Birds – Page 5 – Wildlife Intrigued

Feather Tiara…by Brad Marks

Greetings all. I am a bit behind on a rather length (ever expanding) to-do list. I did have my MRI this week, but I am unable to get into the surgeon until the 17th to get the official readout. Should I be concerned that immediately after the procedure the MRI technician recommended I check with the reception to see if they can get me in before then!?! That was actually already in the plan so I’ll be calling from time to time to see if there are any cancellations I can jump on. Meanwhile I am “trying” to get the homestead ready in case I have a lengthy downtime. Less work for Linda! Also working on the latest haunt tutorial video which is taking way longer than expected – all these newfangled tools feels like drinking from a fire hose. . While I “try” to get caught up on everything, Brad is going to take you back to South Carolina for another type of “tri”.

Take it away Brad…

On our last full day in Hilton Head this year, Jan and I decided to drive a short distance (90 minutes or so from our hotel with stops along the way) to a new location suggested by Ted Jennings (see his site here). We visited the Port Royal Cypress Wetlands which appears to be right in the middle of the town of Port Royal, SC. It is a small body of water with limited parking, but we were able to find a parking space near the boardwalk overlook. The whole surface area of the water is only a couple of acres based on my estimate. Having said that, it took Jan and I a couple of hours to walk all the way around the half-mile boardwalk and trails. No, it’s not really larger on the inside. There were so many birds, and alligators, we really didn’t know where to start to point the cameras.

In the past, Jan and I have found the occasional Tricolored Heron (Egretta tricolor), or Great Egret, or Great Blue Heron in the marsh areas we visit. Normally we only see one, or maybe two Tricolors at a particular location. This time, there had to be a dozen Tricolors just hanging around in the trees on a small island in the middle of the wetlands.

The featured Tricolors today were all on the island, except for one recluse hanging out with the Yellow-bellied Slider turtles along the edge of the water. Even though they nest in trees, I’m always surprised to see a wading bird sitting on a tree branch. And seeing the amount of alligators cruising in the water around the island, this is a prudent strategy.

Tricolored Heron found at Port Royal Cypress Wetlands, SC by Brad and Jan Marks

Hit the jump to learn more about these Port Royal Tris.

A Tale of Two Caps

Welcome to the month that usually makes me take a hard swallow after flipping the page. June is ramp up month for the ultra season and the calendar is full of two-a-days each consisting of 10+ mile runs intermixed with 25+ mile endurance runs all to round off the preparation for the 30 mile Cry Me a River that has officially dropped me twice now, most recently last year (link here). My hopes of a quick redemption have been curtailed and the calendar has been wiped clean to be replaced with medical appointments starting with the ankle MRI this week. I did get a good 8 mile run in this morning to put a likely cap on the season. In light of the fast approaching downtime, I’ve also been trying to hit the birding hard. This last weekend was quite awesome on the feather front. My brother Ron came down on Friday and we got a good start on some local field birding before another Intrigued birding event on Saturday. Ron, Brad, Jan, myself and the rest of the Intrigued staff got a chance to spend a great day in the field – except the Legal Department who are still on probation from their last little stunt. Suspect there will be a write-up coming on that outing in the future. Bookended the weekend with another outing with Ron down at Emiquon NWR. My Average Year count now sits at a shocking 382+3 (previous record was 340) and Ron managed to add ~35 birds to his tally. Brad/Jan and Ron are also now up in the top 40 county birders and neither of them live in this county ha.

To make up for the loss of the double run schedule in June, let’s go with a twofer for today’s featured feathered friend(s) post.

Western Grebe found at 33 Hole Overlook at Lake Meade National Recreational Area, Las Vegas, NV in January 2024

Hit the jump to read more about this species of waterfowl and a very similar looking family member.

Kung Fu Fighting…by Brad Marks

I’ve mentioned this in a few comment replies, but for those that missed it, I received some bittersweet news last week regarding a certain mal-performing joint I’ve been fighting with for over 7 months. If you recall during my last ultra-race..

A sudden motion made me s[l]ip, now we’re into a brand new ‘trip’

There is much debate on whether it would have been better had I actually fallen to the ground vs the ankle going 90 degrees under my leg while I stayed upright. For brevity, a misdiagnosis and then later discover of a double fracture in the tibia left me hobbled through April before getting the okay to resume training. That was met with a very angry joint that eventually led me in search of an explanation if not a remedy. A new ortho-surgeon and more x-rays found very bad things including likely breaks and/or ligament/tendon tear aways from the fibula and minimally severe inner joint ligament damage. MRI scheduled, but suspect a very sharp knife is in my future. Not looking forward to losing the rest of this year, however, incredibly relieved that there is finally a path forward. While I struggle to get this all sorted out, Brad is going to jump into the dojo…I mean spotlight and share another of his adventures from South Carolina.

