Should Have Known to Look Up

Going for the trifecta with today’s featured post.  If you have been following along, we are all about the big state of Texas here at the headquarters of Intrigued.  More specifically, we are laser focused on pushing my bird count up thanks to a number of visits to the Gulf Coast – wiping the sweat from our brows, pounding Alleve to counter the swelling in our fingers from typing and rubbing our eyes from pouring over reference books to properly ID the backlog of images we are trying to get through.  Like the last post on the Vermilion Flycatcher, our current focus of attention was pretty easy on the ID front.

Altamira Oriole shot at Laguna Atascosa Wildlife Refuge Texas January 2017

Up to this point, I have been able to cover our local Baltimore Oriole (link here).  Thanks to a trip to South Dakota I was able to add the Orchard Oriole to the mix (link here).   Adding to this growing collection of Orioles, a visit to the Red Rocks Ampitheatre produced a surprising Bullock’s Oriole (link here).  Not a bad haul when it comes to the Oriole family.  With those, I pretty much had the northern, east and west staples covered.  Turns out, I can now add the southern tip of Texas – and I mean the very southern tip.

Altamira Oriole shot at Laguna Atascosa Wildlife Refuge Texas January 2017

Hit the jump to read more about this Oriole family member.

Continue reading Should Have Known to Look Up

When Red or Scarlet Isn’t Good Enough

If all goes well around here at Intrigued, the bird counter should pretty  much be free spinning well into next month.  Most of those additions will be coming from the Texas coastline.  Pretty sure I already made posts from our first trip to Galveston Island back in November 2013.  I recently completed processing all of the shots from our Christmas trip down to South Padre Island last year.  Those shots will be featured for most of the posts over the next several weeks.  I need to get through those by mid February in order to focus on all the new blog fodder put in the tin on our recent trip back to Padre and then over to the Mission region on the Rio Grande.  Texas has become a biding nirvana for me – each trip has produced multitudes of +1’s.  A surprising number of those being absolutely gorgeous birds.

Vermilion Flycatcher shot at Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge, Texas in January 2017

One thing for sure, the Peterson Field Guide I use for my field reference does not do this bird justice.  At the time I had no idea what kind of bird it was.  It was definitely smaller than a Cardinal although it did sport a spiky tuft of a crown.  I did not boost the saturation of this bird, although the overcast feel of the day did give it more of a natural pop against the duller background.  The Summer Tanager was the next option, but even that species is pretty much duller red all over and seemed stockier than this specimen- see my previous reference (link here).  Hmmm – staying in that arena, it did have a feel of Scarlet Tanager which is definitely closer to the red hue along with the darker wing coloring.  The definite robber mask set this one apart from that.  My previous Scarlet reference is of a water logged specimen, but you can see that here (link here).  (Note, I do have a better Scarlet in the queue, just need to find some time to get it posted).

Vermilion Flycatcher shot at Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge, Texas in January 2017

Hit the jump to see more images of this bird and, of course, learn what it is if you haven’t seen one before.

Continue reading When Red or Scarlet Isn’t Good Enough

Fuzzy Wuzza Oyster

Somehow this month has already gotten away from me.  Partial blame is having spent the first week of January down in Texas seeking out new material for the blog.  For the next couple of months you will definitely be hearing a lot about that recent trip as well as spoils from the other trips to Texas we’ve taken over the last several years.  There is a specific reason for this southern state focus, but I am going to keep that under wraps for a bit longer.  For you, the Texas focus is going to be either really good or possibly irritating.  If you are a bird enthusiast you will definitely be the former – if you prefer your wild without feathers, then my apologies right up front, gonna be a bumpy ride.  I do plan to sprinkle in some other creatures to help you through it.

Kicking right into the new year’s theme – bringing you another new bird for my list

American Oystercatcher found on Bolivar Peninsula ,Texas January 2017

Hopefully you can make it through the less than stellar photography execution.  The day was overcast and basically too dark to even hope to get a wall hanger.  Task at hand was to try my  best to get something in the tin to satisfy requirements to officially get the check on my list.  Took a bit of processing in the digital darkroom, but I think they are sufficient to get credit – will let my check officiating crew (aka my brother Ron) weigh in if there is a differing opinion. For now, you will need to tolerate some fuzzy soft shots.

