A Tale of Two Plumages

The old adage is time flies for a busy person – and I’ll simply refine that a bit and state that it’s even faster when you are doing something you enjoy. Brad and I always joke that we are busier now than we were before we were retired…noting that the real difference is we aren’t tearing our hair out trying to find those evil spirits in the machine. That isn’t to say it is all stress free down here in south Texas. Some of the local birds prefer not to be seen, much less stare down the end of a large black barrel that goes clicky clicky (at least for us that haven’t made the leap to mirrorless). I am happy to report that after my rather slow start, things have really picked up as we make our way eastward from Big Bend National Park. The count sits at 200+2 which is better at this point than our previous “Average Year” attempts (link here). Ron was even able to make it down here last weekend to get his numbers jump started – he had to go back to zero degree (F) temperatures and that white fluffy stuff, ugh. We are currently at our 4th base camp which is on South Padre Island with the Mangrove Yellow Warbler on the menu. On two unsuccessful attempts so far, but plenty of days left to remedy that. Time to get to the real reason you are here, today’s featured feathered friend.

Yellow-Crowned Night Heron found on 8 Mile Rd, Galveston, Island,TX in January 2025

Based on the shot above, you might think that this is one of those birds mentioned earlier that prefers not to be seen – hit the jump and we’ll see if that is accurate.

Continue reading A Tale of Two Plumages

Yellow-Crowned Night Heron…by Brad Marks

I feel like our haven of trail witches have put a curse on me. First I tweak my ankle during the build up to the haunted trail, then the race beats me down something good only to make it through to put the cherry on top the misery sundae by breaking a toe (on the good foot) in a manner so unmanly I am not about to reveal it. I’ve learned a couple of surprising things since then. One is the revelation that trimming trees for four days is probably not the brightest choice all hobbled up – something tells me some of our readers probably already knew or could foresee that bit of knowledge. The other surprise comes courtesy of Brad who is bringing us one of his adventures from his recent New England trip. In fact, my new birding tidbit comes courtesy of that little space between the third and fourth word in his title. I was about to insert the expected “-” when I decided to dig into this a bit more. Brad is absolutely correct, as of July 2024, the American Birding Association has removed the second dash between Night and Heron. You can read more about that change and several other updates in their 2024 supplement (link here). Note, once again, they FAILED to rename the Ring-Necked Duck arrrgghhh! Enough of my whining, it’s time for Brad to introduce us to one of his newest lifers.

Take it away Brad…

During a recent photo assignment to New England, Jan and I were enjoying the low tide near Boothbay Harbor in Maine.  We traveled to Maine with our friends from the Boston area.  We also had the bonus of having Allyson join us for an abbreviated weekend.

This also happened to be our first photo outing with our brand “new” D500 camera bodies, well, at least new to us.  The old trusty D300’s had served us well, but had begun showing age-related faults (over 200,000 clicks on both of them) during our Alaska assignment.  We had a mere six days after Alaska to get “new” cameras before the New England trip.  I used all of my trusted camera sites ordering bodies, batteries, and chargers.  I’m still working on the Wildlife Intrigued expense report.  Everything arrived in time, some only just, for the trip to Boston and Maine.

Our first morning in Maine, low tide was at 9am.  After breakfast, we all rushed down to the waterline to see what we would see at low tide.  The rented house where we stayed, was about 100 feet from the water.  The tide was nearly at the lowest point of the morning, down over 8 feet from high tide the night before.  Drying seaweed was all over the newly exposed rocks and made walking slippery.  Jan was photographing a Great Blue Heron in the shadows next to our dock.  Allyson was wading in the cold Atlantic water looking for crabs, lobsters, and snails.  I was watching the sunlit part of the terrain opposite our rocky point, when something caught my eye.

Yellow-Crowned Night Heron by Brad Marks

Did you spot today’s featured feathered friend? Hit the jump to read more about this well camouflaged discovery.

Continue reading Yellow-Crowned Night Heron…by Brad Marks