Category: Birds

Dark Waters

Drum roll please… it’s dog show weekend!  That is good news for my readers as that typically means – post-a-paloosa.  There is a lot of down time with these events and I cannot think of a better way to fill them… except of course, some ultra trail training.   Unfortunately, running for a lot of miles in unfamiliar places can get you lost or worse, find yourself reliant on your survival skills.  I’ll leave the trails for closer to home.   So posts it is!  This show might be a be interesting for Linda.  She managed to dislocate a toe a few days ago.  I came running in to help at first call.  On second thought that might be a stretch.  I waited out the standard oouch ooochie ooochiiiii calls assuming it was a stub which just has to be ridden out.  Problem was.. I thought that was just about to run its course when it took a dark turn to a much higher pitched series of “OH MY GOD”s.  Okay, time to ride in on the white pony.  I was not expecting to come into the room and see 9 of her toes staring at me and one outlier pointed 90 degrees to the right.  I think I might have laughed – not my best moment from a husband perspective… sorry, it was funny and Linda’s eyeballs out of their sockets by about 2 inches was just amping the humor.  Say what you will about my sympathy gene, my personal experience with resetting wayward appendages during sporting events was just the ticket.  Deftly moved the crooked toe in line with the others and then went to work on the emotional part.  Not to be deterred, our trooper will be taking on the courses with a mighty purple toe.  Oh, and big thanks to our call a friend Dr. G. for setting her mind at ease that she will indeed live to run another day – apparently Linda believes the word of a real doctor over my personal experiences (I’m hurt).   Sorry for the long lead in.. how ’bout a bird with big toes!?!

Great Egret found at Widewaters near Joliet, IL in April 2018

A bit of a departure for me in the digital dark room.  There are some standard treatments I do to all my images to get them into my preferred style.  Every photographer has their own signatures, some more subtle than others.  One of the areas I do not tend to rely on is hard contrast.  My eyes view life more on the soft side versus cold sharp edges. As a result, that area is used primarily to slightly dampen unintended jitters.  However, there is one time when I do like a bolder pop.

Great Egret found at Widewaters near Joliet, IL in April 2018

You happen to be looking at one of those times.  Beautiful white birds in dark, dingy settings has a natural contrast that truly intrigues me.  How do these birds manage to keep themselves so clean while strutting around in the muck.  Suspect there is a local distributor of Oxy Clean making a fortune.

Hit the jump to experience some more shots from the dark waters.

Continue reading Dark Waters

Honorary Bird of Spartan Races

It has been a busy weekend so far, but elated to say we have pretty much finished putting all the decorations away from the 2020 Haunted Halloween Trail of Tears event.  The excitement and anticipation when getting all the items ready for the trail tends to mask how much work is involved.  Now that we had a successful execution, it feels more like swimming in concrete to get all the batteries taken out, props disassembled and serious mental acrobats getting everything efficiently stored away for next year.  Big thanks to Linda who took on battery removal this year – huge help.  Now just need to work on a few props that failed in the field and then to start building next year’s epic scary features.  In meantime, how about we get another post out.

Eastern Meadowlark found at Emiquon National Wildlife Refuge in April 2018

Today’s feature is a nice compilation of shoreline pebbles and spring foliage.  Somewhat calming wouldn’t you say?  A meadow setting that puts the heart at ease… wait, wait, wait… not to interrupt such happy thoughts, but this is a blog primarily focused on wild”life” – I doubt you came here to see rocks and grass.  Nope, you are likely looking for Spiders or Snakes or Elk or Deer or BIRDS!  Truth be told, this is Bird post… let’s try this again…

Eastern Meadowlark found at Emiquon National Wildlife Refuge in April 2018

Hit the link to read a bit more about our hidden bird.

Continue reading Honorary Bird of Spartan Races

Comedy on the Boardwalk

Greetings everyone!!  As a tremendous surprise to myself, I’ve once again managed to survive the most stressful part of the year.  The regulars here are well aware that my year pretty much revolves around one event, a celebration dedicated to my favorite holiday – yep, the night of the Great Pumpkin.  Around here, we do it slightly different as we celebrate at the beginning of October and instead of one night, this year we opted for not one, not two, but three nights of epic spookiness.  In an effort to keep our guests as safe as possible, we extended the days to keep the numbers down each night, removed the food element to eliminate congestion points and set up the trail in a manner to maximize social distancing.  Another Halloween Haunted Trail is officially in the books!  All that is left is to finish putting away the items for next year and the all important rest to recoup the strain on the body.  Decided I would do a little resting first.

