Month: November 2024

Your Majesty…by Brad Marks

There I relaxed, lounging on my lawn chair sipping on a nice pour of well-aged bourbon (with an umbrella of course) while watching the beach themed screensaver playing out on monitors. White sunscreen paste on my nose, sandals at the ready and cheap sunglasses on. Life was good even though outside the Midwestern winter was raging in the wind aided teens. That’s before a call came in on the Intrigued bat signal line. What could possibly be so urgent on Thanksgiving night!! A quick check of the number confirmed it wasn’t our legal department so at least that fear was suppressed. Turns out it was our Quality Assurance department head and he was none too pleased. “What did I do now?” Through the sputtering and agitated speak I discerned something about being down a post from our monthly quota and putting our 10+ year record in jeopardy. He had seen my comment in the previous post about our staff taking some time off to be with the family over the holiday. I could see the floor through my tumbler and decided I was in no shape to remedy the situation. That’s when Brad said he would take care of it and already had a story in the queue. Someone just significantly padded his upcoming performance review ha. Soooo, I’m going to put another coating of sunscreen on and maybe resolve this empty tumbler tragedy while Brad takes the controls to bring you an adventure from Colorado.

Take it away Brad (and thanks for the assist!)…

Jan and I were winding down an April trip to Colorado when we found a free half-day on our hands.  We quickly consulted a map of the birding spots around north-central Colorado.  One of them had a dubious location (included a camp ground near an interstate), but since it was near where we were headed, Jan and I decided to give it a try.

When Jan and I arrived at the gate of St. Vrain State Park, there was a small guard shack.  The guard asked what we were doing there and we said we were trying to find some birds.  He gave us a doubting look and told us the entrance fee for camping.  I said we weren’t camping, just looking for some birds.  He could clearly see into the car and knew that we had no camping gear and didn’t intend to stay.  After a brief pause, I think he took pity on us and gave us a paltry amount as an entry fee (which may have been the actual fee).

At that point I had no idea where to go in the campground.  The guard suggested we may want to try the lake.  Great!  Where’s the lake?  We, OK I, stumbled around on the roads a bit until we found a parking lot near the lake.

Jan and I followed the well-maintained crushed gravel path three-fourths of the way around the lake (counterclockwise from the parking lot).  Even though we were two hundred yards from I-25, we could easily hear the traffic whizzing by.  Jan saw a flash flying into a green tree on a low branch.  Cameras at the ready we slowly crept up on our target.

Eastern Kingbird found by Brad and Jan Marks

Hit the jump to find out more about this rather dapper looking feathered find.

Continue reading Your Majesty…by Brad Marks

The Silent F’s in Thanksgiving

This is the time when we here at Intrigued drive over to our corporate NAS farm, badge in, say hello to our office staff (that didn’t see us coming and go into hiding hehehe), navigate to our holiday section and pull out some appropriately themed photos to honor the holiday. So, in keeping with longstanding tradition, I bring you some Wild Turkeys for your after dinner wind down enjoyment.

Sandhill Cranes found at Sweetwater Wetlands Park in Gainseville, FL in April 2024

Okay, so at least that was the plan. Truth is, the Turkey folder was empty. I quickly recalled my last sighting of Wild Turkeys came courtesy of a rainy day at Benson-Rio Grande Valley State Park. Linda was the one who actually found them as she was biking around the park. Needing the check, I walked up the road and without thinking about the holiday ramifications, snapped a few shots of wet Turkeys with my cell phone and crossed that species off the list. I thought about using those cell shots for this post before quickly realizing how that would crumble the devious facade that Bri actually knows what he’s doing behind the glass.

Sandhill Cranes found at Sweetwater Wetlands Park in Gainseville, FL in April 2024

In my defense, based on a quick look back at previous year’s topics, this isn’t the first time I’ve had to break with tradition – which, I guess, kinda calls into contention the whole concept of tradition. Last year I brought you Quail (link here), and a few years back had a Vulture stand in (link here). Not sure what I was thinking there, at least the Quail is considered a game bird. Anyway, as you have already noticed, this year at least we went back to something that looks closer to the wild variety of the cuisine likely gracing many Stateside dinner tables.

Fear not, there is a reason for this particular series, simply hit the jump to read about my madness, err, thoughtful selection

Continue reading The Silent F’s in Thanksgiving

Verdin…by Brad Marks

Well, I have to say it has been quite the week and one of the few times I don’t mind the time accelerating past. Now we will start transitioning into the Christmas spirit here at Intrigued HQ keeping in mind there is still an important holiday to celebrate – in direct obstinacy to the corporate merchants who want us to start celebrating red and green long before orange and black has had its day. While I continue to tend to the weakened body part(s) and we get used to a sadly much quieter home, Brad is going to bring us a new feathered friend for he and Jan.

Take it away Brad…

I think I’ve found the secret for finding those small little spastic birds; let Jan take photos while I’m doing something else.  Shhh!  Don’t tell her.  Oops, it’s probably too late since she edits my stories before they go out.

Earlier this spring Jan and I were visiting the wildlife areas near Las Vegas.  Brian has posted on this particular bird from Henderson Birding Viewing Preserve (story here).  I had just gotten off the phone when Jan found me wandering one of the trails of Clark County Wetlands (here), looking for her.  She said she found a little yellow bird and then asked me, “What is it?”  Hard to tell from the little LCD view screen on the back of Jan’s camera.

Verdin found by Brad and Jan Marks in Henderson, NV

Hit the jump to read more about this desert resident.

