Jan Marks – Page 3 – Wildlife Intrigued

Can you see me now?…by Brad Marks

Greetings from the southwest! Linda and I made it to Arizona yesterday and as expected, today was a birding extravaganza going +14 for the year including +3 lifers. (that puts me only 27 birds from being in the top 100 in the US yeah!!). Climbing foothills has pretty much wiped me out (with a tenderized ankle), so Brad is going to close out the month with an adventure in the complete opposite direction.

Take it away Brad…

As many of our readers know by now, Intrigued HQ sent Jan and I to review the European operations in January. We were able to spend many days with Allyson and check out many of the locations she had been editing from. Once we were back in the States, Jan was going through her e-mail backlog and found a deal from a hotel in South Carolina we’ve used before. After a few minutes checking, their claim proved the special deal was legit. Jan then remembered that she also had airline miles to use, so we booked a quick trip to Hilton Head Island, non-stop from our local airport (expense report pending). This time we would take the big glass along and not rely on our smartphones for everything. While that usually means our shoulders get a workout, we get far more usable photos in the end. For those of our readers that choose to fly with their big glass, please leave comments on how you protect/package it for flights, especially if you have to use regional jets like Jan and I do.

As the departure date approached, the temps in Central Illinois began to flirt with 0 degrees Fahrenheit, or -18C for our international readers. Central Illinois can get rather cold during February. I know, I know, you folks in Wisconsin and Minnesota always say we know nothing about cold. Anything below zero degrees Fahrenheit is cold. Period. Jan and I have chosen to escape to warmer parts of the country for a week (maybe longer next year if the Intrigued accountants will approve it) during February, just to thaw things out a little bit. Plus, our camera batteries last longer when the temps are above freezing, so do our fingers. Jan and I weren’t very worried about the temps as long as Hilton Head Island held up its end of the bargain and kept true to the differential we have come to expect, meaning 30-40 degrees warmer than Illinois in February. Well, Hilton Head Island held up its end of the bargain . . . mostly. Temps when Jan and I landed were near 40F, a tad chillier than we normally experience, but still 40 degrees warmer than Illinois. Not to worry, by the end of our stay, regular daytime temps at Hilton Head were approaching the mid 60’s.

For our first birding day on this trip, we decided to go a bit further south in hopes of catching just 5 more degrees, maybe even into the upper 40’s. Once the rental car was loaded with cameras, Jan and I drove to Savannah National Wildlife Refuge (SNWR) to see what we could see.

Laurel Hill Wildlife Drive (LHWD), a small part of SNWR, is a 4.5-mile “road” that meanders (their word from the brochure) through a small portion of the refuge’s freshwater impound system. Essentially, visitors drive in one direction on causeways and two-track roads through the marshlands (my words). Thankfully, temps did end up being about 5 degrees warmer, but that was all.

At our first repeat stop on LHWD from the prior year, about 0.5 miles in, there is a small pull-out area. Naturally, I parked the rental car (still trying to figure out how to expense the car on this trip) and started walking the grassy areas near the water. Remember when I said the temps were only in the 40’s? There was also a bit of wind that day making it hard to hold the camera still. That’s a good and bad thing. Bad because we were cold. It was certainly an experience to try to operate the camera controls with my gloves on. Good because alligators are also cold and very (to the third power, as in “very very very”) slow. Usually when the temps are this cold, they are busy sunning themselves (though it was cloudy and windy) and they really don’t want to waste precious heat energy chasing down photographers. After a few (hundred) clicks of the cameras for the few birds we could see, remember it was a bit breezy, Jan and I huddled up making a plan for our next stop. Really, we just wanted to go sit in the warm car for a few minutes. When all of a sudden, out of the corner of my eye, a clump of reeds near us moved.

