Author: doerfpub

On the Warpath

I interrupt the regularly scheduled programming on LifeIntrigued to bring you this late breaking update! This month is pretty much dedicated to our first visit up to the International Crane Foundation near Baraboo, Wisconsin. Figured it was time to give you a quick break from all those awesome Cranes and thought I’d go with something completely different – Devil Spawn! Every Spring there’s a war of sorts that plays out on my lot. During the Winter months, those evil looking creatures they refer to as MOLES are free to go about their business. Normally there isn’t much activity after the late fall, but looks like this year they decided to take advantage of the long and deep snow season to launch an all out assault on my yard. As mentioned before, I openly admit I went and plopped down my house in the middle of their land. Because of that intrusion I let the native creatures be as long as they stay out of my yard area. Pretty fair of me right? Once the snow melt it became apparent that this agreement had been breached by the damn tunnel diggers – they had tunnels EVERYWHERE. Tracks in the front yard, tracks in the side yard and multiple tracks in my backyard. Red Rover red Rover come tunnel your way over.

I decided to give them one warning shot in hopes they get the picture. Foregoing the traps, all the tunnels were tamped back down with clenched teeth and streams of vulgarity. Sure they would heed this warning wouldn’t they….

NOT! In just about every case the mounds were back within the week. Bastards, pure clown loving bastards. There was only one thing left to do – you got it… Bring out Nihil and Rev (link here).  First task was the front yard menace.  Went with Nihil due to his experience and effectiveness shown during last year’s hunt (link here).   Within 2 to 3 hours of re-tamping all but the main tunnels and setting Nihil’s trigger the first shot was taken.  Another kill and another notch to add to the side of Nihil.  On hellspawn went to meet its maker (although in that shot it looks like he is looking in the WRONG direction.

We aren’t done yet .. hit the jump to see more carnage.

Continue reading On the Warpath

Surprise, A Trifecta of Cranes

What will he post about next…. hmmmm.. maybe a collection of observations at buffets including the lady at Jumer’s Casino who takes her bare hands, puts it on the top plate of a stack and pushes them out closer to the customers and then repeats with the remaining stack of plates next to it leaving me stunned.  I took the top plate off one of the stacks put it on the now empty spot behind them and took the plate below it – making sure she noticed.  As fun a topic as that might be it really doesn’t stick with this month’s theme.  Idiots that throw trash on the ground at State Parks…nah, last year’s trek to get a rare bird (Ron wishes)… I know, how about some more CRANES!!!

What a great idea.  The bad news is these pictures are not gallery quality, but it does feature one of the coolest Cranes (my personal opinion of course).

This regal looking Crane is called a Demoiselle.  Every time I see it at the International Crane Foundation images of Roman Senators leap to mind with their leaf crowns.  According to the ICF website, these Demoiselles occupy the low end of the Crane stature scale – 3ft, 4-7lbs and once again rockin’ Wikipedia nets me their wingspan of 61 to 71″ for a wingspan.  Note to ICF, wingspan is a common birder attribute so highly recommend adding it to your descriptions.  What they lack in stature, they make up in quantity.  They are in the 200 to 240K range with a stable average population – yeah!  As a result, they are listed as Least Concern Conservation Status.

Thought the composition of the  shot above was cute.  It was definitely taking an interest in the shape it had spotted in the grass – sorry, not sure what it was but let’s simply refer to it as “food”.  Don’t be worried, I do have a shot that shows their entire profile

Admittedly, not a stellar shot since it lacks that faux in the wild feeling seeing their little man made hut. Did I mention these birds are cool looking!   Pretty sure I have a better picture of them from a more recent visit so stay tuned and hopefully I’ll get caught up enough to get them on the Blog. Oh, reminded by the next shot, the Demoiselle is on of the few cranes that don’t sport the red patch on the head (which for those researching day and night does not match the red palette clue for my prize hunt).

Hit the jump to view two other Cranes we visited at the ICF

Continue reading Surprise, A Trifecta of Cranes

Another Royal Crane

We are on a roll here at Life Intrigued – a Crane roll for clarification.  I was going to vary it up a bit for this particular post, but the teeming millions of readers out there demanded that I stick with the International Crane Foundation shoot.  Steady readers will recognize we are once again back in Baraboo, Wisconsin admiring the beautiful Cranes.  This one happens to be even more ornate that rest.

This royal looking Crane, like the others this month, is making its debut on the blog.  According to ICF’s website, this bird is referred to as a Black Crowned Crane.  In a nod to the long time readers with an incredible attention to detail, you must might be thinking “Hey you ‘if you like your plan you can keep your plan period’ apprentice – that bird isn’t making its debut.  You already have one of those from your visit to the Indianapolis Zoo.”  Wow, that was harsh but unlike the reference, I was telling the truth.