Take it away Brad…

The word “vacation” means many things to many people. If you are reading this story, then your definition is probably closer to the one Jan and I use. Our definition may include beaches and exotic locations, but there are rarely, if ever, whole days sitting by the pool or on the beach with an umbrella drink and a half empty bottle of sunscreen nearby. Usually our definition of “vacation” includes the exotic location: checkmark. But that’s where the similarity stops. Instead of a pool, we are typically next to a marsh, wetland, crashing surf, mountain or volcano. In place of the umbrella drinks are usually large camera/glass combos hanging from our Black Rapid camera straps. OK, we do sometimes have the sunscreen nearby, but it is usually subtlety layered with bug screen. Oh, and wet wipes; can’t forget to keep the hands clean for holding our cameras. Bug spray on your hands then touching plastic camera parts leads to fingerprints in the hard plastic. Please do NOT try this at home.

This “vacation” was no different. Jan and I took a last-minute trip to Hilton Head Island to avoid some of the frigid weather at home in Illinois in February. We only avoided some of the cold, because for the first few days the cold followed us south.

We (meaning Jan and I and the cameras) spent the morning at Fish Haul Beach toward the eastern end of Hilton Head Island. However, after a very late lunch, (I can’t even remember where we ate that day) we decided we hadn’t taken quite enough photos for the day. Reviewing our options, and not wanting to drive for hours after lunch, we chose Pinckney Island National Wildlife Refuge which is smack dab in between Hilton Head Island and the mainland off of US-278. We visited this refuge last year and walked for hours. Since it was already nearing 4pm, we decided to only walk out a mile, see what we would see at Ibis Pond, and then head back to the car. We were not disappointed.

Common Gallinule found by Brad Marks on Hilton Head Island

(Oh-ho-ho-ho) Huh, ha
Keep on, keep on, keep on… reading by hitting the jump

Yes, Another Sparrow!

We are cranking through May..as we did April..March, before I know it we’ll be setting up for the haunted trail event scheduled for end of September. The haunt lab is in full swing repairing all the items that failed on us last year. Once through that we shift into our favorite part of the year – creating new animations and decorations for our guests to enjoy. Things have been busy in the rest of the Intrigued departments as well. Regular ol’ Santa’s Workshop summer edition. Brad is currently checking in with our headquarters out west while I’ve been trying to get images ready to go for future posts. In addition, trying to get caught up on all the homestead tasks. The latter has come to a halt thanks to multiple days of steady rain giving me badly needed cycles to get today’s featured feathered friend post out.

Black-Throated Sparrow found at Desert Museum, Tucson, AZ in January 2024

Hit the jump to learn more about this rather colorful member of the Sparrow family.

A Rather Drabby Towhee

Not knew to anyone that has spent any time hear on Intrigued, I am on “recovery road” trying get back on my feet after getting knocked down – a rare situation of that being metaphorically and literally. Not the first time down this road and likely not the last (some say I tend to push). This latest drive, the ankle, has proven to be one of the most debilitating injury to date. Even with the broken elbow (2 years ago), I was still able to lace up the trail shoes after a couple of weeks – this, has been a different story. Now at 8 months I am finally able to get out and get some miles in – admittedly through clinched teeth knowing every other stride is gonna come with a degree of pain. Yesterday I was listening to podcasts as I am apt to do to keep my head “out” of the run, when Mike Rowe’s podcast David Bahnsen – Poor Smart and Desperate came up next on the running playlist (link here). Next thing I know I am back at the Jeep after my longest run since the injury at 8 miles. The perfect topic at the perfect time. I won’t go into detail, but the topics of Macro happiness and producers vs consumers hit me right between the ears. It is easy to get yourself down when micro level issues don’t go as planned, but the question posed was whether I was happy at a macro level. 8 miles later (apparently) the answer was an absolutely YES. Sure, there are minutia/momentary bouts of unhappiness, the ankle, the elbow, paperwork here, malfunction there etc. but do those outweigh the good things – not even close. Family life is wonderful, great friends, recent checkup was outstanding, I’m out of the daily grind and we get to share our adventures while talking birds and haunts – Life is good. Oh, and on the producer front we now have our 3rd haunt how-to video out which I’ll share at the end if you are interested.