Little Blue Heron found at South Padre Island, Texas in January 2017

Going back to the Texas Gulf Coast for today’s featured feathered friend.  South Padre Island is one of our favorite winter destinations and looking forward to being able to spend some extra time down there towards the end of the year.  I need to hit the books and figure out what the target bird is going to be this year – early favorite is on the Groove-Billed Ani.  That bird has been tops on the list for the last three trips and each time came away with an empty tin.  The Chihuahuan Raven is mighty tempting as well and let’s not forget about the Mangrove Yellow Warbler… wait, did he say Mangrove Warbler… thought we already had tha…..shhhhhhh…. we promised to wait until Ron starts posting on the He Who Owes Me Bigly event.

Little Blue Heron found at South Padre Island, Texas in January 2017

Hit the jump to see a few more pictures of their local comedian.

Continue reading Comedy on the Boardwalk

Autumn is Coming, Get the Whiskey

Burrrr, someone let the fire go out around here.  Not sure what is going on with the weather as it his heading down to 44F tonight.  Granted we are a mere 3 days from the official end of summer, however, I think we deserve a longer one this year as our fun in the sun months were devoured by that bastard pandemic.  It also doesn’t help that I’ve been trying to save all of my vacation days for an end of the year blowout in a desperate attempt to salvage what’s left of this year (need to start filling that photo queue for the upcoming 2025 blogging season hehehe).  Lemons into lemonade, at least the threat of another heat stroke during the training runs is eliminated.  In honor of the cooling temps, going to stick with the winter shoot from the last post.

Black-Capped Chickadee found on Brimfield Lot in March 2018

Hit the jump for a couple more shots of the Black-Capped enjoying winter.

Continue reading Autumn is Coming, Get the Whiskey

All Hail the Crown

I think my body may need a quick recharge as tonight’s 7 mile run was a bit of a struggle.  Apparently the 16 miles I ran on Sunday and the 6 previous weekends of at least a half marathon distance has finally caught up with me.. or all the hours spent working on trails on the off days.  Regardless, Bri needs to rest tonight.  Good news for you is rest for me equates to ample time to push out a post.  Tonight’s featured friend should bring a smile to the face of fellow birder blogger HJ over at Avian 101 (https://avian101.wordpress.com/).

Northern Cardinal found on Brimfield Lot in March 2018

Catch one of HJ’s Red Galleries if you want your fill of these brilliantly colored Northern Cardinals (and, of course, be sure and catch his other gorgeous bird shots).  I do not have near the number of Cardinal shots that HJ does, but this bird has been featured several times in the past – one from the summer (link here) and one from the winter (link here).  Today’s series actually goes back to some winter shots from my backyard back in March 2018 (yes, another series from like yesterday hehe).

Hit the jump to see a couple more shots (literally) of this crowned royalty.

Continue reading All Hail the Crown

Flying Rays of Sunshine

And we’re back!  Howdy everyone, hope your day is treating you well.  My day has been packed solid – 15 mile run in the morning, worked on painting the new coffin prop for the haunted trail, spent a couple of hours in the woods getting the trail ready and then went back and put another coat of paint on the coffin.  Now I’m officially maxed out and sitting here catching the season of Halloween Wars. Since I am unable to actually just sit and watch TV, figure it would be an excellent time to get one of these postie thingies out.  So, here we go with our latest featured feathered friend.

American Goldfinch found on Brimfield lot in May 2018

Last post I focused on one of my most hated birds, the Asshat Cowbird.  Trust me, it truly is a despicable bird.  I like to keep my karma balanced, so today I’ve chosen a bird that I happen to have great fondness for.  This little yellow beauty is an American Goldfinch.  If you happen to be from the contiguous States, then you are probably already familiar with this Finch as they are abundant throughout.

American Goldfinch found on Brimfield lot in May 2018

Hit the jump to read a bit more about our ray of sunshine.

Continue reading Flying Rays of Sunshine

Asshats

Greetings all!  Hope you enjoyed the deviation from all the usual feathers in the last post.  Always good to feature something other than birds to give everyone a break.  Although I have been getting some feedback requesting I stay away from the Snake topics.  Which means, of course, there will be slither posts coming sometime in the not too distant future hehehe.  I think it best we all try to face our fears or there’s little chance to get comfortable with them.  I can state for a fact that standing on rafters three stories up while building our house definitely helped quell some of my height fears. Been a dreary week around here with all the rain (needed for sure), but there is a lot of woods work to do before the upcoming Halloween event.  I can’t afford to be sitting around here staring out the windows.  Figured it would be a good time to feature this.

