Life Intrigued

Now That’s Yellow…by Brad Marks

After tearing the house apart to find my running shoes my devious wife hid on the advice of my trail running group, I am finally back on the road. Long time readers already know that is not where I “want” to be (I belong on the trails) and certainly not walking…but that is where I am. I’ve been brief on details before and the fact I am still having constant flashbacks tells me I best keep those to myself for your mental comfort. In general, have lost the use of my dominant arm and based on the visual and immense disappointment (I was waaaayyyy tooo optimistic) when they took the post surgery splint off yesterday, it is going to be a long “trail” to a full recovery. I am not good at “slow” or “measured” and will have to keep an open ear to my external voices of reason – noting Brad’s is a much more calming and suggestive tone versus the more “Nurse Rached’s” of my wife’s hehehe. Until I can stop pecking at letters to the right of ‘G’, Brad will be guiding the Intrigued industrial complex (for which I am extremely grateful). With that, we bring you another of his Huntington Beach adventures.

Take it away Brad…

The veteran birders and bird photographers among you will not be surprised at what I say next. Can you guess? You are probably right. I am still going through photos from our Huntington Beach State Park birding adventure. I may not have mentioned it before, but Jan and I took well north of 11,000 photos in the three days of birding. I know that sounds like just getting warmed up for the more serious birders, or photographers, or bird photographers. Remember, this was a vacation. I would not have guessed that we would see 26 species at this one location (out of the 56 we spotted on the whole vacation). Granted, a few of the 56 spotted were some of the same birds we have at home in Illinois. Overall, we added a couple of dozen to our life list of birds.

As we arrived in the park at about 8 am at the beginning of another sunny February day in South Carolina, we headed to the first elevated boardwalk we could find. We were about a mile from the highway and couldn’t hear any traffic noise. And since we were still a few hundred yards from the ocean, we heard no surf sounds either. Actually, the area would be very quiet if it weren’t for all of our feathered friends welcoming us. One of the first things we saw flying was quite a distance from us. I had my zoom all the way at 500mm to catch this tiny shot. At least it’s more than six pixels on the sensor.

Hit the jump to reveal the details on this South Carolina find.

Gulls, Gulls, Gulls…by Brad Marks

Hello everyone and welcome to July or as I call it now “Ja’ Y’d You F Up Your Summer”. Just a quick update, I made it through surgery and everywhere I walk the 6 Million Dollar Man theme can now be heard. Big thanks to my wife for having to pick up the slack (although hiding my running shoes is a bit cruel!), Brad has been keeping my spirits up and truly appreciate all of your kind thoughts and wishes for a speedy recovery. Unfortunately, I have a ways to go…not to mention now having to tear the house apart for my shoes…the race is this weekend!!!! Luckily, Brad has several posts in the hopper to fill the void. Take care everyone.

Take it away Brad…

Doesn’t that title remind you of a song from the hair bands of the 1980’s, MTV, and a specific lifeguard sitcom? Just try to get that out of your head while you read the story.

In the past, we at Intrigued have talked about “LBJ’s” (little brown jobbers). There should also be an acronym for the nearly endless variety of gulls. The company Brian and I used to work for had thousands of acronyms. There were so many . . . how many were there . . . there were so many acronyms that we had a spiral-bound notebook just to be able to keep track of them all. Whenever I see a seagull flying around, even this far inland in central Illinois, I think it’s just another seagull, or just another gull (JAG). The word “seagull” is a generic term for any gull-like bird near water. Many of the “gulls” I see on a regular basis are nowhere near a major body of water. I don’t normally take the time to tell the gulls apart. I usually just call it a seagull, remind myself to tag it later in Lightroom as a “gull”, and then move onto the business of enjoying the rest of our vacation.

On our recent winter trip to South Carolina, I was doing the same thing. Jan and I took photos of “gulls” we saw flying near the ocean. It wasn’t really until we took a walk on Sunset Beach that I realized “Hey, these don’t all look the same.” I thought, “Great, something else I need to identify when we get home.” And before anyone asks, I don’t think any of these were named Jonathon Livingston.