Few things make me happier than when I get to share a new check on the bird life list, so let me introduce you to today’s featured feathered friend.

Canyon Towhee found on Sycamore Trail, Tucson, AZ in January 2024

Hit the jump to read more about this new check from the Sparrow family.

Food Fight…by Brad Marks

Greetings everyone! It was a busy weekend at the HQ with all the haunt production activities now in full swing and yesterday we held our 3rd Intrigued Corporate Warbler Watch and Walk in the Woods (IC4W). I won’t say much about the walk as I am pretty sure there will be a story or two coming in the future. It was definitely a great time to be out in the field with the staff and doing what we love to do – shooting feathers (with our cameras, of course) and getting caught up on life, family, injuries, hobbies, endurance sports and definitely some bird knowledge bantered about. Now, some have eluded to this really being their annual birding-acumen assessment as part of their annual performance reviews. Crazy talk, just a fun time with the boss…now let me just grab my clipboard and we’ll be on our way. Going to let Brad take the wheel for today’s post while I finish up all my notes on the assessment forms…sorry, I mean wrap up submitting all the eBird reports from our fun walk.

Take it away Brad…

We are coming up on the end of my third-year writing (almost 100 stories) and photographing for Wildlife Intrigued. I’ve learned it’s not all about just taking photos. Oh sure, Jan and I take tens of thousands of photos per year, and sometimes we take that many on a single assignment (22k in Hilton Head in total). It’s really about observing wildlife and learning to anticipate what might happen next and then telling the story. Often the whole story happens in just a few moments. Now, if I can just figure out when the fun stuff is going to happen and take fewer photos of “boring” stuff. If you’ve figured this out, let me know in the comments.

Jan and I have taken a few trips to South Carolina during cold Illinois winter months. Like most who travel to the ocean’s edge, we try to ignore the hordes of seagulls. Although, I learned two years ago that there is more than one type of “seagull”, and that gulls can be quite entertaining (here) if given a chance. They can also be quite competitive.

Gulls found by Brad and Jan in South Carolina

Warning, one or more fish were likely harmed in the making of this post, but that’s gonna happen when in proximity to today’s featured feathered friends. Hit the jump to see who wins the “prize”.

Rufouspalooza

Greetings everyone! May is turning out to be the same as April..well, March and February and Jan..you get the picture – BUSY! The long travels are on the backburner for now and pretty much for the next couple of months it will only be short excursions for dog shows etc. Close to half this year, so far, has been in other states so it will be nice to toil at the homestead for a while. Kudos to those full time RVers out there, if we didn’t come back to “space” I think Linda and I would drive each other crazy ha. This also means the hard work begins. Plenty of outdoor work to get done around the house and in the woods plus the annual Haunted Trail event is just around the corner (in haunt units of time), so the haunt lab is now in full production mode. On top of all that, our haunt department has finally pulled the trigger on their haunt themed YouTube channel. In the past we have used the Intrigued Mothership (lifeintrigued.com) to feature our various prop projects, but those have been getting more involved over the years and the word format was causing major finger fatigue. What I didn’t expect was the amount of time required to move to the video format – new tools to learn, more planning, more editing and most of all, being back in front of the camera. Pretty rusty since those days in the corporate grind. Fortunately, all things that go bump in the night are my passion so it is still a lot of fun! I’ll include a link to our first prop tutorial video at the bottom of this post in case you are interested.

Sticking with that theme of hard work, today’s featured feathered friend can make you want to pull your rufous feathers out in the field.

Green-Tailed Towhee found at Catalina State Park outside Tucson, AZ in January 2024

Hit the jump to read more about this rather elusive new check on my birding life list.

Color Me Rufous

Wow, hard to believe we are almost through April already. Pages are flying off the calendar and I have sooo much to do. Someday I have to figure out the formula that allowed me to get all my tasks done while I was still grinding out days in the corporate world. To Brad’s credit he likes to point out that my time is now filled doing things I enjoy vs hunting bad spirits in the machine and filling out TPS reports. I can’t deny my time devoted to travel and birding has increased significantly and thanks to that, I am proud to say I have officially shattered my all-time Average Year record (link here). I tried to get all the numbers up to date, but I’ve hit it hard these last couple of days so that page is already off. My record (from 2023) was 340 species – as of today it sits at 352+3 putting me at 168th in the US and 8th in my county. Placements are fluctuating all over the place depending on where you are in relation to the migration so those rankings are a bit fluid. I also refreshed my life list count and even updated the counter on the left nav bar. It is rare when that is accurate, but for now 472 is correct! Brad is right, birding is definitely better than IT Enterprise Architecture ha!

