This year seems to be accelerating as we get closer to the end. I probably sound like a broken record by now – although technically more like that annoying scratch in the licorice pizza that keeps skipping the needle back about three grooves. I am sure that analogy is lost on today’s generation along with the whole “concept” album where you need to keep focus for 40 minutes to take in the progression of songs. Getting way off track here “kaachuuuuunnnk” (see what I did there, threw in a throwback to the 8-track ha). Back on needle point, I can’t believe it is the last day of November. Less than a month to get through family gatherings, Intrigued staff performance reviews and pack for the trip south. The good news is, I am finally digging into all the captures during our January trip to Texas. Filling up the queues for upcoming posts (including topic fodder during our travels). Between Brad and I, we have plenty of adventures to keep you entertained well into next year and we will be constantly adding from all the new field work in the plans.
To help set the mood, thought I would feature one of those birds found back in January, New Year’s Day to be exact.
Hit the jump to read about one of the masters in the Art of Deception!
We are now in a do not pass Go, do not collect $2000 straight line to Christmas. We made it through the day we give thanks for what we “have”, quickly followed by the US tradition of stomping/clawing/punching/gouging/insulting and other equally rude behavior to get all the things we “don’t have”. The irony in the juxtaposition speaks volumes for our society. Luckily, we checked out of that scene many years ago. It is time to haul out the red and green decor and have the annual discussion with the boys that Santa “is” allowed to come down our chimney that one night of the year – excessive barking could result in a stocking full of coal. Note, last year Ruger responded with “Screw it, that fat sooty ass is mine!” (now that is a cocky puppy who knows what list he’s already on ha). Ruger has been (slightly) better this year so we’ll see how he reacts to the home intrusion. He does give a perfect lead in to today’s post from Brad. Continuing the game bird theme, here’s another one of his intriguing adventures.
Take it away Brad…
One thing I didn’t expect to be doing was standing in line at a National Park to experience the scenery. But that’s just what happened at one area of Yosemite. While Jan and I were waiting for our turn to get a photo of Yosemite Falls without a million tourists in our way (not much of an exaggeration on a late summer Saturday), we began chatting with the family next to us. They had been in the park for a few days and were heading out the next day. The gentleman said since we were just starting our visit, we must make sure to head to Glacier Point before leaving the park. Often times advice is worth just what you pay for it. However, this advice turned out to be pure gold. He also said to make sure we were there before sunset for the best view.
Late one afternoon, later into our visit we began the drive to Glacier Point overlooking Yosemite Valley. Jan and I, OK really just me, didn’t anticipate the number of cars also heading the same direction. We were in a minor traffic jam inside the park. Luckily for us, most of the cars were shooting right past the turnoff for Glacier Point. I felt glad to be free of the taillights in front of us. But my shoulders slumped a bit when I saw a sign for “only” 16 more miles of twisty roads. The first mile was all switchbacks, but from mile two to the summit was a smooth ribbon of newly paved asphalt with gentle curves. Jan and I arrived at the summit with time to spare before sunset.
I parked the rental car in one of the few spaces I could find near summit. The elevation was over 7,200 feet for those keeping score at home. Jan and I began the quick walk to the point to see Yosemite Valley from a completely different perspective. A few feet into the journey, there was a group of people looking over a fence into some low scrub brushes. That usually means there’s something worth taking a peek at.
Hit the jump to read about the fruits of the peek!
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!! As this is the time to reflect and be thankful for those around us, I wanted to start by stating how appreciative I am of having Linda and the boys as an important part of my life. We touch a little upon Linda’s influence from time to time here on the blog, but reality is she’s the main element that makes everything run smoothly behind the scenes and has a secret “nudge” talent that keeps me on the rails. I rarely leave the house without hearing “Make good choices!”. That warning has a fast decaying half-life the longer I am away, but definitely keeps me mindful during the early ultra-miles. Unfortunately, our parents have since passed, still thankful for the valuable life lessons they bestowed before going to a better place. Our older brothers (and their families) are always there to right our frowns, to act as our sounding boards and always quick with a hand whenever we need them. Our virtual family here at Intrigued are simply the best and there isn’t enough time to cover all the important work they do each and every day to make our multiple blogs and other endeavors successful. At the “gamble” it doesn’t go to their heads, yes, that includes our legal department – Brad has really whipped that group into shape and haven’t had a single complaint since regarding their former notorious office shenanigans ha!
