Observation – Page 18 – Wildlife Intrigued

A Fitting Bird for the Times

I am officially half way through my hellscape with one event down and one event looming at the end of this week. We put an official wrap on this year’s annual Haunted Halloween Trail late Sunday night as we finished pulling all the props out of the woods. Based on the feedback we have received so far, the scare division had another successful year. I’ll let Brad weigh in on how he thought it went.

To be honest, the trail doesn’t happen this year without a lot of people pitching in to help me out. My injury really put a strain on all the things that needed to be done to put this event on: prepping the trails, pulling everything out of storage, loading up the power sources, organizing the items into their zones, hauling it all down into the valley, putting it up, turning it on and then in a state of total exhaustion, pulling it all back up. A special shout out to my brother Ron who came down several weekends including the three days leading up to the event to help work out the kinks and keep everything rolling. There will definitely be posts coming to cover the highlights of this year’s haunt.

With that out of the way, I can now focus on the upcoming 100K attempt that launches 5am Saturday. Like with the Halloween party, a lot of things will have to go right to get through that. Now doing my best to catch up on sleep and tamper down some pains and strains that cropped up from last weekend’s efforts. In honor of what has past and what is to come, I bring you today’s featured feathered friend.

Female Phainopelpa found at Sunset Park, Las Vegas NV in March 2023

Hit the jump to read about our rather pointy feathered specimen.

Hall’s Pond…by Brad Marks

Going to be setting a new land speed record for getting this last post of the month out – check off another successful meet on the Intrigued post quota. At some point my superiors are going to stop accepting that as a “stretch” goal ha. Have good news for everyone, we have “proof of life” for Brad. That sounds a lot more exciting that it really is as in today’s day and age, it simply means we got a text he’s on his way home. Probably dating myself here, but it feels just like the Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom show. If you recall (assuming you are old enough), Marlin Perkins would sit back in his smoking chair with a snifter of Scotch while Jim is out in the field getting mauled by a pack of Hyenas. “Honey, I would like to get this bird located here {spins globe stopping it with a well placed finger}, what do you think?” “There!!! HELL NO..send Brad.” “Good idea, where’s my snifter?” I am sure he will have a number of future posts covering his adventures. In the meantime we are pulling one of his queue to keep you entertained while I tend to things that go bump in the night.

Three short little days until the first night of the Haunted Trail..as they say..or rather sing “No Sleep ‘Till Brooklyn” (link here). Sure wish I had “Eight days a week”.

Kick it Brad…

If you’ve ever been to Boston, you know how frantic life can be there. Like any other large city, there are big buildings, crazy people everywhere “driving” with a coffee in one hand and a smartphone in the other, and other people with a smartphone in one hand and a cup of coffee in their other hand posing as pedestrians. Of course, nearly everyone has obligatory earbuds firmly ensconced. Jan and I were visiting Boston for the umpteenth time (really, I’ve lost count over the decades) for our goddaughter’s high school graduation. Knowing I’d like to see what birds were living in and around Boston, our friend Connie suggested I try a little pond near our hotel in Brookline.

When I first arrived at Armory Park, all I could see was a giant dog park (very few were picking up, BTW, so watch your step if you visit) and a half dozen tennis courts with players who thought they were getting ready for Wimbledon. It was then that I noticed a heavily wooded area behind a fence with a swing gate; that’s where I headed: Hall’s Pond. I went through the gate, wandered along the wooded trail, and came upon a serene little pond with a small deck extending over the water. The pond is roughly 150 feet wide by about 200 feet long. The surrounding gardens and wooded area may only be 3-4x as big as the pond itself.

Hit the jump to see more finds from Hall’s Pond.

Urbanning Owls

I’ve already spent too much time covering all the things that are on my platter at the moment, so no need to dwell on those items. This is probably the last time I’ll have a chance to check in on the blog for at least the next week. Brad is planning to be back from assignment before the end of the month and he’ll be officially closing out September for us – assuming he makes it…we received some garbled DM about poison darts, shrunken heads and vats of human soup. I am sure it’s nothing to be concerned about. As concessions for being out of pocket, pulling out one of my favorite featured feathered friends.

Burrowing Owl found at Las Vegas Urban - Rainbow Owl Preserve in March 2023

Hit the jump unless those yellow eyes are a too intimidating (we’ll understand ha).

