I have to say, getting a couple of really good night’s of sleep in these last few days has felt really good. Two days of 8+ hours of sleep each when you have been living on 4 to 5 for close to a month feels like a vacation in paradise ha. Best of all, the ankle swelling is definitely subsiding which will please my therapist. Still some work to do to get all the haunt items put away and autumn always brings with it an annual list of homestead work (living in the woods is wonderful until the trees start shedding leaves and nuts), but there is some time while the props finish drying and no sense getting started too early on the leaves when there are plenty more to fall. That means I have some time to get some posts out before November comes calling. Continuing from the last post, we are back in southern Texas with a perennial favorite.
Hit the jump to see a few more shots of rather colorful Oriole
Probably one of the hardest elements of putting on our annual haunted trail is the aftermath. During the prep and build out I am full of energy and excitement. A whirlwind of ideas, tasks and problem solving all rolled up into a giant orange and black ball. Then the party is just pure fun..well, after dealing with all the late hour gremlins that always find a way to test my wits. On the second night, the last of the guests leave, we power down the haunt and at some point my tired body is reacquainted with the bed. A day of rest usually follows thanks to a mysterious magnetic pull embedded in the very fibers of the pillow – someone should really figure out how to harness that power! Then the post party hangover kicks in. Gone is the pre-event excitement – it is grind time as everything has to be hauled back up into the out-building for drying and then the masterclass sessions of packing and organizing. Fortunately, “grinding” is my superpower which has served me well over the years, work, ultras and the draining work of unplugging everything, disassembling the props and hauling them out of the valley. That part of the work is done now and just waiting out the drying phase (you do NOT want moisture in your storage bins). While that is happening, jumping back into the blog work with today’s featured feathered friend.
Hit the jump to learn more about this interesting Falcon sporting the orange and black colors of the season.
We did it! I am proud to say the Haunted Trail of Fears 2025 is officially in the books. All that is left is to haul it all back out of the woods, let it dry and then pack it away until next September. It is practically impossible to add up the number of effort hours this event requires as it extends well over 10 months when you add in all the project planning, prop building, assembly and tear down. Add in all the incredible help we get (including my brother Ron who spends weekend after weekend down here leading up to the event itself). Long hours starting early in the morning and rarely ending before well into the next day. This is what we live for here at Life Intrigued’s Haunt Department so through it all we are wearing big smiles (unless absolutely too tired to make those muscles move ha). Overall, I can proudly say it was a great success. Rain did move in on us the last night, but all but two guests made it through the nearly a mile haunt completely dry (even the two who didn’t make it out of the valley until the rain started had a great time as the drizzle coming through the tree canopy upped the eeriness in the dark woods). I’ll be posting some pics and likely videos from the event in future posts. For today, Brad is going to bring you one of his adventures from the northwest while I try to give the body a badly needed rest before starting tear-down tomorrow.
Take it away Brad…(note, Brad is still on his latest assignment)
Regular Wildlife Intrigued readers may remember a birding adventure Jan and I took out into the Atlantic Ocean in unstable seas (here). We were chasing a “must see” bird; one of those “life” birds that are usually only seen on nature shows. You know the ones, where the producer has a huge budget and dozens of cameras and weeks and weeks of time to sit and wait for the money shot.
A year ago, we were on a 65-foot boat out in the Atlantic that was bobbing like a cork on rough seas (4-6’ waves) for almost three hours. I had taken a double dose of Dramamine and wished I’d taken a third. Jan was getting bounced around and bruised from the fiberglass benches we were seated on. I couldn’t see anything because of the zero-visibility fog we were sailing through. The sky was various shades of dark grey. I vowed I’d never get on a boat that was less than 500 feet long ever ever ever again when it is out of sight of land.
And I haven’t, except for a quick tender trip in Hoonah, AK, but that was for only 100 yards on flat calm water. The last ship Jan and I were on was 1,083 feet long when we sailed from Alaska to Vancouver last August. That ship had some great nature programs on board given by The Ship Naturalist Robert Raincock (find him here or here). He was very popular helping to point out various birds, whales, and pinnipeds (seals) as the ship cruised the Inside Passage south from Alaska. BTW, what’s the difference between a boat and a ship you may ask? We were told, in no uncertain terms, that ships carry boats. Clear enough to me.
Our morning started with a slow and careful cruise into Glacier Bay National Park. We wanted to be sure to see glaciers while we still have them; we were not disappointed (may be a future story). Margerie Glacier is one of the few glaciers that is still advancing in North America, even though it detached from the Grand Pacific Glacier in the 1990’s. This 21-mile long glacier is about 1.25 miles wide at the waterline and 250 feet tall. In other words, it is roughly 7 times the length of our ship and nearly half again as tall above the water.
Hit the jump to learn about our new +1 enjoying the Alaskan waters.
