Welcome to our favorite day of the year! It is no secret we here at Intrigued enjoy the Halloween season. Although this holiday is continually under attack by the corporate Christmas greed, we will continue to push back and treat this day in all its haunting glory. Our Halloween related heavy lifting actually comes several months earlier as we prep and build out the annual Haunted Trail. We have found the weather is more cooperative at the end of September and allow us to bypass all the conflicts that seem to collide later in October (HS/College football, World Series, band competitions and, of course, other Halloween gatherings). The bonus is we get to extend the season’s festivities. Probably best of all, we get to sit back, stress free and enjoy ourselves on the actual day. As we do not get any trick-or-treater this far in the country, we head out for a nice dinner and then spend the rest of the night searching for (and rating) Halloween displays – an excellent way to get great ideas for next year’s trail.
Have a hauntingly good day, don’t eat too much candy, scare your neighbors and maybe catch a good horror show to cap off the evening. More importantly, continue to celebrate the day or it won’t be long before we’ll be seeing artificial Christmas trees in the stores at the start of the month – oh wait, we already do @#%@#%$@@!
Just to help set the mood, I grabbed a few shots from our trail to share. Apologies as I have not had time to properly process them yet. Hit the jump to enjoy!
Got a few things to update you on before we get to today’s post, which happens to be a continuation of a recent feature. For starters, if you have spent any time at all here at Intrigued, you know about our annual Haunted Trail event. The all consuming, year round prep and exhausting build for the two night event held in late September. Our partner in haunt, Paul, has finished making this year’s video recap. I wanted to share that link in case you would like a sampling of how the trail turned out this year. Note, if the embedded link below does not work for you, try going directly to it using this link – https://youtu.be/wnZ5veDpNcA?si=1TM4lSygwhsnYMl_
Amazing how well the finished trail looks knowing the complete chaos leading up to the opening. A huge thank you again to everyone that helps us put this event on.
The other update is on the running front. The recent 50 mile ultra race hit me and hit me hard. I finally got the race recap up on the mothership if anyone is interested in reading about all the mishaps that when on during that torturefest (link here). I recommend not reading that if you are thinking about taking up long distance trail running ha. I’ve spent a solid two weeks trying to get back on my feet. The bad ankle I started the race with doesn’t seem to want to heal and the body is one big ache. Got fed up with the snail’s healing pace and went for a 7 mile run today. Lungs felt great, but the legs were a mess. Worst of all, now the ankle doesn’t even want to hold my weight – damn you weak-assed body parts – you shall suck it up and get in line or I’m gonna keep beating you until you change your attitude.
With those updates out of the way, I can finally get to today’s featured feathered friend (about time Bri!).
Look familiar? Hit the jump for the second part of our encounter with the Snail Kites during our 2023 April visit to Florida.
I feel like our haven of trail witches have put a curse on me. First I tweak my ankle during the build up to the haunted trail, then the race beats me down something good only to make it through to put the cherry on top the misery sundae by breaking a toe (on the good foot) in a manner so unmanly I am not about to reveal it. I’ve learned a couple of surprising things since then. One is the revelation that trimming trees for four days is probably not the brightest choice all hobbled up – something tells me some of our readers probably already knew or could foresee that bit of knowledge. The other surprise comes courtesy of Brad who is bringing us one of his adventures from his recent New England trip. In fact, my new birding tidbit comes courtesy of that little space between the third and fourth word in his title. I was about to insert the expected “-” when I decided to dig into this a bit more. Brad is absolutely correct, as of July 2024, the American Birding Association has removed the second dash between Night and Heron. You can read more about that change and several other updates in their 2024 supplement (link here). Note, once again, they FAILED to rename the Ring-Necked Duck arrrgghhh! Enough of my whining, it’s time for Brad to introduce us to one of his newest lifers.
Take it away Brad…
During a recent photo assignment to New England, Jan and I were enjoying the low tide near Boothbay Harbor in Maine. We traveled to Maine with our friends from the Boston area. We also had the bonus of having Allyson join us for an abbreviated weekend.
This also happened to be our first photo outing with our brand “new” D500 camera bodies, well, at least new to us. The old trusty D300’s had served us well, but had begun showing age-related faults (over 200,000 clicks on both of them) during our Alaska assignment. We had a mere six days after Alaska to get “new” cameras before the New England trip. I used all of my trusted camera sites ordering bodies, batteries, and chargers. I’m still working on the Wildlife Intrigued expense report. Everything arrived in time, some only just, for the trip to Boston and Maine.
Our first morning in Maine, low tide was at 9am. After breakfast, we all rushed down to the waterline to see what we would see at low tide. The rented house where we stayed, was about 100 feet from the water. The tide was nearly at the lowest point of the morning, down over 8 feet from high tide the night before. Drying seaweed was all over the newly exposed rocks and made walking slippery. Jan was photographing a Great Blue Heron in the shadows next to our dock. Allyson was wading in the cold Atlantic water looking for crabs, lobsters, and snails. I was watching the sunlit part of the terrain opposite our rocky point, when something caught my eye.
Did you spot today’s featured feathered friend? Hit the jump to read more about this well camouflaged discovery.
I am finally back on my feet. Still a bit tender in the legs and feet, but the toll for a shiny new finisher belt buckle is almost paid. I must say, I feel a bit like Biden after the first debate with everyone recommending I stop doing the ultras ha. The concern is definitely appreciated, but Linda will confirm I believe one should always know their limits (and ever reach beyond). Luckily I learn from my mistakes and will be taking steps to remedy whatever gremlins snuck into my race plan starting with my “barnacle-bitten swab” of an ankle. That weak bastard is still unusually “round” (and crunchy) which brings us to our similarly shaped featured feathered friend(s) of the day.
