Sleepless in Peoria

We are only two weeks out from our annual Haunted Trail event and let’s just say there is a LOT of work still to be done. Technically, with tremendous help from my brother Ron, we are ahead of schedule from last year’s effort….but, we grow by at least 10% every year. Many of the tedious tasks are out of the way (ex. putting batteries in all the props and our proprietary controllers, testing them and fixing everything that broke during the tear down last year or just from being stored for a year in changing conditions. In all of this the training for the October ultra continues leaving little time for bonding with my pillow. As previously noted I will be leaning heavily on Brad and Jan to get us through September. Just so they do not get too overwhelmed, jumping in today to bring you the One-Offs. Those shots are just hanging in the photo queue because they didn’t have an engaging story and/or just not enough images to entertain you – also sneakily doesn’t require a lot of writing/prep as it is really just meant as eye-candy.

Various finds from our trip out to Arizona in March 2025

All of these images have a common thread – they are all outtakes from our trip out to Arizona back in March 2025. Hit the jump to enjoy this cornucopia of tins.

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Edge of Seventeen

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! Linda and I had the opportunity to learn more about the International Crane Foundation tonight thanks to a guest speaker at the local Audubon Society chapter. We are members of the ICF based in Baraboo, Wisconsin. Linda discovered that place sometime back when investigating things to do while in the area. About every year since then we have been making our way back up there to see how the Cranes are doing in their recovery. Tonight we were able to learn a bit more about the site and pleased to see the Whooping Crane (link here) status is starting to look up. Unfortunately, Linda nixed my efforts to put on the Crane suit the speaker brought showing how they imprint the young – someday I’ll get to try that bird suit on and post the pictures here hehehehe. Big thanks to the Audubon Society for hosting that event. Oh, and if you are in the neighborhood you might want to check out the guest speaker for next month – heard it might be on Texas Birding.

Speaking of Texas birding, how about this intriguing specimen.

White-Winged Dove Shot at Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, TX in January 2017

If you live in North America and Central America, at first glance you might mistake this bird for the Mourning Dove. That Dove is very common in those regions and wouldn’t be surprised if you didn’t see at least one a day hanging out in trees next to your feeders or hanging out with their friends on powerlines trying to choose which car they want to aim their white bombs at – based on experience this always ends up being the shiniest clean car they can find. From a birding perspective, the Mourning Dove is one of those species that has become so common I generally do not pay them very much attention. Same goes for those water chickens the Coots. I might take a few pictures of them just to help with the end of day count summary. That is exactly what occurred while we were at Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge on our Texas trip back in January 2017.

White-Winged Dove Shot at Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, TX in January 2017

Hit the jump to read a bit more about this feathered encounter.

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