Dive Bomber

Might as well get the third post out on the Pelican series.  This post is also from the draft queue like the last few posts – definitely chipping away at the processed backlog.  Pretty soon I will actually have to open the door to my digital darkroom and start processing again or I’ll be short on the upcoming quotas.  Always good to have a few held back in case of emergencies, but it is a somewhat demoralizing to have so many laying around just pleading to hit the mainstream ha. I promised you a different perspective of the bird in the previous Brown Pelican posts and here it is ….
KK
Umm, well, not exactly that picture.  I forgot I wanted to set the stage.  That is the traditional perspective of the Pelican coasting through the air with little care in the world.  However, there is one aspect of life that does required attention by all living things… nourishment.  When that time comes for a Pelican, there is a decided transformation from the calm, cool and collected behavior we are used to seeing.  In fact, the whole thing is turned on its head … literally
KLL

Hit the jump to see how this plays out

Continue reading Dive Bomber

We Got the White

Fresh off a huge win for the Green Bay Packers over American’s team the Dallas Cowboys.  This was one of those strange games where it didn’t really bother me who won the game.  I have a lot of respect for Aaron Rogers both in the way he plays the game and probably more important how he handles himself on the field – calm cool and just goes about the business of winning even when the chips are stacked against.  On the other side I have similar respect for Tony Romo.  A fine product out of Eastern Illinois, but he was on the sidelines today watching his rookie replacement Dak Prescott.  Dak has impressed me as well, especially the way he has taken over the reins since Romo’s injury.  With admiration for elements of both teams I have to look for the negatives to determine my favored side.  Front and center Dez Bryant.  ‘Nuff said, go Pack!

Decided to catch a bit of the Steelers vs Chiefs game and since I cannot just sit and watch a game (what a waste of time), figured it would be a good time to pop another post off of the draft queue.  Since I went with the Brown Pelicans in the last post, figured it was only fair to give a little love to their white counterparts.
White Pelican Shot on Texas Birding Trip - November 2013

Unlike the Brown Pelicans in the Texas region, American White Pelicans are not year round inhabitants.  They migrate down from the colder regions to bask in the sun like the rest of us heat seekers.  Thanks to Robert who was giving birding talks at the South Padre Island Birding and Nature Center, Linda and I now know an interesting fact.  White Pelicans are the largest birds in the region … when they are down there.  When they migrate back, the Brown Pelican inherits the top of the size chart.  In jest, that tidbit became our mantra for the rest of the trip repeated at every sighting of the Pelican.  This was generally prompted by Linda who basically doubled her bird knowledge thanks to that informative comment from the local bird authority.   If we had more time we might have taken Robert up on one of his birding talks – seemed like he was up on his aviary facts and the details on what all the local restaurants were doing for New Year’s.

White Pelican Shot on Texas Birding Trip - November 2013

Since the Whites are pretty common here in the Midwest I didn’t spend a lot of time getting new shots in the tin – just took a few that I thought were interesting.  Wish I could tell you where we took these, but my memory is failing me at the moment – these were taken back in November 2013.  My guess is somewhere in the Galveston area or possibly off the shore in the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge.  That is the downsize of having such a backed up photo queue and an aging brain.

White Pelican Shot on Texas Birding Trip - November 2013

Before I let you go, it might be worth mentioning that neither one of these two White Pelicans were breeding – neither one are sporting the large knob that protrudes off the top of their bill (about 2/3rds the way down) signifying they are a breeding adult.  Admittedly a crappy picture, but you can see what it looks like in a previous post (link here).  Also note, the more dusky one in the back is likely a juvenile.

Just a quick post today folks, catch you again real soon.

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How Now Brown Pelican

It’s another day of playing catch up here at Life Intrigued.  In the same pattern as the last post, this one comes from the draft queue – Yeah, I’m taking the easy way out but I’m dragging today having completed my first outdoor hill room of the young year.  Only ran a little over 6 today, but it was a struggle thanks to all the black ice that was doing its best to put me on my ass.  Only lost traction a couple of times, but the required shorter stride only added to the burden.  I still miss being in Texas a few weeks ago, so to help bring back some fond memories, going with another post from our November 2013 trip.