American Oystercatcher found on Bolivar Peninsula ,Texas January 2017

Hit the jump to find out with this new bird is!

Continue reading Fuzzy Wuzza Oyster

Spotify the Sparrow

It is finally thawing out a bit here in the Midwest.  Although we did get a nice covering of sleet followed by an inch or so of new snow, I am pleased to say we are up in the 30 degree range.  Feels like a heat wave based on what this area has been experiencing over the last couple of weeks.  Admittedly, we did escape some of that with a trip back to Texas over the holidays.  I would have preferred staying around, but we had to  head all the way down to the southern tip of Texas to find new fodder for the blog – the hardships we bloggers have to do to keep our loyal readers … sorry, I could barely type that from laughing so hard.  Trust me, I jumped at the chance to get out of the negative double digit windchills even if Texas was experiencing colder than usual temps. More on the fruits of that labor to come.  Right now, thought I would feature a surprising +1 to the Birding List.

Song Sparrow shot in Baraboo Wisconsin April 2014

Now, surprising not so much on the specific bird, because it is likely you have had the pleasure of seeing one of these anywhere in the US and a significant portion of Canada.  The surprising element is the fact the Song Sparrow is so common in these parts I was shocked when I noticed it was absent from my birding list.  This bird is so frequently encountered on my bird outings I typically do not even bother taking pictures of it anymore. Had I known it wasn’t checked I would have spent some extra time to get better shots (will keep this in mind next time out in the field).

Song Sparrow shot in Baraboo Wisconsin April 2014

Hit the jump to “See Spot run” errr “sit”!

Continue reading Spotify the Sparrow

A Decade Anniversary

Well, we have definitely made it to 2018 – or, based on the current weather, the Chinese year of the popsicle!

This month officially completes my 10th year of blogging. Yes, folks and entire decade of observing life around me and bringing you my perspectives and interpretations.  Admittedly, rather proud of that accomplishment.  I personally cannot believe it has been that long since committing to this small off ramp on the information highway. All started thanks to my brother Ron who provided the spark with his own blogging over at Dead Reckonings – link here. One of my goals for this year was to expand Life Intrigued to a broader audience.  I have mentioned this a number of times over the years, but finally carried it through.  Wildlife Intrigued was create and launched in the beginning of the year to provide a more public offering to the wildlife related posts on the Life Intrigued blog.  The new blog has introduced me to individuals all over the world and really pushed me to make sure my wildlife posts were up to that par.  Although an addition of a significant amount of work, very pleased with how that is progressing and looking forward to what that offshoot will bring in the coming year (there is one upcoming event that I’ll be posting on in a few months).  Note, for those reading this summary from the Wildlife blog site, the stats provided are for the Life Intrigued posting and thus represent a larger body of work of which Wildlife is a subset.

With turning of the new calendar, tradition continues with the yearly summary.  Our efforts with our photography work continues to be the main focus of the blog, however, this year brought a large number of projects (especially on the Halloween front), book recollections and still some perspectives on my daily life observations.  Although this year I pulled back from the Marathon distance, it was still another big year on the road with a record number of half marathons making its way into the books.  Still struggling with some heat issues, but went over 1,000 miles for another year with multiple age group placements – one of the few advantages of turning 50 (sigh).  I’ve mentioned this a number of times, but it is truly amazing to look back over the years (all 10 of them) and see what was keeping my attention back then and on a personal development front see the progression in my photography abilities and Halloween prop building.  I’ve purposely kept my political leanings out of the Wildlife arena – no reason to mix our broken political system with the tranquility and, quite frankly, currently more civilized ecosystem of the wildlife kingdom.  For those that might be wondering, I set my yearly goals at the end of this month to give myself sufficient time to really think about what I want to accomplish and what areas of character development to focus on.  I am moving into a brand new role at my day job which looks to be very challenging.  Add that element to the list of items in my idea book, throw in new ventures in Halloween electronics, new photography trips along with a continued strive to get healthier (is this the year of the obstacle courses?!?!?) and we have a recipe for excitement, challenges and another full year of blogging.  My heartfelt appreciation for all my readers and a huge thank you for all the commenters that have provided their inputs on my meanderings (that includes a special thanks to my brother Ron who pretty much commented on EVERY one of my posts).  Nothing makes my day more than sitting down at the computer and seeing feedback on one of my posts – please keep the comments coming especially if there is anything I can do to improve your experience.

