Welcome to the month that usually makes me take a hard swallow after flipping the page. June is ramp up month for the ultra season and the calendar is full of two-a-days each consisting of 10+ mile runs intermixed with 25+ mile endurance runs all to round off the preparation for the 30 mile Cry Me a River that has officially dropped me twice now, most recently last year (link here). My hopes of a quick redemption have been curtailed and the calendar has been wiped clean to be replaced with medical appointments starting with the ankle MRI this week. I did get a good 8 mile run in this morning to put a likely cap on the season. In light of the fast approaching downtime, I’ve also been trying to hit the birding hard. This last weekend was quite awesome on the feather front. My brother Ron came down on Friday and we got a good start on some local field birding before another Intrigued birding event on Saturday. Ron, Brad, Jan, myself and the rest of the Intrigued staff got a chance to spend a great day in the field – except the Legal Department who are still on probation from their last little stunt. Suspect there will be a write-up coming on that outing in the future. Bookended the weekend with another outing with Ron down at Emiquon NWR. My Average Year count now sits at a shocking 382+3 (previous record was 340) and Ron managed to add ~35 birds to his tally. Brad/Jan and Ron are also now up in the top 40 county birders and neither of them live in this county ha.
To make up for the loss of the double run schedule in June, let’s go with a twofer for today’s featured feathered friend(s) post.
Hit the jump to read more about this species of waterfowl and a very similar looking family member.
Continue reading A Tale of Two Caps
Life Intrigued 