Okay, going to say firmly and for the record to our Texas friends…we are NOT responsible for the frigid temps that have made its way down here this week. Purely coincidental that we happened to have arrived around the same time of the cold snap. We are definitely not used to layering this much in the south and Linda actually had gloves on today while visiting Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownsville. So cold the Monkeys were considering cuddling up with the Lions. Fortunately, the birding has been living up to our high expectations. Currently at 112 species fresh into the new year. I am behind my 2024 Average Year stats (link here), but did manage to get the 2025 page created and updated (link here). For the curious, I ended last year at 325 checks thanks to a late surge in December. Currently sitting 35 species ahead of that pace, but 19 behind 2023. Many birds still left to tin down here and plenty of time to get that done – sitting pretty, enjoying the pretty colors!
Apologies to those back home, we feel for you suffering through the snow and temps in the teens ..no, no, we really do! (Brad, can you make sure the maintenance crew puts extra salt on our Intrigued HQ walkways).
Enough chit chat, time to get to work and present today’s featured feathered friend.
Hit the jump to learn more about our “black robed” friend.
Welcome to 2025 everybody!! Admittedly, I am now officially 0 for 2 in actually getting the date right, but don’t worry, the year is still young…there will be plenty more mistakes ha. The Intrigued holiday break is officially past and those not already assigned to the field are back in the office, stoking the fireplaces, cleaning up after the raucous year end party and based on the last weather report, shoveling the parking lot and salting the walkways. Fortunately, Linda and I are getting ready to enjoy the sun-soaked days of South Padre Island. Birding has been excellent so far including some very successful chases to pad the 2024 Average Year (not updated, link here) and getting the 2025 version off to a great start. Best of all, we have met some extremely kind and helpful birders on our trip down here! A big thank you and shoutout to Tim, Q, Tom, Tonya and Arthur – best of luck on your 2025 birding goals. While I dig out the sunscreen and finish up all the 2024 paperwork (hope I didn’t leave all those staff expense reports in the fireplace, wink), Brad is going to bring you a few finds from Sin City.
Take it away Brad…
As Brian has stated many times over the years, he has quite a backlog of photos to process and write stories about. I’m nowhere near his backlog levels. Even if I am, it’s only because of the grueling travel schedule Intrigued HQ has Jan and I on this year. Looking back through the queue of stories, I found this one that I had started, but had “misplaced” and not taken the time to finish. This story is from our trip to Las Vegas during September 2023.
In the afterglow of seeing a Desert Tortoise (see here) in Red Rock Canyon outside of Las Vegas, Jan and I decided to drive to the Willow Springs Picnic area to see the Petroglyph Wall.
We arrived at the park late in the day, after 4:30pm. Shadows were long in the canyon. We weren’t hopeful of seeing many desert birds. The shadows also helped reduce the desert temperature to a comfortable range while standing outside of the air-conditioned rental car. Early Fall can be quite warm in the desert. Forget about that “dry heat” nonsense, hot is hot. While we did see a few musings carved in the stone at the Petroglyph Wall, that wasn’t the really interesting part.
As Jan and I walked further up the trails and into the shadows in the canyon, we were cranking up the ISO as we went. Our cameras (replaced with the next model since writing this story, they did each have over 200K clicks on them) were most effective up to about ISO 3200, but past that it’s really an iffy proposition to get publishable photos. As it was, I thought I was stretching the cameras to the max with high ISO, aperture as wide as the lens would allow and a slower shutter speed than I would like to be using. Nikon’s Vibration Reduction (VR) helped a bit, but not nearly enough to keep the other settings low enough to catch spastic little birds in the scrub brush.
Sure enough, there were two little birds teasing us mercilessly. These LBJ’s lived there and probably knew our cameras were being taxed. Both of them were within feet of the ever-darkening trail. Each would flit to the outside of their respective bush/shrub, pause for about 1/250th of a second, and then bury themselves in the dark interiors again.
Hit the jump to read more about these very active finds.
