Birds – Page 15 – Wildlife Intrigued

No Fear…by Brad Marks

Welcome to March everyone! Brad is currently between trips having recently returned from the field out east before he heads out west later in the month. In the meantime we are getting ready to make our spring migration south to Texas in a week or so. Busy, busy, busy here at Intrigued making sure we have plenty of material to keep our readers entertained through the rest of the year (and likely beyond at this rate). I hit you pretty hard with Texas posts through most of February and it is time for Brad to jump in and mix it up a bit. I was going through his queue and noticed one on a bird I just recently saw for the first time during our January trip to Arizona. Luckily Brad …and Jan are much more on the ball than I am and won’t make you wait until next year to learn about their encounter (honestly, I am trying to get better hehehe). I am going to head off and try to recover from this morning’s brutal training run (14 mile, 2,800′ ascent) and let Brad kick it back into gear.

Take it away Brad…

As most of you know Jan and I took a trip West last summer to see a few National Parks. Near the end of the trip, we met Allyson in Las Vegas to spend a few nights seeing the sights and do a little people watching. During one of our full days, we all took a Pink Jeep tour to the West Rim of the Grand Canyon. The Intrigued Legal department require me to mention that no endorsement was received for the mention of Pink Jeep tours. However, if Pink Jeep wanted to sponsor Wildlife Intrigued, please contact our Legal department. Our first stop at the West Rim was the overlook next to the visitor center. Actually, the overlook was in a side canyon off the Grand Canyon. Our tour guide pointed out that as we looked across the chasm at the wall of rock on the far side there is a dip in the rock structure. Once we stared at it for a little while, being birders, we saw the formation the rock is named after.

We had been looking out over the canyon at Eagle Rock (can you see it in the photo?) when a busload of tourists arrived.

Knowing hordes of people would flood the visitor center, Jan and I decided to walk around on a scenic path through the desert to avoid the crowds. I think everyone on the bus wanted to see the suspended walkway which lets visitors stand 4000 feet over the canyon floor with nothing but a bit of glass between you and Isaac Newton’s best discovery: gravity. I knew that the Intrigued accountants probably wouldn’t let me expense the glass walkway experience, we took a pass.

At the furthest point on the path, away from the most people, Jan spotted a tiny brown bird perched atop a cactus. The sun was very bright, and the scenery was a bit washed out, even with the red rocks all around. It felt like we were on a movie set filming a show about Mars. No poop-grown potatoes around, thankfully.

At first, the bird looked like just another branch segment on a Whipple Cholla cactus (Cylindropuntia whipplei). I threw in a little botany lesson for free. I know Brian, I know . . . back to the birds. Upon closer inspection, she found this little wren sitting on the cactus.

Hit the jump to learn more about this rather well named bird!

Leaps, Jeeps and Misfits

Every four years we are granted and extra calendar day to attempt getting all the crap done we’ve procrastinated on since the previous gift of 24 hours. We’ve come to that charity point and I sit here staring at all the things on my to-do list wondering just how long ago each of those items were added. Each comes with a progression of analysis honed over the many years in the corporate grind – does it really need to be done, does it actually have to be done now, is there something more important that delivers greater benefit, is it still as critical as it was when the item was added, is it really independent or it is preceded by another task on the list (or worse, not even there), is it too daunting and needs to be broken into subtasks and more important than all, what kind of trouble will I get into from Linda if I delay any longer. Scan the list, re-prioritize, rearrange, prune some, add some, stare at it, flip some coins…screw it, let’s have some fun and write a post!

Want to give Brad a little bit more time to process all the tins from his recent adventure, so spent some time going through the recently processed shots from our Texas 2023 snowbird migration- you have probably noticed the heavy emphasis on that January trip as of late. What could we feature in celebration of this Leap Year. Then I jumped over to see Jet’s latest post and she absolutely Caarussshed it (link here)! All of my Bunny shots have been used and the only other good option was a Leopard Frog I took several years back – pretty lame. Maybe I could get “close”

Ladies and gentlemen, would you accept Jeep Year!?! Unfortunately, I should have been working on this years in advance to have a nice collection of shots to use (like it says right there on my to-do list ha). As a substitute we are going with a Free-For-All clear out of the (mostly) Texas one-offs. Put your seatbelts on and hit the jump for a joy ride.