The key part of those bird counts is the increased travel – in particular our monthly trips to the southwest. Today’s featured feathered friend comes courtesy of last year’s trip to Tucson, Arizona. Now, this specimen is going to be a bit hmmmm, how to put this … let’s go with a letdown from our recent offerings. We’ve tried to bring you a colorful assortment of avian fodder as of late to help make up for the lack of excitement that is coming your way …but before then…another dose of color!

Me at Catalina State Park entrance, Tucson, AZ in January 2024

Okay, now gather your wits, lower your expectations, prepare for the worst and hit that jump (might help if you close one eye before you do that).

One . . . Two-hoo . . . Three…By Brad Marks

With bittersweet feelings I can report that Linda and I are back from this year’s second migration to the southwest. I’ll miss southeast Arizona having found a number of new incredible birding location and Vegas, well that holds a special place in our hearts. With that said, it is good to be home even it means long days of getting the homestead ready for summer. Unfortunately, there is no way to just click our heels and wake up home – the haul back is a drain and we are both exhausted (admission, Linda has to do most of the driving due to her vertigo so it is definitely harder on her). While we recover, Brad is going to take us on an adventure in a completely opposite direction to our recent trek. His featured species actually holds a sad place in my heart due to an unfortunately incident with a local favorite I used to greet on my way to work every day (I’ll forego that link). He has a much better experience!

Take it away Brad…

Let me set the stage for you. It’s mid-February in South Carolina. Jan and I were at the Savannah Wildlife Refuge visitor center. The outside air temperature is about 40 degrees warmer than at home, but it is still only about 40 degrees Fahrenheit. You can do the math for how cold it might have been where we live. I had gloves on, so feeling the tiny control buttons on the camera were a challenge. I am very used to being able to navigate the buttons for focus point movements, ISO settings, partial shutter release, etc. Gloves take away all of that sensitive feel. My nose was cold and my breath was condensing into little clouds. But here we are, walking around looking for birds to photograph.

Jan had wandered ahead of me but taken a different fork in the path than I did. We can hear the traffic on the state highway a couple hundred yards away through the leafless trees. Did I mention my toes are already cold and I’ve only been walking about 15 minutes. The Visitor Center wasn’t open yet; it opens at 10am.

As I wandered around, looking for birds I happened on a standing tree trunk that had seen better days. I noticed a very large knot hole near the top and thought that would be a perfect place for an owl nest. A few feet away from me was a sign post with a small sign on top. The sign said “Barred Owl” and nothing more. At least that’s how I remember it because I didn’t take a photo. As I was staring at the hole for a couple of minutes, willing the owl to come out (not even knowing if there was an owl inside or not), I had the feeling I was being watched. I turned around expecting to see Jan waving me over for a bird find, but she wasn’t there. Instead, it was I that was being watched.

Who dost thou stare in my direction? Hit thy jump to reveal.

A Splash of Color for Easter

Happy Easter everyone! This is coming to you a little early, but we are still on the road and we have learned there is no guarantee of connectivity wherever we end up for the night. Rather than risk it, I wanted to get this out while we still had the ability to publish. Our spring migration is quickly coming to a close as we are on our return trip from the southwest. Currently stopped in Oklahoma, but we have to make it to St. Louis by Sunday so the boys can compete at the Poodle Agility Nationals starting Monday – they are NOT looking forward to getting all groomed and fluffed up to compete as they are looking a bit grizzly from all the travel – same goes for us ha. So far this has been a very productive start of the year birding wise as I’ve pulled within 10 birds of eclipsing my record count of 340 back in 2023 (link here). Barring another bad injury, that should be easily attainable, especially since the migration is just getting rolling back in the Midwest. Of special note, I’ve managed to add 37 new lifers since January, so plenty of fodder for future posts! Today’s featured feathered friend is not one of those and in fact, not one that I am able to include in my annual count.

Indian Peafowl found at St. David Holy Trinity Monastery in St. David, AZ in January 2024

Quite the splash of color to celebrate the Easter holiday. Hit the jump to see more shots of this exquisite foreign species.

	Ted Jennings - TPJ P… on A Tale of Two Plumages
	wordsfromanneli on A Tale of Two Plumages
	Timothy Price on Politics of the Log
	John on A Tale of Two Plumages
	doerfpub on A Tale of Two Plumages