Tag: Mottled Duck

It’s Baby Month!

After quite a trek, I am glad to say we have successfully made it back home from our Florida field trip. We ended up having to come home two days early due to the weather situation in the Midwest. Looking at the forecast, we noticed a big snow event that was planned for last Friday night thru Sunday morning and then another round coming in on the following Monday/Tuesday. Driving the RV through that is not enjoyable, especially when pulling another vehicle. As mentioned in the last post, we decided to try to get back between the white goal posts and opted to hard press it so we could get back by Sunday night. Big thanks to Linda who drove the entire way while I tried to navigate through the weather cells and hordes of holiday travelers. I would be feeling pretty great if I wasn’t staring down a new crown scheduled for tomorrow – damn I hate dental procedures ugh.

Anyway, we are home and we are officially in the last month of the year. In honor of the well-celebrated birthday towards the end of this month, we’ve declared it Baby Month where we are going to try and feature as many wildlife offspring we can find in our queues. To start us off we are going with a double feature.

Young Brown Thrasher found at Shell Mounds on Dauphin Island in April 2023

Hit the jump to enjoy more shots of wild “babies”.

Continue reading It’s Baby Month!

Just Birds

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.

A feathered friend found on Arizona trip in January 2024

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.

Continue reading Just Birds

Leaps, Jeeps and Misfits

Every four years we are granted and extra calendar day to attempt getting all the crap done we’ve procrastinated on since the previous gift of 24 hours. We’ve come to that charity point and I sit here staring at all the things on my to-do list wondering just how long ago each of those items were added. Each comes with a progression of analysis honed over the many years in the corporate grind – does it really need to be done, does it actually have to be done now, is there something more important that delivers greater benefit, is it still as critical as it was when the item was added, is it really independent or it is preceded by another task on the list (or worse, not even there), is it too daunting and needs to be broken into subtasks and more important than all, what kind of trouble will I get into from Linda if I delay any longer. Scan the list, re-prioritize, rearrange, prune some, add some, stare at it, flip some coins…screw it, let’s have some fun and write a post!

Want to give Brad a little bit more time to process all the tins from his recent adventure, so spent some time going through the recently processed shots from our Texas 2023 snowbird migration- you have probably noticed the heavy emphasis on that January trip as of late. What could we feature in celebration of this Leap Year. Then I jumped over to see Jet’s latest post and she absolutely Caarussshed it (link here)! All of my Bunny shots have been used and the only other good option was a Leopard Frog I took several years back – pretty lame. Maybe I could get “close”

Ladies and gentlemen, would you accept Jeep Year!?! Unfortunately, I should have been working on this years in advance to have a nice collection of shots to use (like it says right there on my to-do list ha). As a substitute we are going with a Free-For-All clear out of the (mostly) Texas one-offs. Put your seatbelts on and hit the jump for a joy ride.

Continue reading Leaps, Jeeps and Misfits

Scares and Calms

Apologies to my wildlife readers. It has been a while since I’ve had the chance to feature one of our feathered friends. It’s not that I haven’t been busy – in fact just the opposite. Decided it was time to bring you a little haunt for February – screw you mushy and smoochie Valentine’s Day, we scare aficionados are putting our zombie masks on and shuffling all over this shortened month. Thanks to many hours (and days) later the full Haunted Trail of Tears 2019 series was released. If you want to know how we do Halloween … wait.. how about Februween … then take a gander at the tour posts. Warning check your fears at the door ha!

Hoping that didn’t scare your feathers up. Maybe a therapy duck will help calm the nerves.

Mottled Duck found at South Padre Island Birding and Nature Center December 2016

There now, breathe in, breath out while staring at the purdy duck. Immerse yourself in the warm comfort brought by the tranquil waters of the Texas Gulf Coast. By the way, let me know if that worked to calm your nerves – I’ll pick me up a bunch of Mottled Ducks and hit our local ICU and pay it forward for the great therapy dogs they let Linda enjoy while she was up at Mayo. If there is any chance of convincing a hospital director to let me bring a duck into their establishment, it better be clean. Of all the ducks I’ve come across I think the Mottled might have the best chance. I’ve never seen one of these specimens that didn’t look like it came straight from the salon.

Mottled Duck found at South Padre Island Birding and Nature Center December 2016

Hit the jump to learn about my new business idea!

Continue reading Scares and Calms

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.