A Whisper of a Screech

I need to take a rest and towel off a bit from our annual round of office golf. I didn’t realize the full extent of the elbow injury until I took too much carpet and wrenched my elbow back – don’t cuss in front of the staff..don’t cuss in front of the staff..shit that hurt. Thanks to a member in the HR department (name withheld to protect the guilty) who developed a nasty slice in the off-season..might want to consider switching to disc golf for next year’s office competition. Said individual will now be required to enter TWO ultra races this year instead of the standard one for risking our recordable injury record and for getting me in trouble with Linda who came asking for the cause of the shattering noise. Note to self, call a glass repairman Monday. In light of our competition to get an object INTO a hole, decided to go with a featured feathered friend I have only seen already IN a hole.

Eastern Screech Owl found at Estero Llano Grande State Park, Weslaco, TX in January 2023

Apologies for the clutter in the shot, when it comes to this particular creature you pretty much have to take what you can get – especially in “light” of the fact that the best time to photograph them is when they should be counting sheep. Luckily the shots do get a lot better, so hit the jump and let’s see what we can find in the hole.

The Flying Bill with Eyes

With Brad out on assignment, I am hanging around the Intrigued HQ a little more than usual – watering the plants, making sure the pipes don’t freeze, keeping the butt prints off the copier, wiping down the escalator hand rails etc. – top level management duties for sure. Since I am in the office, might as well put the feet up on the desk and bang out a few posts. Linda just planned our spring trip to Texas, which has me in a Rio Grande Valley frame of mind. In the last post, we talked about the Clay-Colored Thrush and what turned out to be a rare sighting of the White-Throated Thrush at Estero Llano Grande State Park. Going back there for today’s featured feathered friend.

Green Kingfisher found at Estero Llano Grande State Park in January 2023

Hit the jump to read more about the Flying Bill with Eyes.

The Good, the Wet and the What the Heck

I feel like I know a lot more about those little furballs from Brad’s last post. Adorable little ears, frisky tails, cute whiskers and a joy to observe … IN OTHER PEOPLE’S yards! Hehehe. We have the basic Eastern Chipmunk variety out here in the country and to be honest, damn annoying. They just cost me several thousands of dollars thanks to under-digging my steps and attached concrete slab. They also drive my dogs crazy when they pop out of a hole, give them the finger, wait for them to get all worked up, turn and wiggle their tan ass at them and then run like cowards back down their hole. One of these days (when Linda isn’t looking) I’m going to give Ruger the green light .. or should I say “tan” light.. and see how they like being chased by a 19.5 mph bloodthirsty, merciless Toy Poodle. I still need to assess the punishment I’d get from Linda if she found out. While I ponder that, how about we talk about a much more benign tan creature.

Clay-Colored Thrush found at Estero Llano Grande State Park, Weslaco, TX in January 2023

Hit the jump to find out more about our clay colored feathered friend.

Killdeer…by Brad Marks

Sitting here killing time one keystroke after another. Now in the midst of the annual “digital clean-up” process and it is mind numbing. Part of this is making the final push to cross the finish line of the PC migration marathon. Some of it is due to massive procrastination last year (okay, maybe last TWO years) and need to get the birding folders/spreadsheets/trackers etc. updated. Then there is the standard annual rollover resets of the blog post backups and general archiving that needs to be done to keep my OCD from raging out of control (and NOBODY wants that). I’ve said it once, I’ll say it again, I need to go back to the corporate grind in order to get all my free time back! The good news is I think my North American Bird List folder (link here) is updated. That is my running gallery for the best shots of every bird on the list in case a client wants a specific species or if I want to author something someday. Even updated the left navbar with the latest count – 421 species! While I slash through minutes like Scooby through snacks, going to turn it over to Brad to bring you a North Carolina “killing” of a different sorts.

