Dive Bomber

Might as well get the third post out on the Pelican series.  This post is also from the draft queue like the last few posts – definitely chipping away at the processed backlog.  Pretty soon I will actually have to open the door to my digital darkroom and start processing again or I’ll be short on the upcoming quotas.  Always good to have a few held back in case of emergencies, but it is a somewhat demoralizing to have so many laying around just pleading to hit the mainstream ha. I promised you a different perspective of the bird in the previous Brown Pelican posts and here it is ….
KK
Umm, well, not exactly that picture.  I forgot I wanted to set the stage.  That is the traditional perspective of the Pelican coasting through the air with little care in the world.  However, there is one aspect of life that does required attention by all living things… nourishment.  When that time comes for a Pelican, there is a decided transformation from the calm, cool and collected behavior we are used to seeing.  In fact, the whole thing is turned on its head … literally
KLL

Hit the jump to see how this plays out

Continue reading Dive Bomber

We Got the White

Fresh off a huge win for the Green Bay Packers over American’s team the Dallas Cowboys.  This was one of those strange games where it didn’t really bother me who won the game.  I have a lot of respect for Aaron Rogers both in the way he plays the game and probably more important how he handles himself on the field – calm cool and just goes about the business of winning even when the chips are stacked against.  On the other side I have similar respect for Tony Romo.  A fine product out of Eastern Illinois, but he was on the sidelines today watching his rookie replacement Dak Prescott.  Dak has impressed me as well, especially the way he has taken over the reins since Romo’s injury.  With admiration for elements of both teams I have to look for the negatives to determine my favored side.  Front and center Dez Bryant.  ‘Nuff said, go Pack!

Decided to catch a bit of the Steelers vs Chiefs game and since I cannot just sit and watch a game (what a waste of time), figured it would be a good time to pop another post off of the draft queue.  Since I went with the Brown Pelicans in the last post, figured it was only fair to give a little love to their white counterparts.
White Pelican Shot on Texas Birding Trip - November 2013

Unlike the Brown Pelicans in the Texas region, American White Pelicans are not year round inhabitants.  They migrate down from the colder regions to bask in the sun like the rest of us heat seekers.  Thanks to Robert who was giving birding talks at the South Padre Island Birding and Nature Center, Linda and I now know an interesting fact.  White Pelicans are the largest birds in the region … when they are down there.  When they migrate back, the Brown Pelican inherits the top of the size chart.  In jest, that tidbit became our mantra for the rest of the trip repeated at every sighting of the Pelican.  This was generally prompted by Linda who basically doubled her bird knowledge thanks to that informative comment from the local bird authority.   If we had more time we might have taken Robert up on one of his birding talks – seemed like he was up on his aviary facts and the details on what all the local restaurants were doing for New Year’s.

White Pelican Shot on Texas Birding Trip - November 2013

Since the Whites are pretty common here in the Midwest I didn’t spend a lot of time getting new shots in the tin – just took a few that I thought were interesting.  Wish I could tell you where we took these, but my memory is failing me at the moment – these were taken back in November 2013.  My guess is somewhere in the Galveston area or possibly off the shore in the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge.  That is the downsize of having such a backed up photo queue and an aging brain.

White Pelican Shot on Texas Birding Trip - November 2013

Before I let you go, it might be worth mentioning that neither one of these two White Pelicans were breeding – neither one are sporting the large knob that protrudes off the top of their bill (about 2/3rds the way down) signifying they are a breeding adult.  Admittedly a crappy picture, but you can see what it looks like in a previous post (link here).  Also note, the more dusky one in the back is likely a juvenile.

Just a quick post today folks, catch you again real soon.

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How Now Brown Pelican

It’s another day of playing catch up here at Life Intrigued.  In the same pattern as the last post, this one comes from the draft queue – Yeah, I’m taking the easy way out but I’m dragging today having completed my first outdoor hill room of the young year.  Only ran a little over 6 today, but it was a struggle thanks to all the black ice that was doing its best to put me on my ass.  Only lost traction a couple of times, but the required shorter stride only added to the burden.  I still miss being in Texas a few weeks ago, so to help bring back some fond memories, going with another post from our November 2013 trip.