These clumps are made for movin’
And that’s just what they did
One click of the jump, gonna reveal all to you (note, Brad is NOT responsible for this lame Sinatra reference)

Hoodie…by Brad Marks

Greetings folks! Linda and I are currently on the road and pointed westward. Unfortunately, some bad luck right out of the gate. Our travel planner (read Linda) planned this trip with dog show bookends. Ruger was supposed to run in a FastCat event (100 yd doggie dash) two days in. Just before departing, we find out they canceled that due to forecasted rain – too late for us to get our campground fees back. On the return leg, the boys had 5 days of shows at Purina Farms in Gray Summit, MO. Well, that place was hammered by a tornado a week before we left taking out most of their auxiliary buildings. So far Purina has just canceled the first 2 days of FastCat, but the Poodle Specialty is still on for the last 3 days (so far). Let’s hope the middle of this trip makes up for all the setbacks. Side note, per my previous comments on Las Cruces, NM, they just had a huge shootout there where 18 people were shot (3 killed) at an unauthorized car show. Shocked I tell ya, shocked. While we fill the freed up days and rethink our planned stops, Brad is going to take the reins and bring you a new adventure across the pond.

Take it away Brad…

Jan and I were in the middle of the western European Wildlife Intrigued office staff reviews. We decided to do a bit of digging. Deep digging. Below street level type of digging.

Modern day Rome is built on top of ancient Rome. And Ancient Rome was built on top of Even Ancienter Rome. Ad infinitum. Did you notice that I snuck in some Latin? Every time a business or building wants to expand, eventually digging has to start. When digging happens, precious artifacts are unearthed. Everything stops while the finds are identified, cataloged, valued, and carefully removed. Then digging with a toothbrush begins and the cycle repeats until there are no more artifacts in the way, or the project stops because it ran out of money, or a bit of both (see the Rome Metro expansion project news).

A bit of backstory before we get to the photos. Jan and I were in the final country of our six-country inspection tour. Technically, four were full-sized countries and two were micro-states (both were life goal destinations). Going through that many airports and passport checkpoints is not conducive to carrying a lot of expensive camera equipment. We made the choice on this trip to only use our smart phones (iPhone 16 PRO and Samsung Galaxy S22). I know, I know, there are limitations with using phones as cameras, mainly action and bird photography. Landscapes and candid portraits turn out pretty well. Bird photos or moving subjects . . . well, not quite as much. Downloading hundreds, nay thousands, of photos from an iDevice to a Windows device later . . . please don’t get me started. C’est la vie. É Cosi. Such is life. At least I didn’t have to adjust the timestamps on the photos from the phones. Back to the story.

Hit the jump to learn more about this featured foreign feathered friend!

Home Improvement…by Brad Marks

Becoming trite at this point, but we have once again blown right through another month. {Looks out window} Not seeing people flying off the planet, so I cannot place blame on an accelerated spin – time simply marches on (as a friend always reminds me, the alternative is not healthy). Truth is, I’ve been incredibly busy getting caught up from the winter migration and now prepping for the extended spring trip in a little more than 3 weeks. More importantly, Transworld is this weekend – not a fan of the name, but this is THE commercial haunt industry’s annual gathering in St. Louis (link here). While I clear space on the phone for oodles of pictures/videos and dig around in the Intrigued HQ couch cushions for spending capital, Brad is going to take you along on another adventure across the pond. See ya’ next month!

Take it away Brad…

Jan and I were on assignment to tour and inspect the Wildlife Intrigued offices scattered throughout Western Europe. The Intrigued corporate jet was unavailable, so we had to fly commercial (sure hope that touring superstar returns the jet soon so we can use it). After visiting for a few days with Jan’s cousins in England (yes, we did also that last Fall), Jan and I had the good fortune to be able to spend a week with the editing team in Barcelona, Spain. On our first non-travel day, Jan and I walked about a mile, gently uphill, through the friendly streets of Barcelona to Park Guell (see here), one of the largest green spaces in Barcelona. Originally, Park Guell was going to be a private residential development on a mountain outside of the city. The homes were to be designed by Antoni Gaudi (of Sagrada Familia Basilica fame, see here). As usual, location (quite a distance from then developing Barcelona in the mid 1800’s), financial troubles and lack of interest ended with only three spectacular dwellings being built. Only one of those buildings is occupied today as a private residence. Oh, and it’s for sale if you are interested.