A very similar Crane was posted previously on the blog back in Feb 2013 (link here).  Although that bird had a similar palette around the face and definitely a match on the spiky head piece, that was actually a Grey Crowned Crane.  Unless you saw these two birds together you probably wouldn’t be able to make the distinction, but as you can see in the shots of the Black Crowned Crane, the body is more … wait for it .. black.  Those clever namers never cease to surprise me.

Hit the jump to read more about this royal bird!

Continue reading Another Royal Crane

Another Day With The Cranes – 2 of Many

Been an exhausting day pounding out a 12 miler in the Jubilee hills and then breaking out the mower for the first cut of the season.  To give myself a bit of a rest, figured I’d take a seat and crank out a quick post.  I warned you in the last post that there were a number of Crane entries coming from our visit to the International Crane Foundation (link here) nestled near Baraboo, Wisconsin.

This colorful Crane specimen is referred to as a Wattled Crane and like the Blue Crane from the previous post, is a native of Africa.  Half the population of these birds (total ~8,000) take up residence in Zambia – a mighty long way from Wisconsin!  Unlike the Blue Crane, this particular species is on the other end of the stature scale.  If I recall correctly the Blue Crane tops out in the 4 foot range.  The Wattled Crane tops out in the SIX FOOT range.  Yes, this is one of those Cranes you can view at eye level while standing (unless you are short of six feet in which case you are immediately demoralized having to look UP to a bird.

Hit the jump to see more shots of the Wattled Crane!

Continue reading Another Day With The Cranes – 2 of Many

A Day With The Cranes – 1 of Many

In case you might have missed it, we are now officially in May.  Hard to believe around here seeing as how it has been like 46, windy and raining most of the week.  Couple that with the current administration claiming our economy is hurting because of .. wait for it .. the unusually cold Winter and we officially call Globull Warming a policy of redistribution based on hogwash.  But I digress, the real point about mentioning it was May is that it signifies the start a new set of posts (yeah, crowd goes wild!).  Calm down, you might scare the bird of the day.

Pretty cool eh?  Happened to catch this beautiful specimen walking across our backyard one morning.  Believe that?  Okay, I lied.  This was actually taken while hiking in a remote and dangerous part of Baraboo, Wisconsin.  Wow, tough crowd.. so it really wasn’t that remote… or that dangerous … but it WAS just outside of Baraboo Wisconsin so it wasn’t a complete distortion of the truth.  Reality is this Blue Crane was taken while visiting The International Crane Foundation (link here).   For those not familiar with this particular place, this foundation is focused on saving/restoring the various Crane species throughout the world.  They were founded back in 1973 by Ron Sauey and George Archibald.  From there they started a journey to conserve the Crane population that was in serious risk throughout the world.  They are probably most well known for their ongoing efforts to bring back the Whooping Crane population by creatively employing an ultra-light to help young Cranes migrate from Wisconsin to Florida starting back in 2001.  If you are a true birder, you owe it to yourself to make the trip to visit this awesome foundation.

On our first visit up there several years ago (when these pics were taken), we didn’t have very high expectations.  Wisconsin didn’t seem like the appropriate place to go check out Cranes.  Figured we’d stop by there, walk around the place for a bit and head out – maybe an hour tops.  It is stunning how wrong we were – thinking we pulled ourselves out of there after about 3.5 hours and that was because we had other places to be.  Not only did they have a number of birds on display, there were a number of habitats that were set up perfectly for photographers – in other words, they provided a means to shoot directly at some of the birds without having to deal with annoying linked fences.  The Blue Crane featured here had a nice area complete with muraled walls to provide the illusion of being out in the wild.  Each of the areas had some form of grazing area along with a structure they could seek shelter from the sun if needed.  I spent a lot of time waiting for the shot above thinking the doorway would provide a natural frame.  Decided to do a little more cropping on it to see which I liked better (see first shot).  Been back and forth on that, but eventually decided I liked the tighter cropping – any opinions from your perspective?

Here is a shot showing the wall mural – also gives a better impression on the size of the bird.  From a Crane perspective, the Blue Crane is on the smaller stature end.  They run in the 4 foot and 11 pound range.  Yes, I did just say they average 4 foot tall while also stating they are on the SMALLER end of the scale.  You haven’t had a true Crane experience until you are staring at one of the species standing nearly at eye level.

Hit the jump to read more about this beautiful Crane!

