Feels Like a Thrashing

I have to admit, this month (and longer) has been an absolute grind. The lead up to our annual Haunted Trail of Fears event was a pressure cooker as the weather was not cooperating AT ALL. My brother Ron was down just about every weekend to help get everything prepared (broken props fixed, new props finished, props/scenes built and the mind numbing process of putting batteries in everything. We started setting up on Friday, one week before the event kickoff. For practically that entire week it rained various amounts to a point the pathways down into the valley were worthy of a Woodstock Festival. Thanks to incredibly gracious help, the trail was completed (big thanks again to Ron, Brad and Jan and the others in the Scream Squad). Unbelievably lucky, the rain relinquished for the two nights of the event for one of our best haunts ever, only to give way to the burden of pulling it out back of the valley before the rains start again late this evening. Add in the final stages of training for the ultra in two weeks and you have yourself a recipe for a well tenderized body. With the double session 20 miler yesterday for my last endurance training cycle, I can finally start the final two week taper to race day. More importantly, time to get some of the weight loss back (as a toll indicator, managed to lose ~14 pounds), get some of the swelling out of the ankle and basically REST….but before I do that, there is one more task to check before the end of the month.

Yep, it is the end of the month and we are one post down from our self-imposed quota – Intrigued’s quality control department has been leaving nasty messages on my phone threatening me with disciplinary action, public shaming and removal from the company bowling team if I miss the performance targets. NOBODY wants that to happen, so hit the jump for today’s Featured Feathered Friend.

As I sifted through the photo backlog looking for a fitting topic, I came upon this series from our Arizona trip in March of 2025. The name just seemed to sum up the way my body feels at the moment…

“Thrashed!” Well, specifically the Sage Thrasher in this context and not the more fitting beaten by a baseball bat on every joint and muscle. The Sage Thrasher is not a new bird on the life list due to my first sighting in Vegas back in 2024. That discovery was already covered in a previous feature (link here). Note, in that post I did go through a pretty lengthy approach used to identify this particular Thrasher that you might find helpful in your own ID process.

This series comes to your from a trip out west as well, but instead of Nevada, this specimen comes courtesy of a stop at Tucumcari, New Mexico. Our New Mexico resident readers are probably very familiar with this small town just off Interstate 40 on the eastern side of the state. As a better descriptor, Tucumcari is a small stop on the old Route 66 – for our international readers, Route 66 is a historical highway established in 1926 serving as a primary travel route for those heading west from Chicago, IL to Los Angeles, CA. There are numerous historical markers, kitsch towns and points of interest along the way with a cult following across the US. I happen to have grown up near one of those locations – the Cozy Drive In located in Springfield, IL – the home of the Original hot dog on a stick (link here). This is a really nice website if you want to learn more about how to get your Kicks on Route 66 – link here.

Drifting a bit away from our featured friend, but the town of Tucumcari continues to embrace the nostalgia of the Route 66 (link here). We have stayed at the local KOA there and every time we do, all I can think about is the Pixar Cars movie (link here). Seriously, it looks just like you stepped on the set.

While we were staying there, I started scanning through the eBird sightings to see what was hanging out and saw that Sage Thrashers were sighted nearby – at the Tucumcari Wildlife Management Area – here is a pin for that birding location – link here. If you take a gander at that spot you will see reference to a rather large Tucumcari Lake. We have now been there twice and I challenge you to find that lake, in fact, I double challenge you to find your way into that WMA. Guessing the drought sucked up that lake entirely as we did eventually find what looked like a floodle deep in the reeds. This was after Linda let loose a tirade of unflattering words trying to get anywhere close to the pin that would make a nun self-combust on the spot.

She eventually located a couple of county roads (an embellished reference for sure) that got us to a spot somewhat near there – no markers, no trails, nothing, just tall reeds and dirt. It is along this road that I spotted 5 of these Sage Thrashers giving some reward for our efforts.

There really isn’t much I can say about this particular species that wasn’t covered in the other posting, beyond this particular spot (the county road into the WMA) provided the best looks ever on this rather secretive bird. Like most Thrashers, they tend to hang in the underbrush (as the name suggest in this case, Sagebrush) and getting them in the tin can be a struggle. Being the smallest of the Thrashers makes this even more difficult. These specimens were simply hanging out on the fence line singing up a storm with little to no concern of having a bazooka aimed at them.

Can just imagine the verbal “Thrashing” I am going to get from the other members in the family, but I will go on record and say the Sage might be my favorite. Those earthy tones with rufous highlights, sharp spotting on the underside and that wing droop while perched is really appealing to me. The yellowish eye paired with a subdued bill for a Thrasher just looks balanced compared with the Long-Billed, Curve-Billed and Crissals we are so used to seeing on our western assignments.

Really need to get some sleep, so going to call it for September and get you on your way…actually, I was sent a few shots from the trail I’ll throw in for fun.

The Gargoyle is really starting to come together. I spent a year carving the body back in 2024, didn’t get a chance to put it out on the trail last year, but now – after spending last year carving the head it returned to the trail this year!!! Hopefully in the off season I’ll get servos in the head and tail to up the fright quotient. Apologies as it is hard to tell the scale – I only come up its chest.

As if the clowns are not bad enough…now we have gorillas to deal with.

This is our traditional last shot representing the completion of the teardown officially putting the Haunted Trail 2026 in the books. That is my friend in haunt Paul and yes, that’s me now 14 pounds the lighter.

Take care everyone, we’ll see you next month…and what month is it…that’s right HAUNTOBER!