Jan and I arranged an English-speaking tour of Park Guell. Incidentally, English is only the third most popular language spoken here, after Catalan and Spanish, we might be at a slight disadvantage as general tourists. We did find that nearly everywhere, the locals were more than willing to accept my twenty words of high school Spanish, and then quickly shift to speaking nearly perfect English for us. On another tour, our guide told us that children in Barcelona learn three languages from the very beginning of school: Catalan, Spanish and English. Once Jan and I arrived at the park, I heard at least a dozen different languages being spoken, English being the least heard. For the tour, Jan said we were supposed to look for purple jackets from the tour company. The purple should contrast nicely with all of the greenery around.

Monk Parakeets found by Brad and Jan in Barcelona, Spain

We see green flecks, hit the jump to learn more about our Spanish find.

Queen to Rook 4…by Brad Marks

Hi folks! I decided to make a change at the last minute and reorder our posts. After looking at the topics, decided the one I had worked up would align better to the upcoming smoochie holiday than the one that was scheduled to fall on said smoochie holiday. The original one didn’t seem the best fit symbolically, plague mask and all ha. Easy fix, just push that one to the front – you’ll understand as you get to the body of the post. This switch also gives me a chance to get fully caught up on the Average Year reporting. Managed to get all the previous years wrapped up (final charts, trip reports, etc. link here) and all the graphs updated for this year (link here). Still working on updating the trip reports, but now current up to at least 1/17/2025. Officially at 243 species for the year which is a great start! Enough about me, time to get you to Brad’s latest adventure – this one from across the pond (and possibly a catalyst for a new haunted trail theme).

Take it away Brad…

I’m never quite sure which order I will finish the stories for Wildlife Intrigued. Let me give you a brief setup before I begin. Jan and I were fortunate enough to be visiting her English relatives in England. We were staying with Jan’s cousin Louise and her husband Steve. Louise’s parents Margaret and John lived a few minutes away. The extended family, including pups Finn and Red, elected to take a 3-day holiday to Dorset on the coast of the English Channel. In October. The temperatures were about what you would expect being that far north on the globe. While there, we all decided to check out a few of the many seaside villages along The Channel.

Now to rejoin the rest of the story already in progress . . .

The sun was still hanging high in the sky when we arrived at Lulworth Cove in Dorset, southern England. I was amazed at how many people were seaside during October. Temps were in the 40’s F (or single digits Celsius) with more than a breeze but not quite a wind. Jan and I had just gotten out of the car and were walking to the seaside with her cousin Louise’s husband Steve and Louise’s mum Margaret (John elected to stay warm in the thatched cottage). Louise had taken the Jaaaaaaaaag (I didn’t’ use the appropriate amount of letter “a’s” in my prior story from England link here) to visit a friend who lived nearby in Dorset. That meant Steve was going to chauffeur us in the Land Rover because I don’t think the relatives were ready for my driving on the other side of the road yet.

Lulworth Cove is known for some unique geology and a protected beach with some very nice blue water. Obviously, no one was playing in the water except for a few seabirds. In fact, I was one of the very few people wandering along the sand at water’s edge. The scenery was magnificent. However, recent landslides onto the beach kept most visitors away from the base of the high cliffs.

We were all getting a bit chilly and decided to walk back through the shops on the way to the car park in hopes of finding a warm drink.

Soon enough, one of us had gone to look for a coffee. Jan had wandered away to look for me because I started looking for her. Steve, the smart one in the group, was holding the dogs (Red and Finn) waiting for all of us to wander back to the car park. After all, he had the keys to the Land Rover.

Waiting for the group to coalesce again, I noticed this black bird sort of stalking the passersby.

Quite Nevermorish eh!?! Hit the jump to read more about this eerie bird.

Ready for My Close-up…by Brad Marks

Welcome to February everyone! Well, as of last Saturday, we are officially back home – our winter southern migration has come to an end. Thankfully, Ol’ Man Winter took pity and welcomed us back with rather nice weather – at least for this time of the year in the Midwestern tundra. Have to say I am rather exhausted from our extended southern stay. Not sure if that is the results of daily nonstop birding or having to haul this damn boat anchor around ..while daily nonstop birding. Need to take a few days to recover and start getting everything back in order from the trip – emails to read (6,600 to be exact), transfer all the photos to NAS (727G worth) and a host of other things sure to numb the mind. One bright spot to mention, I made it to 12th on the top 100 Texas Birders list and shockingly 79th on the top US Birders list! The former will fall now that we have left that great state, but we can continue to work on the overall stats (work being code for I’ll continue birding as normal and just check in from time to time to see where I happen to be ha). While I get things back in order, Brad is going to take the helm and bring you an outing from a MUCH warmer time.

