Kung Fu Fighting…by Brad Marks

I’ve mentioned this in a few comment replies, but for those that missed it, I received some bittersweet news last week regarding a certain mal-performing joint I’ve been fighting with for over 7 months. If you recall during my last ultra-race..

A sudden motion made me s[l]ip, now we’re into a brand new ‘trip’

There is much debate on whether it would have been better had I actually fallen to the ground vs the ankle going 90 degrees under my leg while I stayed upright. For brevity, a misdiagnosis and then later discover of a double fracture in the tibia left me hobbled through April before getting the okay to resume training. That was met with a very angry joint that eventually led me in search of an explanation if not a remedy. A new ortho-surgeon and more x-rays found very bad things including likely breaks and/or ligament/tendon tear aways from the fibula and minimally severe inner joint ligament damage. MRI scheduled, but suspect a very sharp knife is in my future. Not looking forward to losing the rest of this year, however, incredibly relieved that there is finally a path forward. While I struggle to get this all sorted out, Brad is going to jump into the dojo…I mean spotlight and share another of his adventures from South Carolina.

Take it away Brad…

The word “vacation” means many things to many people.  If you are reading this story, then your definition is probably closer to the one Jan and I use.  Our definition may include beaches and exotic locations, but there are rarely, if ever, whole days sitting by the pool or on the beach with an umbrella drink and a half empty bottle of sunscreen nearby.  Usually our definition of “vacation” includes the exotic location:  checkmark.  But that’s where the similarity stops.  Instead of a pool, we are typically next to a marsh, wetland, crashing surf, mountain or volcano.  In place of the umbrella drinks are usually large camera/glass combos hanging from our Black Rapid camera straps.  OK, we do sometimes have the sunscreen nearby, but it is usually subtlety layered with bug screen.  Oh, and wet wipes; can’t forget to keep the hands clean for holding our cameras.  Bug spray on your hands then touching plastic camera parts leads to fingerprints in the hard plastic.  Please do NOT try this at home.

This “vacation” was no different.  Jan and I took a last-minute trip to Hilton Head Island to avoid some of the frigid weather at home in Illinois in February.  We only avoided some of the cold, because for the first few days the cold followed us south.

We (meaning Jan and I and the cameras) spent the morning at Fish Haul Beach toward the eastern end of Hilton Head Island.  However, after a very late lunch, (I can’t even remember where we ate that day) we decided we hadn’t taken quite enough photos for the day.  Reviewing our options, and not wanting to drive for hours after lunch, we chose Pinckney Island National Wildlife Refuge which is smack dab in between Hilton Head Island and the mainland off of US-278.  We visited this refuge last year and walked for hours.  Since it was already nearing 4pm, we decided to only walk out a mile, see what we would see at Ibis Pond, and then head back to the car.  We were not disappointed.

(Oh-ho-ho-ho) Huh, ha
Keep on, keep on, keep on… reading by hitting the jump

Ibis Pond is a 15-20 minute walk from the parking lot.  (Important safety tip:  there are no restrooms beyond the parking lot, so plan accordingly.)  The pond is surrounded by woods except on the side with the two-track gravel maintenance road.  At the small rise next to the pond, I could see a Great Blue Heron (GBH) squatting low in a patch of reeds just a little bit out in the water.  While I was quietly photographing GBH nesting behaviors, Jan found a turf war in progress about 100 feet away.

I was taking single photos of nesting, when I heard a familiar sound:  the Nikon D500 machine gun at its highest frame rate.  By the time I strolled over to see what Jan was photographing, well, I’ll let the photos tell the story.

Everybody was kung fu fighting

At first, it looks like there’s just a bit of posturing going on.  Then the feathers, er, feet started to fly. Jan had found a territorial dispute between three Common Gallinule (Gallinula galeata), not a +1 for us.  Not even the first we’ve seen on this trip, but certainly the most exciting display so far.

Those cats were fast as lightning

The intensity cranked up a notch when both took flight and added the wing displays to the ritual.  I don’t know the rules for Gallinule territorial disputes, so I can’t tell you who won. 

In fact, it was a little bit frightening

But they fought with expert timing

I hadn’t seen any of this live, I was only able to experience it later during the photo import and sorting process back at the resort hotel.  As with many of the events we stumbled onto during this “vacation”, this one was all over in about eight seconds according to the timestamps on the photos. 

The Common Gallinule can live up to nine years in the wild, but I’m presuming less than that if they keep engaging in Kung Fu behavior.  Gallinule are very territorial during the breeding season; at least I think this is the behavior Jan captured on camera.  Common Gallinule can form long lasting pairs, but sometimes males will mate with more than one female.  Females will also sometimes share a mate and a nest with a daughter and collectively raise the offspring from that nest.  Young birds that haven’t found a mate will help raise the brood and feed the nestlings.

We found these Gallinule precisely where they like to be:  watery/marshy areas with plenty of vegetation to eat and nest within.

Common Gallinules are, well, common, but their populations have declined just over 1% per year for each of the past 50 years.  Even with that rate of loss, they aren’t on a watch list, being only in the middle of the conservation concern lists.

Now that I am standing next to her looking at an empty area of the pond, it is all over but the shouting.

Though I suspect it was this guy who was bragging for all to hear for quite some time after the altercation.  We could hear the gloating for another 30 minutes all around the pond.

Thank you for reading.  If you want to see more Common Gallinule photos, please visit here.  And, sorry about the ear worm of the 1970’s theme song running through your head now.

Credits

Thanks again to Jan for proofreading and editing.  Thanks to Jan for all of the photos in this article.