KK

These shots were taken at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge in Austwell, Texas.  That was our target destination back in 2013 and more of a side stop for this year’s trip down there.  Of course, we were down there for the chance to get the Whoopers (link here).  After that, everything else we got down there was just a bonus.  I already had the Brown Pelican from the Ft Myers trip (link here), so no +1.
KK

Hit the jump to see a few more shots of the Brown Pelican.

Continue reading How Now Brown Pelican

Except for that One with the Yellowy Eyes

I’m  in a bit of a clean up mode at the moment.  During the last couple of months of last year (wow, that seems so long ago as opposed to the reality of it being less than a month) the digital lab was working overtime trying to pop a number of items off the photo queue.  The thought of going 3 years behind was too much to take so gave it a scouts try to give me some buffer.  This meant there were a lot of posts prepped with all the shots worthy of posting from the processing blitz – all put in draft mode just waiting for the special day when they get the call to the big league.

Osprey on our Texas Birding Trip November 2013

Unfortunately, my prep work exceeded my publishing capability leaving me a basket full of potential posts.  Most of these were results of the Texas trip we took back in November 2013.  It is time to flush those out of the system or I am going to do something stupid like forget they are there – a total waste of the all the effort to get them to this point. So, as a step in the right direction, here is one of those drafts.
Osprey on our Texas Birding Trip November 2013

Hit the jump to see a few more shots of this killer.

Continue reading Except for that One with the Yellowy Eyes

2016 – The Year in Review

Welcome to 2017 everyone!

This month officially puts me in my 10th year of blogging and an anniversary I would have never believed would be reach when I started this little project (you can thank my brother Ron for getting me started on this journey thanks to his blogging over at Dead Reckonings – link here). Keeping with tradition, the turning of the calendar year means it is time to do my yearly assessment of my blogging production.  Over the last 9 years, the blog has gone through a number of transformations (hoping all for the better from a reader perspective).  Today, it is squarely more focused on our photography work at Eddiesoft Photography.  However, I do try to give a variety of other topics ranging from personal events to recollections, which are as much a historical documentation of what goes on during the course of a year in my little world as it his, hopefully, an entertaining read for you.  Kind of nice to have 9 years of writings to go back through whenever I get to a point where I’m wondering how all those gray hairs came to be.  No regular reader should have any question about my political leanings or my views on how our government should be run.  I’m fairly open about it, but usually try to spare you all the gory details but depending on the tone of the news that day it is likely a few barbs make their mark somewhere in the post.  Needless to say, I am optimistic that the change in the guard will bring good things – god knows it could not get any worse than the last 8.  Now we just need to deal with all these snowflakes from the participatory trophy generation.  Losing is character building and if you take that experience away… well you can see what you get – Generation Whine – hope the socialist academics are proud of their handy work.  .  See, there I go again – sorry about that but I feel the biggest drive in my life is competition – to overcome my weakness, to challenge myself to accomplish something more physically challenging than I am capable of now, to produce a better photo than the last.  That is my mantra, a core tenant that defines my existence.  And following that goal, my hope is to be sitting here next year with a better blog summary than this year – although I am pretty happy with this year both in the content of the blog and on the personal side having finally knocked off the full marathon on my life list.  There have been a handful of times in my life when I’ve had to look into the core of my soul and do battle with the demons that try to hold us back.  Those times are memories that are etched in my grey matter never to be forgotten – the last 4 miles of that Marathon are now on that list. I set my goals at the end of this month (gives me time to really thing about what I want to go after) and now that my life list is currently empty it is time to figure out what’s next.  Rest assured, like the rest of my personal challenges, you will get to experience the journey with me (I feed off your comments and encouragements).  Speaking of comments, once again I want to extend my heart felt thank yous for all the comments I have received again this year.  I know it takes time to read my ramblings and taking that extra time to provide feedback is extremely appreciated.  Keep up the good work and let me know about the things you like and definitely anything that could be better.

