Tag: Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Preserve (RMANWP)

Singin’ in the Sunshine…by Brad Marks

It is a big week for me. The first phase of my medical “bad boy” sentencing is up this Thursday! Fingers crossed everything looks good so I can transition into the next term consisting of a walking boot and physical therapy. I cannot wait to be at least semi-mobile again. Before the good advice comes pouring in, Linda already gave me the “treatment” yesterday at dinner. {With a stern look that would be truly forbidding to those less conditioned to it hehehe} “Now, you know what to do the next time you think you turned your ankle in a race RIGHT!?!” “Yes” I proudly responded without a moments hesitation “..not tell you about it!”. She may seem flabbergasted, exhausted, disappointed and claws out ready to pounce, but deep down inside she knows me better than that (and still agreed to marry me – crazy eh!). Honestly, I will try to be more careful – these last couple of years have been rough on the body. While I mentally prepare for what is going to be some brutal first therapy sessions, going to let Brad take you with him on another Colorado adventure. Oh, Brad’s suspicions were correct, I just finished processing almost all the tins of the 2024 birding season (over a terabyte). Just have a quick trip to Colorado to get through from last September and then I’ll be current to this year!!

Take it away Brad…

At Wildlife Intrigued, most of the photography team (OK, Brian and I) have a backlog of photos as you might expect.  Brian’s backlog is an order of magnitude greater than my backlog, though I suspect with his upcoming ankle “upgrade” he’s going to have lots of time to sort through photos.  Writing a story isn’t necessarily a linear event.  Oh sure, I could go back to the oldest photos and start from there.  However, sometimes a story just sings to me and keeps working its way through my brain until my fingers hit the keyboard.  Voila!  A story is born.  Stories are usually not published, or written, in sequential order either, meaning that back-to-back stories published on Wildlife Intrigued come from different assignments on different years.  That’s my story and I’m sticking with it.

As Jan and I neared the exit of the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Preserve (RMANWP) Wildlife Drive we began to notice the large bison fences.  In reality, I’m not sure these wire fences would stop a determined bison from going where it darn well wanted to go.  Growing up, there was a farm near us that had exotic animals on it, including a camel (one hump), an ostrich, and a very small herd of bison.  Did you know that bison are extremely agile despite their large size?  One evening, at my parent’s dining room window we heard a loud snort.  Glancing up, there was a large bison looking straight into the first story window.  The large furry face stared at us for a few seconds before something off to the side caught its attention.  The bison was off like a shot because two people on horseback were chasing after it.  We were later told the chase lasted several minutes until the bison decided it was tired and hungry.  Once the bison neared the 5-foot-tall fence marking its home, it simply leaped over the fence, in stride, back to its normal corral and began quietly munching on a big bowl of bison chow.  Problem sorted.  That’s when I learned how agile and strong these animals are.  Important safety tip from the National Park Service:  Don’t pet the fluffy cows.

Back to the previously scheduled story.

Today’s feathered friend is not new to Intrigued.  You may have seen today’s featured guest before here.  The prior story is from nearly the same location, just a few miles closer to the mountains of Colorado than I am today.

Sitting on the top wire of the bison fence was this guy, or girl, I’m not really sure.  Unless a pair is sitting side by side, the subtle color differences are not as obvious.  Males can have slightly brighter, or more vibrant, yellow coloring, some might say “lemon” colored.  The black “necklace” may also be darker or more sharply defined.  Not seeing another one nearby for comparison, I’m sticking with my original assessment. 

Western Meadowlark found by Brad Marks

Hit the jump to read more about this winged lemon with a dagger of a bill.

Continue reading Singin’ in the Sunshine…by Brad Marks

Is that Bird Wearing a T-Shirt?…by Brad Marks

It is ironic that most of the time here I am complaining about how fast the year is progressing, but now that I wouldn’t mind the minutes rolling by more rapidly…it seems like everything has slowed to a crawl. Such is fate I guess. Actually this is a good week at Intrigued. Brad and Jan have wrapped up everything related to the annual St. Jude charity run and on their recovery phase, Home Depot FINALLY released this year’s Halloween offerings yesterday (at 5am) and tomorrow my stitches come out. Fingers crossed that leads to better night’s sleep! It also officially marks the halfway point for the 6 week no-weight segment. Looking back I have to applaud myself for being the “good” patient (got a lot of people ready to drop the hammer on me if I don’t) and looking forward, well, “holy hell, get me out of here”. Thankfully there are plenty of pictures to process, Halloween props to wire, haunt tutorials to make and posts to keep my eyes off the clock. Speaking of all things haunt, a curious reader brought to our attention that we missed the post quota last month (we have some demanding readers ha) – turns out they missed my 2024 tombstone review on the Mothership (Boy’s Got Some Stones link here). Feel free to take a look if you are curious how those turned out. While I mentally prepare for thread being pulled out of my ankle, please enjoy another adventure from Brad and Jan.

Take it away Brad…

Jan and I first saw this bird at the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Preserve (RFNWP) a couple of years ago.  However, one of my rules for publishing photos is that the image must be usable if I have to resort to severe cropping.  I am always saying, “I don’t want a 6-pixel image of a backlit dark object.”  Well, with our new cameras, that may have increased to a minimum 60-pixel image.  But still, who wants to look at dark fuzzy thing on the screen and try to guess what it is.  With my years of experience photographing wildlife (all couple of years of it), I don’t even try for those photos any longer.  Not taking them saves time sorting and editing later as well as saving clicks on my camera shutters.  That 250k mark on the shutter assembly rolls around quickly enough as is.