Take it away Brad…

After Brian and I successfully completed the world’s first ever International Warbler Watch and Walk in the Woods or IW4 (link here), I spent a morning with my friend, Ray, in his back yard. Ray’s photography style specializes in his kids, and close-up photos of nature. He has dozens of projects going on simultaneously and occasionally, just occasionally, I can get him to “focus” long enough for a photo walk in the woods. In reality, the walk was mostly in the wooded ravine in his back yard. The general area where we both live is on the edge of a bluff overlooking the Illinois River. Most of the houses are surrounded by ravines and woods full of wildlife, both furred and feathered. Wooded lot lines get all confused when ravines are involved, which is a polite way to say we wandered a bit.

Hit the jump to read more about our ravine wanderings.

Open Wide…by Brad Marks

First off, let’s welcome Brad and Jan who are now safely back from assignment across the pond. Can’t wait to read about all their finds in future posts.

As for us, we are officially out of the Rio Grande Valley now and technically on the homeward phase of our southern migration. Currently outside San Antonio at one of my favorite parks in Texas, Guadalupe River State Park. Unfortunately, it is rainy and cold but far “birdier” than expected – added 11 birds for the year here so far, which officially puts me over 200 species for this year’s Average Year. (link here). Right on par with my 2023 high water mark and well above last year’s 325 mark. Now 2/3rds of the way to the 300 goal and we haven’t even made it out of the first month. Best part is we continue to meet wonderful people from near and far. Before I forget, I need to apologize to the couple from Canada I met today as I accidentally gave them a bad ID. Somehow a Downy Woodpecker I was tracking in a nearby tree secretly swapped in a Ladderback WP when I was distracted. Just noticed the error when I was reviewing my shots – Downy, Downy, hot mess of twigs, Downy, crappy shot of a tree trunk, Downy, Downy, Ladderback WTH hehehe. Sorry about that. Ironically, the Merlin Photo ID functionality I was showing you at the time was correct (to the rest of the fine people conversed with on today’s hike, no other errors were discovered ha).

While I catch up on the techy birding paperwork and start drawing up this year’s stretch goals for the staff, going to turn you over to Brad to update you with another assignment from across the pond.

Take it away Brad…

No, this isn’t about dentists, so you can all relax — this won’t hurt a bit.

Jan and I had the recent fortune of being able to visit with her English relatives in, where else, England. The extended family (Jan’s cousin Louise and her husband Steve, Louise’s mum Margaret and dad John, the pups Finn and Red, and Jan and I) decided to take an October holiday. We stayed in a thatched roof cottage in Dorset near the English Channel. During one of the “warmer” days (upper 40’s Fahrenheit) most of us took a trip seaside (John elected to stay warm in the cottage). In October you ask? Yes, why not.

All of us enjoyed the trip through the English countryside (via the C-roads) to Lyme Regis on the coast of the English Channel. For those unfamiliar with C-roads across the pond, think of a very narrow single-lane road lined with tall hedge sprouting from the edge of the pavement. I forgot to mention, there is still two-way traffic on a C-road. Steve was driving, thankfully, (not quite sure they trust my driving on the other side of the road yet after the sunroof incident) and secured one of the eight parking spaces near the beach. Once Steve paid the small fee to park the car (I didn’t have any of the English parking apps on my phone), we started a stroll along the beach. Remember, this is taking place in October in England. That means the words “beach” and “shivering “will most likely appear in the same sentence.

Lyme Regis is known for many things, but the most recent famous fact anyone can recall is Mary Anning’s discovery of the first plesiosaur skeleton in 1823. At the time, women simply didn’t do archeology (Jurassic thinking, by the way) so her work was largely dismissed by the establishment. Oh sure, the establishment took the credit. However, none of the credit made it to Mary until after her passing. She also discovered the first known pterosaur (later to be called a pterodactyl) outside of Germany. Mary pioneered the study of coprolites (fossilized poo). Sort of poetic with the times she lived in, don’t you think?

