Month: May 2024

Vulture Love…by Brad Marks

This has felt like an unusually long month for me. Pretty much been on the go since the start, dog shows, our annual medical appointments, family events, more dog shows and every time I managed to find a slot, I was out on the trail. With Ruger’s recent competition over the weekend, the back to back schedule pressure is finally lifted for a couple of weeks. This will give me more time to get ready for the upcoming ultra and finally make some progress on a mega Halloween prop taking shape in my basement (fingers crossed Linda doesn’t go down there and see her basement covered in foam shavings). In tribute to the Vultures circling impatiently overhead while on my long run today, Brad is going to bring us another adventure from their travels east. May I recommend putting on Meatloaf’s Paradise by the Dashboard Light while enjoying this “fresh” post (link here)! (…and still pissed they replaced Patti Russo with an actress for the I’d Do Anything For Love video).

Take it away Brad…

I bet the title conjured up one of two songs from the 1970’s.  Jungle Love by The Steve Miller Band, or Muskrat Love by the Captain and Tennille.  Both used synthesizers.  I just wanted to see if I could get a song going in your heads, like the Gulls, Gulls, Gulls from last year.

Why does nearly everything interesting that happens in a tree, happen in the middle of a bunch of leaves and twigs?  I mean, c’mon!  Can’t anyone actually hop to the end of an exposed branch and go through the poses to make bird photography easier?  It’s just a few photos and a microsecond of your day.  No?  Well, OK.  See if I make your photos flattering or not.

Actually, with today’s birds, I’m not sure there is a way to make the photos flattering.

Jan and I were on a Bird Walk through the Audubon Newhall Preserve on Hilton Head Island.  The guide was talking about cedar knees and the red-cockaded woodpecker nest hole we had just passed.  There was a very slight breeze blowing through the treetops.  But not quite enough of a breeze to make the noise that was happening directly above us.  One of the other birders pointed overhead and said there was a large black bird in the tree.  At first, I thought it was a crow.  Naturally, Jan and I pointed our cameras skyward as the other birders grabbed their binoculars.  The guide had lost all of us for a moment. 

At first, all I could see was one large black bird through the viewfinder.  I was happily snapping away when it “skooched” to its left, my right

Black Vultures found by Brad Marks

Hit the jump to see what I saw. 

Continue reading Vulture Love…by Brad Marks

PTrSD: A Tale From the Trail

Disclaimer: Before I go any further, wanted to state for clarity sake that this is NOT intended to belittle in any manner the true medical condition referred to as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. That is a serious condition and truly wish the best outcomes for those that are having to deal with that on daily basis.

What this is referring to an incident that did cause extreme, although temporary, stress while training this morning on the Cry Me a River ultra trail course (link here). For those not familiar with this race, it consists mainly of the Illinois River Bluff Trail (link here) with some additional trails on the ends to accommodate the 50K/100K/100mile distances. One of the toughest courses in the area that will test your elevation training to the limits (the 100m course has 23,500 feet of elevation gain and the 50K is around 12K). It also has the distinction of giving me an ambulance ride to the emergency room (link here). I have since wiped that blemish off my race record, but the event remains cursed as last year I broke my elbow on a training run a week prior to the start – note, that was my first Post “Trail” Stress Disorder event as I still flinch whenever I pass that “Root of All Evil”.

Today, we are gathered here to talk about another PTrSD trauma that happened this very morning and it involves THIS BEAST!

Wild Turkey attack on Illinois River Bluff Trail in May 2024

Hit the jump to read more about this harrowing (Linda prefers hilarious) experience.