Things are really heating up on our Haunted Trail event. You are already aware of this, so no need to go into further detail on that – of note though, my pillow recently filed a missing person’s report on me. These are the days I regret giving up caffeine so many years ago. Fortunately for me, Brad was able to stockpile some posts to keep you entertained while we try to deal with the nasty clown infestation in the woods. Today Brad is bringing you another adventure from one of their favorite locations – Hilton Head Island. Note, Brad and Jan are back on assignment and will have limited access to respond to comments, apologies in advance for that. Suspect the Intrigued HQ is in absolute chaos with both of us gone (I’m looking at YOU legal department!). Time for me to head back into the haunt lab.
Take it away Brad….
As many of our long-time readers know, Wildlife Intrigued photographers constantly travel these United States to bring you the latest on birding, and sometimes, human behaviors. Jan and I have had a very busy photo assignment calendar these past couple of years. To show the extent Wildlife Intrigued will go to bring you a story, a year ago while on assignments, we saw both oceans buffering the United States.
Jan and I spent a few chilly mornings on Hilton Head Island on the Atlantic Ocean last February. I thought South Carolina is supposed to be warmer than Illinois in February. The afternoons all ended up being quite lovely. However, one morning, there was ice on the fence near the ocean at sunrise. After a brief shiver and then a short ride in our warm rental car, Jan and I ended up at a favorite place from prior visits: Fish Haul Beach at low tide. Time for a small sidebar to share what I learned about the names of various tides.
Hit the jump to learn more about this upturn billed featured feathered friend!
This is the last day before we enter the “critical period”. This is the time when we start tracking against the haunted trail project plan – set tasks that have to be completed for each day or we run the risk of not being ready for the extravaganza. So many things to do, but if not done in the right order at the right time, we start to stumble over ourselves and we end up clipping a root and face-planting on the trail. Those familiar with Intrigued know all too well how that turns out ha. The good news is, we are finishing up all the new props for this year and for the most part all the scares that broke during the event last year have been fixed – all that early year work pays off. In the midst of the trail prep, I happened to notice we were a post down from our self-imposed monthly quota. Although busy, we definitely can’t let a decade plus streak go down without a fight, so jumped on the computer and figured I would end the month with some one-offs from our Arizona trip back in January of 2024. There will be limited commentary due to time constraints, so simply sit back and enjoy the shots.
Hit the jump to see some miscellaneous shots that didn’t have enough companion images to make their own post or not an interesting enough back story to keep you entertained.
I have to say, at this point in September, this is probably the least stressed I have been for many a year. Don’t get me wrong, there is still plenty of fretting going on now, but NOTHING like the norm. Long time followers of Intrigued know we plan our year around our annual Haunted Trail event. This is a 363 day work effort as we get two days off to actually hold the event ha. The usual date for that event is THIS weekend and I am usually an absolute mess by this time – up for days, physically and mentally spent. Fortunately, it is something we absolutely enjoy putting together every year or there would be no way we would put ourselves through this. This year we had to push the event to mid October thanks to my punk-ass ankle. Sure, there is some lack of sleep and we are in the haunt labs from sun up through the witching hours, but the real worry days are still a week away. Those are the days when I wonder Wren I am going to get any sleep…
Hit the jump to see more shots of a featured feathered friend that shares my blood shot eyes.
Unfortunately, it has been a bit since we last talked. Not to steal any valor from the fine men in the Seals organization, but we are officially in our Hell Week[s]. Traditionally, our big haunted trail event (link here) would be scheduled for next weekend, however, due to the insubordinate ankle, we opted to push the date to mid October rather than cancel it outright. Good move as there is no way we would have been ready by this week. That delay doesn’t mean we can sit back and take it easy – for the last several weeks I have been getting very little sleep due to coordinating tasks, fixing broken props, building new scares and everything else related to the haunt. I just looked at the current project plan and there are 306 tasks at the macro level and that is growing daily ugh. Add in dealing with rehab visits, daily workouts and everything else life has been throwing at us (more like a barrage) and sleep has become a luxury. Fortunately we live for the haunt so that is wrapped in enjoyment (big thanks to my brother Ron who has been spending every weekend down here to help us out). Long story short, overly pressed for time, so I’ll probably be a bit scarce for some time going forward. I’ll try to keep you updated as we progress to the big event. Upmost apologies for delays in responding to comments and keeping up with all your fine blogs during this time. For now, Brad is going to take time away from preparing for his upcoming field assignment and step in to give me a breather with one of his adventures. While I take a brief few minutes to celebrate being released from crutches today, I’ll let Brad take it away…
Lately, Jan and I have been taking on more global photo assignments for Wildlife Intrigued. It’s not that we are running out of birds locally, far from it. We want to get to the far-flung parts of the map while we are young enough to handle the strenuous travel distances and locations. Sometimes, Jan and I use a travel agent to help with details in a part of the world we’ve not yet been to. Often times we have already been to a location and take pleasure in setting up travel on our own, even if the Intrigued corporate jet isn’t available. (Isn’t that worldwide pop tour over yet?)
