Before I go ANY further…
CONGRATULATIONS to our men’s and women’s Olympic hockey team players/coaches/staff – you did us proud!!! What the men did for the Gaudreau children is the antithesis for today’s post. Okay, back to the regularly scheduled programming (as I wipe away a few tears of joy).
Since I lost my voice thanks to “our” (I am sure I helped in some way) OT win this morning, figured I would sit quietly down and put the finishing touches on a post I was planning on putting out back on Valentine’s Day. Traditionally, I feature the “red” feathered birds for that special someone’s day – problem was I didn’t have one of those ready to go, so I went with a series that played out last year at the Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Center. After getting most of it ready to go, I decided that wasn’t a good time to feature courtship rejection.
Love hurts, love scars
Love wounds, and marks
Any heart, not tough
or strong enough
You will understand after the jump.
A quick disclaimer – I probably took some liberties here….er maybe a bit more than some…okay, a whole HEAPFUL of assumptions, conjectures, propaganda, falsehoods, innuendo and bent story lines to fit a narrative in the name of humor – along with accompanying pictures of course. Kinda what I do hehehe.
For starters, I have no idea which is the male and which is the female Reddish Egret in this series – I do know that it is the white morph variety with it’s shaggy neck/head feathering and the black-tipped pink nose. Beyond that, let’s have some fun!
Here I stand in my best white dress and black stockings looking for the bird of my dreams to sweep me off my sexy toes.
I spy a handsome young Reddy coming my way – I shall test its manliness and commitment to the fairer sex. (drops trophy stick in the water nearby)
Well hello my dear, you appear to have misplaced your beautiful stick!
Oh, how thoughtful of you, would you mind handing that back up to me – my what a firm bill you have on you, are you from around here?
Certainly dear maiden of the Turnbull waters, worry not your heart as I shall retrieve that for you.
Thank you darling, would you be so kind to join me up here on my perch and enjoy this absolutely stunning day with me?
I would be honored to.
Oh my, what big toes you have, come closer, I want to have a looksee.
Oh, did I drop that darn stick again, why I’d swear I’d lose my head if it wasn’t attached.
You appear to have a bit of the clumsies, but I shall honor your wishes …again.
Clumsies! Did you say CLUMSIES, now you listen here smarty feathers, I happen to be the prettiest Egret here…my mirror told me so.
Shhhhhhh, the Black-Necked Stilts are looking at us funny.
I don’t care if the entire Turnbull locals and those pesky paparazzi on the boardwalks here me, you have sullied my honor with such distasteful accusations.
Some fools think of happiness
Blissfulness, togetherness
Some fools fool themselves I guess
They’re not fooling me
I know it isn’t true
Now I need you to apologize immediately or take flight from my perch and rid myself of thy condescending self.
Geez chicky, take a Minnow and calm yourself down, I was just pointing out that this routine was getting a bit old.
OLD, now you are calling me OLD – what kind of bird brain are you?
You know what, I’ve had enough of your bitchy attitude … and for the record, your big ass feathers make your butt look huge
Why I never…
Workout…yeah, I can tell.
Now the Stilts are laughing at us and that dork with the big camera over there is taking waaaayyy too many shots of us – Hey, I wonder if he had to zoom out to get your butt feathers in…
Hey Stilt-buddies, come on over here, this is turning out to be a great show.
Okay, I’ve had enough of your snarky remarks you beast of a bird, be off my perch this second – thou shall not feast your eyes on my natural beauty for another second.
Did I mention you have ugly knobby knees – look at those things ,they look like two skinny Snakes that swallowed giant egg.
Take one last look you Egretta Rufescens for I damn thee and instead save my admiration and endless love for another more deserving member of family Ardeidae.
Listen chicky, you have one hell of a bad attitude coming out of that pink bill of yours, don’t forget you asked me to come over here.
Enough, talk to the wing and begone thata-way!
Whoa, did that Egret just give that dude the wing!?!
Oh yeah, she certainly gave him the wing!