Lastly, I wanted to extend a heartfelt thanks to all you out there that read our musings, bear through my rants and willing to offer us a kind like, a quick wit, key insights or additional information related to our posts. You are the reason Brad and I (and our editorial staff) can’t wait to share the next adventure from the field. We appreciate your time and wish you a safe and filling Thanksgiving holiday!
Speaking of “gambles”, how about we get to today’s featured feathered friend(s).
Hit the jump to read more about our Wild Turkey substitutes!
I do not want to put a big ol’ sour rant before Brad’s post, so I am just going to quickly mention that I am having boatloads of WordPress issues as of late. Not so much on the posting side, rather on the commenting side – particularly commenting on other people’s posts. It’s a crap shoot if it works and for the life of me I am unable to figure it out. This is especially infuriating for a career IT person who earned his early retirement exorcising ghosts in the machine. I’ll update later, but for now, accept my apologies if it appears like I have been ignoring your posts. Where my eyes happen to be blood red, today’s feature has a much more calming and pleasing color. Enjoy another of Brad’s adventures while I round up a Goat for some yoga therapy.
Take it away Brad…
I know, I know. I can hear it now. Not another white wading shorebird. OK. It’s not. I don’t think I’ve ever seen today’s featured feathered friend wading. Not that they don’t wade in very shallow water from time to time. It’s just . . . I’ve never seen them wading. Or swimming. Or diving. Actually, I’ve never seen them doing much of anything except watching the world go by (see Notes). Plenty of sites show them to be very active. I usually see them sitting on a post; or on a rock in the water somewhere. Or at their most vigorous, casually paddling around on the edge of the Mississippi River. In fitting with the theme of recently published stories, our guest today is not a wading shorebird. Nor is it white. It is nearly black, except for piercing emerald green eyes.
Have you guessed our featured feathered friend today?
Hit the jump to reveal the latest “emerald” gem from South Carolina.
My July/August is worth forgetting, the world as a whole feels like it is spiraling down the drain and now that the election cycle is heating up, I can’t stomach any time on any lamestream news outlet. With that said, my November is turning out to be a marked improvement, at least on the personal endeavors front. Finally getting my legs back under me from the last ultra (link here). I expect a level of aftermath suffering, but holy cow did that one hit me hard. Already mentioned crushing the total annual miles goal on the 1st (link here) and now another milestone has been toppled. Let me introduce you to Miss 400.
Isn’t she a beauty? Hit the jump to find out what important position this little lady holds in my birding career.
Greetings everyone! Linda and finally made it back from Rochester, MN. We were up there for Linda’s annual heart checkup and I am pleased to report everything looks excellent. Linda has a bit of PTSD on these visits from all that has been through up there, but she pulled through like a champ. We even celebrated by going to our favorite restaurant, Canadian Honker – DELICIOUS. Think I have mentioned this before, but there are two things that always strike me about the Mayo campus. First is the perfect entropy that plays out in their waiting room. It happens in every medical waiting room since Covid, it’s just on a larger scale there. By entropy, I am referring to the fact patients will always pick the set of chairs that maximizes their distance from anyone else. I enjoy watching the visible thought process as the options narrow ha. The other intriguing element is everyone walking around with cotton balls on their arms. Pretty sure 95% of the patients with visits that day have to start out with a phlebotomist. Just thinking about all those pokes makes me want to faint. Luckily Brad is back with a much happier story about fluffy balls to help put my mind at ease.