For the same reason, these stories almost never appear in a linear fashion. It’s sort of a “timey-wimey” thing. Sometimes I have a story just waiting for me to take photographs to complete it. Or I have a bunch of photos, and no story. A TARDIS would be helpful in the story writing process sometimes. This story was actually started way before the one about an Eastern Kingbird (link here) that we found about 100 yards further around the lake a bit earlier in the same day. Circumstances, our travel assignments, and me almost deleting all of the bird photos lead to this one being delayed for over a year. (see end of story for details)
During one of our back-to-back-to-back photo assignments from Intrigued HQ, Jan and I were on the downhill side of an early summer trip to Colorado visiting our daughter Allyson. She is also the editor working in the Wildlife Intrigued Western (or Mountain) office. Both the Intrigued corporate jet and motorhome were otherwise occupied, so we completed the 14-hour journey in our Regional Office vehicle. Truthfully, I like travelling this way because we can take much more gear along than the airlines allow. As an added bonus, Jan and I get to stop at Runza for lunch on our way across Nebraska. Both directions.
Hit the jump to read more about today’s featured feathered friend.
Greetings everyone, hope all is well with you. My spirits have definitely been lifted thanks to yesterday being my first day in the therapy pool! Feels good to actually walk again albeit with the assistance of water dynamics. For an hour there I felt somewhat whole again, enjoying the various strengthening and stretching routines and even the treadmill didn’t fill me with dread like it normally does during the off-season – something about it being submerged made it more intriguing. Of course, reality hit when my time was up and re-emerged into gravity – a solid reminder I still have miles to go. The best part, I was completely exhausted later that night, forgotten muscles fidgeting and squawking. It has been 11 frustrating months since I’ve had a really hard run and last night brought a flood of good memories back (runners are wired differently ha). While I sit here in anticipation of tomorrow’s pool session, thought I would crank out another post from the recently processed Colorado trip.
Hit the jump to see a few more shots that “could have been awesome”
We are technically at the first post of September. My last post was published 2 minutes before midnight on the 31st, but the WP servers sit in different time zones so it might look like it creeped to the 1st. Normally I would be in full panic mode and wondering if I’ll make it to double digits in total sleep for the week while getting ready for the Haunted Trail event. Due to the ankle injury, I have a bit of reprieve as we had to push the party date three weeks into October. My ankle was pretty adamant that there would be no trail work until at least the brace phase. Still have a lot of work to get done, but I’ll have a few more weeks of some decent sleep before the pressure builds. In the last post I mentioned I just had to get through the tins from Colorado and I would be current to this year. That is now complete – and there was copious amounts of rejoicing. In recognition of this momentous accomplishment, going with a featured feathered friend from that trip.
Hit the jump to learn more about this stout looking bird.
Last day of the month and we are officially in the “bonus” round. Thanks to the additional time being sequestered in the den, this has been a highly productive blogging month. Believe this is the 8th post of the month which includes the two browser cache burning recollections from last year’s 2024 Haunted Trail Event (link here). I am incredibly shocked we are only a month and half away from the 2025 extravaganza. Note, we had to push it three weeks this year due to the ankle mishap. Might as well update you on that front as well. Thursday I was officially released from the 6 week no-weight sentencing. According to the doctor, everything is progressing as prescribed which is really good news. Apparently the massive swelling that occurs in the foot soon after releasing it from the air-cast is normal (quite the surprise). The original expectations of being released for “walking” fell a bit short though as he wants me to continue to use both crutches to assist the walking effort for a week or so then take away one of the crutches for a period of time before unassisted walking. Honestly, that seemed like a good plan based on the “owwww” that escaped my lips the first time I put the unprotected foot down on the floor. Physical therapy also started that day which brought some additional mutterings, but those came with a smile – that I can handle, suffering is kind of my game and honestly, what got me into this mess ha. I am looking forward to the pool work that starts soon. Only 4 more weeks and I am graduated to a brace and minutes after getting into that I’ll be out on the trail getting it ready to entertain our guests.
Probably not a secret, but my life is driven by goals. As much as I hated putting them together while in the grind, they are a cornerstone on the personal side. Life with purpose as they say. Before you ask, this commitment continues in the retirement years. One big goal to complete while laid up was to tackle the massive backlog of photos. Managed to get through the Texas March 2024 tins (560G) and over half of my Colorado September snaps. That trip just needs a few more hours of work and I will be current to 2025 (assuredly my long-term readers will be flabbergasted). Just to give you a taste of the newly processed Texas folder, thought I’d go with a fitting featured feathered friend immortalizing that rarely uttered word “Owwww”l.
Well, we will get to the Owl part in just a sec – right now you are basically staring at a hole in a telephone pole at Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park. Linda, myself and about 30 other hardcore birders spent a good hour plus staring at that hole in hopes of getting a glimpse of what was to be a +1 lifer for me. Hit the jump to find out if we managed to get something in the tin!
Wildlife Intrigued 