Although we have closed the Intrigued HQ so the staff can enjoy the holidays, thought I would jump in for one last post before the calendar turns. Some could accuse me of trying to pad the end of the year stats, but all the performance reviews are already in the books so this is pure bonus…in addition to giving me a break from all the last minute Texas birding I am trying to get in before we reset for the 2025 Average Year (link here – note not updated yet). Additional annual +1 opportunities are getting really slim. Currently sitting at 322 species for 2024 which is a boost from the 317 I was sitting at before we made our way down here. That now includes 2 new lifers from Bolivar Flats and Galveston Island – one of which was a rarity that took Linda and I a solid three days of hunting to finally get in the tin. Those in the Texas birding community know which one I am referring to, but I’ll keep the details for a future post. While looking at the queue I loaded up before we left home, decided to go with another rarity found during our January trip to Last Vegas.
We here at Intrigued just wanted to take a quick moment to extend our best wishes for a very Merry Christmas (or related holiday event) to all or wonderful readers!
It’s that time of year when we shut the lights off and close the office doors for a few days so we can enjoy this special holiday with family and friends. Hit the jump to see a few more warm tidings from our staff!
We are officially on our winter migration south… by way of north. We had Linda’s family Christmas gathering in Des Moines, IA and decided to simply start our trek to Texas directly from there. We had a great time with family, but I keep forgetting what a pain winterized RVing is. Mr. Freeze decided to give us a final reminder of what we were going to miss as the temps dove back down into the teens while there (link here). We looked like the kid from A Christmas Story all layered up in half our packed Texas wardrobe ha! Finally made it below freezeline today, completely de-winterized and life is good beyond this stupid boot I’m lugging around. While we continue defrosting our toes, Brad is going to take the controls and bring you something completely new to Intrigued. I am sure you are going to enjoy it to the very “fin”.
Take it away Brad…
It’s early morning during the second half of our Alaska photo assignment. The first week was a land tour of the vast wilderness. The second week was on a giant cruise ship heading south (I can get seasick if not chewing Dramamine like Smarties). By this time in our journey south Jan and I are used to running to the cabin door to listen to the Captain’s general and wildlife announcements. On this particular ship, we weren’t able to hear through the cabin door very well. We heard the usual mellifluous ascending tones bing-bing-bing-bing (please use your musical imagination here), but an a rather unusual time. Ship’s time was just past 8am and the Captain didn’t usually make announcements until later in the morning. Jan ran to the door to try to catch the message.
“ . . . has been spotted . . . “
We both looked at each other wide eyed.
“ . . . off the starboard . . . “
Jan and I grabbed both cameras and headed for the door.
“ . . . about 100 yards ahead of the ship . . . ”
We are now running down the hall, trying to strap on the 9-pound cameras to keep them from bouncing too much. The elevators were backed up, we again looked at each other and ran down three flights of stairs.
“ . . . it is swimming about 50 yards to starboard . . . “
Jan and I end up on the 7th deck and quickly figured out which way was starboard.
As we stepped outside . . . nothing.
During a presentation the night before in the main theatre aboard ship, The Ship Naturalist Robert Raincock (find him here or here) aboard the ship said to listen for the Pfffffft. This is what the noise sounds like when Orca, or whales in general, expel warm moist air from their lungs as they break the surface of the water. Remember kids, whales are mammals, not fish. Not having a whale to watch, we listened.
Then we heard it . . . “Pfffffft! Both of our cameras ran at the maximum frames per second they could muster.
Whoa, that ain’t no Dolphin, hit the jump to reveal the source of that sound!
