Category: Birds

Be My Guest and Go First

Welcome everyone to hump day or as we now call it around Intrigued headquarters “What the Hell Brian!” Wednesday. Translated… it’s the day where I set the wayback machine to full power and pull a series from the farthest reaches of the fodder queue free of shame, guilt, embarrassment and taunts for a second timah. So, please return your seats back to their full upright and locked position – we are rocketing back to September 2017.

Cedar Waxwing found at Glacial Park Conservation Area in McHenry County, IL in September 2017

A little less than 4 years ago, Ron and I had the opportunity to do a little birding at Glacial Park Conservation Area in McHenry County IL. Typically we spend part of the day birding Chain O’ Lakes and then make the short trip over to Glacial to see what’s hanging out.

Cedar Waxwing found at Glacial Park Conservation Area in McHenry County, IL in September 2017

Hit the jump to read a bit more about our young Waxwings.

Continue reading Be My Guest and Go First

A Splendid Encounter

It is a new week and you know what that means… yep, time for some LIFO popping off the photography queue. We happen to be in the middle of a March ice storm and keeping one eye on the trees in our forest to see what kind of damage we might be in for. Usually not a problem as the density of the trees usually keeps the swaying to a minimum, but the wind is picking up and I am starting to see some ripples. It is quite beautiful with the shimmer off of the ice covered limbs. Speaking of beautiful, let’s get to today’s very special featured feathered friend.

Female Elegant Trogon found at Estero Llano Grande State Park, Weslaco TX in January 2021

How about that for a gorgeous bird!?! Even for a female, this aptly named Elegant Trogon has an aura of nobility. Be sure and check out the stunning color sported by the males if you want to see what it looks like to be clothed in splendor. Today, however, we will be focused on this lady in the trees.

Female Elegant Trogon found at Estero Llano Grande State Park, Weslaco TX in January 2021

Hit the jump to see some additional images taken of this new check on my birding list and learn about what it took to get it in the tin.

Continue reading A Splendid Encounter

You Call that a Curve?

As this is officially Flashback Friday, I can finally get to the post I had originally planned for last Friday. Before I do that, a quick self-pat on the back. Runkeeper recently notified me I had reached the 10,000 total miles mark.

Runkeepr 10000 miles

99.9% of that was thanks to tracking my runs since April 2011. That was about 10 years after I had transitioned to this hobby due to some serious injuries in my true love martial arts that signaled those brutal days in the dojo had run their course – new pains/bruises/breaks were coming faster than I could recover from the last ones. So, in actuality, well short of the total miles covered in my brief running career, but those first few years were training to complete the 7 mile Bix7 race where now the roads have been replaced with ultra-trails. My body definitely appreciates this lower impact hobby (although thanks to running I have had two trips via ambulance to the emergency room where I was able to make it there myself during the combat days ha!) Enough about me, bring on the featured feathered friend for flashback Friday.

Curve-Billed Thrasher found at McAllen Nature Center in McAllen, TX in January 2020

Our rather menacing looking bird comes to us courtesy of our birding trip along the Texas Gulf Coast back in January 2020. Seems odd to be talking about flashbacks for an outing that occurring a little more than a year ago – in the past that would have been considered fresh out of the camera.

Curve-Billed Thrasher found at McAllen Nature Center in McAllen, TX in January 2020

Hit the jump to read more about our menacing looking bird.

Continue reading You Call that a Curve?

Gonna Need a Change of Feathers

Greetings everyone. Sitting here in our dentist parking lot waiting for Linda to finish getting some work done. How times have changed as now I actually long to sit in a real “waiting” room vs being cooped up in a vehicle. Looking at the positives, this situation is quite conducive to cranking out a post. We are still in the “fresh” post part of the week putting the focus on more recent outings. While perusing the options in the queue, noticed that I left everyone hanging on the third part of the latest Eagle experiences at Davenport lock and dam. Along with the traditional shots (link here) and the action shots (link here), promised you some highlights of new behaviors seen above the water. The Eagles were quite active that day showing off their skilz for the dozen or so photographers lined up to see the show.

A quick recap to get everyone in the mood. First relax the legs and line up the approach.

Bald Eagles found in Davenport IA in February 2021

Then cock the legs to prepare for the impact.

Bald Eagles found in Davenport IA in February 2021

Finally stab to break the water’s surface.

Bald Eagles found in Davenport IA in February 2021

Hit the jump to read about my new experiences that day – one was quite comical.

Continue reading Gonna Need a Change of Feathers

Where’s walQue

Well, I had a post topic all planned out. Got the images worked up in the digital darkroom and was all ready to sit down and pound out a few accompanying words and hit the publish key for a fitting end of the week. Except that was supposed to happen on Friday. Ended up getting distracted by some projects and next thing I know it is Sunday. In the past, not a problem, what’s a couple more days when the shots were taken well over a year ago. With the new year’s commitment to get fresher material out during the first part of the week.. well, let’s just say the “search” was on to find another topic. Taking that theme to heart, going with Where’s walQue?

