Tag: Eastern Kingbird

Your Majesty…by Brad Marks

There I relaxed, lounging on my lawn chair sipping on a nice pour of well-aged bourbon (with an umbrella of course) while watching the beach themed screensaver playing out on monitors. White sunscreen paste on my nose, sandals at the ready and cheap sunglasses on. Life was good even though outside the Midwestern winter was raging in the wind aided teens. That’s before a call came in on the Intrigued bat signal line. What could possibly be so urgent on Thanksgiving night!! A quick check of the number confirmed it wasn’t our legal department so at least that fear was suppressed. Turns out it was our Quality Assurance department head and he was none too pleased. “What did I do now?” Through the sputtering and agitated speak I discerned something about being down a post from our monthly quota and putting our 10+ year record in jeopardy. He had seen my comment in the previous post about our staff taking some time off to be with the family over the holiday. I could see the floor through my tumbler and decided I was in no shape to remedy the situation. That’s when Brad said he would take care of it and already had a story in the queue. Someone just significantly padded his upcoming performance review ha. Soooo, I’m going to put another coating of sunscreen on and maybe resolve this empty tumbler tragedy while Brad takes the controls to bring you an adventure from Colorado.

Take it away Brad (and thanks for the assist!)…

Jan and I were winding down an April trip to Colorado when we found a free half-day on our hands.  We quickly consulted a map of the birding spots around north-central Colorado.  One of them had a dubious location (included a camp ground near an interstate), but since it was near where we were headed, Jan and I decided to give it a try.

When Jan and I arrived at the gate of St. Vrain State Park, there was a small guard shack.  The guard asked what we were doing there and we said we were trying to find some birds.  He gave us a doubting look and told us the entrance fee for camping.  I said we weren’t camping, just looking for some birds.  He could clearly see into the car and knew that we had no camping gear and didn’t intend to stay.  After a brief pause, I think he took pity on us and gave us a paltry amount as an entry fee (which may have been the actual fee).

At that point I had no idea where to go in the campground.  The guard suggested we may want to try the lake.  Great!  Where’s the lake?  We, OK I, stumbled around on the roads a bit until we found a parking lot near the lake.

Jan and I followed the well-maintained crushed gravel path three-fourths of the way around the lake (counterclockwise from the parking lot).  Even though we were two hundred yards from I-25, we could easily hear the traffic whizzing by.  Jan saw a flash flying into a green tree on a low branch.  Cameras at the ready we slowly crept up on our target.

Eastern Kingbird found by Brad and Jan Marks

Hit the jump to find out more about this rather dapper looking feathered find.

Continue reading Your Majesty…by Brad Marks

Here Comes the King

I am officially an owner of an empty shell of a body.  Tonight’s run was quite the struggle with the gas running out at the 2 mile mark.  Forced my way to a total of 8 miles but there were some dark side of the moon moments that made me think back to the last section of my Marathon.  Pretty much overdid it digging the trench yesterday.  Not good seeing as how I have a training run in the Quad Cities this Thursday evening prepping for the Bix 7 later in the month.  Tomorrow just might be a take it easy day (for the record, I HATE those days).  I promised another update today so broken body and all (ha), I’m here to serve.  Today I bring you a collection of shots of the Eastern Kingbird.

Eastern Kingbird shot on trip to Yellowstone Park - 5/2013

These first two were taken at Lake Andes in South Dakota.  We were passing through on our way to Yellowstone National Park back in May of 2013. The Eastern Kingbird happens to be one of those species that is easy to identify in the field… even if you are not a seasoned birder.  They have a fairly slim profile with a brilliant white underbelly up through the neck.  This contrast with the black overcoat (some say it wears a business suite) is easily recognizable from afar – especially when spotted in their preferred marshy habitat.  Similar to the Phoebes and Flycatchers, these birds put a serious hurt on the insect population wherever they roam.  Watch them for a bit and you will see them dart out from their perch, do some amazing acrobatic moves and return to their starting point with the fruits of their labor clinched tightly in their beaks (like in the shot above).

Eastern Kingbird shot on trip to Yellowstone Park - 5/2013

Oh, I should probably point out there is another easy way to identify them in the field.  If you check the shot above you will notice their tail feathers look like they were dipped in white paint.  This is usually my first identifying mark depending on the viewing angle.

Hit the jump to see a few more shot so the King.

Continue reading Here Comes the King

Project Chekov: Kingbird and Killdeer

Today’s featured bird was a bit of a surprise to me.  Linda and I were up in Baraboo, Wisconsin checking out the International Crane Institute and decided to tear ourselves away from the Cranes and take a little walk out on their trails.  Birders will never pass up the opportunity to check out the locals.  We quickly came to a marshy field with an abundance of cattails.  There were a few Red-Winged Blackbirds meandering about on the edges of the treeline, but not a whole lot of activity in the field itself.  At the time I thought this was a little strange thinking this would be a great spot to hang out if I had wings.  About that time I noticed what looked like a dark spot in the middle of the marsh.  Time to bring out The Beast.

Sure enough, it was a bird!  Without a lot of other options I decided to make the best of the situation.  This meant hand-holding an 8 pound glass on a bird that didn’t even fill up one focus point.  The fact that you can actually tell it was a bird is a miracle in itself.   I had to bring the subject in a little closer in the digital darkroom.

While processing the pictures it began to dawn on me this little excursion into the field may have yielded a new check on the ol’ birding list.  To the reference books!  Well, after going through a number of different options I landed on an Eastern Kingbird which .. wait for it… is indeed a new bird – yeah! (assuming it was classified correctly – feel free to weigh in with comments).

Hit the jump to continue reading about this interesting bird

Continue reading Project Chekov: Kingbird and Killdeer