Tag: Allyson Marks

The Story That Almost Wasn’t…by Brad Marks

Unfortunately, it has been a bit since we last talked. Not to steal any valor from the fine men in the Seals organization, but we are officially in our Hell Week[s]. Traditionally, our big haunted trail event (link here) would be scheduled for next weekend, however, due to the insubordinate ankle, we opted to push the date to mid October rather than cancel it outright. Good move as there is no way we would have been ready by this week. That delay doesn’t mean we can sit back and take it easy – for the last several weeks I have been getting very little sleep due to coordinating tasks, fixing broken props, building new scares and everything else related to the haunt. I just looked at the current project plan and there are 306 tasks at the macro level and that is growing daily ugh. Add in dealing with rehab visits, daily workouts and everything else life has been throwing at us (more like a barrage) and sleep has become a luxury. Fortunately we live for the haunt so that is wrapped in enjoyment (big thanks to my brother Ron who has been spending every weekend down here to help us out). Long story short, overly pressed for time, so I’ll probably be a bit scarce for some time going forward. I’ll try to keep you updated as we progress to the big event. Upmost apologies for delays in responding to comments and keeping up with all your fine blogs during this time. For now, Brad is going to take time away from preparing for his upcoming field assignment and step in to give me a breather with one of his adventures. While I take a brief few minutes to celebrate being released from crutches today, I’ll let Brad take it away…

Lately, Jan and I have been taking on more global photo assignments for Wildlife Intrigued.  It’s not that we are running out of birds locally, far from it.  We want to get to the far-flung parts of the map while we are young enough to handle the strenuous travel distances and locations.  Sometimes, Jan and I use a travel agent to help with details in a part of the world we’ve not yet been to.  Often times we have already been to a location and take pleasure in setting up travel on our own, even if the Intrigued corporate jet isn’t available.  (Isn’t that worldwide pop tour over yet?)

For the same reason, these stories almost never appear in a linear fashion.  It’s sort of a “timey-wimey” thing.  Sometimes I have a story just waiting for me to take photographs to complete it.  Or I have a bunch of photos, and no story.  A TARDIS would be helpful in the story writing process sometimes.  This story was actually started way before the one about an Eastern Kingbird (link here) that we found about 100 yards further around the lake a bit earlier in the same day.  Circumstances, our travel assignments, and me almost deleting all of the bird photos lead to this one being delayed for over a year. (see end of story for details)  

During one of our back-to-back-to-back photo assignments from Intrigued HQ, Jan and I were on the downhill side of an early summer trip to Colorado visiting our daughter Allyson.  She is also the editor working in the Wildlife Intrigued Western (or Mountain) office.  Both the Intrigued corporate jet and motorhome were otherwise occupied, so we completed the 14-hour journey in our Regional Office vehicle.  Truthfully, I like travelling this way because we can take much more gear along than the airlines allow.  As an added bonus, Jan and I get to stop at Runza for lunch on our way across Nebraska.  Both directions.

Barn Swallow found by rad Marks

Hit the jump to read more about today’s featured feathered friend.

Continue reading The Story That Almost Wasn’t…by Brad Marks

Is that Bird Wearing a T-Shirt?…by Brad Marks

It is ironic that most of the time here I am complaining about how fast the year is progressing, but now that I wouldn’t mind the minutes rolling by more rapidly…it seems like everything has slowed to a crawl. Such is fate I guess. Actually this is a good week at Intrigued. Brad and Jan have wrapped up everything related to the annual St. Jude charity run and on their recovery phase, Home Depot FINALLY released this year’s Halloween offerings yesterday (at 5am) and tomorrow my stitches come out. Fingers crossed that leads to better night’s sleep! It also officially marks the halfway point for the 6 week no-weight segment. Looking back I have to applaud myself for being the “good” patient (got a lot of people ready to drop the hammer on me if I don’t) and looking forward, well, “holy hell, get me out of here”. Thankfully there are plenty of pictures to process, Halloween props to wire, haunt tutorials to make and posts to keep my eyes off the clock. Speaking of all things haunt, a curious reader brought to our attention that we missed the post quota last month (we have some demanding readers ha) – turns out they missed my 2024 tombstone review on the Mothership (Boy’s Got Some Stones link here). Feel free to take a look if you are curious how those turned out. While I mentally prepare for thread being pulled out of my ankle, please enjoy another adventure from Brad and Jan.

