It’s been a busy week here at Intrigued which admittedly is becoming the norm – especially with haunt build season in full swing. As mentioned in a previous post, we started the week down at the Poodle Specialty Agility and FastCAT (100 yd dash) competitions being held down at Purina Farms in Gray Summit, MO. Imagine Poodles of every size, every color, every groom and EVERYWHERE you look. Linda calls it heaven on earth, I call it the danger zone as I fret we will come home with more Poodles than we took. The agility runs didn’t go as we had hoped, Ruger got a bit spooked by the photographer at the side of the ring and never really recovered. Raven was just one second over from qualifying in his run – heartbreak. Ruger redeemed himself in the dash clocking his second fastest run ever at 19.3mph earning this monster ribbon for his second FastCAT Championship title.
Look at the size of that ribbon! What a ham hehehe.
On a personal front, three big accomplishments on my ongoing ankle recovery. Made it through my first 7+ mile continuous run without have to take a break to let the pain subside, completed my first 7 mile trail run (I’m back baby!) and today I made my official return to Farmdale Reservoir for the first time since the injury – 16 months ago. I was worried I would seize up at the spots where I broke my ankle and shattered my elbow but made it through – there was a shudder at each spot as the impact visuals popped in my head.
Linda is giving me “the look”, time to get to the real wild topic for today.
Now that is what I call making a statement on the water! Hit the jump to see more shots of the White Ibis in their amped up breeding colors.
Almost through April and thought I would squeeze in another entry in the salute to breeding season series. Similar to the Herons and Egrets featured earlier in the month, the White Ibis takes on additional vibrance during the frisky season. In the case of the White Ibis, this can take on an eye popping level up on the reds and pinks that adorn their legs, bills and facial features.
Add in their Frank Sinatra “Ol’ Blue Eyes” and you have yourself one stunning entry in the shorebird fashion show. The degree of color change does vary among the species and I will admit up front I don’t know the true causes or situations in that variation. White Ibises are monomorphic, meaning the adult male and females look alike so I do not believe the color differentiation is purely based on gender lines, yet there is clearly a range during the breeding season. Proof being in these next shots which has a much more muted specimen that is similar to their non-breeding season.
You can clearly see the differences in the side by side comparison. The bright reds in the back paired with the darkening of the bill versus the left one with solid pink coloring of the bill that goes through a slight color change as it proceeds to the lores and wrapping of the eye. Harder to see is the legs are also significantly less redder than the other specimen. Two specimens, same time in the season and both mature (as I’ll get back to in just a bit), yet two different color palettes.
Here’s your causation versus correlation exercise as the more subdued specimen was quite efficient at plucking what looks to be Crawdads out of the pond (my Midwest heritage is shining through) or Crawfish or Crayfish – pick your regional poison (link here).
Was it the luck of the pluck, did the muted colors aid in hunting, are horny Ibises too distracted by looking for a mate to hunt, do Crawdads flee from red….Inquiry minds want to know! Eh, to be honest the better question is whether the Crawdad is the absolute ugliest creature on earth and it clearly gets my vote.
For those interested, these series was taken at the Anahuac..dammit, did it again, make that at the Jocelyn Nungaray National Wildlife Refuge back in March of 2024. Clearly March/April is a great time to be there as it was hopping with waders, floaters, divers and those long snouted, scaly backed and long tailed prehistoric throwbacks that lurk about those waters.
These specimens didn’t seem to have a single care about the lethal rows of teeth that were hanging out on banks. Either not bright enough to understand the situation or smart enough to know it’s only going to take ONE of them – the “can I run faster than at least one in my group if we come upon a bear” equivalent.
I really like this next shot as it gives three different perspectives of the color ranges we saw. The muted no black on bill, full on look at me in the middle and then the slightly less reds with a paler blackening on the bill at the far right. The cherry on top is the Black-Necked Stilt to give you some relative size perspective.
Just to close out this topic, I did do some research in an attempt to give you better clarity on the colorings. Sorry folks, came up pretty much empty on that, but did find this page which has a better summary of the breeding characteristics of the White Ibises (link here). I didn’t get to witness the various courtship displays outlined in that article (Bill Clapping, Head Bobbing and Bowing, Plumage Display, Vocalizations), but did get this shot which does classify as a “Fluffing” – likely more of a shudder seeing that ugly-assed Crawdad hehehe.
Oh, need to wrap up one thing – I mentioned the adult White Ibis are similar in looks. In contrast, the juvis are easily distinguished by their mottled browns and whites which transition to their full whites in around 2 to 3 years (link here).
All said, sometimes you might just want to sit back and watch a large flock of White Ibises crossing a road. As luck would have it, I have just the thing for you!
Take care everyone and thanks for dropping in.
Wildlife Intrigued 
Congratulations, Ruger. Good going on your running. Those Ibis look like long-beaked vultures. Striking with their red heads, pink snouts, and black beaks. They should have a Neapolitan-like ice cream named after them. Nice flock capture on the video.
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Ruger says thanks – now if we can just get him to stop wearing his ribbon walking around the house and when we go out… ha. I’d buy Ibis Ice Cream, especially if it came with a long bent spoon to eat it with we should talk to some venture capitalists. I didn’t mention it in the post, but there is a sister video to that where I point the camera at the other side of the road where the rest of the flock was hanging out that eventually made their way over the road to the rest of them – I ended up losing count at the total but it was well over a hundred or two. Brad noted I missed an opportunity to make a why did the Ibis cross the road joke. I am liking my new video camera, but have to remind myself that it is a wide angle action camera so I need to get closer when filming – didn’t feel like taking the time to crop it (or take out the wind noise) this time, but will work on the production quality as I get more comfortable with the camera.