The area around Lyme Regis has become known as the Jurassic Coast.

European Herring Gull found by Brad Marks

Hit the jump to learn about some Gully behavior.

Two in the Bush…by Brad Marks

Welcome to 2025 everybody!! Admittedly, I am now officially 0 for 2 in actually getting the date right, but don’t worry, the year is still young…there will be plenty more mistakes ha. The Intrigued holiday break is officially past and those not already assigned to the field are back in the office, stoking the fireplaces, cleaning up after the raucous year end party and based on the last weather report, shoveling the parking lot and salting the walkways. Fortunately, Linda and I are getting ready to enjoy the sun-soaked days of South Padre Island. Birding has been excellent so far including some very successful chases to pad the 2024 Average Year (not updated, link here) and getting the 2025 version off to a great start. Best of all, we have met some extremely kind and helpful birders on our trip down here! A big thank you and shoutout to Tim, Q, Tom, Tonya and Arthur – best of luck on your 2025 birding goals. While I dig out the sunscreen and finish up all the 2024 paperwork (hope I didn’t leave all those staff expense reports in the fireplace, wink), Brad is going to bring you a few finds from Sin City.

Take it away Brad…

As Brian has stated many times over the years, he has quite a backlog of photos to process and write stories about. I’m nowhere near his backlog levels. Even if I am, it’s only because of the grueling travel schedule Intrigued HQ has Jan and I on this year. Looking back through the queue of stories, I found this one that I had started, but had “misplaced” and not taken the time to finish. This story is from our trip to Las Vegas during September 2023.

In the afterglow of seeing a Desert Tortoise (see here) in Red Rock Canyon outside of Las Vegas, Jan and I decided to drive to the Willow Springs Picnic area to see the Petroglyph Wall.

We arrived at the park late in the day, after 4:30pm. Shadows were long in the canyon. We weren’t hopeful of seeing many desert birds. The shadows also helped reduce the desert temperature to a comfortable range while standing outside of the air-conditioned rental car. Early Fall can be quite warm in the desert. Forget about that “dry heat” nonsense, hot is hot. While we did see a few musings carved in the stone at the Petroglyph Wall, that wasn’t the really interesting part.

As Jan and I walked further up the trails and into the shadows in the canyon, we were cranking up the ISO as we went. Our cameras (replaced with the next model since writing this story, they did each have over 200K clicks on them) were most effective up to about ISO 3200, but past that it’s really an iffy proposition to get publishable photos. As it was, I thought I was stretching the cameras to the max with high ISO, aperture as wide as the lens would allow and a slower shutter speed than I would like to be using. Nikon’s Vibration Reduction (VR) helped a bit, but not nearly enough to keep the other settings low enough to catch spastic little birds in the scrub brush.

Sure enough, there were two little birds teasing us mercilessly. These LBJ’s lived there and probably knew our cameras were being taxed. Both of them were within feet of the ever-darkening trail. Each would flit to the outside of their respective bush/shrub, pause for about 1/250^th of a second, and then bury themselves in the dark interiors again.

Bewick's Wren found at Red Rocks Canyon Conservation Area by Brad Marks

Hit the jump to read more about these very active finds.

Pfffffft…by Brad Marks

We are officially on our winter migration south… by way of north. We had Linda’s family Christmas gathering in Des Moines, IA and decided to simply start our trek to Texas directly from there. We had a great time with family, but I keep forgetting what a pain winterized RVing is. Mr. Freeze decided to give us a final reminder of what we were going to miss as the temps dove back down into the teens while there (link here). We looked like the kid from A Christmas Story all layered up in half our packed Texas wardrobe ha! Finally made it below freezeline today, completely de-winterized and life is good beyond this stupid boot I’m lugging around. While we continue defrosting our toes, Brad is going to take the controls and bring you something completely new to Intrigued. I am sure you are going to enjoy it to the very “fin”.