Continue reading PTrSD: A Tale From the Trail

Whoops then Brags

Suspect most of our readers know my long training runs are used to work out upcoming posts. There is plenty of “noodle time” to come up with a theme and decide on the best supporting series of shots from the tiny sliver of backlog in the image queue. Did you just chuckle, I heard you chuckle!..okay, maybe “three year” backlog would be a more accurate description. Too my credit I have tried to stay in that 1 to 1.5 year range over the last year or so, but I digress. Arrived at the trail yesterday, stretched, looked at the forecast, noted the heat index and prepared to be miserable for the next several hours. That is when I noticed every post was absolutely covered in Cicadas, some partially in and others fully out of their shells. The holes had been noticeable in the trail dirt for about a week or so, but had not really noticed them out – they have now formally arrived. There was an unfortunate Cicada that had emerged, but then apparently “smacked” into lifelessness. The thought of waiting 17 years (granted some are on a 13yr cycle), digging yourself out of the ground, graduating from nymphood into adulthood and then “splat” consumed me for the multitude of miles – futility, mortality, lifespan, purpose, the lockers at the end of Men in Black and a cadre of other topics since sweated out. I mention this only as an excuse for completely forgetting about working out the post.

Soooo…. Whoopers it is!

Whooping Cranes found at the Big Tree in Rockport, TX in January 2023

Hit the jump to read more about these birds that nearly met the same fate as that unfortunate insect.

Continue reading Whoops then Brags

Fishing Hawk…by Brad Marks

I had forgotten just how tiring these national dog competitions can be. As mentioned in the previous post, we made it down here for the Canine Performance Events (CPE) Nationals being held in my hometown of Springfield, IL. Imagine a state fairgrounds stuffed to the gills .. or should I say muzzles with face lickers and tail waggers. Suspect they will have the greenest grass they’ve ever had once this is over ha! The various competitions have been going on all this week. Speedway competitions (think drag and barrel racing) and scent work led it off, but now the Big Kahunas have taken the stage with 6 concurrent agility rings in full swing. Raven did well today qualifying in 2 of his 3 runs with 6 more runs still to go over the next two days. Definitely a tough day for him as he is currently passed out between me and the keyboard – even mom is feeling pretty wiped. Ruger has been watching with intent as he hopes to be making his debut at nationals within two years (he needs more titles before he becomes eligible). We already had to get on him about trash talking some of the current competitors.

“I unplug my muzzle in your general direction, sons-of-a-puppyfarm! So, you think you could outclever us French Poodles with your silly knees bent crashing into agility bars. I’ll wave my private parts at your owners! You cheesy load of secondhand electric butt sniffers!”

While we sit Ruger down and have a discussion about sportsmanship, going to let Brad take the reins and bring you an adventure with a talented member of the birding family (and assuredly a fish trash talker as well).

Take it away Brad…

This story comes at the very end of our Upper Newport Bay Nature Preserve (UNBNP) visit.  The visit to UNBNP started with Jan finding the California Thrasher (link here).  I finally found her among the trails so we wandered around the upper part of the preserve for a while.  After Jan and I had been walking amongst the chapparal for a couple of hours, we headed back along the crunchy pea gravel path back towards the car.

One our way out, we bumped into a nice couple, roughly the same age as Jan and I.  After chatting for a while, they asked if we had seen the Osprey (Pandion haliaetus).  We had not.  Just then the man pointed off into the distance at a tree leaning out over the preserve lower levels, right where Jan and I were about 15 minutes ago.  Roughly two hundred yards away there was a twig of a tree, with a white/black lump on the end of one of its three branches.  Lo and behold there was a large bird sitting there.  I zoomed in as far as I could and was able to capture this highly cropped image (not quite as good as Sam’s photos with her 500mm, visit Sam.Rappen here) of an Osprey.

Osprey by Brad Marks

Hit the jump to read more about this UNBNP encounter!

