Tag: Texas 2023

Gentlemen Prefer Gingers

By the time you are reading this, we will be off to southern Texas. Believe this is the first time we have visited our favorite state at this time of year. By now I am sure everyone is aware we spent lot of our vacation time on the Gulf Coast and down along the Rio Grande Valley during our corporate years. We have continued… and extended our time there now into our retirement years. Our company would shut down between Christmas and New Year’s (initially started to reduce costs at our manufacturing facilities). No longer bound by the designated vacation days, we have been spending all of January in that warmer climate – well, up until this year when we decided to try out Arizona instead – regretted. Having missed our time in Texas, we are making our first Spring visit and excited to try out a new birding season. There is a bit of concern about the tourist competition being in the midst of Spring Break for many of the schools across the nation. Time will tell, but honestly, it is hard for us to ever be disappointed down there. I may be a bit sparse as we chew up the miles and I also know Brad will be heading back out on assignment soon, so apologies in advance for the expected delays in responses. The good news is we have plenty of material ready to go to keep everyone entertained while we are out and about.

Without further delay, how about we get to today’s featured feathered friend!

Hit the jump to read more about our ginger feathered specimen.

Continue reading Gentlemen Prefer Gingers

Ghostly

March is proving to be a fickle month from a running perspective. With an unexpected delay in getting my training ramped up thanks to some less than appreciated weather in Arizona, I am admittedly behind on my training. Built back the base as well as I could during the first part of February and transitioned to the hard trails a few weeks ago. Long runs, steep technical terrain and lungs determined to break their rib cage confinement. The annoying part is dealing with ever-changing weather conditions. 30F’s with slick heavy frost, then 50’s with trail weeping in the lowlands followed by beautiful 75’s only to give way back to the 30’s the following day producing some comical scenes catching black ice lurking below the leaves. That was all manageable until the grey skies arrived yesterday and tossed me back onto the pavement. While I impatiently wait for the trails to harden, thought it would be a good time to get my first post of the month out.

Male Northern Harrier (Grey Ghost) found outside of Estero Llano Grande State Park, Weslaco, TX in January 2023

Hit the jump to read more about this ghostly predator.

Continue reading Ghostly

A Whisper of a Screech

I need to take a rest and towel off a bit from our annual round of office golf. I didn’t realize the full extent of the elbow injury until I took too much carpet and wrenched my elbow back – don’t cuss in front of the staff..don’t cuss in front of the staff..shit that hurt. Thanks to a member in the HR department (name withheld to protect the guilty) who developed a nasty slice in the off-season..might want to consider switching to disc golf for next year’s office competition. Said individual will now be required to enter TWO ultra races this year instead of the standard one for risking our recordable injury record and for getting me in trouble with Linda who came asking for the cause of the shattering noise. Note to self, call a glass repairman Monday. In light of our competition to get an object INTO a hole, decided to go with a featured feathered friend I have only seen already IN a hole.

Eastern Screech Owl found at Estero Llano Grande State Park, Weslaco, TX in January 2023

Apologies for the clutter in the shot, when it comes to this particular creature you pretty much have to take what you can get – especially in “light” of the fact that the best time to photograph them is when they should be counting sheep. Luckily the shots do get a lot better, so hit the jump and let’s see what we can find in the hole.

Continue reading A Whisper of a Screech

The Flying Bill with Eyes

With Brad out on assignment, I am hanging around the Intrigued HQ a little more than usual – watering the plants, making sure the pipes don’t freeze, keeping the butt prints off the copier, wiping down the escalator hand rails etc. – top level management duties for sure. Since I am in the office, might as well put the feet up on the desk and bang out a few posts. Linda just planned our spring trip to Texas, which has me in a Rio Grande Valley frame of mind. In the last post, we talked about the Clay-Colored Thrush and what turned out to be a rare sighting of the White-Throated Thrush at Estero Llano Grande State Park. Going back there for today’s featured feathered friend.

Green Kingfisher found at Estero Llano Grande State Park in January 2023

Hit the jump to read more about the Flying Bill with Eyes.