You just can’t win
And so it goes ’til the day you die
This thing they call ‘love’
It’s gonna make you cry
I’ve had the blues, the reds, and pinks
One thing for sure
Love stinks, yeah yeah
Looking back, I think I made the right choice holding off on this particular series for our traditional Valentine’s post hehehe. Valentine’s is a day to spend in the company of the one you love (Linda), not reading about dysfunctional hookups on the water. Take care everyone and stay away from those stick diggers out there or you’ll be singing right along with Nazareth and the J. Geil’s Band.
(Apologies if you are humming those songs the rest of the day ha).
Wildlife Intrigued 
Very beautiful birds! ❤️ I haven’t watched one second of the Olympics for my own reasons… Happy Sunday!
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I ended up getting caught up in a few of the Olympic competitions like Hockey and to my wife’s absolute hilarity Curling with a few others thrown in like the skiing biathlons and cross-country skiing (which is similar to the struggles in ultra running, although that looks even more painful. Found myself watching only the USA channel feed so I didn’t have to waste my time with the athlete bios and fluff pieces.
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Fantastic photos of the conversion. Rejection hurts, for sure.
I had to look up the Johnny Gaudreau. Tragic! The hockey bros did well. I have not followed any of the WO.
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Thank Tim! The tragedy if Johnny and his brother/cousin, can’t remember which was awful. So impressed on how the team handled that and honored his family at the end. There are way too many other athletes that can learn a lot about decency through both hockey teams. Best thing about it, the men’s hockey team, could not care less about what the media say about them – refreshing.
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Great interpretation of the scene before you. I’m still laughing with the dialogue. Speaking Reddish must be a 500-level course at Intrigued?
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Hahahaha, RE speak is a chapter in our creative writing class course requirements – you have some time before we expect you to make it to the 500 level required courses.
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A terrific set! Have to say though, I was routing for the other side 🇨🇦 🏒
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I completely understand Belinda, To their credit, the Canadian team competed hard through all the brackets and the loss of Crosby (my nephew/niece’s favorite player) definitely had an impact on the team – I watched him get targeted by the team they were playing before the medal round. Take care and thanks for dropping in.
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Are Dime Novels still a thing? And you have photo illustrations to go with it. For all those birder friends, next year’s Christmas present.
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I suspect they are although I will have to admit I have not heard that term in a loooong time ha. I am sure there are plenty of fans of those Harlequin books still around (with Fabio on the covers). I might be able to get away with that for some of my family xmas presents, but guessing my brothers would thump me a good one if I tried that on them!!! Take care Jerry, I am doing my best to get caught up on everyone’s blogs now that the 4600 emails that came in while we were Texas is finally parsed through – the downside of taking month+ long vacations.
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You did mention they are Reddish Egrets in passing here. What you also have are very unusual shots. A White Morph, even in Texas is not very common, you have two together 🤗
Very cool!
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You are absolutely correct Ted, it was a very special treat to witness 2 together…as you saw in my latest post, I even managed to double up that so I must be living a charmed life – now if I could just translate that into lottery ticket picks I’d be good to go ha. Think Brad and Jan may have visited ACE recently – can’t wait for those stories to come in from the field.
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ACE is pretty quiet right now. I’m actually sitting on the porch of a swamp farm house typing this. I’m down a dirt road that dead ends to a place called Salt Marsh near the Space Center. No Reddish at all the last 2 days. But we did bump into a few Boar, lots of super sized gators, and hundreds of Spoonbills. Getting old isn’t all that bad, most times. 😆😆
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I’ll have to ask Brad what he thought of ACE when he gets back from the field. He doubled up trips and we were gone all of Jan into Feb so I haven’t really seen him since the end of the year office party. For some reason, the two places we hang out in Texas always seems to have one or two of the white morphed REs. I still have to watch myself and double check all the necks on the tall white shorebirds just to make sure I get the ID right. I can definite feel the aging difference these last 3 or so years purely based on how difficult it has been to recover from the injuries – in the past I’d be up and at it as soon as the bleeding stopped, now it is taking weeks/months/years just to get fully recovered before I go back out and bang myself up again ugh. Hard to complain though, still waking up every morning and able to do most of the things that keep me happy. Take care Ted and good luck on your RE hunts.
