Tag: Rose-Breasted Grosbeak

Building Team Intrigued…by Brad Marks

Howdy everyone! Just got back from attending the Midwest Region Haunt Convention up in Chicago with Ron and “partner in haunt” Brad S. (yes, I have lots of friends that happened to be named Brad ha). This was our first time attending this Halloween themed gathering and it was a BLAST. Got to see some of my heroes in the industry, try out new props/gadgets/mechanisms, take in all the attendees in costumes (a shocking amount of them) and most of all, came back with a ton of new ideas to add to our own haunt this year! Pretty exhausted from hours of walking around the exhibits and the long car ride up and back. Was getting ready to write up a post and realized Brad had sent me on our latest corporate outing. Let’s go with that while I test a quick rest from the trip.

…take it away Brad.

In the middle of May, Brian suggested we have an Intrigued team building event.  The entire staff of photographers and writers was invited.  No, there weren’t any rope courses, trust-falls, tug-o-war events, or overpaid motivational speakers.  We did talk extensively about the Legal department and how much copier paper they had been using lately.  It was Brian’s day off from intensive training for an upcoming ultra-event.  I think the next event is “only” a 50k trail run.  I’m working up to 10-15 miles on my bike and mowing my 1-acre lawn, only using the self-propelled feature for mowing up the hills.  I did my best to keep up with Brian on the trails in the deep woods at Jubilee College State Park.  We are both, after all, retired.

We met early in the morning at Intrigued HQ and drove the corporate Jeep (the corporate motorhome was out for cleaning and it wasn’t far enough away to use the corporate jet) to the north entrance of Jubilee State Park.  This entrance is mostly used by people camping and riding their horses over miles of trails.  The sky was clear and blue, not a cloud to be seen.  The trees were sporting their full leafage (is that a word?) and blocking our view of most of the birds. 

Brian parked the Jeep (skipping the valet service) and we began assembling our cameras.  It was an honor to be in the presence of The Beast, Brian’s Nikon 200-400mm lens.  Normally, I use a monopod to hold up my nearly 9 lb. (8 lb. 12 oz.) camera/lens combination (D300 with battery grip and Nikon 200-500mm lens).  I believe that I end up with better results taking gravity out of the equation.  But for the team building event, I decided to hand-carry the camera by the lens foot.  Of course, I had the camera strap wrapped around my wrist as a failsafe.  Brian hand-carries the much heavier combo of The Beast and his camera (8 lb. 15 oz.) all the time.  In other words, we both carried a full gallon of milk (or your favorite almond/soy substitute) plus a glass or two, all day.  (By the way, employees of Wildlife Intrigued all use Nikon cameras and lenses.  If anyone from Nikon wants to talk sponsorship for the shameless plugs above, please contact our Legal Department.  You may have to leave a message because they are probably out buying more copy paper.)

Just as I was putting the lens cap in my pocket, Brian pointed and said “Look over there.”

Hit the jump to learn what caught Brian’s eye and to read more about our corporate outing!

Continue reading Building Team Intrigued…by Brad Marks

Life Through Rose Colored Feathers

Greetings all! My apologies as it has been awhile since my last real post. I actually thought things would calm down after the stress of Halloween had finally passed, but alas, was not meant to be. I formally announced recently, but for those who missed it, I have finally decided to put the official cap on a relatively long career. Fortunately, still young in physical age – after 31.5 years in IT the mental strain is what starts to chip away at you. A mere 8 more mornings of getting up early, grabbing a bite to eat and opening the ol’ laptop for a day spent in the mesmerizing glow of a large international corporation. At this point, not sure who is more excited, me or my wife who will finally get to start enjoying here retirement which officially began at the beginning of the year.

Actually, the most excited should be you! This means more time in the field, more time to observe life and best of all, more time to spend “relaxing” in front of the keyboard producing posts. Trust me, there are times when I have spent 10+ hours on the work laptop and then had to come home and will myself to sit in front of another computer for more hours. Don’t get me wrong, this is a labor of love — there is just a limit to how many words one can produce on any given day. I can tell when this happens in my final post read-thrus – some can get overly cranky and guessing these days, none of us need more of that in our lives. Bear with me a few more weeks and we’ll get this blog thingy running smoothly. Until then, how about we take a look at Mrs. Grosbeak.

Rose-Breasted Grosbeak found on Brimfield Lot in May 2018

Our little lady comes to us from my backyard one rainy day in May 2018. Oh, that reminds me. The other big plus with the retirement plans – hoping to get caught up on my photo queue and start bringing you much fresher posts! (should probably stress the word “hoping” there – Linda’s honey-do list is currently longer than Santa’s naughty list.). Our specimen was hanging out in the drizzle keeping watch for any young males that might come strutting by. The Rose-Breasted Grosbeaks will show up here in late spring early summer timeframe and hang around for a month or so before they just seem to disappear.

Rose-Breasted Grosbeak found on Brimfield Lot in May 2018

Hit the jump to read a bit more about our local Rosies. Continue reading Life Through Rose Colored Feathers

Project Chekov: Grosbeak and Gray Catbird

It’s a two-fer day for the blog and now that the pictures are processed, two more checks in the bird list. The first bird isn’t really new to me an in fact has frequented our feeders quite regularly during the warmer months. I didn’t really think much about it figuring it had already debuted on the web so imagine my surprise when I did a quick search on the blog and came up empty on the Rose-Breasted Grosbeak.

Much like the Cardinal, this particular bird is easy to identify due to the unique coloring.  Oh, and the discoverer made it easy enough to visually tell what type of Grosbeak it is thanks to the rosy patch on .. wait for it .. the breast.  They are fairly common in the Eastern half of the US extending up into Canada.  Like the Flycatchers from the last post, they will eat insects but also feast on fruits and seeds.  The Cornell website noted “they eat sunflower seeds with abandon”.  This is spot on – when they show up I have to spend extra time keeping the feeders full – here is one getting his fill (admittedly a little soft but wanted to show more of the back coloring on the male)

Hit the jump to see the female Grosbeak and our other featured bird.

Continue reading Project Chekov: Grosbeak and Gray Catbird