KK

These shots were taken at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge in Austwell, Texas.  That was our target destination back in 2013 and more of a side stop for this year’s trip down there.  Of course, we were down there for the chance to get the Whoopers (link here).  After that, everything else we got down there was just a bonus.  I already had the Brown Pelican from the Ft Myers trip (link here), so no +1.
KK

Hit the jump to see a few more shots of the Brown Pelican.

Continue reading How Now Brown Pelican

The Horn of Alton

Greetings everyone from the Midwest Tundra.  In the midst of some bitter cold, sleet and snow at the moment in direct defiance of Never Colder’s who are still crying from the loss of their precious hockey stick graph.  Don’t you hate it when the data doesn’t align to the narrative.  Speaking of crying, anyone see the last press conference by Bumbles this week.  Let’s see, it is the press’s fault, no wait, it is the talk radio pundit’s fault, nooooo I remember now, it was the Ruskies fault for exposing a rigged DNC nomination process, collusion with the mainstream media, forcing CNN to give Hillary pre-debate questions and for brainwashing the Hillary election committee to ignore fly over country – the sneaky bastards even hijacked Hildebeast’s speech and stuck the word deplorables in it.  Them be some sneaky cold war enemies.  Tell you what, let’s throw in some Bush blame and just give it to Hillary – that way, everyone will be happy. I couldn’t write better comedy if I tried.

How about we move to a count that can’t be debated.  My North American Bird Life List count has been incremented by one thanks to this lonely specimen.
Horned Grebe Shot near Alton IL 3/29/2014

Truth be told, I am jumping the gun just a bit here since my validator has yet to respond to my identification request.  Fortunately, this particular waterbird is pretty easy to identify.  Here’s a better angle that gives a good view of the key feature they are named for.
Horned Grebe Shot near Alton IL 3/29/2014

Hit the jump to see a few more pictures of this intriguing water bird.

Continue reading The Horn of Alton

A Horny Songbird

I received an email from my brother Ron yesterday regarding an email highlighting a Harris’s Sparrow that was spotted at the Crabtree Nature Center.  It was recommended by the originator of the email to avoid scaring it away by standing INSIDE the WARM nature center and looking at the FEEDERS through window (my emphasis).  This, of course was met with great joy and in fact it was actually referred to as “Perfect” by Ron. This brought a big sigh from me when I read it.  I think we need a collective vote on this.  Should we add a new birding rule that disqualifies birds taken through a window at a nature center!?!  Please leave your votes in the comments and I’ll tally them up and make an official ruling.  In stark contrast, today’s post is featuring a bird that required me to drive out in the middle of the tundra, get out in single digit, wind howling weather and risk frostbite on the shutter finger to add this fine specimen to my North American Bird Life List.

Horned Lark shot North of Galesburg Feb 2014

Well, it might not have been the Tundra, but it was a single digit temperature day in the snowy countryside north of Galesburg, IL.  Oh, and I might not have been driving and I might have shot the bird from the car, but the window was down and it was still damn cold.  Ron’s email actually reminded me I could bird from the warmth of my house too – I have such a backlog of shoots I simply went back to February, 2014 and went virtually birding through my queue.  Linda and I were out that particular day hunting down a Snowy Owl (link here).  That was one awesome Valentine’s gift from my wife!  I wonder if Ron has a Snowy Owl yet… guessing not since that would require going out in the cold (ha).  I had already processed the Owl pictures, but remembered taking a few shots of a group of birds hanging out in the country roads.  It was  overlooked at the time due to the excitement of the Snowy.  During my formal pass through the pictures (yes, I’m finally up to February of 2014) the unique horns and coloring of those birds caught my attention.  Those feather horns make for an easy identification – I had a Horned Lark in the tin!   Sorry, let me restate – I had a +1 Horned Lark already in the tin!  How cool is that!?!
Horned Lark shot North of Galesburg Feb 2014
Admittedly, these are not the crispiest shot in my collection.  This is likely due to already having frostbite on my shutter finger from tracking that Snowy in 2.5 feet of snow.  The first shot is clearly the best of the three, but I included the shot from the back (above) and the shot from the side (below).  I like to give my readers a good perspective of the featured bird to provide people a better feel for each bird’s characteristics and help in the ID process.  Due to the very unique horn like features of this specimen the ID was a no brainer.
Horned Lark shot North of Galesburg Feb 2014
Unfortunately, I did not get a lot of pictures of this bird.  Linda was driving which meant every bird on the road was in danger for its life.  You can almost see the horror this specimen was experiencing in the expression in the first picture.  I haven’t seen that much fear on a bird’s face since that Snowy Owl was slaughtered on Linda’s Jeep window… and that Goose that got a feather shave from Linda’s fairway wood – seeing a theme here.  No fears this trip, no birds were harmed in the taking of these shots, promise. Better get to some facts.  First of all, they cover almost all of the US during the winter (odd since I never saw them before and haven’t really seen them very much since).  During courtship the female simulates a dust bath to win over a potential mate – apparently males get horny for dirty females.  If you thought I was going to pass up that joke you do not know me very well hehehehe,  The only other interesting tidbit is the gathers up pebbles, and such to place beside their nests.  This arrangement resembles a paved walkway … but Cornell notes they really don’t use it as such.  Cornell’s hypothesis is that it could be used to hold nesting materials in place during the construction phase.