GAWWS (Great! Another White Wading Shorebird) or Déjà Vu All Over Again…by Brad Marks

We are now in the pressure zone, a mere two weeks before the big haunt and my days are starting to feel like back to back ultras. The good news is we are making progress – a lot of that thanks to my brother Ron spending multiple days down here helping me out. Probably have maybe 3 or 4 days max to wrap up the new props before clearing the trails and starting the mind-numbing battery installation phase. Last year required well over 300 AAs, 50 AAAs, 120 9vs and a myriad of other formats – with all the new props those numbers are going to jump significantly. Note, things would go a LOT faster if the younger generation(s) would stop sucking on batteries causing that #$%@#%@#$# little screw to be on all the battery compartment lids. Fortunately in all this chaos, I have been able to get in a little birding…

You might have noticed I am back to using my injured elbow…how about we just keep that to ourselves for now, first rule of Fight Club – “Don’t talk about the elbow”. While I toil away, Brad is stepping in to once again throw me a lifeline with one of his birding adventures. He is currently out in the field on assignment, so responses will be dependent on his connectivity – if we are lucky he will stumble upon some forgotten jungle tribes with Internet access points and let us know how it is going. Well, “I Bis” be getting back to the haunt work.

Take it away Brad…

I think I’m finally beginning to understand why Brian has such a backlog of bird stories. When he and Linda travel south during the winter, he racks up 200+ birds per “vacation.” Jan and I encountered 56 on our trip to Huntington Beach State Park in South Carolina last February. As I was reviewing photos for other stories, I noticed this unassuming bird in the background of many of the photos. I started writing this story just after our trip. I guess it was on my keyboard too long because in the meantime, Brian published a story on this exact same bird (link here). Well, not the precise bird, but a bird of the same species. So, what to do, what to do . . . Should I scrap it or continue writing about the same bird, but with a different perspective and habitat? After a week or so I chose to continue the story.

I have to admit that initially, I was going for the herons and egrets. But our featured bird today is no less exciting than those are. Granted, its name is grander than the lighting in these photos allows. Jan and I found these wading birds very early in the day, less than an hour after sun-up.

Hit the jump to read more about our pink legged friend.

Green Legs and Hamming

Well, we are well into September and it is turning out to be as expected…BUSY. Thankfully Brad has come to my rescue with his recent adventures. He is now getting ready to go back out into the field and I wanted to give him some time to gear up… and…wait for it… wait for it…allow him time to properly celebrate his 1 year anniversary with Intrigued. Was shocked it has been that long until going back and reviewing all his posts since that debut… if I count correctly he has let us ride shotgun on 31 adventures! Normally we would have a small celebration with cake and alcohol, but since the infamous “sparkler incident” our kitchen has been under renovation and our baker is still bandaged up tighter than a mummy on our haunted trail. In lieu of that, let’s all give Brad (and his crew Jan and Allyson) a big round of applause. Best of all, he has plenty more in the queue to keep us entertained going forward.

While the celebration continues, I thought I’d work on a post while the paint dries on my two new 8 foot (yes, foot!) spiders – we grow ’em big out here in the Midwest country. Can’t wait to show everyone how those turn out. Looked into my queue and found today’s featured feathered friend.

Little Blue Heron found at Galveston Island State Park in January 2022

Hit the jump to “Say hello to my little friend”

Floof Hats…by Brad Marks

Greetings all! Took a quick break from the Haunted Trail task list tome to bring you another fun post from Brad. He will be going back out on assignment soon and I wanted to get a few more of his posts out while he still had plenty of time to respond to comments. Before we get to that, we have a new brag to celebrate. Raven needed only 6 more qualifying runs to earn another trip back to CPE Agility Nationals, so we decided to head up north and enter a show for the long weekend. I was concerned about losing all those days prepping for the haunt (basement currently full of 8′ spiders, a 10′ wolf, 5 tombstones and a myriad of other props in various states), but this would take a lot of pressure off Raven (and Linda) if we could get the qualifying checked off early.

Our little rock star got it done. Not only did he get his 6 qualifying runs (plus another for assurances), he also earned his 2nd CPE Championship complete with a giant ribbon – matching his now inflated ego ha. He spent most of the show pointing at it whenever another dog passed by. Showed him Brad’s post and his only comment was “Woof, Mwoof, Gwoof, Cwoof” – canine translated – Where’s MY Golden Crown!?! Sigh, a lot of sass for an under 5 pound Poodle. Anyway, I’ve delayed you too long already, let’s get to another of Brad and Jan’s adventures at Acadia.

