Month: May 2025

Kung Fu Fighting…by Brad Marks

I’ve mentioned this in a few comment replies, but for those that missed it, I received some bittersweet news last week regarding a certain mal-performing joint I’ve been fighting with for over 7 months. If you recall during my last ultra-race..

A sudden motion made me s[l]ip, now we’re into a brand new ‘trip’

There is much debate on whether it would have been better had I actually fallen to the ground vs the ankle going 90 degrees under my leg while I stayed upright. For brevity, a misdiagnosis and then later discover of a double fracture in the tibia left me hobbled through April before getting the okay to resume training. That was met with a very angry joint that eventually led me in search of an explanation if not a remedy. A new ortho-surgeon and more x-rays found very bad things including likely breaks and/or ligament/tendon tear aways from the fibula and minimally severe inner joint ligament damage. MRI scheduled, but suspect a very sharp knife is in my future. Not looking forward to losing the rest of this year, however, incredibly relieved that there is finally a path forward. While I struggle to get this all sorted out, Brad is going to jump into the dojo…I mean spotlight and share another of his adventures from South Carolina.

Take it away Brad…

The word “vacation” means many things to many people.  If you are reading this story, then your definition is probably closer to the one Jan and I use.  Our definition may include beaches and exotic locations, but there are rarely, if ever, whole days sitting by the pool or on the beach with an umbrella drink and a half empty bottle of sunscreen nearby.  Usually our definition of “vacation” includes the exotic location:  checkmark.  But that’s where the similarity stops.  Instead of a pool, we are typically next to a marsh, wetland, crashing surf, mountain or volcano.  In place of the umbrella drinks are usually large camera/glass combos hanging from our Black Rapid camera straps.  OK, we do sometimes have the sunscreen nearby, but it is usually subtlety layered with bug screen.  Oh, and wet wipes; can’t forget to keep the hands clean for holding our cameras.  Bug spray on your hands then touching plastic camera parts leads to fingerprints in the hard plastic.  Please do NOT try this at home.

This “vacation” was no different.  Jan and I took a last-minute trip to Hilton Head Island to avoid some of the frigid weather at home in Illinois in February.  We only avoided some of the cold, because for the first few days the cold followed us south.

We (meaning Jan and I and the cameras) spent the morning at Fish Haul Beach toward the eastern end of Hilton Head Island.  However, after a very late lunch, (I can’t even remember where we ate that day) we decided we hadn’t taken quite enough photos for the day.  Reviewing our options, and not wanting to drive for hours after lunch, we chose Pinckney Island National Wildlife Refuge which is smack dab in between Hilton Head Island and the mainland off of US-278.  We visited this refuge last year and walked for hours.  Since it was already nearing 4pm, we decided to only walk out a mile, see what we would see at Ibis Pond, and then head back to the car.  We were not disappointed.

Common Gallinule found by Brad Marks on Hilton Head Island

(Oh-ho-ho-ho) Huh, ha
Keep on, keep on, keep on… reading by hitting the jump

Continue reading Kung Fu Fighting…by Brad Marks

Yes, Another Sparrow!

We are cranking through May..as we did April..March, before I know it we’ll be setting up for the haunted trail event scheduled for end of September. The haunt lab is in full swing repairing all the items that failed on us last year. Once through that we shift into our favorite part of the year – creating new animations and decorations for our guests to enjoy. Things have been busy in the rest of the Intrigued departments as well. Regular ol’ Santa’s Workshop summer edition. Brad is currently checking in with our headquarters out west while I’ve been trying to get images ready to go for future posts. In addition, trying to get caught up on all the homestead tasks. The latter has come to a halt thanks to multiple days of steady rain giving me badly needed cycles to get today’s featured feathered friend post out.

Black-Throated Sparrow found at Desert Museum, Tucson, AZ in January 2024

Hit the jump to learn more about this rather colorful member of the Sparrow family.

Continue reading Yes, Another Sparrow!