Common Pauraque found at Estero Llano Grande State Park, Weslaco, TX in January 2021

Our featured feathered friend today is in the cell phone image above – actually, bringing you TWO specimens today from our recent January trip to the Texas Gulf Coast.

Hit the jump to reveal our well-hidden friends.

Continue reading Where’s walQue

Go West Older Man

Welcome to Throwback Thursday! To be honest we are really not going to venture too far back in time – especially in Intrigued time units where it seems more like yesterday. Normally for new birds, we lead with the males and then throw in the females to round out the full birding experience. Flipping that around for today’s featured feathered friend

Western Tanager found on Reno/Lake Tahoe trip back in May of 2019

I could wax poetic about giving the female birds their day in the limelight in recognition of their constant slighting at my hands on this blog, but that would just be a ruse. The real reason is this little lady is far prettier than her male counterparts. Hmmm nope, that’s also a lie. Simply stated – my execution on the males sucked and I wanted them below the jump hehehe.

Western Tanager found on Reno/Lake Tahoe trip back in May of 2019

Hit the jump to see a few more shots our Miss Yellow..oh, and the male.

Continue reading Go West Older Man

Throwback Thursday – Rusty Yellow

We are in the latter half of the week and that means I get to go back to the traditional FIFO processing of the image queue guilt free. Today we take just a jump to the left, a step to the right, hands on hips, bring your knees in tight and pelvic thrust our way all the way back to July 2016.

Yellow-Billed Cuckoo found at Rend Lake, IL in July of 2016

Apologies for the mind flip for you’re into the Intrigued birding time slip. How about that for a cheesy movie lead in. If you are old enough to remember the reference, then that song will be floating in your head all day long ha. Let’s get to our featured feathered friend. Not new to the blog, the Yellow-Billed Cuckoo was first featured back in 2015 (link here) and a year later featured again with not one, not two, but three underwhelming pictures of its breast (link here).

Yellow-Billed Cuckoo found at Rend Lake, IL in July of 2016

Hit the jump to read more.. there might even be a surprise!

Continue reading Throwback Thursday – Rusty Yellow

Find ‘em, Relax ‘em, Cock ‘em, Stab ‘em and Lift ‘em

And we are back on the Mississippi River for the second part of the spoils from the recent Davenport, IA Eagle run. As promised, part two will take you from the more traditional shots like this.

Bald Eagles found in Davenport IA in February 2021

(mental note, go back and lighten this one up) and bring you more action oriented perspective like this immature preparing to bring death to those that dare swim too close to the surface.

Bald Eagles found in Davenport IA in February 2021

Hit the jump to see a crap load of action images from the Davenport shoot.

Continue reading Find ‘em, Relax ‘em, Cock ‘em, Stab ‘em and Lift ‘em

Featuring Fresh Friday Finds for Followers

Welcome everyone! Before getting down to business, wanted to do some housekeeping. I left some of you hanging when I decided to put part one of the Biltmore Estate architecture series here due to the rather wild look of the featured grotesques. Part two was more focused on the mansion reliefs and various statues about the grounds. Those were left on the mothership. Feel free to jump over there if you want to check out those additions (link here). Okay, on with the order of the day.

Bald Eagles found in Davenport IA in February 2021

Yep, the Bald Eagle is once again front and center. If you recall, January was closed with a 3 part series on our country’s national bird (link here, here and here). Originally thought about holding off on featuring Eagles again so soon. Problem is, I made a commitment to you to emphasize fresher shoots – well for at least part of the week. In that vein, how about some tins from TWO days ago!?! (a round of golf claps please ha)

Bald Eagles found in Davenport IA in February 2021

Hit the jump to see a few more of the traditional Eagle shots.

Continue reading Featuring Fresh Friday Finds for Followers

Yellow Firecracker

In the last post it was mentioned I was considering a cosmic shift in approach to Intrigued posts – in particular the wildlife side. Up to this point, I’ve tried to focus on a sequential path slowly moving from early outings to the more recent. That was working fine until the backlog started trending from weeks to days to months then years. Foreseeable for sure – we take a lot of trips and my shutter finger can match strokes with a Hummer’s wing. Here’s what I am thinking. Focus on the newer stuff for Sat-Tue posts and feature the older series from Wed-Friday. Maybe Flashback Fridays, Throwback Thursdays and WTF Bri, how about a bird at least from this decade Wednesdays (bit long, but you get my drift). As a test drive I have a bird to feature from just under 5 years ago, so Throwback Thursday it is!

Yellow-Breasted Chat found at Rend lake, IL in July 2016

We took a quick trip down to Rend Lake back in July 2016. Decided to enjoy the fireworks from a different location that year and their motto was “Where the Fun Begins!” (yes, complete with exclamation mark). A mere 4 hours away from the start of all joy with an exclamation mark… pack up the RV. Birding opportunities seemed good as the lake is only an hour or so from Shawnee National Forest. Escape, relaxation, fireworks and birds – all words I like to see on a trip agenda.

Yellow-Breasted Chat found at Rend lake, IL in July 2016

Hit the jump to see more shots of our winged firecracker.

Continue reading Yellow Firecracker