Take it away Brad…

Jan and I first saw this bird at the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Preserve (RFNWP) a couple of years ago.  However, one of my rules for publishing photos is that the image must be usable if I have to resort to severe cropping.  I am always saying, “I don’t want a 6-pixel image of a backlit dark object.”  Well, with our new cameras, that may have increased to a minimum 60-pixel image.  But still, who wants to look at dark fuzzy thing on the screen and try to guess what it is.  With my years of experience photographing wildlife (all couple of years of it), I don’t even try for those photos any longer.  Not taking them saves time sorting and editing later as well as saving clicks on my camera shutters.  That 250k mark on the shutter assembly rolls around quickly enough as is.

On our semi-annual Wildlife Intrigued Rocky Mountain editorial staff visit with our daughter Allyson, Jan and I went to the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge (RMANWP).  One of the perks of visiting is that we get to use her Honda CR-V to drive all over the place while she is working her primary job.  RMANWP is a very large park at nearly 16,000 acres.  The park is large enough to have an 11-mile, mainly square-shaped, Wildlife Drive embedded within it, plus a couple of miles of road on either end.  Visitors enter the one-way Drive by crossing a set of bison guards embedded in the road and then driving anti-clockwise around the Drive.  For those not familiar with a bison guard, or cattle guard, it is a series of horizontally mounted rails or pipes embedded over an empty space in the roads.  The theory, and reality, being that hooved animals will not want to cross the guard; therefore, no actual gates are needed over the roadway.  This means easy access for vehicles while keeping livestock inside, or outside depending on which way you are travelling.  Fencing is obviously required up to the edge of the gates in the roads and beyond.

At the end of the 11-mile wildlife drive, just before the final set of bison guards in the road, a dark object flew through the sky and landed in a tree less than 50 feet from us.  Since it was far larger than 60 pixels, Jan and I wanted to begin taking photos.

Swainson's Hawk found by Brad and Jan Marks at Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge

Now what do we have here, hit the jump to learn more about this spiffy looking Hawk.

Continue reading Is that Bird Wearing a T-Shirt?…by Brad Marks

P-Dogs a-Plenty…by Brad Marks

Down three posts and coming to the end of July. You are likely going to get some rapid fire posts in large part thanks to Brad, as I am still working through the first phase of the ankle surgery recovery – I thought I would be keyboard warrioring it over the entire 5 week no-weight period, but so far, still getting adjusted to this boat anchor. Once simple tasks are turning out to be a test of my strength and/or will. I did absolutely laugh out loud the other day (something I needed). Last year I ran my last Bix7 road race putting a cap on 20 straight years of toeing that line (link here). Linda relayed a funny scene she witnessed when had made it to the top of the Brady Street hill (she opts for the walker option). A lady and her ~7yr old kid had just made it to the top near her when she noticed the kid was basically balling. The mother notices and responds “I am sorry, I didn’t prepare you mentally, physically or spiritually to make it up that hill”. I’ve been meaning to write a story on the mothership about this scene as it is shockingly antithetical to the manner in which Linda, my brothers and I were raised. That quote has been attached to my monitor ever since then. And there I was, leaning on my crutches looking down at the 6 inch ledge to our shower. That quote had a completely new and profound meaning hehehehe! Tasks are getting easier each day – dealing with this mentally for another 5 weeks is going to be tough. While I push through, Brad is going to “Let the Dogs Out (who?, who?, who?)”.

Take it away Brad…

For regular readers of Wildlife Intrigued, at first this story will seem like a departure from the norm, meaning no feathers.  When you see what I have in store for you, forgiveness may be in order.  Wildlife Intrigued does include all types of wildlife, feathers or not.

