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.
Hit the jump to read more about this rather elusive new check on my birding life list.
Was hoping I didn’t scare you away with that rufous comment ahead of the jump. Didn’t want you to panic and think I was going with round two of that boring “Rufous”-Winged Sparrow – hopefully the image immediately after that set your mind at ease. Ironically, the Green-Tailed Towhee is classified into the New World Sparrow (Passerellidae) family. Yes, that includes the 5 other Towhees resident in the US (Spotted, Eastern, California, Abert’s and Canyon). I can say all of the Towhees are now in the Intrigued portfolio. Brad has the distinction of having the California checked off his list (link here).
The Eastern is a regular around here and I haven’t taken the time to feature it. The Canyon is the other one I haven’t written up yet, but that is coming. The Abert’s (link here) and the Spotted (link here) have had their day in the lights, but today we are going to cover the one I found hardest of the Towhees to get in the tin. Hmmm, by definition that should actually be the California Towhee as that is still unchecked on my list, but I really haven’t had a chance to go after that one yet.
While researching the target list of birds for our Arizona trip, the Green-Tailed Towhee was near the top, sitting below the Elegant Trogon and the Arizona Woodpecker – a fine class of birds to be in for sure. All birders know that putting a name on list is one thing, executing on it can be an entirely different affair. For the record, I failed to get the Trogon and AZ Woodpecker checked off in 2024 – foreshadowing, that failure has been rectified in our recent trip out there. The early projection was the GT Towhee might end up on the missed list as well.
Fortunes turned with a trip to Catalina State Park outside of Tucson. Your recollection is correct, that is the same park that Ron and I found the Rufous-Winged Sparrow in the previous post (link here). Turns out that visit was a Rufouspalooza. I will not lie, I’ve been wanting to use that term for a long time hehehehe. Prediction, the next time you find a feathered specimen sporting a color scheme with rufous in it, you are going to mentally say it (recommend not doing it out loud or people with look and judge ha).
Soon after tinning the RW Sparrow, Ron and I made our way into a more wooded part of their birding trail. That is when we noticed a flash of something greyish and yellowish dart through the underbrush. “Was that, I think it was, where’d it go” – full sentences tend to elude me on the hunt. Luckily there was an extra pair of eyes there as these Greenies tend to not want to be seen and much less photographed. Their super power is the ability to always insure there is ample brush between them and the glass. I also find them to be less vocal than the other Towhees so visual lock-ons are usually the only option. In contrast, the Spotted and Easterns are wannabe theater cast members making a point to find a visible perch and go full opera. The Spotted was once named Spotlighted in recognition of their thirst to be on stage in the big lights.
Just got off the phone with our legal department – sigh, “we regret and formally apologize for that previous untruth regarding the Spotted”. Anyway, for a serious chunk of time, Ron and made our way around various tangles trying to get a clear shot – it occurred to us later that we should have been more mindful of the possibility of Snakes. Eventually something made it into the tin worthy of claiming the check. Like breaking the “seal” at the bar (guys know what I mean), a first encounter of a bird usually results in more frequent sightings after that. As we were getting ready to leave, another one popped right out on the trail in front of us. These shots came from that second look as well as a third encounter while visiting Spring Mountain Ranch State Park in Blue Diamond, NV less than a week later.
Running out of the shots, so need to get you some interesting facts before you go. First off, they do indeed have a green tail! In truth it seems more of a bright olive but no need to split feathers. Their folded feathers show off a brighter yellowish edging that sticks out against their grey chest. Their rufous cap is the cherry on top and probably the feature you are going to notice first along with their white throats. Like the RW Sparrow, they also have a dark mustache stripe more visible in the images above.
The GT Towhee is a western region bird that pushes up from their southern border (and down into Central America) residency to breed in the heart of the west. Interesting that they stay off the west coast and stall their northern migration not far into our most northwestern states. Lastly (Cornell is pretty weak on their cool facts for this bird), they claim that Greenie moms will trick their predators by mimicking a Chipmunk running away using its green tail raised in the air to distract from their nest location. Pretty clever if you ask me.
Hope you enjoyed our first look at this secretive bird. Not sure if I just know what to look for now or if we are ending up in more populated areas, but Linda and I have regularly spotted them while on our recent trip out west. Still fun to see, still hard as hell to tin ha!
Oh, almost forgot. Here is a link to our Haunt Departments first prop creation walk through in case you are interested in a behind the scenes look at what it takes to put together one of our signature props. There will be plenty more coming as we prepare for this year’s event (direct link if it doesn’t play in your browser here).
Life Intrigued 