February 2025 – Wildlife Intrigued

Home Improvement…by Brad Marks

Becoming trite at this point, but we have once again blown right through another month. {Looks out window} Not seeing people flying off the planet, so I cannot place blame on an accelerated spin – time simply marches on (as a friend always reminds me, the alternative is not healthy). Truth is, I’ve been incredibly busy getting caught up from the winter migration and now prepping for the extended spring trip in a little more than 3 weeks. More importantly, Transworld is this weekend – not a fan of the name, but this is THE commercial haunt industry’s annual gathering in St. Louis (link here). While I clear space on the phone for oodles of pictures/videos and dig around in the Intrigued HQ couch cushions for spending capital, Brad is going to take you along on another adventure across the pond. See ya’ next month!

Take it away Brad…

Jan and I were on assignment to tour and inspect the Wildlife Intrigued offices scattered throughout Western Europe. The Intrigued corporate jet was unavailable, so we had to fly commercial (sure hope that touring superstar returns the jet soon so we can use it). After visiting for a few days with Jan’s cousins in England (yes, we did also that last Fall), Jan and I had the good fortune to be able to spend a week with the editing team in Barcelona, Spain. On our first non-travel day, Jan and I walked about a mile, gently uphill, through the friendly streets of Barcelona to Park Guell (see here), one of the largest green spaces in Barcelona. Originally, Park Guell was going to be a private residential development on a mountain outside of the city. The homes were to be designed by Antoni Gaudi (of Sagrada Familia Basilica fame, see here). As usual, location (quite a distance from then developing Barcelona in the mid 1800’s), financial troubles and lack of interest ended with only three spectacular dwellings being built. Only one of those buildings is occupied today as a private residence. Oh, and it’s for sale if you are interested.

Jan and I arranged an English-speaking tour of Park Guell. Incidentally, English is only the third most popular language spoken here, after Catalan and Spanish, we might be at a slight disadvantage as general tourists. We did find that nearly everywhere, the locals were more than willing to accept my twenty words of high school Spanish, and then quickly shift to speaking nearly perfect English for us. On another tour, our guide told us that children in Barcelona learn three languages from the very beginning of school: Catalan, Spanish and English. Once Jan and I arrived at the park, I heard at least a dozen different languages being spoken, English being the least heard. For the tour, Jan said we were supposed to look for purple jackets from the tour company. The purple should contrast nicely with all of the greenery around.

Monk Parakeets found by Brad and Jan in Barcelona, Spain

We see green flecks, hit the jump to learn more about our Spanish find.

An Undercompensating Thrasher

Howdy everyone! February is a short month and I am trying my best to make sure we hit our Intrigued monthly quota goal for posts. March is going to get a bit hectic as Linda and I head back out to Arizona for our spring migration. Fortunately, Brad and Jan are heading back from their latest adventure out east and I’m sure there are plenty of stories on their way from this trip as well as their jaunts across the pond. For now, you are stuck with me! Before we get to today’s featured feathered friend, wanted to mention I have finally made it through all the Average Year and my Life List updates. Although, thanks to a late find from Colorado my Life List and 2024 results are now one off – it is inevitable that update efforts get eclipsed, but still feels good to be only a smidgen off of current. As you can tell from the left nav-bar I am officially at 443+1 for the life list and per the Average Year journal, at 244+2 provisionals for this year (link here). Kind of shocking to be over 55% of my life list and 82% of my annual goal and not even to the end of the 2nd month. As they say, life is good. Since I brought up the Life List, thought I would go with a member that was added just last year.

Sage Thrasher found at Corn Creek Field Station, Desert NWR in Las Vegas, NV while visiting there in January 2024

Hit the jump to read more about this rather understated Thrasher.

What Says You Say’s

Some of the staff is heading back out into the field this week – needless to say to warmer temperatures for sure. Apparently we are in the midst of a third Polar Vortex for the year and we are feeling the effects of NOT getting our cold acclamation cycles in. IT IS COLD! At a minimum, the normal training runs would at least get my butt outside before and after our Texas migration. The ankle has put a stop to that silliness. This is officially the longest I have gone without a run since I started this hobby some 25+ years ago. A few more weeks until my next surgeon follow-up and then hopefully start rebuilding – wish Linda luck as all this pent up energy is driving her nuts (she says I’ve taken to pacing like a caged animal and constantly telling me to STOP IT – link here). Something tells me today’s featured feathered friend would have something to “Say” about it as well!

Say's Phoebe found outside Voyager RV Park in Tucson, AZ in January 2024

Hit the jump to learn more about this rather annoyed looking bird!

Vermilion

It’s that special day where we get extra cuddles from the one(s) we love. Based on the fact we are down in the single digit temperatures, that may be less of a personal display of affection and more about stealing heat ha. I gave it away in the previous post that I was going to go with a Valentine’s theme in recognition of the special day. Minimally one a bit more in line with the day than the nevermore Rook connotations in Brad’s recent adventure. There were some (read brother) that had speculated a bird couple story, which immediately brought to mind the always cute Inca Doves (link here) or the smooching we saw between pairs in the mass of Parrots at Oliviera Park in Brownsville, TX. Truth is, I am nowhere close to getting those Parrot pictures processed (it was less than a month ago!!) and not that clever. In my defense, Incas have a cooing that sounds like “NO HOPE” which isn’t what you want to think about on a relationship holiday. I was really just going for a bird with a Valentine’s color palette.

Hit the jump to see more shots from this brilliantly red colored bird.

