Month: February 2026

I’m Too Sexy for my Plumes (and some Brags)

We are quickly approaching another page turning on the calendar. Normally I feel a bit down when this time comes as it marks another month gone, never to be recovered and the inevitable “I could have done more” feeling that has nagged me most of my life. In this case.. bring it on, this weather is too damn COLD!! Sorry, I’m not conditioned for these Midwest Tundra Februaries anymore ha. Before I get into today’s “redemption” post, need to get some brags out of the way. Ruger and Raven had their end of the year award recognition event last week and they wanted to show off their trophy plaques.

Raven has had a pretty incredible agility career over his 11 years so far and likes to hold it over his younger brother that he is on his 4th board. Those plates represent all his Agility Titles including Championships with a Tricks title thrown in – “Eat my dust Ruger-child!“.

Raven Dog Agility/Tricks Awards 2025

Ruger likes to point out that he is only 4 and already filling a 2nd board with his Agility Titles including Championships along with his FastCAT Championship titles (100yd dash) and a Versatility in Poodle Certificate – “Suck it old man Raven!“

Ruger Agility/FastCAT/Versatility Awards 2025

The brag bickering these two do back and forth on a daily basis is nearly insufferable. Don’t tell them or their heads will get bigger than they are, but we are very proud of both of them. The Boys and I are also very proud of “Mommy” who puts in all the work to get each of those plates. Well done everyone!

Okay, we need to get to today’s post which is really a companion piece to my last post.

Reddish Egrets found at South Padre Island Birding and Nature Center in January of 2025

So, I got a lot of feedback on how sad they felt for the male Reddish Egret that was embarrassingly rejected in front of all the locals at the Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Center (link here). It just so happens another encounter was occurring further south of there. Hit the jump to see if this meeting turned out any better.

Continue reading I’m Too Sexy for my Plumes (and some Brags)

Love Hurts

Before I go ANY further…

CONGRATULATIONS to our men’s and women’s Olympic hockey team players/coaches/staff – you did us proud!!! What the men did for the Gaudreau children is the antithesis for today’s post. Okay, back to the regularly scheduled programming (as I wipe away a few tears of joy).

Since I lost my voice thanks to “our” (I am sure I helped in some way) OT win this morning, figured I would sit quietly down and put the finishing touches on a post I was planning on putting out back on Valentine’s Day. Traditionally, I feature the “red” feathered birds for that special someone’s day – problem was I didn’t have one of those ready to go, so I went with a series that played out last year at the Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Center. After getting most of it ready to go, I decided that wasn’t a good time to feature courtship rejection.

Love hurts, love scars
Love wounds, and marks
Any heart, not tough
or strong enough

White Morph Reddish Egrets found at Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Center, Port Aransas, TX in January 2025

You will understand after the jump.

Continue reading Love Hurts

Thrashing and Splashing

Been quite the busy bee (err Bri) since returning home from Texas. Having to deal with the ankle injury, all the work related with the Haunted Trail and well, life in general, I fell behind on my tasks (starting last year). I don’t know about you, but that nags at me to no end and if I get too far behind it basically feels like I’m “thrashing” around in a sea of commitments. One of those failed endeavors was documenting all my bird sightings. I don’t mention it much, but I try to document all the sightings made during the annual Average Year efforts (link here). I only made it a few months into last year so I was way behind starting this year – now resolved. All of 2025 is done (link here) and 2026 (link here) is now current (with exception of the graphs which I only update monthly). Happy to say I am bettering my pace from last year’s record setting tally (400+3 provisional) with a current count of 254+3. In my best Chico Escuela voice, Texas was berry, berry good to me.

Keeping with the “thrashing” theme, thought I would feature a bird that knows a lot about that!

Curve-Billed Thrasher found at Laguna Vista Nature Trail, Laguna Vista, TX in January 2025

Hit the jump to learn more about this angry looking bird… and if you behave, we just might give you a bonus species!

Continue reading Thrashing and Splashing

Who is that Masked Bird?…by Brad Marks

For some reason I continually forget February is a short month – even worse since leaving the grind when I had the end of the month “Explain how you earned our money” reports to remind me the calendar is about to roll (and the bank account grow). I am sure someone out there is going “Just look in the bottom right corner of your screen nitwit!“. The important thing is I need to stay on top of the posts or we will miss our self-imposed monthly quota. I had intentions of digging into my photo backlog queue and writing up a post today, but Linda offered to go chase a Snowy Owl that had been spotted about an hour away…that requires zero decision time ha. We ended up finding TWO of them which made my day (missed that check all of last year). In my jubilation, forgot about the post until it was too late, but you are in luck. Brad was at the ready with another of his adventures from “Down Under”. Last time I brought you a new bird that traveled to us, this time we are bringing you a new bird that Intrigued packed its bags for.