Continue reading The Flying Bill with Eyes

The Good, the Wet and the What the Heck

I feel like I know a lot more about those little furballs from Brad’s last post. Adorable little ears, frisky tails, cute whiskers and a joy to observe … IN OTHER PEOPLE’S yards! Hehehe. We have the basic Eastern Chipmunk variety out here in the country and to be honest, damn annoying. They just cost me several thousands of dollars thanks to under-digging my steps and attached concrete slab. They also drive my dogs crazy when they pop out of a hole, give them the finger, wait for them to get all worked up, turn and wiggle their tan ass at them and then run like cowards back down their hole. One of these days (when Linda isn’t looking) I’m going to give Ruger the green light .. or should I say “tan” light.. and see how they like being chased by a 19.5 mph bloodthirsty, merciless Toy Poodle. I still need to assess the punishment I’d get from Linda if she found out. While I ponder that, how about we talk about a much more benign tan creature.

Clay-Colored Thrush found at Estero Llano Grande State Park, Weslaco, TX in January 2023

Hit the jump to find out more about our clay colored feathered friend.

Continue reading The Good, the Wet and the What the Heck

The Sensor Knows

Well, as a quick update, I am still down with the Las Cruces Crud. I am telling you, this is the most craptastic and nastiest hellspawn I’ve come down with since I can remember. General rule..Bri don’t get sick. At this point now at the mercy of the doctor who basically told me to keep down, suck it up and it should pass. Tapping my watch and noting “time’s a tickin’ on my ultra training schedule” didn’t win me any of his sympathy. He gets three more days and I’m out the door ‘nuf said. The good news is I am finally getting transferred over to the new computer. Still have some clean up to do, but this is officially the first post from the new Alien. Note, disappointed I have yet to locate the “auto-generate a post button” on this watts sucker. I’ll keep looking, but at least for now, stuck with me. 

If you recall in my last post, I mentioned it was part one of two and eluded to the possibility our little yellow-eyed feathered friend might have been on the lookout for more formidable predators having easily dispensed with an intruding Sparrow. Time to reveal what led us to that conclusion. This is the first time I’ve ever used the WP image compare widget – apologies if it doesn’t work correctly on your monitors.

Hit the jump to read more about our dark encounter with another resident of Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge.

Continue reading The Sensor Knows

Burrows and Brags

We have finally made it back home from our winter migration to Arizona. This was a first for us this year as we usually make our way to south Texas. Not our most memorable trip by any means as the cold decided to chase us all the way there and then quickly caught back up to us on our way back. Not sure I can blame that on Arizona, although for two years in a row Linda has caught Covid in the week heading into a planned trip out there. We have decided it cursed! Not all disappointing. Hiking the Arizona mountains was a lot of fun, new birds added to the life list, a new RV for Linda and I had the opportunity to spend my birthday in Vegas. Suspect back to Texas next winter, but we’ll possibly take another trip out to Arizona later in the year to give it a fair chance. Oh, worst part is I managed to catch some wicked crud in Las Cruces on the way back and now having to deal with that crap.

Before getting into today’s featured feathered friend, a quick self-pat on the back. January officially kicked off my 17th year of blogging here at Intrigued. 

Time has certainly flown by along with all the features we try and bring you each and every month. A big thank you to Brad and his staff (Jan and Allyson) that have shared their stories these last couple of years bringing new sights and wildlife species to the Intrigued story. Will continue to have more posts coming from that team. Extending our appreciation to the behind the scenes Intrigued staff that make this machine hum and especially to all our readers who make this effort so enjoyable. Raise your glasses to an exciting 17th year and beyond!

Okay, enough of the self-praising, let’s get to today’s featured feathered friend.

Burrowing Owl found at Anahuac NWR in January 2023

Hit the jump to read more about our yellow-eyed friend.