Take it away Brad…

Let me help set the scene a little bit. Jan and I were on vacation at Acadia National Park. The morning Puffin and Lighthouse cruise we were scheduled to take had been cancelled because of fog. Not to worry, because we were able to catch one later that day. (See prior published story about Puffins, link here)

The Big Question remained unanswered; what do to for the next five hours until the cruise. See the rest of the park, of course — fog or not. We asked the GPS to take to Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse

As we neared the lighthouse, the fog thickened again; something about warm water and cold air mixing. I drove into the Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse parking lot and secured the very last official parking space in the rather small lot. Several others had already parked on the grass, in the striped-out areas, in the ditch along the road, etc. The fog wasn’t the thickest we’d had on the trip yet, but it did add a spooky English mystery story feel to the place.

Hit the jump to see Brad and Jan’s finds on this foggy day.

Three Hour Tour…by Brad Marks

Welcome to September everyone, or as I like to call it “Weight Watcher’s Month”. The first means we have less than 30 days to get ready for this year’s big haunt (link here). Damn you short day months!! From this point on until we officially open the trail, sleep will be very sparse and days/nights will be driven at a hectic pace. On top of that, there’s a lot of miles still to be put in on the trail as my 2nd 100K ultra attempt looms a mere two weeks after all the guests have had their fill of food, drinks and frights – thus the significant amount of weight loss. As you would probably assume, I need to back away from the day to day Intrigued responsibilities to focus on the 15+ still in process props that are littered about my basement (some started at the end of last year). Then I can then start assembling all the veteran scares that have already had their fright night debut. Don’t worry, you will be in good care as we once again put the Intrigued HQ in Brad’s capable hands. Quite fitting, as this also happens to be his 1 year anniversary month (his first post was on 9/12 – link here). It has been a true blessing to have him on board, especially in these frantic times. I’ll try to pop in from time to time to check on things and make sure things don’t get too crazy (looking at YOU Lawyer Dept!). Turns out, Brad has the perfect post too kick off this month chock-full of huffin’ and puffin’.

Take it away Brad…

Earlier this year, Brian and I participated in the First Annual Intrigued Corporate Team Building Event, ICTBE v1.0 (see here). Brian and I were hiking through the woods and talking about upcoming events for the summer when I mentioned that Jan and I had booked a trip to Acadia National Park. When Brian heard this, he gave me a photography assignment: find a Puffin. I said, “Sure.” Little did I know, there aren’t any Puffins anywhere inside Acadia. At least not in the parts of the park you can drive or walk to. However, many tour operators near Acadia will take you on a “Puffin Cruise” to see them. This meant we’d be on a 65-foot boat (anything under 500 feet in length is small to me) on the Atlantic Ocean on a “three-hour tour.” Remind you of any 60’s TV theme songs? Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale . . . (try to get that song out of your head now)

As Jan and I arrived for the morning Puffin cruise, we were told the fog was too thick and the morning cruise had been cancelled. There was another cruise that same afternoon if we wanted to switch. We did. Jan and I arrived for the afternoon cruise and were told there was patchy fog and that, most likely, we would be “in and out” of fog all afternoon around the islands. The tour operator also warned us that temperatures on the open ocean are sometimes much cooler than on land, so we brought along rain jackets and an extra base layer. Standing on the dock with the warm sun and a very slight breeze, it felt like we had too many layers of clothes

Visibility in the harbor was great. We could see fog in the distance around some of the outer islands and thought we might be OK. Jan and I boarded the boat, covered our cameras as best we could, and motored off through the harbor islands.

Hit the jump to read how this foggy Puffin excursion turns out.

Heat Running Ducks

Hoo boy, this morning’s run was a bit sticky! We have had a relatively mild summer to date, but this week we are back to our normal late summertime in the Midwest weather. Normally not a problem for me as I train in these conditions in order to survive the July ultra, however, we all know what happened to those plans. Speaking (or more literally, typing) of which, I returned to the “scene of the crime” a few runs back…

I know some of you were worried about the fate of that tree per my last post. It is still standing at the moment. The Corp of Engineers caught wind of my late night plans and had their troops waiting for me when I showed up in my Ghillie suit and chainsaw. Didn’t fully think through the camouflage strategy with a bright orange saw. You get to live another day you bastard Ent, but I’m still coming for pulp!! I’m through the last of my heat races so heat conditioning is not as critical…miles are more critical as the “runway” is extremely compressed to the 100K. Translated, mercury bursting or not, lace up the shoes and minimally get 10 miles checked off. Got up earlier today in hopes of beating some of the misery (“feels like” is going to 115F) – didn’t help a lot, my face looked like 50 shades of …red.