A Rather Drabby Towhee

Not knew to anyone that has spent any time here on Intrigued, I am on “recovery road” trying get back on my feet after getting knocked down – a rare situation of that being metaphorically and literally. Not the first time down this road and likely not the last (some say I tend to push). This latest drive, the ankle, has proven to be one of the most debilitating injury to date. Even with the broken elbow (2 years ago), I was still able to lace up the trail shoes after a couple of weeks – this, has been a different story. Now at 8 months I am finally able to get out and get some miles in – admittedly through clinched teeth knowing every other stride is gonna come with a degree of pain. Yesterday I was listening to podcasts as I am apt to do to keep my head “out” of the run, when Mike Rowe’s podcast David Bahnsen – Poor Smart and Desperate came up next on the running playlist (link here). Next thing I know I am back at the Jeep after my longest run since the injury at 8 miles. The perfect topic at the perfect time. I won’t go into detail, but the topics of Macro happiness and producers vs consumers hit me right between the ears. It is easy to get yourself down when micro level issues don’t go as planned, but the question posed was whether I was happy at a macro level. 8 miles later (apparently) the answer was an absolutely YES. Sure, there are minutia/momentary bouts of unhappiness, the ankle, the elbow, paperwork here, malfunction there etc. but do those outweigh the good things – not even close. Family life is wonderful, great friends, recent checkup was outstanding, I’m out of the daily grind and we get to share our adventures while talking birds and haunts – Life is good. Oh, and on the producer front we now have our 3rd haunt how-to video out which I’ll share at the end if you are interested.

Few things make me happier than when I get to share a new check on the bird life list, so let me introduce you to today’s featured feathered friend.

Canyon Towhee found on Sycamore Trail, Tucson, AZ in January 2024

Hit the jump to read more about this new check from the Sparrow family.

Continue reading A Rather Drabby Towhee

Food Fight…by Brad Marks

Greetings everyone! It was a busy weekend at the HQ with all the haunt production activities now in full swing and yesterday we held our 3rd Intrigued Corporate Warbler Watch and Walk in the Woods (IC4W). I won’t say much about the walk as I am pretty sure there will be a story or two coming in the future. It was definitely a great time to be out in the field with the staff and doing what we love to do – shooting feathers (with our cameras, of course) and getting caught up on life, family, injuries, hobbies, endurance sports and definitely some bird knowledge bantered about. Now, some have eluded to this really being their annual birding-acumen assessment as part of their annual performance reviews. Crazy talk, just a fun time with the boss…now let me just grab my clipboard and we’ll be on our way. Going to let Brad take the wheel for today’s post while I finish up all my notes on the assessment forms…sorry, I mean wrap up submitting all the eBird reports from our fun walk.

Take it away Brad…

We are coming up on the end of my third-year writing (almost 100 stories) and photographing for Wildlife Intrigued.  I’ve learned it’s not all about just taking photos.  Oh sure, Jan and I take tens of thousands of photos per year, and sometimes we take that many on a single assignment (22k in Hilton Head in total).  It’s really about observing wildlife and learning to anticipate what might happen next and then telling the story.  Often the whole story happens in just a few moments.  Now, if I can just figure out when the fun stuff is going to happen and take fewer photos of “boring” stuff.  If you’ve figured this out, let me know in the comments.

Jan and I have taken a few trips to South Carolina during cold Illinois winter months.  Like most who travel to the ocean’s edge, we try to ignore the hordes of seagulls.  Although, I learned two years ago that there is more than one type of “seagull”, and that gulls can be quite entertaining (here) if given a chance.  They can also be quite competitive.

Gulls found by Brad and Jan in South Carolina

Warning, one or more fish were likely harmed in the making of this post, but that’s gonna happen when in proximity to today’s featured feathered friends. Hit the jump to see who wins the “prize”.

