus with The Beast.

We now head back to Anahuac NWR to greet their resident Owl. Thanks to an unexpected late stay, we learned they have a number of Short-Eared Owls that hunt the refuge. Like the Parrots, they tend to show themselves around dusk, so crank up the ISO and prepare to have your breath taken away. Suspect the rodents there are not as enamored as we humans are about their presence.

One last image before I call it a wrap. Doesn’t fit the in-flight them of the other shots, but I never take enough pictures of the Butters to make an entire post. Thought I would treat B. in the UK (link here), with some delicate Texas wings.

If I was to guess, I’d say it is a White Peacock, but my Butterfly knowledge is even worse than my geography knowledge and that pretty much sucks thanks to my parochial education. If it helps, this one was shot at Estero Llano Grande State Park in Weslaco, TX. If you want waaaay better shots of these creatures you should head over to B’s site.

That’s a wrap folks. I will definitely be out of pocket from the moment I hit publish for at least the next two weeks and maybe more as my 50 mile ultra race is right after the party (glutton for punishment). No worries, as always, Brad will have plenty of great adventures to keep you entertained.

Stay Calm, Haunt On!

29 thoughts on “Stopped in Motion”

    1. Yes, a splash of color courtesy of those Spoonies – you are welcome on the reference, always think of you whenever I see those birds – invaluable information!

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  3. Like the frozen in time flight photos, especially the sharp ring-billed gull eyes. We are back in two days for two weeks before our international assignment across the pond. But of course we will be at the Haunting at HQ in between it all. Nice photos Brian.

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    1. Thank you Brad. Glad you were able to make it back in time for the big haunt – quite shocking how all the chaos slowly comes under control to put that event on – you would have been shocked on how the trail looked less than 4 hours before go time (you did see the late hour panicking ha. Didn’t get everything out, but pretty happy with what we did get done for Friday and we were able to get a lot more fixed and on the trail for the second night. Good luck on your next assignment.

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      1. Glad we could be part of the annual Haunting. We are still amazed at the amount of effort it takes to set up The Trail. We may send a photo or two from our assignment across the pond.

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        1. If it wasn’t so much fun it would probably be called work. This year had its unique twists and the Friday guests missed out on a few props, but we have declared it a complete success and already started planning next year’s trail – we have a year long project plan so the first thing we did was reset that for the 2025 trail adding in lessons learned, fixing things that broke and an idea of what new things we want to work on over the year. Actually, it does feel more like my grind days ha.

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  4. I can imagine you were sucking wind on your mountain runs. It helps clear your lungs of all that heaving, humid air in your lowland environs.

    What a beautiful selection of birds. The parrots reminded me of when we lived in Madrid, Spain. We were in the open space north of Madrid, and there were large numbers of parrots similar to the red-crowned parrots and monk parakeets in your photos. I was surprised.

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    1. Straights and downhills were okay, but really felt it on the inclines when the muscles were begging for more oxygen. Not sure how much it helped, but now back in the lowlands I am feeling pretty good for the upcoming ultra with the exception of a couple of tweaks in the ankle and back which should be cleared up before next weekend. Suspect you got better looks at those birds than I did when you were in Madrid. Especially with the Parrots, I have yet to see those beyond the occasional fly byes, Lucky enough to get a few snaps as they passed through.

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        1. I was feeling really good, but took out an ankle during the trail prep which I’ve been nursing every day since. Chiro got it unjammed a few days ago, so no it is just a matter of getting the swelling down – healed or not, I’ll still be on the starting line. Just a matte of putting it out of mind at that point.

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    1. Thanks Wally. The haunting part is now passed with success. Now just trying to recover from all the physical stress involved with that to be as ready as I can for the run next Saturday. After that some badly needed R&R to end out the year. In the meantime I am trying to get caught up on all my blogging responsibilities. Appreciate you stopping by and take care.

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  7. Great collection of in-flight shots! I need to get down south and try for the Harris’s again, such a wonderful bird.

    Thanks for the link to the VDH interview. I’ve been reading VDH for a while on Power Line, but somehow missed the fact he has his own publication platform. Always a clear thinker, glad to have another source for his writing.

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    1. Thank you Sam! The Harris’s is one of my favorite birds to find on our southern trips. They tend to be really tolerant of my presence and as long as you don’t do anything too fast or stupid, they will go about their business without much agitation – I also like the fact they usually come in pairs ha. This is the first time I have heard of VDH and wow, was I blown away. I find myself checking out his Blade of Perseus site (https://victorhanson.com/) whenever I have extra time to see what is going on in the world. On most of my long runs I am usually listening to a Mike Rowe podcast, a great way to keep my mind off the grind and get to learn something along the way! As always, appreciate you coming by and apologies for the delay in response, it has been hectic around here as of late.

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  8. Hi Brian,

    Thank you for sharing all these lovely creatures with wings, both with feathers and with scales.

    I’m sure you wish for wings during some of your looong runs. 😊 I hope your high altitude training in Colorado will give you a little boost during your training and competition. And I wish you happy haunting.

    Best,

    Tanja

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    1. You are quite welcome Tanja! I could definitely use some wings on my long runs – if nothing else, to keep my feet away from the roots ha. Guessing I got some benefit out of the several altitude runs I managed to get in while around Denver. I sure hope something came out of all the air sucking I was doing on the inclines hehehe. The haunt event went really well, but it has definitely left me a bit drained. Taking it easy this week and hoping I can get all the little nags taken care of before race day. Take care and I am trying to get caught up on all the posts I missed while I was off.

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        1. Doing my best to make up for my absence this month – just too hard to get everything that needs to be taken care of for the haunt and still keep current on everyone’s latest posts. Luckily things slow down between everything being pulled off the trail and the upcoming run as I try to get the dings and tweaks healed up the best I can. I’ll be stepping back out for a short time for the run, but then I should be good from then on out!

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    1. Thanks Lisa! That Vermilion is such a treat to watch (not so much to try to get in the tin ha), and thankfully I don’t have big ears and a tail or that Short-Eared Owl would have bee salivating!!! Thanks for the well wishes on the run. One week to go before the 5am start. I promise to hydrate and will definitely be watching for those nasty roots! I don’t want to have to get a lecture by Linda again. Appreciate you dropping in and have a great week!

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