Cinnamon Teal found at Henderson Bird Viewing and Nature Center, Henderson, NV in March 2023

Hit the jump to read more about this richly hued species and where you can likely encounter them.

Pinocchio

It is not often I write up an entire post and then decide to pull it from publication at the last minute, but that is exactly what recently occurred. Pretty much everyone knows about my running mishap, so I am going to pretty much gloss over that setback beyond simply stating the recovery is going well and I’m doing my best to listen to Linda (she no longer frowns when I head out for a long run in the woods ha). There was, however, an unfortunately side effect that was probably worse than the injury itself and that is the “abundance” of time that it brought. Time normally spent keeping the country homestead up, working on Halloween props or the myriad of other physical activities that fill my normal days. I promised myself I wouldn’t do it and I still did it – the void ended up being filled with “the news”. I put that in quotes because I no longer believe we have resemblance of what that used to mean. It didn’t take long to become completely infuriated and without a good hard run to burn off the angst, it just continued to simmer into a full boil. My now shelved post (for the Mothership blog) outlined the hypocrisy that has inundated me for the past 6 or so weeks. As far as bodies of work goes, not too shabby of a post. Then I managed to sneak out and go for a long run – the same location and trail where the Ent broke me. While I was taking a picture (for posterity and future late night navigation when I revisit with a tree saw), it dawned on me I was smiling. Here I was at the scene of the crime and instead of being bitter and down, it was a feeling of relief and joy – I was back where I belong, standing in the dirt, surrounded by nature and thanks to the long time off, sweating profusely. No longer beholden to the lame stream media or political influencers my interest in reliving that crap had now disappeared. A previous run had already produced the title, just needed to repurpose it ha!

White Ibis found at South Padre Island Bird Viewing and Nature Center in January, 2023

Hit the jump to learn more about today’s substitute feature!

Because They Make Me Smile…by Brad Marks

Good news, had an appointment with my doctor today and the elbow is healing well. I was getting concerned as my range progress had stalled a bit and was worried the arm wasn’t going to achieve the mobility I wanted/needed. Doc is still confident on nearly full range once they get the rest of the swelling released and break apart the scar tissue. I predict some fun therapy sessions in the near future. The best news is they released me to start strength training in my sessions and ….wait for it … wait for it .. I can “start” running again. This brought an internal chuckle from me and a stern disapproving look from Linda. Thankfully she didn’t reveal I’ve been running for weeks hehehe. Going to let Brad take the helm today while I get ready for a celebratory, and now, guilt free training run. Just hoping I can get back to the running efficiency of his featured subjects!

Take it away Brad…

No one ever said bird photography would be easy. The Intrigued corporate employee handbook doesn’t mention it either. Yes, much of the time my subjects are sitting still, nicely perched on a branch or twig out in the open. A few are sitting on the ground as pretty as you please. Sometimes they are flying gracefully through the air on a predictable line so I can follow them easily. But more often than not, they are behind twigs so the camera can’t get an easy focus lock. Or flitting between branches. Or hiding in tall grass.

Not this time. This past February, Jan and I were taking a morning walk along Sunset Beach, adjacent to Bird Island, in North Carolina. The sky was overcast and the wind was blowing at a constant 15-20MPH straight along the coast from the South. With waves crashing ashore, and sand blowing in our faces (yes, I had a filter on the front of both camera lenses) we were lucky to find a rather spastic set of little birds. They are constantly chasing the surf line, running up and down with the waves in what should be a predictable pattern. In fact, “chasing the surf” is the precise behavior listed in the bird books to aid with identification. If you’ve ever seen a certain Pixar animated movie short, you will understand . . . it rhymes with “hyper”.

Sanderlings at Sunset Beach, NC by Brad Marks

Hit the jump to read more about these spastic little birds!

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	Timothy Price on Thrashing and Splashing
	jerrymennenga on Thrashing and Splashing
	Sam.Rappen on Thrashing and Splashing
	John on Thrashing and Splashing
	wordsfromanneli on Thrashing and Splashing