Jan and I were visiting the Wildlife Intrigued Rocky Mountain editorial staff (our daughter Allyson) when we found ourselves with a half day to spare.  Shhh, don’t tell the bosses.  A quick review of available birding locations revealed an obvious choice not very far from the hotel where we were staying.  Nice save going birding in our free time, don’t you think?  The other advantage of having a half-day free is that we could use our daughter Allyson’s Honda CR-V while she was working.  It sure is nice to have the younger generation working to help support the older, newly retired, generation.  Truthfully, other than camping or ski trips on weekends, her car does not get used very often and it seemed to enjoy being out on the road. 

For those that aren’t familiar with the 2004-2006 model year Honda CR-Vs, they have built-in picnic tables as the floor of the cargo area.  This is one of the best features EVER offered in a car for active people.  Once you are at a camp site, picnic site, or ski mountain base parking lot, and have most of the cargo area unloaded, simply remove the cargo floor, extend the legs, and Voila!  Instant picnic table.  There is also a hole in the middle of the table if you have an umbrella (sold separately) for sunny locations.  I’ve told the Honda people they are losing sales to younger buyers because they took this feature out in 2007.  Honda, if you are reading this, put the picnic table back in the CR-V.

OK, back to the regularly scheduled story.  After driving for about a dozen miles and only getting lost once or twice (not quite sure about map apps sometimes) we found our destination:  Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Preserve (RMANWP).  Yes, even the acronym is a mouthful.  I know, the “arsenal” doesn’t conjure up images of cute furry or feathered things.  However, that’s exactly what Jan and I found, at least the small furry kind.  I’ll try not to overload our dear readers with cuteness.  Fair warning:  If you are susceptible to cute-furry overload, please only read between the photos.

Prairie Dogs found by Brad and Jan Marks

We are serious, if you are overly sensitive to cuddly wildlife images…do NOT hit the jump … something tells me you are going to do it anyway ha!

Continue reading P-Dogs a-Plenty…by Brad Marks

Yellow-Crowned Night Heron…by Brad Marks

I feel like our haven of trail witches have put a curse on me. First I tweak my ankle during the build up to the haunted trail, then the race beats me down something good only to make it through to put the cherry on top the misery sundae by breaking a toe (on the good foot) in a manner so unmanly I am not about to reveal it. I’ve learned a couple of surprising things since then. One is the revelation that trimming trees for four days is probably not the brightest choice all hobbled up – something tells me some of our readers probably already knew or could foresee that bit of knowledge. The other surprise comes courtesy of Brad who is bringing us one of his adventures from his recent New England trip. In fact, my new birding tidbit comes courtesy of that little space between the third and fourth word in his title. I was about to insert the expected “-” when I decided to dig into this a bit more. Brad is absolutely correct, as of July 2024, the American Birding Association has removed the second dash between Night and Heron. You can read more about that change and several other updates in their 2024 supplement (link here). Note, once again, they FAILED to rename the Ring-Necked Duck arrrgghhh! Enough of my whining, it’s time for Brad to introduce us to one of his newest lifers.

Take it away Brad…

During a recent photo assignment to New England, Jan and I were enjoying the low tide near Boothbay Harbor in Maine.  We traveled to Maine with our friends from the Boston area.  We also had the bonus of having Allyson join us for an abbreviated weekend.

This also happened to be our first photo outing with our brand “new” D500 camera bodies, well, at least new to us.  The old trusty D300’s had served us well, but had begun showing age-related faults (over 200,000 clicks on both of them) during our Alaska assignment.  We had a mere six days after Alaska to get “new” cameras before the New England trip.  I used all of my trusted camera sites ordering bodies, batteries, and chargers.  I’m still working on the Wildlife Intrigued expense report.  Everything arrived in time, some only just, for the trip to Boston and Maine.