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Maybe you can get some Vulture Capital for the Ibis Cream. Q: Why did a couple hundred Ibis cross the road? A: So Brian could film them! Lame! I know, but all cross-the-road jokes are lame.
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“Vulture Capital” …cracked me up, well done. Ugh, Chicken road jokes – the world would be a much better place if those had never been thought of… much less said out loud ha. Now I have to work up my marketing strategy to lay on those Vultures. Take care Tim, glad to see you made it safely back home from your Germany trip.
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That’s amazing how they fly/run/flutter across the road.
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I give extra credit to the ones that decided to fly over the road – seemed like a much safer way than the meandering the others were doing. Just thankful that the road between the pond on the left and the field on the other side of the road wasn’t very busy which cut down on the danger. Lafitte’s is a very nice preserve in the middle of an “expensive” waterway channel community so the birds had quite a sanctuary for themselves. As always, thanks for coming by Anneli, take care. We’ll be heading out your way soon on our way to CPE Agility Nationals (stopping a bit short in Washington).
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I suppose they could either change the road, or dry up one of the wet areas, but unless you have money and support behind you (like Ducks Unlimited, for example) that won’t happen.
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Yep, that would definitely take an investment that isn’t going to happen – possibly just need a nice set of signs to alert to the wildlife…would be at least a start.
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Even nicer to photograph them on a very bright, blue sky day to help set off those pinks and reds and pale blue eyes. Now don’t disparage those crawdads. Living in Louisiana I came to embrace a plate of them along with a pitcher of beer, some potatoes and corn on the cob on a hot summer eve.
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Okay, I have to ask. Were you forced by your parents to consume those ugly creatures as a cruel joke or disciplinary action or is this a case older in life when you willingly let your stomach override the assuredly veto from your eyes to put that thing in your mouth…I will accept blame on copious amounts of alcohol ha! Not to be prejudice, I have the exact same opinions on anything related to Eels (the marine animal, not the band). You are correct, this is one of those times I didn’t mind the heavy amount of sunshine in the shot although admission between photographers, I did crank the highlights down to get more of the detail out in those white feathers. Now I have to go find a way to get the vision of you eating a plate of those things out of my head hahaha.
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I’ve been on that very road before, but have never seen such a large group of birds right there in the neighborhood, so to speak. Almost seems like they were sprouting up from the water, like mushrooms, and then taking flight.
The breeding colors are so vivid, it’s difficult to believe they are real, but they are, I’ve seen them.
Congrats to Ruger for his speed, to Linda for her perseverance, and to you for keeping both your head and your joints in the game!
Oh, and don’t be dissing crawdads – they make some yummy crawfish etouffee 🙂
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Et Tu Sam – I just got done questioning the sanity of Jerry on his choice of consumption and then you come in with your “Crawfish” (regional difference noted) reference complete with the word YUMMY. There is some kind of devious government psyop at work here that needs to be exposed for the good of all humanity. I figured you would be familiar with this preserve – it is one of my favorite “urbanish” birding locations and I like to keep track of the realty signs in that community as it is definitely a place I’d be willing to move to – we stay at Stella Mare when we are down there which is pretty close so I get to spend a lot of time there when on the island – actually got a Western Tanager there this year hanging out in the turnaround at the other end of the preserve. Linda is busy trying to clean up Ruger’s agility game before we head to the CPE nationals in a few weeks – she was not happy about his runs at the Poodle Specialty, but Ruger did redeem himself in the dash at least. I am sure it is bit overwhelming for the boys to see all those Poodles down there and getting to hang out with all their litter mates that are scattered about the country. 11 of the top 30 Toy Poodle dashers in the nation are from Ruger’s breeder so they all have good speed genes – Ruger is the top one of those 11 in 8th place overall. As always, appreciate you coming by and taking the time to watch the video – not sure about your dinner choices though hahahaha.
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Aren’t they just tiny lobsters?
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Hahaha, just uglier and that is saying a lot as Lobsters are not winning any wildlife beauty contest either!
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Congrats to Ruger! Very nice colors on the Ibis. I appreciated having references of non-colorful birds in the same frame. All to often I say, “If they were only side-by-side.”
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Ruger says thanks! In the past I always positioned myself or the glass to isolate the subject, but lately I’ve been allowing some intrusions for that very same reason. As far as wall hangers I still prefer the single subject, but I think it helps others here on the blog to have the comparison with “others”. Sounds like I’m tracking with you.
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I guess you don’t eat Crawdaddies, or other Deep South delicacies. Them boiled peanuts and pig skins make ya good and strong.
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There are few certainties in life – birth, death, taxes, American Coots and confidence I’m never putting one of those creatures ANYWHERE near my mouth. Oh, they try to pass them off in our local bars along with Frog legs, but the key element there is “bars” where the inebriated are more likely to do stupid things ha. I’m up for the boiled peanuts, but I’ll pass on the skins as well!! Thanks for dropping in Ted, hope all is going well in the southeast.
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Still avoiding the local delicacies.
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…like my life depended on it ha.
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😂😂😂.
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I love that ham next to his giant ribbon! And the bird photography is wonderful especially with that crawled!! I enjoy your post today. 😊
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Hahaha, you got that right TD, I prefer to characterize it as absolute “smugness”. His brother is not appreciative of being exposed to his shenanigans on a daily basis. Appreciate the kind words on the shots, every once in a while the execution comes together and get something I’m willing to share – apologies for having to look at that devil incarnated Crawdad – shudder hehehe. Glad we were able to provide you some entertainment value for donating your precious time – take care and fingers crossed Ruger can bring home some big ribbons at CPE Nationals this month.
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