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Aging part gets even more interesting 😆😆. Ever since my ‘new neck’ was installed I can go out less and less. Of course the surgeons told me to give up photography completely since my neck doesn’t allow for me to look up or down. Ha ! I do just fine… for a while.
BTW, found plenty of RE later on.
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I highly recommend not going after the Warblers – that would NOT be good on your neck ha. I am less than week from seeing the surgeon for an update on the ankle. Will be interesting to see what he says, I’ve been working it hard so I can give him my assessment of where I think it is (lower than my expectations unfortunately). Up to 30 miles a week running on pavement, rucking at least 14 miles a week up and down the river bluff, 9 miles on the elliptical, 16-24 miles on the bike with core work and heavy weights to round out the week – far below what I need to do for the ultra circuit, but to its credit the ankle hasn’t let loose so it might just be dealing with the new steady state of discomfort like with the shattered elbow. Good to hear you located the REs, watching them hunt is one of the true joys of birding. Take care, especially of that neck.
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Thanks much. A good thing I now live in a place where I can see critters with little to no effort😆😆
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Sigh. Egrets are just like us. (This was a hoot.)
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Hahahaha, so true Mitch, so true. Now I may be guilty of overlaying our struggles on their interactions, but something tells me it is a universal struggle! Appreciate you coming by Mitch, have yourself a wonderful rest of the week.
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You too!
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A very interesting interaction!☺️ Loved how the Black-Necked Stilts were ‘observing’ the situation – like nosy neighbours, haha. Thank you for sharing. This made my morning.
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Yeah, those Black-Necks were having a ball watching this scenario play out – honestly, their commentary was probably funnier than my interpretation ha. Glad we could brighten your day, take care and hope all is well across the pond!
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How beautiful and yes I was one screaming at the tv as they brought home the gold as well. Canada looked so heartbroken damn you’re at the biggest stage in the world 2nd isn’t a doom and gloom event lol look how many years it took our guys to get another one. That was beautiful when they brought up his little ones to be a apart of the celebration. I can not wait to see them all tonight.
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The whole ordeal was incredible from the OT win in run up, to the gold medal game itself and that celebration with the kids will go down as one of the best moments ever in sports along with the Miracle on Ice (not to mention watering my eyes which I rarely admit). To be honest, I thought the Canadian women’s team acted far worse than the men’s team did, at least the mean accepted their silver medals with a level of dignity. I understand the agony of defeat, I’ve lived it many times over the years, but if you can’t accept where you did get, then life is going to be very disappointing in the years ahead. Take care Eunice, hurray to the USA and the boys of winter.
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Exactly. You do your best and like the old Wild World of Sports TV Show years ago. The agony of defeat is hard but good sportsmanship is how I was raised. That men’s game made for great tv and pride.
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Couldn’t agree more. I remember growing up with my father for a coach for most of my early athletic career – if I didn’t behave in a respective manner to the teams (and not play my hardest at every point) I definitely heard about it on the ride home. Those lessons are still ingrained in me. So glad I got myself up early to watch the entirety of that game – will forever be with me along with memories of watching the Miracle on Ice back in 1980. Appreciate you coming by Eunice!
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Exactly! They worked so hard to win.
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You outdid yourself! That was some snappy dialog… I half-expected those two Reddish to break into a squable about what color “red” is – Hah!
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Hahaha, thanks Sam, sometimes the pictures just write their own post. There was some definitely squabbling going on, but more about the different shades of mauve and purple along with “where the hell did those stupid ABA bird namers get ‘RED'”. Not sure what it is about Turnbull, but they definitely have their share of the white morphs over there. Appreciate you stopping by, always good to hear from you!
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Hmm, per our other discussion about the inheritability of the dark or light morph characteristic, it appears that some white pairs are influencing the genetic mix in the Corpus area, spreading that recessive gene around!
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Hahaha – there is definitely some white genes flowing in the area – I hear it is an abundance of white morph Egret gigolos to blame!
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