Our first morning in Maine, low tide was at 9am.  After breakfast, we all rushed down to the waterline to see what we would see at low tide.  The rented house where we stayed, was about 100 feet from the water.  The tide was nearly at the lowest point of the morning, down over 8 feet from high tide the night before.  Drying seaweed was all over the newly exposed rocks and made walking slippery.  Jan was photographing a Great Blue Heron in the shadows next to our dock.  Allyson was wading in the cold Atlantic water looking for crabs, lobsters, and snails.  I was watching the sunlit part of the terrain opposite our rocky point, when something caught my eye.

Yellow-Crowned Night Heron by Brad Marks

Did you spot today’s featured feathered friend? Hit the jump to read more about this well camouflaged discovery.

Continue reading Yellow-Crowned Night Heron…by Brad Marks

Crazy on You…by Brad Marks

It’s official, I can now coast until the new year as the last of the 2024 stressors completed last Saturday night. I was slightly worried going into this last ultra-race of the season. Torqued up my ankle pretty bad during the haunt work that didn’t seem to be responding to my customary barrage of rude insults and brash comments regarding its lily-livered condition. Even broke down and had it forcibly unjammed by my Chiro, plus cut my taper short to give the weak-ass, dirty bilge rat of a joint several days of rest (link here). With all the extra attention. it was STILL tender race morning. I’ll do my regular race recap later, but in summary, about the only two things that went right the entire day was I got up on time and I willed myself across the finish line. Everything in between pretty much the proverbial shit show. Dispensed with the nag and went full blown crush on the bad ankle at mile TWO (slid off a rock under the leaves in the dark), stomach issues prevented me mid-race food, stung by ground PO’d Hornets on 3 of my 5 loops, unexpected heat and switched to just plain water for loops 4 and 5 because the stomach refused any fluids with flavor – exception was the lifesaving ginger ale at the aid stations preventing me from hurling. Oh, and with the ankle destroyed, didn’t dare take the shoe off. No dry sock changes led to massive blisters on feet for last two loops. Not the best outing and certainly not the worst, but all things considered, one of the hardest finisher buckles I’ve ever earned – and I’m damn proud! Wife and friends have chosen the less glorious word “crazy”..which, ironically, brings me to today’s post. While I do my best to even stand, Brad is going to take you out to one of my favorite places to bird in Henderson, NV.

Take it away Brad… (note, responses will likely be delayed as he and Jan are still out on assignment in faraway lands).

During a return trip to Las Vegas to catch Death Valley, Jan and I had a list of birding assignments from Intrigued HQ.  Originally, we had planned a full day at each, but we lost most of a day to a flat tire on our rental car trying to pick up an unplanned birding location.  (See A New Low link here.)  Suffice it to say that we now had one less day and had to consolidate destinations within the remaining days of our vacation. 

One day we had to split between two destinations.  In the morning, we went to Clark County Wetlands Park.  After literally running through Clark County Wetlands, we headed to the Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve (HBVP) just before noon.  Based on our experience, try to get there early because they close at 2:00 pm.  You will want to reverse these two destinations if you must see them the same day like we did.  We were also informed that they lock the parking lot gates promptly at 2:00 pm when they leave, capturing you and your car inside.  We did get the local number to call in case we lost track of time and found ourselves captives.

With the over 40 different species of birds we saw on this trip, I thought I would give you a slow pitch today.  This should be an easy guess on today’s subject.

Canada Goose found at Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve by Brad Marks

Hit the jump to knock this easy pitch out of the park.

Continue reading Crazy on You…by Brad Marks

Meep Meep…by Brad Marks

Hello folks. As the Twain saying goes, “rumors of my demise are greatly exaggerated” (I know that was embellished by Paine, but I prefer this version ha). During these last two weeks I’ve joked that I was close to knocking on that heavenly door as we toiled away preparing for the annual Haunted Trail. The stress is off now as the event was held Friday and Saturday night. Still awaiting testimonials, but from the positive feedback we heard over the course of the two nights, I’d say we had a pretty successful haunt. What I can commit to without question is I’m officially exhausted from the stress, work and woeful lack of sleep it took to wrangle the chaos into shape before the guests started arriving. We owe a big thanks to everyone who jumped in to help including family (Ron/Derek), friends (including Brad/Jan) and pretty much all the Intrigued staff (except the lawyer dept that are still upset I took away their “butt copier”). Tomorrow back on the training program for the fast approaching ultra-race – now officially 7 pounds lighter). Struggling to keep my eyes open writing this intro, so I’m going to reacquaint myself with my pillow and let Brad take you on another adventure in one of our favorite cities.