Continue reading Burrows and Brags

Flash

Well, I can officially say this has been one … let’s go with “intriguing” snowbird migration. It started with dragging the Midwest winter temps with us all the way to Arizona. We were finally able to de-winterize in Tucson making for some very cold walks to the bathroom/shower houses practically all the way down. Finally got a day when I could shed the coat and walk around in a t-shirt and then the rains came in – so frustrating. Decided to head up to Vegas and spend my birthday in style. There were a number of my favorite birding places in the area and worst case we could seek shelter from the wet stuff in the casinos. All was going quite swimmingly until the day after my celebration Linda made a declaration “I’m done with taking sitting showers!”. For context, we own a Class-B Pleasureway – been living the van life for many years. The parent company of the dealership we bought our two models happens to be based in Vegas. I think this was all a clever plan by Linda crafted long before we ever left home. Remember that “stranded in Vegas with good issues” comment in a previous post, the “own” a Class-B is officially “owned” and replaced with a B+/C- with a full shower. Linda has spoken ha! This ended up extending our stay in Vegas several days to get all the t’s crossed and then opted to stay more days to get familiar with it while being close to the dealership if something needed to be addressed. I am currently relaxing in a recliner typing this post as we drive down US 10. At some point I will have to confess to her she made the right decision (if my current smile doesn’t give it away first), but for now I think I’ll leverage it by guilting her into extra birding trips and fuel supporting this year’s ultra races. Birding has been pretty good, although not nearly as productive as our Texas trips. Currently at 127 which is over 50 birds down from last year at this point. Hoping to make that back up when we head down there in the Spring. Being that we are currently driving through Arizona, decided to go with a bird most of my readers are very familiar with.

Northern Cardinal found at Guadalupe River State Park, San Antonio TX in January 2023

Hit the jump to read more about the birding world’s Flash.

Continue reading Flash

Birthday Bird

By the time you read this post I will officially be another year older, another year’s worth of wear on the body (actually more like 3 years based on the long injury tab) and hopefully another year wiser. All in all, I can’t complain. No longer in the corporate grinder, get to spend each day with someone who deserves better and my days are filled with activities that make me want to get up the next morning and do them all again. Life is good. This is also the first year I have been able to celebrate my special day in Vegas! Going to get a head start on that wear and tear for the year ha. Being in the city of lights, thought I would go with a fitting neon colored specimen from the birding world for today’s featured feathered friend. 

Altamira Oriole found at National Butterfly Center, Mission TX in January 2023

How is that for an orange Lite-Brite peg (if anyone remembers what that toy was). 

Hit the jump to see a few more shots and learn a bit more about our Halloween inspired bird.

Continue reading Birthday Bird

Electric Blue

UPDATE: Thanks to the keen eye and birding expertise of Ted Jennings (link here), I’ve learned something new as a result of this post. My original identification of this post’s featured feathered friend was an immature Little Blue Heron. This was based on the overall white coloring, dark legs and the two toned bill…and not seeing the markers for the other options pointed out in the original post. Ted brought up the possibility of something I had not considered, the much rarer white morph of the Reddish Egret. They have very similar markings to the immature Little Blue, but are a bit larger and more distinctly have, a “shaggy” feathering on their head and neck. That fits my specimen perfectly! Updated my post accordingly – THANK YOU TED!! It is a good day whenever I can grow my birding knowledge.

Greetings everyone! I have been a bit out of pocket since we started or migration south just before the start of the New Year. Always a hassle to get from overnight camp to the next stop and then the connectivity can be sketchy, although, admittedly I must admit, Internet access via phone or local Wi-Fi is much better than just a few years ago. Guessing a surprise benefit of the Covid years. From the trip perspective, we have been lucky enough to meet up with some friends of ours who moved out to Benson, AZ. Always good to catch up on the latest activities in person – novel idea eh? (for the record, I am NOT a Facebook user). Birding has also been good, now up 67 birds for our Average Year ’24 which includes 5 lifers so far – that means 5 more posts coming out say sometime in late 2027 hehehe. Some of us at Intrigued have an embarrassing large backlog. There has been one glaring negative to this point (and likely to carry well into next week)…IT’S COLD!  I know, shocking to hear someone from the Midwest say that in January, but remember we travel south to get away from the heartland tundra. We are not ruling out that we were voodoo cursed while in New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl back in 2002. Ever since then, we have brought unseasonably cold weather to whatever destination we vacation – just ask Texas about the ice storm they had a few years back. So far we have just missed snow in New Mexico and bracing for freezing temps the next couple of nights here in Arizona ugh. It is what it is, but the birds have still been active and my brother Ron is flying down here today to add to his checklist – writing this post as we wait for his flight to arrive. 

To warm up a bit, thought I would feature an encounter from last year’s human migration.

Little Blue Heron found at South Padre Bird Viewing Center in January 2023

Hit the jump to see a few more shots of this “Electric Blue”.

Continue reading Electric Blue