Special thanks goes to my brother Ron for all the time he has put in on the blog, on my projects and most of all for the enjoyment on those occasion when we get to out in the field and hunt down our feathered friends.  Hoping we can get out there a lot more this year (likely when it warms up for him hehehe).  We also need to give him all the encouragement we can to get his birding blog in full gear (link here) – he has progressed into quite the bird photographer and I’m sure everyone wants to see more of his work on his blog (besides, he needs to build his count up now that he has to abide by the birding rules for the official count).  I did take notice he is now experiencing what it is like to fall behind on the processing queue – he isn’t as bad as I am right now (over 2.5 years in the hole) but he is starting to inch up there.   If it wasn’t for my self imposed post quota, who knows how far I’d be down.  By the way, for the sixth year in a row I managed to hit my minimum 6 posts per month goal (yeah!).

It should be another exciting year around here at Life Intrigued.  The run training season is already in progress, new birding trips are being planned, Halloween projects are in their design phases and most of all… my radar is up and my observations are already being cataloged.  Assume there will be plenty of political fodder to comment on, photos to critique and that all important UB competition is just around the corner.  Hoping you will keep my little corner on the web bookmarked and visit when time permits.  Enjoy the details in my blogging summary below and raise a glass with me – to another year in the blogging books – here’s to wildlife that brings excitement and beauty to our world, to the creativity of others and most of all to the social experiment we call life that gets me up each and every day in anticipation of learning what it is that defines being human.

Thank You!

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

Hit the jump to see the 2016 stats!

Continue reading 2016 – The Year in Review

Welcome 2017!

Happy New Year Everyone. It has been busy around Life Intrigued this year and thankfully this little project of mine is still enjoyable – although those quotas can get a little taxing at times. I’ll get my year end summary up as soon as I can (right now birding like crazy and filling up the queue with all kinds of new birds for the coming year). Looking forward to starting my 10th year of blogging and hope everyone has enjoyed my posts – if there is something that isn’t meeting your expectations or new topics you would like me to consider, just let me know in the comments and I’ll see what I can do. Take care everyone and be safe on your way back from wherever you are celebrating the dawn of a new year. It will definitely be an interesting time and I’m pretty sure I’ll be weighing in on whatever interesting things that catch my attention. Note, I should have extra time to spend now that my list of entertainers that will no longer profit from me has been growing at a logarithmic rate these last couple of months.

The Horn of Alton

Greetings everyone from the Midwest Tundra.  In the midst of some bitter cold, sleet and snow at the moment in direct defiance of Never Colder’s who are still crying from the loss of their precious hockey stick graph.  Don’t you hate it when the data doesn’t align to the narrative.  Speaking of crying, anyone see the last press conference by Bumbles this week.  Let’s see, it is the press’s fault, no wait, it is the talk radio pundit’s fault, nooooo I remember now, it was the Ruskies fault for exposing a rigged DNC nomination process, collusion with the mainstream media, forcing CNN to give Hillary pre-debate questions and for brainwashing the Hillary election committee to ignore fly over country – the sneaky bastards even hijacked Hildebeast’s speech and stuck the word deplorables in it.  Them be some sneaky cold war enemies.  Tell you what, let’s throw in some Bush blame and just give it to Hillary – that way, everyone will be happy. I couldn’t write better comedy if I tried.

How about we move to a count that can’t be debated.  My North American Bird Life List count has been incremented by one thanks to this lonely specimen.
Horned Grebe Shot near Alton IL 3/29/2014

Truth be told, I am jumping the gun just a bit here since my validator has yet to respond to my identification request.  Fortunately, this particular waterbird is pretty easy to identify.  Here’s a better angle that gives a good view of the key feature they are named for.
Horned Grebe Shot near Alton IL 3/29/2014

Hit the jump to see a few more pictures of this intriguing water bird.