Continue reading A Day With The Cranes – 1 of Many

Red Tail No Where

Wow, been awhile since I’ve made a post.  Sorry about that!  I’ve been a little busy as of late with some work deliverables and with an upcoming Half Marathon looming a lot of my time is spent pounding the road.  Ummm maybe I should correct that, the road has been pounding me as of late.  If you recall, I had a sore foot leading up to the Peoria Heights Half (link here).  That eventually cleared itself up (after the race) but again on another training run last week I messed up some bones on the top of my foot – can’t win!  Trying to run through it and made it past 9 miles tonight, so at worst case pretty sure I can tough it out if it doesn’t clear up by the next race – eventually all the other body parts start hurting worse and you forget about those injuries you had going into the race.  In celebration of getting through tonight’s run, figured I’d treat myself to a bird post – not just any bird post though, a NEW CHECK on the list bird post.

Anybody recognize this Raptor?  If you are like me when I was taking the shots you are probably saying .. Red-Tailed Hawk.  That would be an excellent guess since that is the most abundant Hawk in the area.  You can’t go 3 miles on our local highways without seeing one of those hanging out on a roadside tree or fencepost scanning the fields for some juicy mice.  In the last three years, the Red-Tailed Hawk population has stayed just slightly behind the exploding Turkey Vulture population.  However, if you recall, I have already checked that bird off my list on a previous post (link here).  About midway through taking these shots it started occurring to me that this particular Hawk was not really displaying the most apparent feature of the initial guess… that would be the RED TAIL part.  Now this shoot just got a whole lot more interesting.

Hit the jump to find out what this bird is!

Continue reading Red Tail No Where

Peoria Heights Half Marathon Conquered

Not sure if this is common with other runners or not, but I have a tendency to remember with quite clarity specific races.  This generally pertains to the ones that maybe ended in a personal hardship, celebrated a specific anniversary or was a personal victory of some sorts.  Yesterday’s race was actually a combination of reasons that I’ll always remember.  If you have been reading the blog for the last couple of weeks I’ve hinted that I was running a half marathon – specifically the Peoria Heights Half Marathon.  The goal this year was to get more halfs in and that meant starting earlier in the race season.  Typically the half target is early September.  This year the target was May, but found out two weeks ago that the Heights race was on (was given indications last year it was off due to the sponsor moving out of that city).  Went ahead and signed up figuring I could use it as an easy training run and wouldn’t have to bring my own fluids.  I was already at 12 miles having kept the training up through the Winter months – one more mile (point one) shouldn’t be that hard

Well, I can say with great pride the medal is now mine.

From a swag perspective, this one featured one of the nicest medals I have received and definitely the best shirt.   Kudos to the River City Race Management Team (Shazam Racing) for putting on another great race.  If you recall, they also ran the Screaming Pumpkin Race (link here)  which also had awesome medals.  We were unable to locate an ambulance, which is a little troublesome on its own, but we decided to take the traditional post race picture on a nearby wall – the best part being I was able to SIT.

Hit the jump to read all about what it took to claim this medal!

Continue reading Peoria Heights Half Marathon Conquered

Duck Duck Goose

My nervous tick is indicating it is about time to put out another bird post!  Unfortunately, the one I have teed up for today is one I’ve kind of been dreading.  Not that it a terrifying bird or anything (in fact it is quite visually appealing), but rather the offshoots of the Goose are difficult to ID with any certainty.  Once there’s crossbreeding with the Canada Goose and domestic geese you never know what you are going to get – from there, the mutations just get beyond levels of truly classifying.  This is possibly the case here, but based on some serious research, there might be a check here after all.

For reference, focus on the LARGER birds in the images – there was a smattering of Mallards hanging around that looked quite content in the midst of the larger flock.  These shots were actually taken by the side of the road on our way back from Wildcat Den State Park near Muscatine, Iowa.  Linda had always been wanting to take me there so took her up on it one weekend we were free (geesh, probably a year or two ago).  If you have never been there it is similar to Starved Rock in the features, but actually better – for one thing they have way less graffiti all over the place which always make me sick every time I journey up to Starved Rock.  That is one of the few uses of drones or cameras that I condone if that will curtail that crap.  So, on our way back, I noticed a nice collection of Geese and Ducks hanging out enjoying the nice weather.

Hit the jump to read a lot more about these birds and a few others I shot at the same time

Continue reading Duck Duck Goose

It’s a Darner but Darned if I Know Which

Thanks to hurting my foot yesterday, I’m trying to stay off of it as much as I can.  Bad for me, but good for my blog fans because this means a few more opportunities to get some posts out.  Yesterday’s entry focused on one of the many inhabitants in/around our local ponds.  Keeping with that theme, figured I’d go ahead and throw out another member of the pond community – the Dragonfly.

