It’s been a busy week here at Intrigued which admittedly is becoming the norm – especially with haunt build season in full swing. As mentioned in a previous post, we started the week down at the Poodle Specialty Agility and FastCAT (100 yd dash) competitions being held down at Purina Farms in Gray Summit, MO. Imagine Poodles of every size, every color, every groom and EVERYWHERE you look. Linda calls it heaven on earth, I call it the danger zone as I fret we will come home with more Poodles than we brought. The agility runs didn’t go as we had hoped, Ruger got a bit spooked by the photographer at the side of the ring and never really recovered. Raven was just one second over from qualifying in his run – heartbreak. Ruger redeemed himself in the dash clocking his second fastest run ever at 19.3mph earning this monster ribbon for his second FastCAT Championship title.
Look at the size of that ribbon! What a ham hehehe.
On a personal front, three big accomplishments on my ongoing ankle recovery. Made it through my first 7+ mile continuous run without have to take a break to let the pain subside, completed my first 7 mile trail run (I’m back baby!) and today I made my official return to Farmdale Reservoir for the first time since the injury – 16 months ago. I was worried I would seize up at the spots where I broke my ankle and shattered my elbow but made it through – there was a shudder at each spot as the impact visuals popped in my head.
Linda is giving me “the look”, time to get to the real wild topic for today.
Now that is what I call making a statement on the water! Hit the jump to see more shots of the White Ibis in their amped up breeding colors.
Almost through April and thought I would squeeze in another entry in the salute to breeding season series. Similar to the Herons and Egrets featured earlier in the month, the White Ibis takes on additional vibrance during the frisky season. In the case of the White Ibis, this can take on an eye popping level up on the reds and pinks that adorn their legs, bills and facial features.
Add in their Frank Sinatra “Ol’ Blue Eyes” and you have yourself one stunning entry in the shorebird fashion show. The degree of color change does vary among the species and I will admit up front I don’t know the true causes or situations in that variation. White Ibises are monomorphic, meaning the adult male and females look alike so I do not believe the color differentiation is purely based on gender lines, yet there is clearly a range during the breeding season. Proof being in these next shots which has a much more muted specimen that is similar to their non-breeding season.
You can clearly see the differences in the side by side comparison. The bright reds in the back paired with the darkening of the bill versus the left one with solid pink coloring of the bill that goes through a slight color change as it proceeds to the lores and wrapping of the eye. Harder to see is the legs are also significantly less redder than the other specimen. Two specimens, same time in the season and both mature (as I’ll get back to in just a bit), yet two different color palettes.
Here’s your causation versus correlation exercise as the more subdued specimen was quite efficient at plucking what looks to be Crawdads out of the pond (my Midwest heritage is shining through) or Crawfish or Crayfish – pick your regional poison (link here).
Was it the luck of the pluck, did the muted colors aid in hunting, are horny Ibises to distracted by looking for a mate to hunt, do Crawdads flee from red….Inquiry minds want to know! Eh, to be honest the better question is whether the Crawdad is the absolute ugliest creature on earth and it clearly gets my vote.
For those interested, these series was taken at the Anahuac..dammit, did it again, make that at the Jocelyn Nungaray National Wildlife Refuge back in March of 2024. Clearly March/April is a great time to be there as it was hopping with waders, floaters, divers and those long snouted, scaly backed and long tailed prehistoric throwbacks that lurk about those waters.
These specimens didn’t seem to have a single care about the lethal rows of teeth that were hanging out on banks. Either not bright enough to understand the situation or smart enough to know it’s only going to take ONE of them – the “can I run faster than at least one in my group if we come upon a bear” equivalent.
I really like this next shot as it gives three different perspectives of the color ranges we saw. The muted no black on bill, full on look at me in the middle and then the slightly less reds with a paler blackening on the bill at the far right. The cherry on top is the Black-Necked Stilt to give you some relative size perspective.
Just to close out this topic, I did do some research in an attempt to give you better clarity on the colorings. Sorry folks, came up pretty much empty on that, but did find this page which has a better summary of the breeding characteristics of the White Ibises (link here). I didn’t get to witness the various courtship displays outlined in that article (Bill Clapping, Head Bobbing and Bowing, Plumage Display, Vocalizations), but did get this shot which does classify as a “Fluffing” – likely more of a shudder seeing that ugly-assed Crawdad hehehe.
Oh, need to wrap up one thing – I mentioned the adult White Ibis are similar in looks. In contrast, the juvis are easily distinguished by their mottled browns and whites which transition to their full whites in around 2 to 3 years (link here).
All said, sometimes you might just want to sit back and watch a large flock of White Ibises crossing a road. As luck would have it, I have just the thing for you!
Take care everyone and thanks for dropping in.
Life Intrigued 