All I got for you today – hoped you enjoyed this new bird to my list.  Wonder if Ron is noticing my bird count is in overdrive as of late?

A Forster’s Takes Its Tern

How’s it hanging out there.  Obviously we survived the first snow of the season but maybe just barely.  I did get to test my slide control skills coming down one of the larger hills on the way back from my run.  Not sure what was going on there, but my 4 wheel drive truck decided that the rear wheels wanted to race the front wheels down the hill.  Not a big issue for seasoned Illinois drivers – stay off the brakes, steer into the drift to get control and then accelerate out once you get it straightened out.  Easy peasy, but can get the heart a pumping if a car is coming the other way.  Good to get those control reminders out of the way during the early winter season.  By this morning, the snow was gone from the roads and just another day in the Midwest.

To help warm up the place, figured I’d throw up a post featuring a bird shot back in the summer months – June specifically..
Forster's Tern shot at Emiquon National Wildlife Refuge June 2013

Just not last June.  You should know me better than that by now.  These shots were taken back in 2013.  Trust me, if I could get these out quicker I definitely would.  Wish I could hire an intern to go through all my pictures after a shoot, weed out the crap shots and present me with the shots to take into the digital dark room.  You’d think a UB would do that for me… WAIT A MINUTE… something just triggered in my head.  Not sure I even posted the results of the UB competition this year.  Definitely need to get on that stat!  For now, let’s enjoy pictures of this lovely Forster’s Tern.

Truth be told, when I was shooting this bird down at Emiquon National Wildlife Refuge, I wasn’t sure what I was taking a picture of.  All I knew is there was one bird that “was not like the others” hanging out along the pier.

Forster's Tern shot at Emiquon National Wildlife Refuge June 2013

Hit he jump to see a couple more pictures of this cool Tern

Continue reading A Forster’s Takes Its Tern

My What Great Big Yellow Legs You Have

Welcome to December everyone!  I honestly cannot believe we are this deep in the year already.  Seems like a week ago we were prepping for the Halloween Trail and god knows where our warm temperatures went.  I had to bring out the running tights, stocking hat and mittens to make it through my recent runs without turning into an ice cube.  As depressing as the close of the year seems, the bright side of it all is we are under 50 days from a change in guard in our elected officials.  Trump isn’t even in office yet and already saved 1,000 jobs yet the socialist is already shouting to the press how disgusting that is – and they wonder why their asses hurt from the election.  I’m holding off on saying too much to give Trump at least a chance so let’s pivot back to a place that can at least give us memories of warmer times.

Greater Yellow Legs shot in Galveston, Texas in Nov 2013

That pile of feathers on stilts is a bit of an accidental find.  As with most of the birds as of late, this fine specimen was shot on our birding trip to Galveston, Texas.  I can’t express just how productive that trip has turned out to be.  It is hard to grasp just how many new birds were scored on that travel when in the heat of the hunt.  You are so focused on shooting anything that moves that you tend to lose track of what bird you were shooting the hour before.  Especially if there happens to be a secondary bird roaming in the same vicinity as a bird that immediately grabs your attention.  That is the exact case with this Greater Yellowlegs.  That prize bird has already made the blog spotlight (link here).

Greater Yellow Legs shot in Galveston, Texas in Nov 2013

Hit the jump to read a bit more about that Yellow find.