Queen to Rook 4…by Brad Marks

Hi folks! I decided to make a change at the last minute and reorder our posts. After looking at the topics, decided the one I had worked up would align better to the upcoming smoochie holiday than the one that was scheduled to fall on said smoochie holiday. The original one didn’t seem the best fit symbolically, plague mask and all ha. Easy fix, just push that one to the front – you’ll understand as you get to the body of the post. This switch also gives me a chance to get fully caught up on the Average Year reporting. Managed to get all the previous years wrapped up (final charts, trip reports, etc. link here) and all the graphs updated for this year (link here). Still working on updating the trip reports, but now current up to at least 1/17/2025. Officially at 243 species for the year which is a great start! Enough about me, time to get you to Brad’s latest adventure – this one from across the pond (and possibly a catalyst for a new haunted trail theme).

Take it away Brad…

I’m never quite sure which order I will finish the stories for Wildlife Intrigued. Let me give you a brief setup before I begin. Jan and I were fortunate enough to be visiting her English relatives in England. We were staying with Jan’s cousin Louise and her husband Steve. Louise’s parents Margaret and John lived a few minutes away. The extended family, including pups Finn and Red, elected to take a 3-day holiday to Dorset on the coast of the English Channel. In October. The temperatures were about what you would expect being that far north on the globe. While there, we all decided to check out a few of the many seaside villages along The Channel.

Now to rejoin the rest of the story already in progress . . .

The sun was still hanging high in the sky when we arrived at Lulworth Cove in Dorset, southern England. I was amazed at how many people were seaside during October. Temps were in the 40’s F (or single digits Celsius) with more than a breeze but not quite a wind. Jan and I had just gotten out of the car and were walking to the seaside with her cousin Louise’s husband Steve and Louise’s mum Margaret (John elected to stay warm in the thatched cottage). Louise had taken the Jaaaaaaaaag (I didn’t’ use the appropriate amount of letter “a’s” in my prior story from England link here) to visit a friend who lived nearby in Dorset. That meant Steve was going to chauffeur us in the Land Rover because I don’t think the relatives were ready for my driving on the other side of the road yet.

Lulworth Cove is known for some unique geology and a protected beach with some very nice blue water. Obviously, no one was playing in the water except for a few seabirds. In fact, I was one of the very few people wandering along the sand at water’s edge. The scenery was magnificent. However, recent landslides onto the beach kept most visitors away from the base of the high cliffs.

We were all getting a bit chilly and decided to walk back through the shops on the way to the car park in hopes of finding a warm drink.

Soon enough, one of us had gone to look for a coffee. Jan had wandered away to look for me because I started looking for her. Steve, the smart one in the group, was holding the dogs (Red and Finn) waiting for all of us to wander back to the car park. After all, he had the keys to the Land Rover.

Waiting for the group to coalesce again, I noticed this black bird sort of stalking the passersby.

Quite Nevermorish eh!?! Hit the jump to read more about this eerie bird.

Rockin’ in the USA

Been a busy week, but finally starting to get head above water. Most of the pending emails have been addressed, to-do’s started to get checked off, and ALMOST done getting all the Christmas decor back in storage. The 12′ main tree is down and put away, now just two of the 7 footers to go. Definitely a downside of heading south before Christmas this year…err, last year rather. Even have the Haunt Lab back into production as we gear up for this year’s event – yes, we start prop building this early (and still barely get done before the big show). Need to do a bit of updating on the Average Year progress (link here), but so far, so good as I currently sit at 238 species for the year! (96th in US, 16th in Texas, 802 in IL (that should rocket up as we are home now), and shockingly 14th in my county. So far, a rock solid performance which brings us to today’s featured feathered friend.

Rock Wren found at Las Cruces KOA, NM in January 2024

If you “Ain’t too proud to sleep on the floor tonight”, hit the jump to read more about this R.O.C.K in the U.S.A.

Ready for My Close-up…by Brad Marks

Welcome to February everyone! Well, as of last Saturday, we are officially back home – our winter southern migration has come to an end. Thankfully, Ol’ Man Winter took pity and welcomed us back with rather nice weather – at least for this time of the year in the Midwestern tundra. Have to say I am rather exhausted from our extended southern stay. Not sure if that is the results of daily nonstop birding or having to haul this damn boat anchor around ..while daily nonstop birding. Need to take a few days to recover and start getting everything back in order from the trip – emails to read (6,600 to be exact), transfer all the photos to NAS (727G worth) and a host of other things sure to numb the mind. One bright spot to mention, I made it to 12th on the top 100 Texas Birders list and shockingly 79th on the top US Birders list! The former will fall now that we have left that great state, but we can continue to work on the overall stats (work being code for I’ll continue birding as normal and just check in from time to time to see where I happen to be ha). While I get things back in order, Brad is going to take the helm and bring you an outing from a MUCH warmer time.

Take it away Brad…

After Brian and I successfully completed the world’s first ever International Warbler Watch and Walk in the Woods or IW4 (link here), I spent a morning with my friend, Ray, in his back yard. Ray’s photography style specializes in his kids, and close-up photos of nature. He has dozens of projects going on simultaneously and occasionally, just occasionally, I can get him to “focus” long enough for a photo walk in the woods. In reality, the walk was mostly in the wooded ravine in his back yard. The general area where we both live is on the edge of a bluff overlooking the Illinois River. Most of the houses are surrounded by ravines and woods full of wildlife, both furred and feathered. Wooded lot lines get all confused when ravines are involved, which is a polite way to say we wandered a bit.

Hit the jump to read more about our ravine wanderings.

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