Month: April 2022

Definitely Not Another Squirrel!

Bad news for those of you out there hoping for another post from the Squirrel family and good news for those that have been filling my inbox up with comments to the contrary. Truth is, I would have gone with another fur focused series if I had one in the queue. I’m only getting home maybe one or two days a week these days if I’m lucky. When I do, I’m more focused on getting the growing list of upkeep items like mowing taken care of over prepping images for the blog. As a result, I’ve been relying on drafts I worked up to use while we were down in Alabama. Thought it would be good to get back to the main staple here at Intrigued – BIRDS!

White-Eyed Vireo found at Quinta Mazaltan, McAllen TX in January 2021

Today’s feature is not a new bird to the blog as it was featured back in November 2018. (link here – but warning, don’t go there). There are few birds that frustrate me more in the field than these here White-Eyed Vireos. Year after year after year I’ve encountered specimens in our many outings and I’ve only managed to feature this vireo that one time back in ’18 and that was ONLY because I wanted to officially get the checkmark. Went with some crappy shots for that post which is why I warned you NOT to go there – if you went there anyway, you might want to go rinse your eyes out – no worries, I’ll wait until you get back.

White-Eyed Vireo found at Quinta Mazaltan, McAllen TX in January 2021

Hit the jump to learn why this bird was on my nemesis list.

Continue reading Definitely Not Another Squirrel!

Things Are Getting Nuts Around Here

Greetings folks. Excited to announce there has been a few rays of sunshine breaking through the dark clouds. Last post I mentioned that Ron pulled triple watch duty so Linda and I could attend several events in the St. Louis area. One of those was the memorial/tribute to Linda’s relative that had transitioned to a better place last year. I am sure she was smiling while looking down at hearing the wonderful stories shared by her family. Monday, Raven competed in the Poodle Agility Nationals at Purina Farms. Went one for three, but his first run was perfection earning him first place in his division. Two proud parents, although Ruger was giving his older brother crap for the other two runs while bragging about how he is going to show him up when he competes against him next year. The last ray of sunshine came this morning. I’ve been hinting at a likely surgery coming up. Today was a third referral consultation. Ended up seeing “one of the experts” who I learned also takes care of the St. Louis Blues. After an extensive exam and review of all the previous tests (MRI, xrays, etc) he was able to diagnose the issue – good news, NO SURGERY unless his recommended physical therapy fails to improve it. There’s a battery of therapy sessions and incredibly painful deep tissue massage/torture in my immediate future, but I pretty much walked out of the office 2 feet off the floor. When that euphoria wore off it was replaced with some definite anger that the local specialists had given me a bad read (and cost me a chunk of change). Lesson here, get multiple references before they cut ya’.

In light of those good moments, it just seems fitting to bring you the last installment in my balls of cuteness series.

American Red Squirrel found at Bear Head State Park in Ely, MN

Hit the jump to read more about our reddish friend.

Continue reading Things Are Getting Nuts Around Here

How About S’more Squirrels

Thanks to Ron pulling triple watch duty, Linda and I were able to take a quick trip down to St. Louis for a long weekend. This was supposed to be the return leg of our Dauphin Island migration birding trip before that was canceled. The break allowed us to come down for a memorial service for one of Linda’s relatives who passed away last year. Linda’s relatives are scattered from end to end across the states and they wanted to get everyone together as a memorial/reunion in her honor. They had a really nice memorial for her – although it came with a bit more emotion given our current situation. It was great to see the extended families and get caught up on the various happenings. Sorry Facebook, there is no substitute for real social interaction. Second of our events this weekend is Raven’s running at the Poodle Agility Nationals down here at Purina Farms. Raven will be up against the best Poodles here and abroad (at least those that can and are willing to travel out of their countries). The following day I have an appointment with a surgeon to go over some options. One packed longish weekend for sure – again, big thanks to Ron for putting in the extra time.

Unfortunately, this has also made me extremely exhausted as I didn’t get much sleep in the days leading up to the travel down. I still wanted (needed) to get a post out so let me introduce you to tonight’s featured furry friend

Black Squirrel found at Noccalula Falls State Park, Gadsden AL in August 2021

Hit the jump to see more of this cute Black S’more Lovin’ Squirrel.

Continue reading How About S’more Squirrels

‘Dem Be Those Grey Ones

My turn to be on watch, so fired up the ol’ laptop and I thought I’d make another quick post. Even though there is a lot of things going on, there are huge swaths of time just sitting in a chair that need to be put to productive use or I’ll go insane. Last week I spent the time doing a massive frequency analysis of the entire English language and built an impressive spreadsheet as an “aid” to my daily Wordle efforts – old IT guys never miss an opportunity to codify logic problems. This week I’m trying to put out a few posts to see if I can keep my monthly quota streak going. Granted these are word sparse compared to the norm, but I’m sure you would rather look at the pictures than read my ramblings anyway. Oh, and since I really do not have the time to dig into bird species research, you will probably notice a theme.

Squirrel family member found at Lake Tahoe in May 2019

Yep, continuing the topic from the last post – more furballs! Apologies for those of you that may not take to kindly to these creatures (and I know you are out there ha). Before I get through this month you are going to feel like someone took a Squirrel, dunked it in a barrel of ice cold water and tail smacked you right across the face. Sorry, I don’t even have a muskrat to offer you to towel off with. What I do have is the first set of images taken from our Lake Tahoe trip.

Squirrel family member found at Lake Tahoe in May 2019

Hit the jump if you are up for some squirreling around!

Continue reading ‘Dem Be Those Grey Ones

For The Easily Distracted…SQUIRREL!

Greetings everyone! I planned to wish everyone a happy spring as I’m in the midst of an unfortunate lull in April posting… but last night it got to 29F here and flurries the night before that. Sure doesn’t feel like spring especially out on my long runs. I still have limited time, but I wanted to start trickling out some content – gives me a chance to escape the current situation and keep the dust from getting too thick. Expect these will be more of gallery shows vs entertaining story-telling (I think I just heard a cheer ha).

Need to thank friend of the blog Sandra J. at Into the Light Adventures (link here) for today’s topic. She recently made a post on desert animals that reminded me I had a similar one in the hopper – had the added benefit of aligning with the current squirrely times.

Squirrel family member found at Lake Tahoe in May 2019

Hit the jump to see more of the Tahoe Squirrels.

Continue reading For The Easily Distracted…SQUIRREL!