Take it away Brad…

It’s early morning during the second half of our Alaska photo assignment. The first week was a land tour of the vast wilderness. The second week was on a giant cruise ship heading south (I can get seasick if not chewing Dramamine like Smarties). By this time in our journey south Jan and I are used to running to the cabin door to listen to the Captain’s general and wildlife announcements. On this particular ship, we weren’t able to hear through the cabin door very well. We heard the usual mellifluous ascending tones bing-bing-bing-bing (please use your musical imagination here), but an a rather unusual time. Ship’s time was just past 8am and the Captain didn’t usually make announcements until later in the morning. Jan ran to the door to try to catch the message.

“ . . . has been spotted . . . “

We both looked at each other wide eyed.

“ . . . off the starboard . . . “

Jan and I grabbed both cameras and headed for the door.

“ . . . about 100 yards ahead of the ship . . . ”

We are now running down the hall, trying to strap on the 9-pound cameras to keep them from bouncing too much. The elevators were backed up, we again looked at each other and ran down three flights of stairs.

“ . . . it is swimming about 50 yards to starboard . . . “

Jan and I end up on the 7^th deck and quickly figured out which way was starboard.

As we stepped outside . . . nothing.

During a presentation the night before in the main theatre aboard ship, The Ship Naturalist Robert Raincock (find him here or here) aboard the ship said to listen for the Pfffffft. This is what the noise sounds like when Orca, or whales in general, expel warm moist air from their lungs as they break the surface of the water. Remember kids, whales are mammals, not fish. Not having a whale to watch, we listened.

Then we heard it . . . “Pfffffft! Both of our cameras ran at the maximum frames per second they could muster.

Whoa, that ain’t no Dolphin, hit the jump to reveal the source of that sound!

Holy Tourist Batman…by Brad Marks

Greetings everyone! Woke up today to an unexpected white wonderland – I really need to take better heed of the weather forecasts! Not being able to spend as much time outside this season, my cold conditioning has been lagging. Just the other day I received a letter in the mail from the RAU threatening a lawsuit for “Neglect and Unbecoming Behavior”. Dropped it off at our legal department to add to the “pile” (don’t ask). Upon inquiry, learned that the RAU is the Runner’s Apparel Union that, news to me, my cold weather running wardrobe had recently unionized under. They are pissed that they haven’t been used once this winter and noticed we were already packing for our trip south. They will need to take that up with my ankle doctor. While I get things straightened out with the disgruntled closet, Brad is going to bring you an adventure from across the pond (what expense report ha).

Take it away Brad….

Wildlife Intrigued sent Jan and I on an international birding assignment to Merry Olde England. The expense report is still pending. I think Legal is holding it up because they are jealous, they weren’t allowed to go. Can you blame HQ after the photocopy incident last time they were given responsibility?

On one of our free mornings, Jan’s cousin Louise offered to take us to Rutland Water Nature Reserve (RWNP) to see some birds. How could we refuse? The morning started out misty and cloudy, a typical English morning you’re thinking. However, in our experience, a very small percentage of mornings actually start this way. The movies have us all thinking that England, or more specifically London, is full of dark and gloomy places shrouded in a thick fog; best keep that brolly handy. Jan and I have made a few trips across the pond, and in the 70+ days we’ve spent there in total, only 2-3 have been truly rainy or the type of weather we needed a Mackintosh or Wellies after your morning cuppa.

After breakfast, Louise said she would drive. I was secretly relieved because while I am able to drive on the wrong, er, left side of the road, I’m not as confident as I need to be on the narrow hedge-lined roadways. Instead of driving the tiny European rental car (I could barely fit my normal U.S. sized feet under the dashboard to work the pedals), we rode to RWNP in style in a Jaaaaag (hoping the increased amount of “a’s” help with the proper pronunciation). Once we secured a spot in the car park, I put Jan’s camera together first. Then she and Louise headed off to the visitor center. I finished my camera, put the strap around my shoulder, and shut the boot on the Jaaaaag. As I wandered up the trail, I saw Jan snapping away at something sweetly singing in the shrubbery. But, as usual, by the time I got there it was gone.

Hit the jump to read more about this spiffy looking bird from across the pond.

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.

	Brad M on Who is that Masked Bird?…
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