Continue reading The Horn of Alton

Book Recollection: Liberty and Tyranny

Mark Levin: Liberty and Tyranny

It was agility day in the household which means I had to pack my gear and head off to some small building somewhere in rural America to watch my dog navigate obstacles that rival any Spartan race .. well, a least for a dog that stands 9.5 inches tall and weighs a whopping 4.5 pounds. Linda was the official photographer for the event which is why I had to tag along even though there is a mountain of work to do at home (imagine Linda rolling her eyes about now). The good news is I get some time to work on the heavy lifting posts. Whenever it is time for a book recollection, a deep cleansing breath has to be made before diving into a pile of work. Of all the posts, the book reviews are probably the hardest in that they require documenting, verifying and reflecting on all the takeaways from the read. This was especially daunting with today’s featured read, Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto by Mark Levin. Just to put it into perspective, this was only a 245 page paperback but had over 38 pages of cited reference. If you do not now Mark, he is a true Constitutional Conservative and knows his stuff. I would love to see him live debate someone of a differing political leaning. That would be a mauling like you have never seen one. Mark has been a constant staple on my radio for a number of years now and has had a priority slot during the whole election cycle. We differ on a few things but for the most part we are aligned on our political positions. Depending on where you are at on the spectrum, this is a highly recommended read. It will give good arguments for the conservative left, sway fodder for the independents and well, just might make a liberal’s world explode into tiny pieces. This book was written back in 2009 and has some eerie projects for the future under Obama. Whenever someone is standing in bewilderment on what just happened with the Trump election facts from this book come rolling up. It is pretty clear what the left agenda is and how it is permeating everywhere in our lives. The best way to comprehend it is to arm yourself with knowledge. Knowledge you will not get in the bias and deceitful mainstream media of today or from the established talking heads in our government.
As far as the book goes, it is not a light read. It took me a long time to get through this because every page caused me to spend extra time rereading for validation, bumping up against my own beliefs and then pondering the implications. Being that it is a product of 2009, there are a few areas that did not come to fruition, but 95% of it is dead on and still burning issues to this day. I am not sure what the future holds with Trump as of yet (will at least let him get in office before making any conclusions), but it sounds like draining the Washington Swamp is going to be more like a damn opening. Give it a read – if nothing else when we meet in the future we can pass over all these fact/areas and focus on new areas should we end up debating whether we’ve come to the end of the US yet. Meanwhile think I’ll go corner the market on safety pins and pacifiers – think there’s money to be made there with the potential number of people that are going to need them as of late (ha).

Hit the jump to see all the takeaways (and these were only the items I bothered to note).

Continue reading Book Recollection: Liberty and Tyranny

A Horny Songbird

I received an email from my brother Ron yesterday regarding an email highlighting a Harris’s Sparrow that was spotted at the Crabtree Nature Center.  It was recommended by the originator of the email to avoid scaring it away by standing INSIDE the WARM nature center and looking at the FEEDERS through window (my emphasis).  This, of course was met with great joy and in fact it was actually referred to as “Perfect” by Ron. This brought a big sigh from me when I read it.  I think we need a collective vote on this.  Should we add a new birding rule that disqualifies birds taken through a window at a nature center!?!  Please leave your votes in the comments and I’ll tally them up and make an official ruling.  In stark contrast, today’s post is featuring a bird that required me to drive out in the middle of the tundra, get out in single digit, wind howling weather and risk frostbite on the shutter finger to add this fine specimen to my North American Bird Life List.