Take it away Brad…
Have you ever been digging through some stuff piled on your desk or the kitchen counter and found something you thought you already took care of? Well, that’s this story. I started writing just after Jan and I were in South Carolina this past February. We were (OK, I was) overwhelmed with the embarrassment of riches of birds to photograph and write about. I think I mentioned in an earlier story that we took well north of 11,000 photos over the course of three days. Our primary reason for being in the area was not birding or photography. We had really been trying to leave snowy February in Illinois behind for a week. We also wanted to visit a State Park or two to be out in Nature without a parka. It just so happened that the birding was rather spectacular, “forcing” us to fill up memory cards along the way. I guess that’s what two backup SSD drives are for.
At first, I treated every white wading bird the same as I was trying to identify them. I learned that some white wading birds are supposed to be blue, not white. I also learned that all of the medium-sized white wading birds aren’t all the same bird. I guess you need to pay attention to their feet, legs, and bills to know for sure.
Hit the jump to learn more about the “fluffy factor”!
We are back with another new prop walkthrough from this year’s Haunted Trail. You have heard the expression of lemonade out of lemons, well, today’s post is a Halloween take on that saying. Let’s start by revealing the final product out on trail.
By the way, we saw the results and decided to make two of them…well, that is technically a stretch of what really went down. I’ll explain after the jump.
Everyone involved in the Intrigued Industrial Complex is fully aware of our mission statement, “It’s all about the story, bonus if you get quality shots”. This is supported by two very important strategies: “If there are no shots, it didn’t happen” and “Nobody talks about fight club”. All new members have a two week beat in…sorry, two week class where they are immersed in our corporate strategy. We even have this guiding statement on our coffee mugs, above the corporate HQ entrance and even had it flown on a large banner behind a plane above our corporate retreats to Cancun. Note the past tense there, as those retreats were suspended thanks to what we quietly refer to as “The Incident of 2016”. Thanks to the Federales, that also caused a temporary adoption of a new mission statement “No Hablo Espanol, I Want Our Lawyer”. Sorry Brad you came aboard too late, those were really good times … and why we now have such a large attorney pool. I only bring this up as today’s post is a perfect example of story or image quality.
Hit the jump to learn about how today’s featured bird resulted in the second biggest scare of my birding adventures.
The Halloween season has come to a close which brings with it a mixture of sadness and relief. We hate to see it end, but it also feels like the steam has finally been released from the pressure cooker. Yesterday (the 1st) was “Spirit Day” as we have come to call it. The night before the haunters were nestled all snug in their beds while visions of ghouls and monsters danced in their heads. Away to the local Spirit “popup” Halloween store we flew like a flash for what to our wondering eyes should appear but an entire store at 50% off. A bundle of props we flung on our backs. We were heard to exclaim as we drove out of sight, we can’t wait until the next haunt night! Actually, there is a little pressure still left in the cooker as I have to find places to store all the new stuff – eh, worry about that another day ha. In addition to celebrating another successful haunting season I also managed to reach an annual running goal. In all the Halloween chaos and injury setbacks, I managed to still hit my 1200 mile annual running goal – 60 days early!
I mainly bring this up as a lead in to let you know Brad will be taking the helm to give me a badly needed rest and because his post happens to be about another trail “speed demon”.
Take it away Brad (and Jan)…
Let me set the stage here for you.
It’s late September. Jan and I are in a National Park in southern Nevada just outside Las Vegas. We are in the desert with Red Rock all around. That’s right, it’s Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, about 20 minutes outside of Las Vegas. The temperature is in the upper 80’s or low 90’s at 4pm. Yes, we remembered to bring water with us.
We flashed our Annual Park Pass (surely you all have one of these beauties by now) at the entrance gate and started on the 13-mile scenic drive to see what we could see. One of the first things we saw surprised us a little bit.
It was a “Tortoise Crossing” sign. I figured the chances of seeing a Desert Tortoise were just as high as our seeing a Bighorn Sheep in Arches National Park (still haven’t seen one there, despite the myriad of road signs). Although the Elk Crossing signs near Estes Park, CO are very accurate.
About four miles into the scenic drive, we came upon a white sedan with its doors open and flashers on, taking up the right side of the road. We crept past and parked to see if they needed any help. Two young men (college age I’m guessing) were kneeling in front of the car. I suspected car trouble.
Imagine the surprise when Jan and I got out of our car to find out what they were doing.
Life Intrigued 