Hit the jump to see more of what was “rolling” around the flats of Bolivar Peninsula back in April. As enticement, this is a rare multi-species post!!
It’s official, I can now coast until the new year as the last of the 2024 stressors completed last Saturday night. I was slightly worried going into this last ultra-race of the season. Torqued up my ankle pretty bad during the haunt work that didn’t seem to be responding to my customary barrage of rude insults and brash comments regarding its lily-livered condition. Even broke down and had it forcibly unjammed by my Chiro, plus cut my taper short to give the weak-ass, dirty bilge rat of a joint several days of rest (link here). With all the extra attention. it was STILL tender race morning. I’ll do my regular race recap later, but in summary, about the only two things that went right the entire day was I got up on time and I willed myself across the finish line. Everything in between pretty much the proverbial shit show. Dispensed with the nag and went full blown crush on the bad ankle at mile TWO (slid off a rock under the leaves in the dark), stomach issues prevented me mid-race food, stung by ground PO’d Hornets on 3 of my 5 loops, unexpected heat and switched to just plain water for loops 4 and 5 because the stomach refused any fluids with flavor – exception was the lifesaving ginger ale at the aid stations preventing me from hurling. Oh, and with the ankle destroyed, didn’t dare take the shoe off. No dry sock changes led to massive blisters on feet for last two loops. Not the best outing and certainly not the worst, but all things considered, one of the hardest finisher buckles I’ve ever earned – and I’m damn proud! Wife and friends have chosen the less glorious word “crazy”..which, ironically, brings me to today’s post. While I do my best to even stand, Brad is going to take you out to one of my favorite places to bird in Henderson, NV.
Take it away Brad… (note, responses will likely be delayed as he and Jan are still out on assignment in faraway lands).
During a return trip to Las Vegas to catch Death Valley, Jan and I had a list of birding assignments from Intrigued HQ. Originally, we had planned a full day at each, but we lost most of a day to a flat tire on our rental car trying to pick up an unplanned birding location. (See A New Low link here.) Suffice it to say that we now had one less day and had to consolidate destinations within the remaining days of our vacation.
One day we had to split between two destinations. In the morning, we went to Clark County Wetlands Park. After literally running through Clark County Wetlands, we headed to the Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve (HBVP) just before noon. Based on our experience, try to get there early because they close at 2:00 pm. You will want to reverse these two destinations if you must see them the same day like we did. We were also informed that they lock the parking lot gates promptly at 2:00 pm when they leave, capturing you and your car inside. We did get the local number to call in case we lost track of time and found ourselves captives.
With the over 40 different species of birds we saw on this trip, I thought I would give you a slow pitch today. This should be an easy guess on today’s subject.
Hit the jump to knock this easy pitch out of the park.
And we meet again so soon! Probably seems like a whirlwind of activity as of late, especially since my long absence during the haunted trail prep. There has been extra free time around Intrigued while I try my best to rest up for the race this weekend. Unfortunately, that also means I’ll be stepping away from the websites to focus on that race. Suspect the need for some level of recovery regardless of whether I manage to make it through still vertical or those “Root of all Evil” tree appendages manage a retaliation from all the shade I’ve been throwing their way since the last time they bested me (link here). I’ll be at the exact “scene of the crime” again, and again, and again, and again, and again and fingers crossed again if things go as planned. While Brad and Jan are exploring faraway places, thought I would leave you with a special treat from our 2023 pass through upper Florida.
Hit the jump to learn more about this unexpected surprise while exploring around the Gainesville area.
Howdy folks. In the days between the end of the haunt event and the fast approaching ultra-race, I’ve been doing my best to get a few body nags healed up and hopefully not add any new dings to pile. Last year I managed to injure my back putting all the decorations back right before the race. Lesson learned, I took the effort to get everything out of the valley and into the out building and left it to hang out there until post run. The run is hard enough as it is without piling on additional difficulty. With all the extra rest I’ve been able to get a lot of miscellaneous to-dos checked off starting with the bird counts. Updated both the Average Year stats (link here) and the life list. AY sits at 307 (two finds still have to be added to our tracking list) and as you will see on the left nav bar my lifelist is now at 432 (it may look like 430, but it is really 432 thanks to a couple of late adds ha). And one of those late adds and missing tracking species in our AY spreadsheet happens to be today’s featured feathered friend.
Hit the jump to find out more about this lost barnyard resident.
A lot of the stress is finally off and best of all, I am finally getting caught up on some badly needed sleep. The annual Haunt Event appears to be another successful venture and since the last post we have received a lot of positive feedback from the attendees (including Brad and Jan, but they may be biased as their annual performance review is coming up ha). The first night we ran out of time for some of the props thanks to an unfortunate late hour incident that took a bit to resolve, however, we were able to catch up on Saturday and get everything working and additional props deployed. I made a quick summary of this year’s efforts up on the mothership if you are interested (link here). Most surprising of all is the weather held for both days even though there was an over 60% chance of rain for both nights at the start of the week. Mother Nature either took pity on me or she is waiting to really hammer me during the fast approaching ultra-race.
Since I am sitting here trying to heal a few leg/foot kinks that developed while hauling all the props back out of the valley, thought I would feature a feathered friend that also has a kink …in its neck.
Hit the jump to read more about this turquoise-eyed beauty.
Wildlife Intrigued 