On our semi-annual Wildlife Intrigued Rocky Mountain editorial staff visit with our daughter Allyson, Jan and I went to the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge (RMANWP).  One of the perks of visiting is that we get to use her Honda CR-V to drive all over the place while she is working her primary job.  RMANWP is a very large park at nearly 16,000 acres.  The park is large enough to have an 11-mile, mainly square-shaped, Wildlife Drive embedded within it, plus a couple of miles of road on either end.  Visitors enter the one-way Drive by crossing a set of bison guards embedded in the road and then driving anti-clockwise around the Drive.  For those not familiar with a bison guard, or cattle guard, it is a series of horizontally mounted rails or pipes embedded over an empty space in the roads.  The theory, and reality, being that hooved animals will not want to cross the guard; therefore, no actual gates are needed over the roadway.  This means easy access for vehicles while keeping livestock inside, or outside depending on which way you are travelling.  Fencing is obviously required up to the edge of the gates in the roads and beyond.

At the end of the 11-mile wildlife drive, just before the final set of bison guards in the road, a dark object flew through the sky and landed in a tree less than 50 feet from us.  Since it was far larger than 60 pixels, Jan and I wanted to begin taking photos.

Swainson's Hawk found by Brad and Jan Marks at Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge

Now what do we have here, hit the jump to learn more about this spiffy looking Hawk.

Continue reading Is that Bird Wearing a T-Shirt?…by Brad Marks

P-Dogs a-Plenty…by Brad Marks

Down three posts and coming to the end of July. You are likely going to get some rapid fire posts in large part thanks to Brad, as I am still working through the first phase of the ankle surgery recovery – I thought I would be keyboard warrioring it over the entire 5 week no-weight period, but so far, still getting adjusted to this boat anchor. Once simple tasks are turning out to be a test of my strength and/or will. I did absolutely laugh out loud the other day (something I needed). Last year I ran my last Bix7 road race putting a cap on 20 straight years of toeing that line (link here). Linda relayed a funny scene she witnessed when had made it to the top of the Brady Street hill (she opts for the walker option). A lady and her ~7yr old kid had just made it to the top near her when she noticed the kid was basically balling. The mother notices and responds “I am sorry, I didn’t prepare you mentally, physically or spiritually to make it up that hill”. I’ve been meaning to write a story on the mothership about this scene as it is shockingly antithetical to the manner in which Linda, my brothers and I were raised. That quote has been attached to my monitor ever since then. And there I was, leaning on my crutches looking down at the 6 inch ledge to our shower. That quote had a completely new and profound meaning hehehehe! Tasks are getting easier each day – dealing with this mentally for another 5 weeks is going to be tough. While I push through, Brad is going to “Let the Dogs Out (who?, who?, who?)”.

Take it away Brad…

For regular readers of Wildlife Intrigued, at first this story will seem like a departure from the norm, meaning no feathers.  When you see what I have in store for you, forgiveness may be in order.  Wildlife Intrigued does include all types of wildlife, feathers or not.

Jan and I were visiting the Wildlife Intrigued Rocky Mountain editorial staff (our daughter Allyson) when we found ourselves with a half day to spare.  Shhh, don’t tell the bosses.  A quick review of available birding locations revealed an obvious choice not very far from the hotel where we were staying.  Nice save going birding in our free time, don’t you think?  The other advantage of having a half-day free is that we could use our daughter Allyson’s Honda CR-V while she was working.  It sure is nice to have the younger generation working to help support the older, newly retired, generation.  Truthfully, other than camping or ski trips on weekends, her car does not get used very often and it seemed to enjoy being out on the road. 

For those that aren’t familiar with the 2004-2006 model year Honda CR-Vs, they have built-in picnic tables as the floor of the cargo area.  This is one of the best features EVER offered in a car for active people.  Once you are at a camp site, picnic site, or ski mountain base parking lot, and have most of the cargo area unloaded, simply remove the cargo floor, extend the legs, and Voila!  Instant picnic table.  There is also a hole in the middle of the table if you have an umbrella (sold separately) for sunny locations.  I’ve told the Honda people they are losing sales to younger buyers because they took this feature out in 2007.  Honda, if you are reading this, put the picnic table back in the CR-V.

OK, back to the regularly scheduled story.  After driving for about a dozen miles and only getting lost once or twice (not quite sure about map apps sometimes) we found our destination:  Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Preserve (RMANWP).  Yes, even the acronym is a mouthful.  I know, the “arsenal” doesn’t conjure up images of cute furry or feathered things.  However, that’s exactly what Jan and I found, at least the small furry kind.  I’ll try not to overload our dear readers with cuteness.  Fair warning:  If you are susceptible to cute-furry overload, please only read between the photos.

Prairie Dogs found by Brad and Jan Marks

We are serious, if you are overly sensitive to cuddly wildlife images…do NOT hit the jump … something tells me you are going to do it anyway ha!

Continue reading P-Dogs a-Plenty…by Brad Marks