Hit the jump to see more gulls, gulls, gulls!

Giant Flying Fishing Machines…by Brad Marks

Well, Mr. Murphy reigns supreme once again. First the good news. My 50K simulation run last Monday was a huge success. Made it through the planned 26 miles on that hellspawn of a course and ended upright. Big thanks to Linda running support for me, driving from each checkpoint to the next to keep me fueled and my spirits up. A great feeling to complete knowing I only had to grind out 8 or so more for the actual race in two weeks (as are most trail races, actual course is longer than stated). Taper officially started the next day with a quick run with friends at another park we train at regularly. A little more than .5 miles into it, an unexpected root and an unwavering tree resulted in an ambulance ride. Ortho-surgeon confirmed surgery for tomorrow. In short, I will be out for a while dealing with recovery and getting over the absolutely sickening reality all the training since December is now for naught. In the meantime, we will be heavily relying on Brad to keep you entertained… starting today! Take care everyone, Brad or I will try to keep you posted on the progress.

Take it away Brad…

Have I mentioned before what a gold mine Huntington Beach State Park is for birders? Nearly two weeks after our February trip, I’m still sorting, selecting, editing, and writing about the birds Jan and I saw while we were there. The more seasoned birders told us it was not a very good birding week to be there. Not good?! They assured us that later in the season we could expect to see 100 (or more) species in a single day. As it was, we saw 26 species at Huntington alone. That’s 26 of the 56 we saw on the entire trip from just this one location.

Just past noon the tide was about halfway through outbound cycle. Jan had walked to the end of the existing portion of the observation deck near the nature center. I had not seen brown pelicans (Pelecanus occidentalis) that close before, and the long zoom lens really helped bring them up close and personal. So close, in fact, that I had to back off the zoom a bit to fit them in the field of view.

Hit the jump to learn more about these unique fisherbirds!

Nevermore!

…and on the 25th day he rested. Howdy everyone, this has been one hell of a month. Just looking at the production on the Wildlife side of Intrigued may appear we have been slacking off, but nothing of the sort. Dog shows, running, more dog shows, more running, hand sledging concrete, more running, haunters convention, more running, Halloween prop building…and yes, even more running. Actually, that seems more like a regular month around here, but what has been gobbling up time is getting the Average Year progress updated (link here) and 3 massive posts on the mothership. With the extra time during the last dog show, decided to bite the bullet and finish the recap of our annual Haunted Trail event – nothing like being 9 months behind…well, being 3 years behind, my photo queue would have some snarky comments about that. If you are interested in what we do around here all year or if you happen to really be into Halloween, you might be interested in those posts:

Haunted Trail 2022 – Prep and Build (link here)
Haunted Trial 2022 – Day Walker (link here)
Haunted Trail 2022 – Night Terrors (link here)

Warning, your browser’s image cache will likely be smoking by the time you make it through all three of those posts. Funny how it doesn’t seem like that much work to put the event on until I go and make the recap posts.

Tomorrow I am planning to run the final simulation run for the upcoming 50K. This would be the one that is a total elevation nightmare and put me in the hospital on my first attempt (link here). That blemish was addressed the following year (link here) and then I took my wife’s advice and said “Nevermore”. That lasted a couple of years…and, well, let’s just say I like a good challenge,. Not sure I am going to luck out like the last time and have cooler temps (thanks to 6 hrs of nonstop rain). Thinking this one is going to have conditions more like the first attempt. The first simulation went okay last week (only 16 miles of it) with no support team or refueling. The support team with be in play tomorrow (aka Linda), which will test the hydration/fueling plan and will cover all the major elevation traversals…Brad might have to take the helm while I recover for the real thing in less than two weeks.

While I rest up for the test, thought I’d feature something else that has “Nevermore” connotations.

