Tag: Alligators

Bird Walk +1s…by Brad Marks

Before I get too far, I just wanted to thank Linda for now 32 years of wedded bliss – well, except for the infinitesimally small fraction of time she scolds me because of a “perceived” bad choice on the trail – then she relents, puts me back together again and hops back on the “happy path” hehehe. I did admit she should get an extra year of service for what she has had to put up with these last few weeks. Restricted runners are a notoriously hard lot to deal with. The good news is the stitches are out of the elbow and everything looks really good. A ways to go before it is back to where I need it to be, but optimistic now that a lot of the swelling has dissipated and therapy has started loosening everything up. Unfortunately, photography is out of the question. Decided to take The Beast in and have it refurbished so it is ready when I’m able to lift it gain. In the meantime, we can live vicariously through another of Brad’s Huntington Beach State Park adventures. Take care everyone and thanks for all the well wishing and healing thoughts!

Take it away Brad…

This may have been obvious to many of you long-time readers of Intrigued, but Jan and I just started seeking out and photographing birds while we visit state and national parks on vacations.  While we don’t necessarily chase them down, we will certainly take some time to look for what’s available wherever we are.

This is a sort of “greatest hits” post about many of the species we were able to see and photograph on a bird walk at Huntington Beach State Park in South Carolina, not far from Myrtle Beach.  Now, having said that, please don’t all flock there (pun intended) all at once. 

We were visiting the boardwalk overlook for the seaside habitats, when we bumped into a couple that had been birding for decades.  He was wearing a Boston Marathon jacket, and since Jan had run the Boston marathon a few times in the past, I went up to him and said, “Hi.”  We started talking and I could tell he was a bit anxious to be moving along.  He introduced himself as Jack and his wife Janet, and explained they were about to be late for the bird walk that morning.  During the off-season, there is one bird walk per week at 10am on Wednesdays.  It was 9:58am.  Off they went with Jan and I in pursuit.  When we arrived, the bird walk had already started.  The guide was introducing himself and telling us about the walk for the newbies (us included). 

Most people at the walk had binoculars, spotting scopes, checklists or all three.  Jan and I had our cameras with intermediate and long-reach zoom lenses.  As the guide is talking, there are a dozen types of birds moving about.  Some are flying, some are floating, others are wading, and one keeps smacking into the surface of the water, at high speed, hoping for a snack.

Huntington Beach State Park by Brad Marks

Hit the jump to read more about Brad and Jan’s finds at Huntington Beach State Park

Continue reading Bird Walk +1s…by Brad Marks

GatorNeck

Once again, bringing you another break from the feathered fodder.  Luckily, this time not a result of cargo loads of hate mail showing up at the door.  Nope, bringing you a non-birding post on my own terms.  Now, I will admit today’s post was a direct result of a birding adventure and the only reason Linda and I were even in this particular spot was to get a new mark on the birding checklist – actually, I can expand that a bit – one of the two reason we headed all the way to the Georgia swamps was to stand at the very spot these shots were taken.  I’ll get to those two reasons in a future posts – for now, let’s take a gander at the shot below.

Alligators shot at Harris Neck National Wildlife Refugee, near Savannah Georgia May 2015

Back in May of 2015 (no idea what happened, the best I can tell is we time warped directly to 2019 – scary) we were visiting Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge which is about 30 miles outside Savannah, Georgia.  For those of you not familiar with this refuge, it was established in 1962 on an abandoned military airfield.  There are still runways hidden in the overgrown fields along with about 2,800 acres of mixed saltwater marsh, fields and woods.  The unique name comes from the peninsula it sits on being originally named Dickenson’s Neck and then later renamed for the principal proprietor in the 18th century, William Harris.

Alligators shot at Harris Neck National Wildlife Refugee, near Savannah Georgia May 2015

Form your impression of the shots above and then hit the jump to read some intriguing details.

Continue reading GatorNeck

Gator for Fast Food Delivery

The month counter has officially gone up by one which means the post count falls all the way back to zero.  Figured it was time to give my non-birding friends a break from the barrage of birds last month.  Don’t be fooled though, you are not out of the woods yet .. or more appropriately I guess, not out of the Gulf Coast yet.  If things go as planned, there will be a bevy of new birds to read about this month from our Texas trips.  First, let’s have a chuckle!

Birding Gator Speak for Food Delivery

That there is one scary beast.  For some reason I really wasn’t thinking about the dangers of birding on my first trip to Texas several years back.  It wasn’t until our second visit to Padre Island that we came face to face with a living dinosaur or rather BIG ASS LIZARDS.  Our first day at Padre Island Birding and Nature Center back in January 2017, we saw a number of signs on the railings supposedly indicating an Alligator sighting.  We didn’t see a single one that morning and both of us decided it was all a grand hoax to tease the visitors.

Alligators encountered while birding Texas in January 2017 - South Padre Island

Hit the jump to see the rest of the Gator shots we were able to get in the tin!

Continue reading Gator for Fast Food Delivery