Take it away Brad.. (oh, and big thanks to Brad for keeping Intrigued HQ running smoothly while I was out battling demons and clowns in the woods).

During one of our compressed mornings in Las Vegas, we had tough choices to make.  Brian had assigned me three bird locations to visit.  However, during day one of the trip, we lost over half a day trying to get a flat tire fixed.  (See A New Low – link here)  While scheming in the hotel room the night before, Jan and I decided to visit two big locations in the same day.  Crazy, I know.  What can you do?  We had already planned many activities for after birding hours.  Early one morning, we headed to Clark County Wetlands on the edge of Las Vegas. 

As Jan and I were wandering through the Wetlands, we kept seeing opened Acme wooden crates everywhere.  Even though Merlin couldn’t pick it up, I thought I could hear a “meep meep” sound followed quickly by little clouds of dust.  Finally, as we were heading to one of the small ponds, we spotted this bird in the shadows, next to little anvil-shaped holes in the dust.

Greater Roadrunner by Brad Marks

Hit the jump to read more about a certain Coyote’s nemesis!

Continue reading Meep Meep…by Brad Marks

A New Low…by Brad Marks

I had to press pause on the haunt work as Linda and I are on a quick run out to Colorado for the Teacup Dog Agility Association Petit Prix (aka Nationals). Originally we opted to pass on this show being so close to our party, but they really wanted Linda to photograph the event and made an offer she could not refuse. I was able to bring some stuff along to work on while out there, but there will be more sleepless nights as soon as we make it back home. While we head up to the mile high city, Brad is going to take us in the opposite direction – as in waaay waaay down. Note, Brad and Jan are also currently out in the field. I shudder to think what kind of chaos has besieged the unsupervised Intrigued HQ.

Take it away Brad…

We at Intrigued will go to the highest heights to bring you stories about wildlife.  You may remember Ravenpalooza (here) brought to you from an altitude of 14,115 feet above sea level.  This time though, we’ve hit a new low at Intrigued . . . 282 feet below sea level to be exact.  For those keeping score at home, this is the lowest point in North America.

Wait, I know Intrigued has had undersea stories featured before.  Are you telling me someone went 282 below the sea? 

Nope, but we were 282 feet below sea level.  Jan and I were standing on mostly dry land.  Think about it for a few seconds.   As Brian consistently tells me, “No photo, didn’t happen.”  We brought proof.

Badwater Basin by Brad Marks

Hit the jump to go….well, to go below ha!

Continue reading A New Low…by Brad Marks

Cha Cha Slide…by Brad Marks

Welcome to September everyone! By now everyone knows what I am up to all day and all night so no need to belabor that point beyond apologizing more for being out of pocket for a good portion of this month. The good news is Brad and Jan have made it back safely from their latest excursion with SD cards full of future Intrigued fodder. I suspect it will take them some time to parse and process all the finds from that recent adventure (they have a ways to go before closing in on my 3 year backlog level…ha), but he has several accounts from outings earlier in the year that we will be featuring this month. To start things off, let’s go with some field work we did together.

Take it away Brad…

It was time for the 2nd Annual Intrigued Corporate Warbler Watch and Walk in the Woods.  Actually, that sounds like a good thing to start officially, with a bit of rebranding:  Intrigued (or International) Warbler Watch & Walk in the Woods, or the IW4.  Intrigued HQ started it here first, go spread the word!  I think that might be a great T-shirt idea paired with our corporate logo.  We must get the Intrigued marketing department to work on that right away.  (XXL Tall in Tec for me please.) 