Common Raven found at Corn Creek Field Station in Desert NWR, Las Vegas NV in March 2023

Hit the jump to read more about this traditional haunt inspiring creature!

Haunted Trail of Tears 2022 – Night Terrors

I will admit, I forgot how much work it is to get these Haunted Trail recaps out. Feels like an endurance race but instead of legs you move yourself along with your fingers on a keyboard. Fortunately, it gives me a big boost of Halloween adrenaline to keep me motivated while I’m working on new props in the lab for this year’s event…which is coming up waaaaaaay tooo fast. So far, I’ve made it through the prop/build phase (link here) and the day walker tour (link here). Turn the lights out, it is time for a walk on the darkside.

Hit the jump to experience some of the sights and sounds of our annual Haunted Trail.

Haunted Trail of Tears 2022 – Day Walker

Welcome to the second part of our three part series on our 2022 annual Halloween Haunted Trail event. In the first of the series, we covered the behind the scenes work that goes into putting it all together (link here). It is difficult to capture the extent of the trail due to the darkness (there is not a lot of ambient light down in the valley), so we always like to take shots during the day ..also allows those that are easily scared to get a bit more of the experience. Will focus more on the new stuff and items that could be easily missed in the dark. This year we had a new entrance to the trail!

Hit the jump to start the day walk of the Haunted Trail of Tears 2022.

Haunted Halloween Trail 2022 – Prep and Build

Okay, this is getting absolutely ridiculous. It is now 9 months since our annual Haunted Halloween Trail event and I still haven’t published the traditional walk-thrus. I am constantly reminded of this every time I try to make a reference to it in a post and I’m unable to find a link to it. Well, that procrastination ends today. Being open and honest we just got back from a 4 day agility show in Michigan. Translated – 20 minutes of activity during the runs and then a whole lot of waiting around in between. A perfect time to plow through the heavy load of images and get the posts prepped for publish. All I need to do now is add some word decorations and we are good to go…without further delay, here is the first of a haunted three part series – the prep and build.

Hit the jump to read all about how this mess above all comes together for our epic haunt.

Not a Bird nor a Snake

Before anything else, I want to bring out the brags for Linda and Raven. We recently returned from Kalamazoo, Michigan after attending the UKC Agility National Invitation. The top 50 UKC ranked dogs in the nation per division were invited to compete against each other in the All-Stars event. Our little guy got it done bringing home the “bigger than me” (Raven’s words) first place ribbon! Congratulations to him and Linda (can I take credit for being the Team Raven Sherpa!?!).

Even Ruger got into the action. He pulled the “but I’m cute” on his agility runs, but we definitely found his star event, the Dash. A few years ago at this event we tried out this 50ft sprint competition and he ran like a bat out of hell, but more focused on getting to Mommy at the end of the course than he was the “rabbit” that was supposed to lead him. Two years later and his brain has now clicked putting full concentration on the rabbit – even chased it all the way back on his own. This now sets him up for the lure coursing events which use a similar lead around a far more complex course.

In addition to all this excitement I was also able to take a huge chunk out of my blog backlog that has been absolutely gnawing at me. Big thanks to Brad for holding down the HQ while we’ve been gone. The Average Year 2023 is not completely up to date after putting in 50+ daily recaps (link here) and I’m all prepped for 3 massive posts for the Mothership that should be ready to go by the end of the week. While the bows are being placed on those, wanted to give you something to entertain you in the meantime. Brad has had the bird front covered, so going with another Not a Bird from the queue.

Hit the jump to reveal the featured creature!

Building Team Intrigued…by Brad Marks

Howdy everyone! Just got back from attending the Midwest Region Haunt Convention up in Chicago with Ron and “partner in haunt” Brad S. (yes, I have lots of friends that happened to be named Brad ha). This was our first time attending this Halloween themed gathering and it was a BLAST. Got to see some of my heroes in the industry, try out new props/gadgets/mechanisms, take in all the attendees in costumes (a shocking amount of them) and most of all, came back with a ton of new ideas to add to our own haunt this year! Pretty exhausted from hours of walking around the exhibits and the long car ride up and back. Was getting ready to write up a post and realized Brad had sent me on our latest corporate outing. Let’s go with that while I test a quick rest from the trip.