Take it away Brad…

There’s something about being warm during the winter months. Jan and I live in the middle of Illinois, so February is usually a heavy flannel month. Jan suggested we head southeast for a week to escape a bit of winter (really didn’t need much arm twisting). We also wanted to see what we could see in a new part of the country for us.

Jan and I spent a week at Myrtle Beach, SC last winter. During one of our “free” days on the trip (they are all “free” when you are retired) we headed to North Carolina since it was just up the road a piece from where we were staying. The locals all said to go to a preserve a mile or two across the state line. Our GPS was a bit confused for a while, taking us down unpaved roads to an empty lot at the edge of the water. This can’t be right. We stopped in a parking lot for a few minutes and picked a spot (on an actual map) that might actually get us to the coast, without having to stop to ask for directions. Our new destination was Sunset Beach.

After driving across the long and tall causeway bridge, we arrived in a small community of summer cottages on a narrow spit of land just a bit offshore in the Atlantic called Sunset Beach. I’m not saying it was a ghost town, but there were very few cars around, and even fewer moving about. Once I found the parking lot near the beach, I readied the cameras. Before I closed the hatch on my car, there was some movement in the sparse foliage behind me.

Hit the jump to read more about Brad (and Jan’s) adventure.

Burrows and Brags

We have finally made it back home from our winter migration to Arizona. This was a first for us this year as we usually make our way to south Texas. Not our most memorable trip by any means as the cold decided to chase us all the way there and then quickly caught back up to us on our way back. Not sure I can blame that on Arizona, although for two years in a row Linda has caught Covid in the week heading into a planned trip out there. We have decided it cursed! Not all disappointing. Hiking the Arizona mountains was a lot of fun, new birds added to the life list, a new RV for Linda and I had the opportunity to spend my birthday in Vegas. Suspect back to Texas next winter, but we’ll possibly take another trip out to Arizona later in the year to give it a fair chance. Oh, worst part is I managed to catch some wicked crud in Las Cruces on the way back and now having to deal with that crap.

Before getting into today’s featured feathered friend, a quick self-pat on the back. January officially kicked off my 17th year of blogging here at Intrigued.

Time has certainly flown by along with all the features we try and bring you each and every month. A big thank you to Brad and his staff (Jan and Allyson) that have shared their stories these last couple of years bringing new sights and wildlife species to the Intrigued story. Will continue to have more posts coming from that team. Extending our appreciation to the behind the scenes Intrigued staff that make this machine hum and especially to all our readers who make this effort so enjoyable. Raise your glasses to an exciting 17th year and beyond!

Okay, enough of the self-praising, let’s get to today’s featured feathered friend.

Burrowing Owl found at Anahuac NWR in January 2023

Hit the jump to read more about our yellow-eyed friend.

Stink Eye…by Brad Marks

Brad is continuing to hold down the Intrigued HQ back home while we are officially on our way back from or winter migration (much to the chagrin of our nefarious legal department). Honestly, I am not sure it was a true “migration” in the sense the cold weather followed us nearly the entire way and now, still days from home, we are once again in freezing temps. I suspect Linda will quickly put an end to any future discussion of going back to Arizona in the Winter. The good news is there is plenty of new birds in the tin for future posts. I am also excited about getting back so I can officially kick off the ’24 running season – legs getting lazy. While we calculate the best timeframe to slip back in IL, Brad is going to take us along on another of his Colorado adventures.

Take it away Brad…

Normally these pages are filled with rare, exotic, or extremely colorful birds. This time I decided to focus (pun intended) on a bird we probably all overlook. You’ve probably seen them hopping around everywhere you go, but like me, you probably just ignore them.