I met Brian at Intrigued HQ to start our day.  When I arrived at HQ, Brian had already been chasing a Tennessee Warbler around the estate.  Being new to this bird, I asked what color it was (guessing a shade of yellow) so I could look for motion.  Brian replied, “It’s olive-colored with some yellow on it.”  Great!  Just like every single leaf in the woods at that point.  We could certainly hear two of them communicating.  I think one was saying, “Watch this, I can get those guys to look over here.”  And the other would reply, “Good one, now it’s my turn.  Watch their heads snap around the other direction.”  After spending time being laughed at by the Tennessee Warbler (they can trash talk, must have learned it from Raven and Ruger), we decided to expand our warbler search to nearby Jubilee State Park grounds.  Luckily, the park is only a few minutes from HQ and makes for great “Work from Woods” days.

Brian led us down a new trail, well, new to Intrigued outings at least.  However, a new trail always has the risk of an unseen root reaching up to grab you.  A couple of hundred feet into the trail, even I could make out warbler calls throughout the woods without using Merlin, though it is good for a memory aid to have bird songs and calls recorded with the timestamp to help sort photos later.

After a brief hike and photographing warblers for about 90 minutes (do you know how spastic they can be?), we decided to head to a new spot to see what we could see.  Cresting a small hill, Brian noticed the trail back to the parking lot was mostly mud near the creek.  The whole area had just had inches of rain a few days prior.  What good are hiking boots if they aren’t muddy?  We continued. 

In the middle of the squishiest part of the trail, Brian said to stop and pointed to a small tree.  I followed his outstretched arm to find a small yellow dot flitting about the twigs in a tree. 

Prothonotary Warbler by Brad Marks

Hit the jump to find out what caught our attention!

Continue reading Cha Cha Slide…by Brad Marks

A Little Off the Top…by Brad Marks

And here we are, the first day of August. The entire Intrigued staff are very aware today is the official start of Haunt Stress Season. Our annual Haunted Trail event (link here) is now less than two months away and simply based on the number of half-done projects scattered about the headquarters, there is going to be a lot of sleepless nights between now and event opening. I am going to hop on the Mothership and get a couple of pending race recap posts out that I don’t want on the top of the list while trying to finish up the new props (one of the posts is going to be painful enough all by itself). While I lighten the top of my queue, Brad is going to bring you a new field find from South Carolina.

Take it away Brad…

During a typical Illinois winter, Jan and I like to escape the weather for a week or so in February.  Last year we went to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina (not very far from North Carolina).  This year we visited Hilton Head Island on the other end of South Carolina, right next to Georgia.  After a long morning at Sea Pines Forest Preserve, we wanted to see birds at the seashore.  One of the Top Ten lists for birders in the area suggested Fish Haul Beach, so that’s where we headed. 

As we left the parking lot and walked through the dunes, I could see what looked like a bunch of ants way out at the edge of the water.  Being a typical landlubber, I had completely forgotten about the tides.  When it’s high tide, no problem, there’s a narrow beach and no tidal flat to walk on.  But at only a few minutes before a very low tide, the flats are a couple hundred yards deep (beach to waterline) depending on location.

Black Skimmers by Brad Marks

Tide’s out.  Let’s go see what’s out there.

Naturally, I began to stroll in that direction.  Jan started strolling as well, but in a completely different direction on the tidal flat, there was so much area to cover!  There’s always that little bit of a funky smell when the tide is all the way out.  The sand was wet but very firm and easy to walk on; much easier than the really dry powdery sand above the high tide line.  These little clear tubes were sticking up all over the place.  They sort of looked like a forest of plastic drinking straws.  Remember grade school milk cartons and those little plastic straws?  That’s just what they looked like, but a bit shorter.  I tried to be careful not to step on them, but quickly realized that was a losing proposition, and trod as carefully as I could through the forest of inch-long (25mm for the rest of the world) clear tubes.  I still don’t know what was hiding under the sand, maybe there’s a future story when I find out.

A lady was scraping mussels (or clams or oysters) off a rocky pile as I passed by.  She didn’t even look up; they must be very used to tourists with large cameras strolling by at low tide.  The mussels (or whatever they were) must have been particularly good that day.