Take it away Brad…. (Note, Brad and Jan are out on assignment so replies might be delayed)

On our first full day in Cairns (pronounced “cans”), Queensland Australia (north side), Jan and I went outside our beachfront hotel after breakfast to see what we could see before our first group activity started.  Even in October, Cairns is very warm and humid.  Remember, it’s on the other side of the Equator, the seasons are reversed.  Essentially, we were in Australia in “April” for them.  Cairns is in the tropics so temperatures don’t vary all that much winter to summer.  Well, except from Fahrenheit to Celsius for travelers.  The high temperature that day reached 28C, or 82F, with 110% humidity.  A very warm day for me, but about average for this time of year for Cairns.  Important stats to know when carrying very large glass outside after it has been sitting in an air-conditioned hotel room overnight.  We let the cameras and lenses warm up slowly to prevent condensation on all of the glass elements.  Wandering around with a large camera and 200-500mm lens garners a lot of attention. 

Talk about having egg on your face ha… hit the jump to learn more about this exotic looking bird.

Continue reading Who is that Masked Bird?…by Brad Marks

A South American Visitor

Our winter migration has come to an end and we are officially back at the Intrigued Headquarters. I am still awaiting monetary gifts of appreciation from our IL based friends for dragging back some warm weather on our way back from Texas (those can be dropped off anytime at our offices!). We were definitely not expecting temps in the mid-50s only a few days after our return. Doubtful that will hold being mid-February and all, but will enjoy it while it lasts. Before we get into today’s international themed post, wanted to mention a few accolades. We here at Intrigued have entered our 19th year of operation from when we started our “mothership” blog as a place to document our experiences and the social encounters that…well…intrigued us.

18 years of WordPress

Over time we started focusing more and more on featuring the “wild” side of life and then I was asked to present at the local Audubon chapter on “Birding and Blogging” to introduce their members to a new-ish media form to get more exposure to their birding passion. This was a great opportunity to curate our love for wildlife and photography and so our sister site Wildlife Intrigued was born – the rest is history as they say…

10,000 posts on Wildlife Intrigued

…and we recently hit the 1,000 post threshold on this sister site!! A big thanks to all our contributors/editors (Linda, Brad, Jan, Allyson, Elfie and the rest of the behind the scenes staff that make the Intrigued complex run smoothly (and mainly keep us out of legal issues ha).

Thanks for indulging us in our accolades, it is time to get you to the reason you are here…BIRDS!

Yellow-Headed Caracara found on Galveston Island, TX in January 2025

Bringing you a special rarity today as thanks for making it through our intro brags. Hit the jump to learn more about this surprise encounter.

Continue reading A South American Visitor

Stuck the Landing

By the time you read this we will have officially left the great state of Texas and if not all the way back to the Midwest Tundra, certainly withing striking distance. With some definite sadness, our winter migration has come to an end and now time to get back to the Intrigued HQ to get caught up on all the paperwork piling up since our departure – that and finally take down all the Christmas decorations ha! As a whole, it felt like a down year for birding in south Texas as there was relatively little to chase and some of our planned checks never materialized. There were a couple of new lifers (future posts) and a start that took us further west along the border than we have ever been. It was really that portion of our “migration” that elevated the entire birding experience and resulted in a rather stunning surprise.

On our last day in Texas I was able to tin a number of missing birds at Caddo Lake State Park (in our top 5 State Parks we have had the chance to visit). That haul stuck me firmly into third place in the top 100 eBirders in Texas this year with 244+3 checks. Extremely pleased with that accomplishment and I do owe Linda a lot of credit for getting me anywhere close to that level – she denies she is a birder, but she knows her “stuff” and Ron will confirm. As you have likely already assumed, third will be my high water mark with our departure. Best of luck to our many birding friends (old and new) that live in or staying longer in the region – this year we even managed to meet up with birders we know from back home (it really is a small world). The birding community down here is incredibly gracious and always willing to get you directly on a bird or relay the latest information – thank you!

I have plenty more to update everyone on, but there is plenty of time for that in future posts. Let’s get you to the real reason you find yourselves here – BIRDS. In honor of landing in the Texas top 5, going with a more literal interpretation of sticking the landing

American White Pelican found at Leonabelle Turnbell Birding Center, Port Aransas, TX in January 2025

Hit the jump to read more about this member of a squadron making their way back to base.

Continue reading Stuck the Landing