I suppose you could say it is a fitting time for getting things “wrapped” up. All the excitement of seeing the festive colored boxes with their pretty bows bringing joy to kids and adults. The catalyst for this heartwarming affair, a jolly big-waisted fellow that shimmies down the chimney (or alternative burglary entry point into your homestead). Unfortunately, my coal colored gift this holiday year reflects some bad actions earlier in the year. To be exact, October 12th, one of those days that now takes its rightful place among my other noteworthy “mishaps”. The ankle specialist wasn’t wearing festive clothes yesterday, but he did take the time to wrap my gift in a shiny shade of black coal…ho, ho, ho, you are the proud recipient of a non-displaced double fracture! Grinch said WHAT!?!?! Now, in my joint’s defense I need to apologize for all the hurtful comments hurled at it since race-day. It was not faking it for sympathy, a stunt that it has pulled many times in the past – nope, it was damaged and now I am the proud receiver of a black boot that will loudly proclaim I’m damaged goods to anyone we come upon during the next 6 weeks. No running, of course, no long birding hikes (we’ll see) and beach time is likely right out. My Texas trip just took a mighty blow thanks in large part to the first orthopedic surgeon I went to in early November telling me it was nothing, take two aspirin and find your own way out of the office. Lost 4 weeks of recovery time and I’ve been doing chiro visits and physical therapy that was likely making it worse – shocked that it didn’t displace as a result of all the yanking and twisting. While I try to move on to the acceptance phase, decided it was an appropriate time to feature the totem animal for all runners.
Hit the jump for some looks at a bird that probably has more running shoes in its closet than I do..and that is saying a LOT.
We are in the heart of December and it’s busier than Santa’s workshop here at Intrigued. We have family Christmas gatherings to attend, staff performance reviews to administer, year end house/lot tasks to perform, RV prep and the most dreaded of all..packing for our migration south. We have about a week left to get all these items checked off our list. Now, the good news is we did have our Intrigued family holiday gathering and that went amazingly well – no law enforcement or ambulances needed this year which is a huge relief from the past. We probably owe that to Brad’s brilliant idea to move our performance reviews until AFTER the party hehehe. I probably was not supposed to reveal the source of that idea! In no small part to still being lamed up, I was able to chip away at my well-storied backlog of field excursions. Through a daily regiment in the digital darkroom, both the March 2023 trip through Alabama/Florida and the trip through New Mexico/Arizona/Nevada this last January are now completely processed. This provides plenty of fodder for posts while we are down south. Couple that with all the stories from Brad and Jan’s assignments, we are in very good shape to keep you entertained during the coming year. To give you just a taste of the new finds from Arizona, thought I would bring you a primary target going into that trip.
For those not familiar with the Sonoran Desert landscape, that impressive structure you see is a Saguaros Cactus. Hit the jump and we’ll provide a few more details about this cactus before getting to the real reason we were focused so much on this Arizona state plant.
Greetings everyone! Woke up today to an unexpected white wonderland – I really need to take better heed of the weather forecasts! Not being able to spend as much time outside this season, my cold conditioning has been lagging. Just the other day I received a letter in the mail from the RAU threatening a lawsuit for “Neglect and Unbecoming Behavior”. Dropped it off at our legal department to add to the “pile” (don’t ask). Upon inquiry, learned that the RAU is the Runner’s Apparel Union that, news to me, my cold weather running wardrobe had recently unionized under. They are pissed that they haven’t been used once this winter and noticed we were already packing for our trip south. They will need to take that up with my ankle doctor. While I get things straightened out with the disgruntled closet, Brad is going to bring you an adventure from across the pond (what expense report ha).
Take it away Brad….
Wildlife Intrigued sent Jan and I on an international birding assignment to Merry Olde England. The expense report is still pending. I think Legal is holding it up because they are jealous, they weren’t allowed to go. Can you blame HQ after the photocopy incident last time they were given responsibility?
On one of our free mornings, Jan’s cousin Louise offered to take us to Rutland Water Nature Reserve (RWNP) to see some birds. How could we refuse? The morning started out misty and cloudy, a typical English morning you’re thinking. However, in our experience, a very small percentage of mornings actually start this way. The movies have us all thinking that England, or more specifically London, is full of dark and gloomy places shrouded in a thick fog; best keep that brolly handy. Jan and I have made a few trips across the pond, and in the 70+ days we’ve spent there in total, only 2-3 have been truly rainy or the type of weather we needed a Mackintosh or Wellies after your morning cuppa.