…take it away Brad.

In the middle of May, Brian suggested we have an Intrigued team building event. The entire staff of photographers and writers was invited. No, there weren’t any rope courses, trust-falls, tug-o-war events, or overpaid motivational speakers. We did talk extensively about the Legal department and how much copier paper they had been using lately. It was Brian’s day off from intensive training for an upcoming ultra-event. I think the next event is “only” a 50k trail run. I’m working up to 10-15 miles on my bike and mowing my 1-acre lawn, only using the self-propelled feature for mowing up the hills. I did my best to keep up with Brian on the trails in the deep woods at Jubilee College State Park. We are both, after all, retired.

We met early in the morning at Intrigued HQ and drove the corporate Jeep (the corporate motorhome was out for cleaning and it wasn’t far enough away to use the corporate jet) to the north entrance of Jubilee State Park. This entrance is mostly used by people camping and riding their horses over miles of trails. The sky was clear and blue, not a cloud to be seen. The trees were sporting their full leafage (is that a word?) and blocking our view of most of the birds.

Brian parked the Jeep (skipping the valet service) and we began assembling our cameras. It was an honor to be in the presence of The Beast, Brian’s Nikon 200-400mm lens. Normally, I use a monopod to hold up my nearly 9 lb. (8 lb. 12 oz.) camera/lens combination (D300 with battery grip and Nikon 200-500mm lens). I believe that I end up with better results taking gravity out of the equation. But for the team building event, I decided to hand-carry the camera by the lens foot. Of course, I had the camera strap wrapped around my wrist as a failsafe. Brian hand-carries the much heavier combo of The Beast and his camera (8 lb. 15 oz.) all the time. In other words, we both carried a full gallon of milk (or your favorite almond/soy substitute) plus a glass or two, all day. (By the way, employees of Wildlife Intrigued all use Nikon cameras and lenses. If anyone from Nikon wants to talk sponsorship for the shameless plugs above, please contact our Legal Department. You may have to leave a message because they are probably out buying more copy paper.)

Just as I was putting the lens cap in my pocket, Brian pointed and said “Look over there.”

Hit the jump to learn what caught Brian’s eye and to read more about our corporate outing!

Blue Imposter…by Brad Marks

Welcome to June everyone! Admittedly I am a bit behind – things are… hmmm… let’s go with “normal” for Intrigued… translated… running around like headless chickens trying to get everything that needs to be done between the runs. I naively thought there would be an abundance of time after I retired, nope! This month is especially demanding as it is the last month of hard training before the first ultra of the season scheduled for the first week of July (link here). Heat conditioning, hydration/nutrition validation and worst of all, 20+ mile brutal hill runs … my body can’t wait until taper. While I ice to keep the black and blue bruising out of my legs, will turn the post duties over to Brad to tell us about a different kind of blue.

…take it away Brad!

It’s not really an imposter, but the name for this nearly white bird doesn’t seem to fit very well. A little while ago I wrote about the great blue heron (link here). This one is about a smaller heron cousin: the little blue heron (Egretta caerulea), another +1. This is a juvenile version of the little blue heron. No, not a middle-school type of juvenile making fart jokes. I’m talking about the juvenile variety that doesn’t have its adult plumage yet. Contrary to what the name implies, the only thing blue on this little heron at this point is the end of its bill. For now. Its feathers will turn darker blue in its second year and look similar to a smaller version of the great blue heron. The only coloring kept from childhood into adulthood is the bill and greenish legs. The white feathers are replaced by a purple-maroon colored neck and a dark slate-blue-colored body. Until their darker adult plumage grows in, they are very easy to spot in their surroundings.

Hit the jump to read more about this incognito wader.

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