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!
Hit the jump for another shot from the competition and I promise we’ll get you to a feathered friend as well!
For those not familiar with the FastCAT events, it is essentially a 100 yard dash for dogs. Open to any dog breed and performance is based solely on beating the clock vs the other competitors, so everyone is on equal footings. Small dogs, big dogs, skinny dogs, chubby dogs, prissy dogs… all they have to do is be able to make it to the end enticed by a plastic bag on the end of a string that is kept just ahead of them. The time is then compared to an established baseline for that dog’s height – how well they do relative to that time is the number of points they get. I am not entirely sure how the points are allocated (Linda’s responsibility), but the more the pup comes under that time, the more points they are awarded. Titles are awarded when they reach threshold point levels. Ruger already has his first title and with the results of his runs last weekend he is likely a mere 4 runs from his next title.
For the curious, Ruger’s top speed is 19.5 MPH. He was running in pretty tall, wet grass at Purina that pushed him down into the 18s – still hauling ass. I love the shot above as he looks like a grey Cheetah! Ruger ABSOLUTELY loves it and you can see the pure joy as the wind whips through his fur as he races to his mother at the end of the course. Downside, it is quite the task for me to keep him under control at the starting line prior to the referee gives the release signal – imagine trying to hold a bunch of screaming mongooses – now imagine them chugging Red Bulls while mainlining Pixie Stix and chugging espressos. Quite the comedy.
Okay, you have suffered through enough bragging, time to get to today’s featured feathered friend. You might want to turn the lights up before taking a look at this Goose, it can be a bit startling at first ha.
This particular series was taken in Austin, TX on December 30, 2022. That date is rather important as it represented a period of absolute stress as I was desperately trying to get to the ’22 Average Year goal of 300 bird species (link here). The day started at 295 – two days to go and I was running out of daylight and opportunities. An early stop at Commons Ford Ranch Metropolitan Park on the west end of the city resulted in some misses, but at least one addition put me at 296. Linda and I were scouring the eBird reports looking for anything that was in reach keeping a close eye on the rapidly falling sun.
Linda discovered a place called Emma Long Metropolitan Park (link here). Caution, do not confuse this with the Walter E. Long Metropolitan Park located on the east side of Austin (link here) – The Emma website explicitly states their namesakes are not related an apparently their political views were also not aligned (salty). They had Raven reports and a supposed wild flock of Egyptian Geese. It had a steep IpS. (Investment per Species) as there was a $10/car fee to get into the park bringing the cost to $5 per new species opportunity or an IpS of 5. I like to keep that closer to 1, but these were desperate times. Made our way over there about an hour before dusk.
I must say, Emma was a really nice park with lovely views of the Colorado River running alongside. Complete with a campground, picnic tables, hiking trails and access points to the river. I wouldn’t mind going back there and exploring it some more, alas there was business to attend to while the dropping sun taunted. After a couple of hurried walks along the river a set of spooky looking Geese gingerly floated right past me. With an odd guttural croak the lead Goose conveyed “Excuse me sir, can I interest you in a photo perhaps?”
Holy crap, there they were! Immediately brought The Beast on target, a quick snap to check the settings, upped them all to compensate for the total blackness on the back of the LCD and got to work.
Unfortunately, no Raven appeared so the IpS went up to a whopping 10. 297 and only one day to go. If you are a regular reader of this blog you probably already I know I topped out at 298 adding only one new species before bringing in the New Year. So close.
Better get to some interesting aspects of this bizarre looking creature, especially after I made you sit through the Ruger brags at the beginning. The Egyptian Goose is not native to the US, rather a natural resident of Africa. Due to its rather striking appearance, it is a popular zoo feature in the US and there were/are many private entities that brought them over as ornamental accessories to local ponds and estates. By definition, those particular specimens would not be allowed to be counted in our Average Year and definitely not allowed by the ABA’s Big Year rules (link here). Ron and I relax these rules to include wild/thriving populations of exotics which this flock qualifies as – similar to the escaped flocks of Monk Parakeets in various parts of the country and the southern Texas Parrots. Wikipedia indicates they were labeled as a non-native species by the UK in 2009 which grants Great Britain the permission to shoot “without permission” if they cause problems. Unfortunately, just looking at these ghostly Geese could be cause for a health problem! These Geese are non-migratory and actually prefer to spend their time on land rather than water. Apparently, the study on whether they have the irritable bowel syndrome issues of their Canada Geese kin that causes them to crap on every square inch they traverse is still underway.
Better wrap this post up – have to put some miles in tomorrow and need to recover from the 50 vials of blood I had to give during my annual physical labs today (Nurse Ratched swears it was only two – she lies I tell ya’!)
wait…before I go, one last shot from the course “Did I win Mommy!”
Life Intrigued 