Jan and I had just left the lofty Rockies (above 9,000 feet) and the freezing temps (check out that story here) for the rather warm plains of eastern Colorado (6,000 feet and nearly 80F) and the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge (RFNWR). Did you catch the irony in the name? Usually the word “Rocky” conjures up images of snow-covered peaks soaring towards the stratosphere. The word “rocky” isn’t usually associated with the word “flat”. But that’s just what the organizers decided to do for this particular location. Sort of like “jumbo shrimp” or “military intelligence”, “Rocky Flats” seems to be an oxymoron itself.

On the same day we encountered the Western Meadowlark (link here), this sinister looking character was hanging around the parking lot.

If that look hasn’t scared you, hit the jump to read more about this “commoner”.

Flash

Well, I can officially say this has been one … let’s go with “intriguing” snowbird migration. It started with dragging the Midwest winter temps with us all the way to Arizona. We were finally able to de-winterize in Tucson making for some very cold walks to the bathroom/shower houses practically all the way down. Finally got a day when I could shed the coat and walk around in a t-shirt and then the rains came in – so frustrating. Decided to head up to Vegas and spend my birthday in style. There were a number of my favorite birding places in the area and worst case we could seek shelter from the wet stuff in the casinos. All was going quite swimmingly until the day after my celebration Linda made a declaration “I’m done with taking sitting showers!”. For context, we own a Class-B Pleasureway – been living the van life for many years. The parent company of the dealership we bought our two models happens to be based in Vegas. I think this was all a clever plan by Linda crafted long before we ever left home. Remember that “stranded in Vegas with good issues” comment in a previous post, the “own” a Class-B is officially “owned” and replaced with a B+/C- with a full shower. Linda has spoken ha! This ended up extending our stay in Vegas several days to get all the t’s crossed and then opted to stay more days to get familiar with it while being close to the dealership if something needed to be addressed. I am currently relaxing in a recliner typing this post as we drive down US 10. At some point I will have to confess to her she made the right decision (if my current smile doesn’t give it away first), but for now I think I’ll leverage it by guilting her into extra birding trips and fuel supporting this year’s ultra races. Birding has been pretty good, although not nearly as productive as our Texas trips. Currently at 127 which is over 50 birds down from last year at this point. Hoping to make that back up when we head down there in the Spring. Being that we are currently driving through Arizona, decided to go with a bird most of my readers are very familiar with.

Northern Cardinal found at Guadalupe River State Park, San Antonio TX in January 2023

Hit the jump to read more about the birding world’s Flash.

Wagons Ho Junco…by Brad Marks

A big howdy from Vegas my friends! It has been an exhausting month of birding (so far) full of new lifers that are sure to make their way to you once .. or should I say if we ever make it home. We were supposed to be on our way back already, but unfortunately, we are stuck in Las Vegas.. who am I kidding, there are worse places to be held up than the Sin City. For the record, the Sphere is one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen. I’ll give more details on our unexpected situation in a later post when we get everything straightened out – we might have to find a Conestoga wagon to get back home. Meanwhile, Brad is going to jump in and entertain you with another one of his Cali adventures.

Take it away Brad…

When wandering through a forest of Giant Sequoia trees it’s best to keep looking . . . down. Yes, that’s right. Down. Oh, I get it. These trees are magnificent. And very, very, very tall. However, they don’t move, except for a tiny bit near the tops. Have you ever heard the stories about penguins tipping over looking up at airplanes as they flew over? Probably pure bunk, but that’s what I felt like trying to see the tops of the Giant Sequoia from near their base. Even though the trees are unquestionably tall, the real action is down below, on the forest floor. This is a birding blog after all.

Having said that, photographing birds on the ground isn’t always exciting. Unless you come across a new species, or variant, you have not seen before. That’s exactly what happened to Jan and I at Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks. As I mentioned earlier, we did go to see the trees, all 250+ feet of them. But when something small and greyish/brownish catches your eye, birders are obligated to take photos, normally a lot of photos.

Near every path Jan and I hiked through the Giant Sequoia forests, this little bird was hopping in the undergrowth.

Hit the jump to learn more about this hooded feathered find.

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