Again, special thanks goes to my brother Ron for all the time he has put in on the blog, helping to bring my crazy project ideas to fruition and making the effort to head out into the field on our numerous birding outings in search of feathered friends to feature on this post.  He continues to challenge me on the bird count pushing me to catch up his impressive number.  Finally making some headway on that thanks to a number of birding trips to other states (Texas rocked again this year and even Minnesota added a good number to the count).  Of course, he did take a hit to his bird count when he started up his wildlife related blog – per our agreed upon birding rules, our counts only go up after featuring the bird on our blog – rules are rules hehehe,   It does bring a smile to my face now that he is experiencing the photo processing backlog – not my nightmare 3 year queue yet, but it is creeping up there.  By the way, for the 7th year in a row I managed to hit my minimum 6 posts per month goal (yeah!).

I have high expectations for another exciting year around here at Life Intrigued and now the sister site Wildlife Intrigued.  The training season is already in full swing (albeit on the treadmill at the moment – too damn cold out lately), processing is in full swing on the photo backlog and, to hopefully no surprise, Halloween prop work is already in flight.  Looking forward to trying to hold on to my UB competition reign (not sure I blogged about it this year, but I won this year’s annual photography competition between my wife and I).  Hope you join me on this journey again this year!   Enjoy the details in my blogging summary below and let’s pop the top on that champagne in celebration of 10 years past and plenty more to come.

Thank You!

And now, the annual stats for the year’s worth of blogging.

Hit the jump to see the 2017 stats!

Continue reading A Decade Anniversary

That Shaft Be Red

First off, Happy New Year Everyone!!  I can’t believe we have officially put another year in the books.  Every time it comes to this point on the calendar I ask myself where did the year go.  Although I was able to get a lot of objectives checked off, there always seems to be that undertone of “I should have done more”.  It will soon be time to set my new resolutions – I never do it until a few weeks into the new year to give me time to ponder what my goals are really going to be.  For now, I’ll simply pat myself on the back having just completed a decade of blogging.  That’s right, today represents the start of the 11th year here on the ol’ blog.  It will be a few more days before the end of year stats are ready to post, but we’ll touch more upon that proud accomplishment when that post comes out.

For now, let’s ring in the new year with a new variety for my birding list.

Northern Flicker - Red Shafted - shot in Colorado May 2014

The Northern Flicker in itself is not a new check on my list having been featured back in March of 2016 (link here).  If you look close at the pictures in that previous post, you will notice there is black line extending in from the bill.  This represents one of the two subspecies of the Northern Flicker.  Since it is black, it is easy to identify it as the “Black-Shafted” variety.

Northern Flicker - Red Shafted - shot in Colorado May 2014

I might have just fibbed, hit the jump for a correction!

Continue reading That Shaft Be Red

Cyrano de Water

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas  We lucked out here in the Midwest and managed to pull off a white Christmas thanks to around 4 inches of snow on Christmas Eve.  I think it just makes it a little more special when you can open your presents surrounded by a fresh batch of the fluffy stuff.  What I wasn’t ready for was the deep freeze that followed immediately after.  We really didn’t have a Fall so my body hasn’t really conditioned to cold.  From the looks of it, this polar vortex is going to be hanging around for a while.  Lucky for me I can always recall (and share) memories of warmer times.

American Avocet shot at Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve, Henderson NV, August 2013

Today’s post features another +1 in my North American Birding List.  They also come from two locations that are both definitely warmer than what we are experiencing now.  The first set of pictures came from a trip back in August 2013 to Las Vegas, Nevada.  If you have been following this blog for any length of time, you probably read Las Vegas and immediately thought Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve.  If you are new to the blog, that preserve is a gold mine for birders.  I should sum up all the +1’s I’ve pulled out of that location – guessing it is somewhere in the 30’s if not the 40’s.

American Avocet shot at Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve, Henderson NV, August 2013

Hit the jump to see a few more shots of the American Avocet

Continue reading Cyrano de Water

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everyone and Best Wishes for a New Year!