Brown-Headed Cowbird found on Brimfield IL Lot in May 2018

Oh, before I forget.  With the time crunch from the Halloween work and some key deliverables due on aggressive timelines at my day job, I’ll probably get these posts out shorter than usual – content and timewise.  Everything should be back to normal in October and I can finally take a break and relax a bit – been a long year so far and just need to get over this last hurdle.  Now back to this jerk of a bird.

Brown-Headed Cowbird found on Brimfield IL Lot in May 2018

Hit the jump to read more about this lowlife bird.

Continue reading Asshats

Willet Yoga

Our heartfelt prayers for those impacted by the recent Laura hurricane landfall.  We have spent many vacations over the years enjoying the beautiful Texas Gulf Coast. We’ve witnessed firsthand the devastation to Rockport and the surrounding areas thanks to another hurricane that ripped through the area.  Will never forget seeing an entire remains of a city literally piled up for miles in the center median of the main highway.  I am not sure how much damage Laura inflicted yet, but I did hear Anahuc was hit – one of our favorite places to bird.

In tribute to our Gulf friends I bring you..

jj

This series of shots was taken at Galveston Island State Park and nearby Bolivar Peninsula from our trip down there in January 2017.  The Willet is not a new bird to the list and was actually featured back in Nov 2019 (link here).  Fortunately for us, these rather regal looking birds are pretty common in the States.  With the exception of the Eastern mainland and the upper west corner, these long legged shorebirds can be found at some port during the season either in their northern breading grounds or as they pass through to the coast for the winter months.

jj

Hit the jump to read a bit more about our Yoga practicing Willet.

Continue reading Willet Yoga

Baby Crap Factories

And we are back once again.  Figured I’d make the best of it as I sit her nursing a pretty banged up left leg.  Not entirely sure what is going on, either my karma got screwed up somehow, just a series of unfortunate events, something is wrong with my running cadence or I’m going blind.  Any of those are in play at the moment pending further study.  A week ago I took a “snowboard” fall on the trail.  For those that haven’t had the pleasure of learning how to snowboard, front edge falls are both instantaneous and brutal.  Clipped my foot on a root that was hiding in the weeds alongside the trail.  You learn quickly that you get your ass off the ground and keep running before your body has a chance to have second thoughts.  6 miles further and a night of rest resulted in a softball size bruise on my shin.  Flash forward to this morning at the farthest extent of a 13 mile trail run where my left foot clipped a rock strategically positioned to maximize pain.  That left blood on the trail and a rather intriguing 6 miles back to the car.  2 minutes before that I was in fluffy trail dust, but nooooo, can’t go down there, I have to pick the section covered in sharp rocks.  Now sitting here speculating how long the gashes will take to heal and what new colors of the rainbow will be added to my already banged up leg.   Bright side, my ribs seem to have survived the impacts, so we’ll be back on the trails before the week is up.

While I mend, let’s feature some Goose play.

Canada Goose found at Chain O' Lakes State Park, Spring Grove IL in April 2017

I saw these two while doing a little birding at Chain O’ Lakes back in April 2017.  Guessing there was not a lot of targets in the area as I tend to take a few shots of these Geese and continue on.  There is no shortage of Canada Geese in the area.  Just did a quick check of their region and if the range maps are correct, these distinctive Geese or abundant in North America as a whole.  They do come up short in the Central America region, very odd gap in eastern California and what looks like just east of the Rockies in Canada.  Probably got wind of the mass exodus out of California, but unaware of the no-go zone in Canada.

Canada Goose found at Chain O' Lakes State Park, Spring Grove IL in April 2017

Hit the jump to see what these two were up to.

Continue reading Baby Crap Factories

Electric Bananas

Greetings everyone!  Apologies, as it has been a bit since we last met.  There are a number of reasons for that with the primary one being we are dangerously close to Halloween which translates to a very busy Bri.  The joke around here is we take a day off to actually celebrate Halloween and show off the latest additions and then we are back in the lab designing, building and wiring the new props for next year’s Haunted Trail of Tears. My 3D printer has been going nonstop and I’m currently up to my eyeballs in wire, servos, Arduinos and a bevy of linkages that would make any mechanical engineer envious.  That doesn’t mean I get to forget about my commitment to my readers so how about a little Yellow for today.

Yellow Warbler found at Chain O' Lakes State Park in June 2019

Quite the “electrical banana” of you will pardon a reference to maybe one of the worst songs every written or produced.  Not exactly the best reference as Donovan was apparently referring to the ladies where these first few shots are of the male Yellow Warbler.  What do you say we all go in on a petition to rename this brightly colored species the Banana Warbler – upside is it will bypass all the current uproar over birds named after southern references.

Yellow Warbler found at Chain O' Lakes State Park in June 2019

Hit the jump to see a few more shots our brightly colored Warbler.

Continue reading Electric Bananas