Continue reading Verdin…by Brad Marks

We’ll Miss You Benji

With heavy hearts we had to say goodbye to our beloved Benji today. He was actually a gift from us to Linda’s Mother (Dorothy) for Christmas back in 2008. We thought it would be a nice way to keep her company since the passing of her husband. She was so excited, telling everyone we were getting her a puppy that year and already had his name picked out before got there!

Benji

Benjamin (Benji) Barton
12/4/2008 – 11/21/2024

Hit the jump to see a few more shots of this happy-go-lucky puppy.

Continue reading We’ll Miss You Benji

“Chicken”…by Brad Marks

Well hi there! Brad has a special treat for you today and comes courtesy of a trip he and Jan took to the upper northwest of the US – as in very north, very west and definitely very upper! I had been holding on to this out of jealousy…I mean as a safety net, yeah, that’s it (almost ended that with a reference to Morgan Fairchild, but that would have dated me big time ha). With the travels coming up I wanted to make sure I had at least one story ready in case there was a gap in connectivity. Great news as we just received Brad’s latest batch of adventures, so we are absolutely good to go. Now, I may not have been kidding on the jealousy front. I do have a list of nemesis birds that haunt me daily. For some reason I either failed to get them in the tin or worse, never managed to get eyes on one. These are all affectionately called “Effin” birds. I’ve had the distinct pleasure of going after this particular Effin family over 5 times now, which have all consisted of long hikes above 10,000 feet. Have not even seen one of them for my efforts! Whenever our staff goes out in the field I tell them to bring back one of the Effins off my list. Going to cut Brad and Jan some slack as they are still relatively new around here, but when I tell them to “bring one back” I literally mean to bring a live specimen back for me!

Time for me to shed a few shades of green hue and get you to Brad’s adventure. Take it away Brad…

As Brian noted in previous posts, Jan and I survived our August photo assignment to the wilds of Alaska.  This was one of those places we’ve always wanted to visit, but didn’t want to do half-way.  I think our 17-day Alaska trip (land and sea) gave us a good intro to this truly wondrous and wild place.  We both recommend a trip to Alaska.  Go ahead and book it, I’ll let you catch up later.

Only about 2% of the state is accessible by roads.  The rest must be visited by some other mode of transportation including:  boat, plane, horse, dog sled, four-wheeler, SUV/Truck, tour bus, or on foot.  Thankfully for Jan and I, most of the places we visited were by road, only a few were on foot.  We did see and hold a very cute sled dog puppy (maybe a future post).

Thirty-five years ago, when Jan’s dad retired from a major manufacturer based in Illinois (BTW, he just celebrated the same thirty-five years of retirement and is still going strong), her parents took a 6-week driving trip to Alaska.  Yes, that’s right.  They chose to drive to Alaska from Illinois.  As Jan’s dad is fond of telling us, “When you’ve driven from Illinois to Seattle, you are about halfway to Alaska.”  (Now to be completely fair on the length of the driving trip, Jan’s dad did have to order and replace the hydraulic lifters in the car’s V-8 engine somewhere inside Alaska, but that only added 2-3 days to the whole adventure.  Yes, he had tools in the trunk of the car.)  We experienced similar travel times.  No, not six weeks, but it did take us nearly 9 hours of flying, via fairly circuitous route, to reach Fairbanks from Illinois.  Fairbanks is only about 100 miles from the Arctic Circle, or 64 degrees, 56 minutes north latitude.  That means the sun sets for only a couple of hours each night during summer months, leaving us with a twilight-y sort of sky for sleeping.  For those keeping score at home, I think this is a latitude record for Wildlife Intrigued.

As Jan’s parents discovered on their trip, there are many colorful people and stories along the way.  One of those stories is about the town called Chicken in Alaska.  The good people of the town wanted to name it after a local bird from the tundra, but no one could spell the bird’s name.   They ended up calling the town “Chicken.”  Stay tuned for the real bird’s name in just a bit.

Willow Ptarmigan by Brad Marks

If it looks like one, acts like one and easier to spell, then it must be one – hit the jump to read more about this Chicken!

Continue reading “Chicken”…by Brad Marks

Pinky!

Greetings all! Not much to give on the update front. My ankle has been a big disappointment and we are considering simply declaring Excommunicado from the family – no Thanksgiving gathering for you! Been working on it for over a month now and it is refusing to comply to a level I demand. Broke down and went to the Ortho to get some glamour shots to ensure there were no serious reasons for all the whining it was doing. After noting all the historical trauma he could see surrounding it, he noted no fractures. Diagnosis, severe high ankle sprain caused by the second incident during the race. At least 4 to 5 more weeks of recovery..for a normal patient. I was waiting for the doctor to ask the ankle if it felt safe at home. Doubled the rehab and started with 4 mile walks this week. Barring any legitimate complaints, should be on the run in a week – two tops.

Beyond that, it has been an interesting week here stateside as we carried out the keystone of our republic to elect our representatives. I’ll leave assessments on the actual outcomes for individual reflection, but there are a few ancillary things that were loud and clear from my perspective. Lamestream media is effectively dead. Clearly the propaganda machine has little to no influence over a majority of the population. Yours truly has been railing against their hyperbole for years. In that same vein, partisan pollsters and fact checkers deserve a headstone in our haunted cemetery to celebrate their occupation demise. Lastly, entertainers and our self-righteous elites have lost their flock. I am sure there will be further peripheral fallout as America comes to terms with the outcomes, some good, some bad, some red, some white, some blue and all the colors between…as in PINK!

American Flamingo found at St. Marks NWR, FL in April 2023

Hit the jump to learn about a feathered friend that hasn’t compromised its celebrity status from the recent election.

Continue reading Pinky!