Just wanted to extend some holiday cheer from  my wife Linda, our boys (the poodles) and of course myself.  It has been an exciting year and looking forward to what the next has in store for us.  Hoping to get a few more posts in before the end of the year yet – need to pad those blog stats ha!  Stay tuned and most of all if you happen to be spending the season in the Midwest, stay warm.

Christmas 2017

… well that is what our tree looked like last night before we went to bed.  Raven woke us this morning and said a green Santa crawled through our fireplace and informed him “there’s a light on the tree that won’t light on one side. So I’m taking it home to my workshop, my dear puppy. I’ll fix it up there, then I’ll bring it back here.”  WHAAAAAaaattt!?!

Christmas 2017

RAVEN!!!!!!

Circle of Life Plays Out in a Theatre Far Away

Merry Christmas Eve everyone!  Not sure if I am going to get around to posting tomorrow, so thought I would go ahead and put one out there today.  Finally feels like Christmas in the Midwest thanks to a lot of white stuff coming down at the moment.  Looks like 2-4 inches when it is all done for the day.  A perfect dusting to add to the holiday atmosphere – not to mention our well could sure use some recharging.  Today’s post is actually inspired by a recent set of pictures my brother Ron posted from his recent Florida trip.  He was able to witness and get in the tin the brutality of the Loggerhead Shrike. You have to feel a little bad for whatever creature crosses its path at feeding time.  I wonder if he would be willing to guest blog on that series of shots – think you would enjoy that in a squeamish sort of way.  .

In light of that, thought I would roll out my example of the circle of life.  Warning though, bunny lovers might want to skip this particular post.

Cooper's Hawk Dining on a Rabbit in Red Rocks Ampitheatre - Colorado May 2014

That there is a Cooper’s Hawk that I encountered while visiting Red Rocks Ampitheatre back in May 2014.  We were out in Colorado for a Teacup Dog Agility Nationals.  Linda knows how to bribe me to go with her.  Simply mention Red Rocks Ampitheatre and my bags will be packed in a jiffy.  I’ve posted a number of shots from my explorations at that place in the past.  A number of those were +1’s on the birding list.  Even got a nice fox while out there (link here).

From the birding list perspective, the Cooper doesn’t represent a +1 having posted most recently from an encounter in Champaign IL (link here).
Cooper's Hawk Dining on a Rabbit in Red Rocks Ampitheatre - Colorado May 2014

Hit the jump to see some more images from the Ampitheatre.

Continue reading Circle of Life Plays Out in a Theatre Far Away

The Haunted Trail of Tears 2017 – Part 2: Soul Crusher

Well folks, today we officially close out the Halloween 2017 blog series.  I wanted to get this done before Christmas arrived and thanks to a quick check with the calendar it looks like I am coming just under the wire.  To be honest, there is a good reason for the delay thanks to trying to wrap up all the prep work on another series I’ll be introducing very soon – as a foreshadow, if you do not like birds you are going to be seriously disappointed.  I’ll try to break that up a bit with some other topics, but I am not going to pull punches on that – it is going to be hard uppercut of feathers coming your way.

Hope I didn’t scare you with that foreshadowing, because I’m saving the nightmares for THIS:

Scenes from the The Haunted Trail of Tears 2017

Yes folks, it is the second part of the legendary Trail of Tears Haunted Trail.  In the last post I took you through the first part of the trail (link here).  I purposely broke that post off at the point where the trail content delves deeper into hell.  Just in case you are new to the trail, my friend in haunt, Paul, and I set the trail up to be scarier the farther you go along the trail.  This gives parents and the faint of heart the opportunity to drop tail and head back for the safety of the house.  As with the previous post, I am going to let you enjoy the photos we took right before tear down (about 2am) rather than go into much detail.  Rain was coming fast preventing us from really taking the time to get the good low light camera out – luckily we were able to make a quick run through with the cell phone and capture what we could,.

My brother Ron got me the smoldering ghoul below.  It comes with a fogger attachment to give it a real burning effect.  I still need to pick up a fogger for next year, but it looked sufficiently creepy on its own!

Scenes from the The Haunted Trail of Tears 2017

Thanks Ron!

Scenes from the The Haunted Trail of Tears 2017

Hit the jump to see and read a bit about the rest of the props on the 2017 Trail of Tears Haunted Trail.

Continue reading The Haunted Trail of Tears 2017 – Part 2: Soul Crusher