Continue reading Fishing Hawk…by Brad Marks

The Art of Concealment

By the time you are reading this we should be well on our way to the Canine Performance Event (CPE) Nationals. Raven hopes to carry over his stellar performance in the agility ring this weekend to the be big stage competing with other dogs from all over the US and some international participants – although we just learned that our government has significantly tightened the requirements to bring a canine into the country that is not going over very well at all. Ruger gets the week off as he needs a bit more time (and more titles) before he can compete at this level. To his credit, the puppy brain is starting to click with Linda and they had a very good showing this last weekend as well – finally getting the zoomies under control ha. Although I hope to catch some easy mid-range miles during the week, this will technically be my last rest before entering the final phase of training for the July Cry Me a River 50K. Linda will pull my man-card if I go down in this race again (link here), so long trail miles, hill strengthening, heat conditioning, hydration/energy validation and certainly two-a-days will be in order from that point until the week leading up to the race. If you recall, I shattered my elbow training the week before this race last year (link here).

In honor of that evil tree’s ability to deceptively hide its lethal roots, decided to go with another creature that is equally deft at concealment – thankfully less dangerous to our bone structure!

Wilson's Snipe found at Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Center, Port Aransas, TX in January 2023

You might have to squint a bit and maybe cover some of the distracting reeds, but trust me, it is there. I’ll try to bring our featured feathered friend more out in the open after the jump.

Continue reading The Art of Concealment

Can be Bite-y…by Brad Marks

Howdy all! It has been a hectic time as of late, but starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel – granted, Linda frequently tells me to stay away from the bright light in the sky. Fortunately, this one comes from the lightening of the schedule. One more major dog show next week (Canine Performance Dog Nationals) in my hometown of Springfield. After that, home for a good spell so I can go into beast mode training for the daunting 50K in early July. In the bustle we did manage to hold an Intrigued bird outing last week that was quite productive…at the cost of HR berating me about an office full of “Warbler Necks”. More to come on that front. For now I am going to focus on getting packed while Brad takes you to the water’s edge. Quick note, one of the locations mentioned happens to be where a similar encounter left me prematurely grey!

Take it away Brad…

We learned a very valuable birding rule of thumb:  Be very aware of your surroundings.  There can be rocks, uneven ground, water, mud, camera equipment, snakes, holes, birds nesting on the ground, etc.  All of the above can be an inconvenience if encountered, or perhaps even painful.  But none of those can really ruin your day like today’s topic.  Since we encountered this subject all over South Carolina, I’m going to take you to many locations for today’s story.

One of our first stops was Jarvis Creek Park.  It is a very nice park with many hiking paths including a 1-mile paved walking path around the central pond.  The park was full of families picnicking and having fun.  Dogs were pulling their people all around the path.

After about halfway around the pond, Jan came across something that had its eye on the tourists and small critters on leashes.  I was up on the footpath talking with someone walking their dog, a boxer named Oscar if I remember correctly.  Jan walked down the bank by the water to get this photo.

Alligators by Brad Marks

Want to see more spiky creatures (you know you do), hit the jump!

Continue reading Can be Bite-y…by Brad Marks

Fast Dogs and Weird Geese

Welcome to May everyone! Trying my best to get caught up since getting back from the Purina Farms Poodle Specialty Agility Nationals and FastCAT runs in Missouri. I am beginning to think the term “caught up” is just a polite way of saying getting some semblance of order before receiving another dose of chaos as we head out the door on another adventure – retirement is wonderful, but I definitely didn’t expect to be this busy! The good news is, while Brad was looking after the Intrigued complex, I was able to get caught up on this year’s Average Year stats (link here) – note, as of today, it is technically 4 birds behind (I can’t win ha). My count officially sits at 285. Not a bad number this early in the season, but it has been a struggle of sorts as we changed up our travel destinations a bit. Warblers did just start arrived today, fingers crossed I’ll be able to get several of those in the tin before they move on.

Linda received her FastCAT picture downloads today and thought I’d throw in some brag shots of our speed demon!

Ruger doing FastCAT at Purina Farms, Gray Summit, MO in April 2024

Hit the jump for another shot from the competition and I promise we’ll get you to a feathered friend as well!

Continue reading Fast Dogs and Weird Geese