As I got closer to the ants, I could see they were actually medium-sized black and white birds with a bit of orange/red highlight color.  From that distance I still couldn’t tell which end was which.  Before I could get close enough for a decent identification photo, the bunch of them took flight.  My shoulders fell when I thought I missed my chance at a +1 bird.

Black Skimmers by Brad Marks

Hit the jump and maybe they will fly back!

Continue reading A Little Off the Top…by Brad Marks

Hard to Swallow…by Brad Marks

Howdy folks! Somehow we have managed to fly through July already. Part of that fly-by was thanks to a pretty busy month here at Intrigued. Intrigued’s 4th celebration, Brad and Jan out in the field and there were several running events packed in there; Jan’s St. Jude run, my failure at Cry My a River and as of last Saturday, our 20th consecutive running of the Bix7 up in the Quad Cities. Admittedly, wasn’t so sure how the Bix would go based on my previous performance in the heat and Bix is traditionally an oven of a race being deep in July. Fortunately, temps stayed Midwestern mild in mid to high 80s for the actual race and all went well, very well actually (temps did go back up to normal post race). A great way to wrap up my road race career, it is all trails from this point on! While I get a bit of recovery in, Brad is going to bring us an adventure from another steamy location.

Take it away Brad…

Jan and I have the Annual Parks Pass, allowing us unfettered access to all of the nation’s national parks, forests, monuments, etc.  We’ve purchased one each year since we retired and have more than paid for the pass with savings on park entrance fees several times over.  When we had the opportunity to visit another National Park, we jumped at the chance to pile on the savings.  If you don’t have your Annual Parks Pass by now . . . well . . . you know who you are.

The desert around Las Vegas is just that; a desert.  We shook it up a bit by visiting the largest reservoir in the US, or even in North America:  Lake Mead.  For those keeping score at home, Lake Powell has more surface area, but Lake Mead holds more water.  Both are suffering from extended drought conditions and increased demand for water.  Kids don’t let the water keep running when you brush your teeth.  After leaving the visitor center, we headed towards the Wetland Trail in Lake Mead National Recreation Area. 

A few minutes into our hike along a ridge, I spotted something flitting in and out of a hole in the side of a cliff.  A swallow was my first thought, but being 50-75 yards away, all I got was a small brown smudge on the sensor near the middle of the photo

Northern Rough-Winged Swallow by Brad Marks

Look closely and you’ll see the tiny image of the bird near a hole where the rock changes from gravelly aggregate to red-striated sandstone.  Did you see it?  Good.

This wetland trail area looks a bit like a capital letter “X”.  The parking lot is near the top with the trail running along a ridge down the middle of the top half of the X.  The marshy area is down the left leg of the X.  The right side of the X was completely dry, even when it met the other side near the middle of the X.  The trail along the peak of the ridge was mostly loose gravel.  Several signs stated that this trail was not maintained and to hike at our own risk.  The top part of the trail was OK.   But as we neared the junction of the X and began the descent, I was very aware I was carrying a 9 lb. camera because the swinging weight was affecting my footing.  Jan must have had a harder time of it.  I imagined I was hiking on a non-stick surface covered in loose marbles.  We descended the loose gravel switchbacks to the bottom of the wash ending up by the running water (left side of the X).   Jan headed upstream along the marshy area and I wandered downstream a bit.  At the bottom of the trail the right side of the X connected with our ravine then branched off again.  This other ravine was probably the one I had seen from above early on.

As I wandered into the other ravine (right side of the X near the center), I saw a branch sticking out of dried mud.  I think it was the remains of a tree that had been washed down the ravine during the biblical rains from Hurricane Hilary the prior summer. This was the same storm system that left standing water in Badwater Basin at Death Valley (future story).

A little brown smudge landed on the end of the branch.  Naturally, I started clicking away.  The smudge was still a bit far for a good photo, so I walked slowly until the bird began to fill the frame. 

Northern Rough-Winged Swallow by Brad Marks

Hit the jump to find out what that smudge was…

Continue reading Hard to Swallow…by Brad Marks