Month: March 2026

Sawbills – and Call for Help

Greetings everyone! Good news, Brad and Jan have checked in and all appears to be going well on their current trip into the field. Luckily I had several years of Spanish so I could translate their message. Although at the ready, we will hold off on sending our lawyers guns and money. Not much really to relay from the Intrigued HQ beyond a personal highlight of getting in my first 7 miles road run since the ankle surgery. Not pretty by any means, but it means the hard work is finally paying off and on the trajectory to the end of the year 100 miler goal (crap, did I say that out loud – forget you saw that).

I do need some help from my birding friends familiar with the Northwest. The Canine Performance Events Agility Nationals are being held in Auburn, Washington at the end of May and I am looking for advice on good places to bird in the area. This is my first time visiting there in non-official work capacity and want to make the most of the birding opportunity. We are still planning our route, but it looks like the southern trek through Wyoming-Utah-Idaho-Oregon-Washington out and then across Washington-Montana-North Dakota-Minnesota back in order to catch Glacier NP. Any recommendations are welcome, but the Oregon/Washington hotspots are my main focus right now as that is the biggest opportunity for lifers for the trip. If you have some, feel free to drop those in the comments or I can send you out my email address if you prefer a more direct communication. Thanks in advance!!

Let’s not keep you waiting any longer and get you right to today’s featured feathered friend.

Male Red-Breasted Merganser found on North Jetty of Bolivar Peninsula in April 2024

Quite the splash of color on this specimen eh? Hit the jump to learn more about our thin-bill waterfowl.

Continue reading Sawbills – and Call for Help

Fancy Tail

Taking a break from fixing all our Haunted Trail decor that failed for one reason or another during our last event. Most of these are pretty easy having been at this for a while now, but there are those spirits in the machine that require a deeper dive into the finicky world of electronics – especially ones that were exposed to a nonstop deluge of rain like on our last night – damn thee weather gods ha. Needed to step away a bit to clear the head and figured it was a good time to relax and get a post out. In honor of the colors of Halloween, let’s go with a black(ish) and orange(ish) specimen for our featured feathered friend of the day.

Scissor-Tailed Flycatcher found on Laguna Madre Trail by South Padre Island Convention Center, TX in March 2024

Absolutely gorgeous from my perspective, but completing the theme, a nightmare for any insects that try to cross its killing field. Hit the jump to see more shots of this fancy-tailed Flycatcher.

Continue reading Fancy Tail

Days in White Satin

Apologies to those patiently waiting for the far more entertaining stories from Brad and Jan, but I missed a small window I had between their trips into the field. Went with the two-parter on the RomEos (did everyone catch the RE or Reddish Egret secret coding there ha) and that ended up pushing us through February and now they are filling up their tins with new adventures. Have no worries, Brad has filled up his post queue so we’ll be getting to those upon their return – we like to keep our operatives focused in the field and not having to find creative ways to get access for replies etc. Long story short, you are stuck with me for at least the next couple of posts.

Being that we just featured a rather large, white (morphed) shorebird in our last two posts, decided to keep the theme going to start March off.

Great Egrets at High Island Rookery, Texas, March 2024

Granted, today’s featured feathered friend is larger than the Reddish Egret and naturally white versus a genetic variation, but you get the picture (literally ha). Hit the jump to learn more about these breeding plumaged Great Egrets – I promise to limit my use of song lyrics this time hehehe.

Continue reading Days in White Satin