After breakfast, Louise said she would drive. I was secretly relieved because while I am able to drive on the wrong, er, left side of the road, I’m not as confident as I need to be on the narrow hedge-lined roadways. Instead of driving the tiny European rental car (I could barely fit my normal U.S. sized feet under the dashboard to work the pedals), we rode to RWNP in style in a Jaaaaag (hoping the increased amount of “a’s” help with the proper pronunciation). Once we secured a spot in the car park, I put Jan’s camera together first. Then she and Louise headed off to the visitor center. I finished my camera, put the strap around my shoulder, and shut the boot on the Jaaaaag. As I wandered up the trail, I saw Jan snapping away at something sweetly singing in the shrubbery. But, as usual, by the time I got there it was gone.
Hit the jump to read more about this spiffy looking bird from across the pond.
Yikes, looked at the calendar and startled myself. How did we get to the last page so quick!! Fortunately, we have a few more weeks before we call it a wrap and put a bow on our 17th year of blogging here at Intrigued. Talk about warp speed, now those years have really flown by. Weeks that will be spent getting ready for the big end of the year staff extravaganza (fingers crossed no repeat of the ambulance needed last year), finishing up the gifts for our family get togethers and eagerly getting packed to head south. These sub-zero windchill temps as of late are for the birds ha. Oh, and in between those activities trying to get some birding to close out the Average Year (link here). That page needs to be updated, but checked off number 315 with a Snowy Owl this afternoon. Ron is having a down year, but Brad has really kicked it in on his annual checks!
Most important is to make sure we continue to keep our readers entertained as they go about their own December agendas. For today, we are going to feature a feathered friend that always causes me to stop and pull out my mental cheat sheet.
Hit the jump to read more about this long tailed prismatic.
There I relaxed, lounging on my lawn chair sipping on a nice pour of well-aged bourbon (with an umbrella of course) while watching the beach themed screensaver playing out on monitors. White sunscreen paste on my nose, sandals at the ready and cheap sunglasses on. Life was good even though outside the Midwestern winter was raging in the wind aided teens. That’s before a call came in on the Intrigued bat signal line. What could possibly be so urgent on Thanksgiving night!! A quick check of the number confirmed it wasn’t our legal department so at least that fear was suppressed. Turns out it was our Quality Assurance department head and he was none too pleased. “What did I do now?” Through the sputtering and agitated speak I discerned something about being down a post from our monthly quota and putting our 10+ year record in jeopardy. He had seen my comment in the previous post about our staff taking some time off to be with the family over the holiday. I could see the floor through my tumbler and decided I was in no shape to remedy the situation. That’s when Brad said he would take care of it and already had a story in the queue. Someone just significantly padded his upcoming performance review ha. Soooo, I’m going to put another coating of sunscreen on and maybe resolve this empty tumbler tragedy while Brad takes the controls to bring you an adventure from Colorado.
Take it away Brad (and thanks for the assist!)…
Jan and I were winding down an April trip to Colorado when we found a free half-day on our hands. We quickly consulted a map of the birding spots around north-central Colorado. One of them had a dubious location (included a camp ground near an interstate), but since it was near where we were headed, Jan and I decided to give it a try.
When Jan and I arrived at the gate of St. Vrain State Park, there was a small guard shack. The guard asked what we were doing there and we said we were trying to find some birds. He gave us a doubting look and told us the entrance fee for camping. I said we weren’t camping, just looking for some birds. He could clearly see into the car and knew that we had no camping gear and didn’t intend to stay. After a brief pause, I think he took pity on us and gave us a paltry amount as an entry fee (which may have been the actual fee).
At that point I had no idea where to go in the campground. The guard suggested we may want to try the lake. Great! Where’s the lake? We, OK I, stumbled around on the roads a bit until we found a parking lot near the lake.
Jan and I followed the well-maintained crushed gravel path three-fourths of the way around the lake (counterclockwise from the parking lot). Even though we were two hundred yards from I-25, we could easily hear the traffic whizzing by. Jan saw a flash flying into a green tree on a low branch. Cameras at the ready we slowly crept up on our target.
Hit the jump to find out more about this rather dapper looking feathered find.
Wildlife Intrigued 