I have been amassing quite the dragonfly collection and a number of them have been featured in various posts (link here, here, here and here).  I know for a fact there are a few more I was able to get in the tin while out in the Nevada mountains.   I’ve stated this in about every single post on these insects but it is ALWAYS a given – identifying these often colorful winged creatures is damn near impossible.  I firmly believe this is more of an issue with the reference tools available on the web (and iPad) than it is a general comment about identification.  Every site that could be located by Google was scoured for any identifying features that would properly classify this dragonfly.   Clearly it has light blue markings on a deep purple base.  A very nice palette by the way if you are looking for a team color scheme.  It also has the unique club/tendril end to the abdomen that one would think is sufficient to track it down.  Of course, that would be just too easy now wouldn’t it.  About the only thing that could really be said with some certainty is you are likely staring at a Darner.  That is all fine and dandy, but WHICH ONE!

It did help to be able to focus on the Darner group but the web kept offering up conflicting images or bad descriptions and or photos.

The Bug Guide offered up this example of a Variable Darner (link here).  The color match is pretty close at least on the turquoise side, but doesn’t really have the deep purple look in the base.   The Dragonfly Whisperer actually provided a nice comparison of two potential dragonflies – particularly one he calls the Happy Face Darner (Paddle Tailed Darner) and the other being a Shadow Darner (link here).  Based on that information the best candidate appears to be the Shadow Darner.    Not to be outdone, the Land that Ugly Forgot (link here) which simply refers to it as a blue dragonfly – not exactly the most helpful reference but some nice pictures none the less (note, I have that red one in the tin as well).  Steve Rottenborn (link here) had a sample of Variable Darners but again it looks like the Happy Face ones from above as well as the previous Variable reference – see, I told you it was hard.    Next up the New Jersey Dragonfly site (link here) which offers up a Canada Darner that doesn’t look that far off from the Variables.  Ugh.  Not to be out done, the Sonic site (link here) refer to a similar looking examples as .. wait for it … California Darners – looks like a Variable to me!  Since we are on a role, how about some more Variables at the Utah site (link here).

Let’s take another look at mine.

Personally, the Shadow Darner seems to be the closest match.  Not emotionally tied to that decision in any way beyond having spent a heck of a lot of time trying to track it down.  Does look like the all red one I have is going to be easier to identify once those get processed in .. say about 6 to 8 months.  That’s all for now folks – getting warm out now so see you at the pond!

In the Muck and on the Porch

Running low on time tonight but thought I’d throw a post out there while watching the Cardinals battle it out with the Reds.  Worried it was going to be a short night, but the Cards covered the 4-0 lead they handed the Reds at the start of the game.. now just down one!!  Since birds tend to take an extra amount of time due to all the associated research figured it would be prudent to just go with your regular standard green …

Bullfrog.  Now when you see me taking pictures of bullfrogs you can quickly come to the conclusion there was nothing else even remotely interesting to photograph in the area.  First I look for birds, then larger animals followed by dragonflies and then.. well those muck loving amphibians.. oops, forgot spiders and slugs – definitely spiders then slugs THEN those mucky amphibians.   Not so much that I don’t like these particular creatures, but where they tend to hang out is usually loaded with those blood sucking mosquitoes.  I do HATE mosquitoes and with two hands on a camera I cannot properly defend myself from their onslaught.  UPDATE – Cards now up by 2!.  Pretty sure the above frog was taken at the Jubilee College State Park pond.  All in all pretty pleased on how that particular shot came out – the frog was pretty clean in contrast to the muck it was lounging in and those eyes came out nice and sharp…. the following shot took a darker feel.

Probably could have lightened it up a little bit more but was going for the more “lurker” approach.  The darker coloring gave the impression it was more concealed in the surroundings just waiting for the next victim to wade by.  This shot was actually taken up by Kewanee IL. in a park just north of the city.  We were taking pictures of a Great Blue Heron and two Swans most of the time we were there.  At one point looked down and saw those two eyes break through the water so took a few minutes to get it in the tin.  Some interesting tidbits about Kewanee for those that are not aware of it (as in live North of I-80 and East of I-39 and don’t believe there is anything worth visiting outside of Chicago).  Kewanee is considered the Hog Capital of the World due to being the top hog producing county in 1949. The name itself is the Ho-Chunk (note, a Native American tribe, not a group of fat prostitutes) word for Prairie Chicken.  It is also the home of Mary… everyone knows Mary so no need to go into detail there.

Hit the jump to see one of their relatives.

Continue reading In the Muck and on the Porch