Continue reading My What Great Big Yellow Legs You Have

Trifecta Scores One

Welcome back everyone! Hope everyone had a good holiday and didn’t go too far overboard on eating.  Always a tough holiday for me since I have a bad habit of doing the math on what it will take to work off every dessert that I opt to enjoy.  You gotta splurge every once in a while otherwise all those workout sessions start being …well w o r k rather than an opportunity to enjoy some sweetness.  Been a busy holiday for me so decided to take a quick break and rest the legs – fingers were itching to do something, so brought up the WordPress dashboard and away we go.

Today’s post doesn’t feature one bird… not even two birds, rather THREE birds.  A true birding trifecta.  Let’s start with this pretty Heron.

Heron shot near Galveston, TX in November 2013

That my friends is a Tricolored Heron.  It was shot while on our Texas birding trip back in November 2013.  In fact, all three birds in this post were taken on that particular trip.  My apologies, but I cannot remember the exact location this one was taken at.  Maybe Linda can remember and let us know in the comments.  I do recall that there were a number of small channels that were being used by kayaks – possibly a state park.  Likely somewhere near Galveston.
Heron shot near Galveston, TX in November 2013

Hit the jump to read more about this bird as well as two other large waders.

Continue reading Trifecta Scores One

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

May your travels be safe and your family and friendships be strong

Wild Turkey shot on lot in Brimfield, IL

Sorry for the slightly soft pictures – only Turkey shots I had that were processed and haven’t already been featured on the blog.  These were taken by my feeders back in August 2015.  The mother hen would bring her offspring over for a morning snack.  To her credit, she kept a close eye on them and would hurry them to safety whenever she saw my camera pointed at them.
Wild Turkey shot on lot in Brimfield, IL

Happy Holidays!

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Score One for the Blotches

Welcome back everyone and since it is like an hour before midnight .. Happy Thanksgiving.;  Now that I am thinking about it, it might have been more appropriate to feature a post on those that probably don’t see the “Happy” of that day… the Turkey, but I’ve already featured them back in September (link here).  Instead, I’m going with Mr. and Mrs. Blotchy

Mottled Duck shot in Galveston Texas, Nov 2013

While processing the pictures from our Texas birding trip back in November 2013, I came across these shots.  At first I wrote them off as female Mallards … well, because just about all ducks with drab female coloring look like… female Mallards.  It can be as painful as trying to identify juvenile Sparrows if you do not get lucky enough to capture a nearby male.  While processing them in the digital darkroom I became quite intrigued.  For some reason they just didn’t look like the standard Mallard or any other female brown duck that has made their way through the darkroom in the past.   I guess for starters, they didn’t have the classic colored stripe on the wing. Then there was that small black splotch on the base of the bill.
Mottled Duck shot in Galveston Texas, Nov 2013

That prompted a visit to the reference bookcase.  Confirmed the wing stripe on the Mallard and sure enough no black splotch on the base of the bill ladies and gentlemen, this just might be a new check mark in the bird list!  It just so happens my brother Ron had recently brought up the topic of the Mottled Duck. Unfortunately, the reason escapes me – he might have gotten one in the tin on his trip to Ft Myers (went back in my emails and couldn’t locate a reference – Ron, if you remember please let us know in the comments).  Either way, I was super stoked to potentially  have one of my own so sent them off to Ron for validation.  He is a great reference whenever there are difficulties on the ID phase.  His assessment was a confirmation giving me another +1 for my list and ANOTHER +1 from my Texas trip.  That birding excursion is turning out to be a gold mine for new birds.  Sorry about taking so long to get these processed.

Mottled Duck shot in Galveston Texas, Nov 2013
Unfortunately, these were the only shots of these two Mottled Ducks in the lot.  This means we need to get to the facts like right now hehehe.  The Mottled is a dull relative of the Mallard which attributes to the similarities and my original incorrect ID assumption.  There really isn’t much else of interest on the Cornell site beyond the fact they typically pair up in November which is earlier than most ducks.  Seeing as how we were there in mid-November, these two must have been embarking on their honeymoon.  Lastly, if you are curious, Mottled simply means having different blotches of color.

Well, that’s all folks – hope you enjoyed my new addition to my bird list.  Now be safe on the roads if you are out and about on the big T-Day.  I can’t afford to lose any loyal readers.