Horned Lark shot North of Galesburg Feb 2014

Well, it might not have been the Tundra, but it was a single digit temperature day in the snowy countryside north of Galesburg, IL.  Oh, and I might not have been driving and I might have shot the bird from the car, but the window was down and it was still damn cold.  Ron’s email actually reminded me I could bird from the warmth of my house too – I have such a backlog of shoots I simply went back to February, 2014 and went virtually birding through my queue.  Linda and I were out that particular day hunting down a Snowy Owl (link here).  That was one awesome Valentine’s gift from my wife!  I wonder if Ron has a Snowy Owl yet… guessing not since that would require going out in the cold (ha).  I had already processed the Owl pictures, but remembered taking a few shots of a group of birds hanging out in the country roads.  It was  overlooked at the time due to the excitement of the Snowy.  During my formal pass through the pictures (yes, I’m finally up to February of 2014) the unique horns and coloring of those birds caught my attention.  Those feather horns make for an easy identification – I had a Horned Lark in the tin!   Sorry, let me restate – I had a +1 Horned Lark already in the tin!  How cool is that!?!
Horned Lark shot North of Galesburg Feb 2014
Admittedly, these are not the crispiest shot in my collection.  This is likely due to already having frostbite on my shutter finger from tracking that Snowy in 2.5 feet of snow.  The first shot is clearly the best of the three, but I included the shot from the back (above) and the shot from the side (below).  I like to give my readers a good perspective of the featured bird to provide people a better feel for each bird’s characteristics and help in the ID process.  Due to the very unique horn like features of this specimen the ID was a no brainer.
Horned Lark shot North of Galesburg Feb 2014
Unfortunately, I did not get a lot of pictures of this bird.  Linda was driving which meant every bird on the road was in danger for its life.  You can almost see the horror this specimen was experiencing in the expression in the first picture.  I haven’t seen that much fear on a bird’s face since that Snowy Owl was slaughtered on Linda’s Jeep window… and that Goose that got a feather shave from Linda’s fairway wood – seeing a theme here.  No fears this trip, no birds were harmed in the taking of these shots, promise. Better get to some facts.  First of all, they cover almost all of the US during the winter (odd since I never saw them before and haven’t really seen them very much since).  During courtship the female simulates a dust bath to win over a potential mate – apparently males get horny for dirty females.  If you thought I was going to pass up that joke you do not know me very well hehehehe,  The only other interesting tidbit is the gathers up pebbles, and such to place beside their nests.  This arrangement resembles a paved walkway … but Cornell notes they really don’t use it as such.  Cornell’s hypothesis is that it could be used to hold nesting materials in place during the construction phase.

All I got for you today – hoped you enjoyed this new bird to my list.  Wonder if Ron is noticing my bird count is in overdrive as of late?

A Forster’s Takes Its Tern

How’s it hanging out there.  Obviously we survived the first snow of the season but maybe just barely.  I did get to test my slide control skills coming down one of the larger hills on the way back from my run.  Not sure what was going on there, but my 4 wheel drive truck decided that the rear wheels wanted to race the front wheels down the hill.  Not a big issue for seasoned Illinois drivers – stay off the brakes, steer into the drift to get control and then accelerate out once you get it straightened out.  Easy peasy, but can get the heart a pumping if a car is coming the other way.  Good to get those control reminders out of the way during the early winter season.  By this morning, the snow was gone from the roads and just another day in the Midwest.

To help warm up the place, figured I’d throw up a post featuring a bird shot back in the summer months – June specifically..
Forster's Tern shot at Emiquon National Wildlife Refuge June 2013

Just not last June.  You should know me better than that by now.  These shots were taken back in 2013.  Trust me, if I could get these out quicker I definitely would.  Wish I could hire an intern to go through all my pictures after a shoot, weed out the crap shots and present me with the shots to take into the digital dark room.  You’d think a UB would do that for me… WAIT A MINUTE… something just triggered in my head.  Not sure I even posted the results of the UB competition this year.  Definitely need to get on that stat!  For now, let’s enjoy pictures of this lovely Forster’s Tern.

Truth be told, when I was shooting this bird down at Emiquon National Wildlife Refuge, I wasn’t sure what I was taking a picture of.  All I knew is there was one bird that “was not like the others” hanging out along the pier.

Forster's Tern shot at Emiquon National Wildlife Refuge June 2013

Hit he jump to see a couple more pictures of this cool Tern

Continue reading A Forster’s Takes Its Tern