Continue reading Food Fight…by Brad Marks

Rufouspalooza

Greetings everyone! May is turning out to be the same as April..well, March and February and Jan..you get the picture – BUSY! The long travels are on the backburner for now and pretty much for the next couple of months it will only be short excursions for dog shows etc. Close to half this year, so far, has been in other states so it will be nice to toil at the homestead for a while. Kudos to those full time RVers out there, if we didn’t come back to “space” I think Linda and I would drive each other crazy ha. This also means the hard work begins. Plenty of outdoor work to get done around the house and in the woods plus the annual Haunted Trail event is just around the corner (in haunt units of time), so the haunt lab is now in full production mode. On top of all that, our haunt department has finally pulled the trigger on their haunt themed YouTube channel. In the past we have used the Intrigued Mothership (lifeintrigued.com) to feature our various prop projects, but those have been getting more involved over the years and the word format was causing major finger fatigue. What I didn’t expect was the amount of time required to move to the video format – new tools to learn, more planning, more editing and most of all, being back in front of the camera. Pretty rusty since those days in the corporate grind. Fortunately, all things that go bump in the night are my passion so it is still a lot of fun! I’ll include a link to our first prop tutorial video at the bottom of this post in case you are interested.

Sticking with that theme of hard work, today’s featured feathered friend can make you want to pull your rufous feathers out in the field.

Green-Tailed Towhee found at Catalina State Park outside Tucson, AZ in January 2024

Hit the jump to read more about this rather elusive new check on my birding life list.

Continue reading Rufouspalooza

Salmon Buffet…by Brad Marks

Welcome to May everyone…or using our standard measurement for time .. a mere 5 months before the annual Haunted Trail event. Time is closing in on us in the haunt department. Fortunately, after this weekend’s agility dog show in Wisconsin we will be home for a good period of time that I can devote to all things that go bump in the night. In the midst of that, I also need to hit the ankle rehab hard(er) if I’m going to be ready to race a couple of weeks after that event. Going to be a busy summer. Having subjected you to a rather drab member of the birding world in my last post, I was searching for something to spice it up a bit. Took a scan through Brad’s queue and he had the perfect “NAB” to feature. Identify the person who is slowest in your group and let Brad take you on a northwestern adventure.

Take it away Brad…

Late last summer, Jan and I were on a great Alaskan Adventure.  Our 17-day tour involved several days on land, and then several more days on a very large cruise ship (more stability = less queasiness for Brad).  We booked every possible excursion available so we could see as much of the Alaskan wilderness as possible.  I also felt pressure from Intrigued HQ to book some birding adventures.  One of our trips was a guided Wildlife Tour at Icy Strait Point near Hoonah, Alaska.  We did see birds, but they weren’t the highlight of this excursion.

After disembarking from the cruise ship and walking through the gift shops, we arrived where the tour would start.  Thankfully, Jan and I were not there during peak season.  It seemed the vast majority of the passengers from the two cruise ships docked there were headed to either the zip-lines, gift shops, or the bars (as if the cruise boats ran out).  Our tour was designed for up to 18 people, but only 8 signed up for the trip.  We’ve learned from the past that fewer people in tour groups usually means we can make more tour stops, or spend more time in the various places on the tour.

Once we were checked at the tour office, the group climbed into the mini-bus, and our guide, Amy, started the tour.  Amy told the group that she grew up on the island, fifth generation in fact, and was a wealth of knowledge for being as young as she was.  After making a stop to see eagles (link to Under Construction) she took us to a remote location on the Island.

After we all got out of the minibus at the next stop, Amy gave a stern safety briefing.  She said that are usually bears in the area, but that human noises keep them away for the most part.  Amy also requested we stay behind her because she didn’t want to have to deter a bear with tourists in the way.  I didn’t fully comprehend what she was telling us until later in the tour.

We walked a few hundred yards along a two-track gravel road into the wilderness.  Amy was pointing our various flora and fauna and telling us stories all along the way.  Now, I wish I had recorded those stories to help write these stories.  After about 15 minutes, we came to a small bridge across a creek.

Brown Bear found by Brad and Jan Marks in Alaska

As we say at Intrigued … “It’s a Furry NAB” (Not a Bird). Hit the jump to learn more about this Alaskan creature.

Continue reading Salmon Buffet…by Brad Marks