Tag: Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge

Look, a Crested Scare-a-Scara

Probably one of the hardest elements of putting on our annual haunted trail is the aftermath. During the prep and build out I am full of energy and excitement. A whirlwind of ideas, tasks and problem solving all rolled up into a giant orange and black ball. Then the party is just pure fun..well, after dealing with all the late hour gremlins that always find a way to test my wits. On the second night, the last of the guests leave, we power down the haunt and at some point my tired body is reacquainted with the bed. A day of rest usually follows thanks to a mysterious magnetic pull embedded in the very fibers of the pillow – someone should really figure out how to harness that power! Then the post party hangover kicks in. Gone is the pre-event excitement – it is grind time as everything has to be hauled back up into the out-building for drying and then the masterclass sessions of packing and organizing. Fortunately, “grinding” is my superpower which has served me well over the years, work, ultras and the draining work of unplugging everything, disassembling the props and hauling them out of the valley. That part of the work is done now and just waiting out the drying phase (you do NOT want moisture in your storage bins). While that is happening, jumping back into the blog work with today’s featured feathered friend.

Crested Caracara found at Anahuac NWR in Anahuac, TX March 2024

Hit the jump to learn more about this interesting Falcon sporting the orange and black colors of the season.

Continue reading Look, a Crested Scare-a-Scara

The Sensor Knows

Well, as a quick update, I am still down with the Las Cruces Crud. I am telling you, this is the most craptastic and nastiest hellspawn I’ve come down with since I can remember. General rule..Bri don’t get sick. At this point now at the mercy of the doctor who basically told me to keep down, suck it up and it should pass. Tapping my watch and noting “time’s a tickin’ on my ultra training schedule” didn’t win me any of his sympathy. He gets three more days and I’m out the door ‘nuf said. The good news is I am finally getting transferred over to the new computer. Still have some clean up to do, but this is officially the first post from the new Alien. Note, disappointed I have yet to locate the “auto-generate a post button” on this watts sucker. I’ll keep looking, but at least for now, stuck with me. 

If you recall in my last post, I mentioned it was part one of two and eluded to the possibility our little yellow-eyed feathered friend might have been on the lookout for more formidable predators having easily dispensed with an intruding Sparrow. Time to reveal what led us to that conclusion. This is the first time I’ve ever used the WP image compare widget – apologies if it doesn’t work correctly on your monitors.

Hit the jump to read more about our dark encounter with another resident of Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge.

Continue reading The Sensor Knows

Burrows and Brags

We have finally made it back home from our winter migration to Arizona. This was a first for us this year as we usually make our way to south Texas. Not our most memorable trip by any means as the cold decided to chase us all the way there and then quickly caught back up to us on our way back. Not sure I can blame that on Arizona, although for two years in a row Linda has caught Covid in the week heading into a planned trip out there. We have decided it cursed! Not all disappointing. Hiking the Arizona mountains was a lot of fun, new birds added to the life list, a new RV for Linda and I had the opportunity to spend my birthday in Vegas. Suspect back to Texas next winter, but we’ll possibly take another trip out to Arizona later in the year to give it a fair chance. Oh, worst part is I managed to catch some wicked crud in Las Cruces on the way back and now having to deal with that crap.

Before getting into today’s featured feathered friend, a quick self-pat on the back. January officially kicked off my 17th year of blogging here at Intrigued. 

Time has certainly flown by along with all the features we try and bring you each and every month. A big thank you to Brad and his staff (Jan and Allyson) that have shared their stories these last couple of years bringing new sights and wildlife species to the Intrigued story. Will continue to have more posts coming from that team. Extending our appreciation to the behind the scenes Intrigued staff that make this machine hum and especially to all our readers who make this effort so enjoyable. Raise your glasses to an exciting 17th year and beyond!

Okay, enough of the self-praising, let’s get to today’s featured feathered friend.

Burrowing Owl found at Anahuac NWR in January 2023

Hit the jump to read more about our yellow-eyed friend.

Continue reading Burrows and Brags

Frustrating Fulvouses

Howdy everyone! Although I did get another Halloween project out on the mothership (Our updated UV Light Bombs link here), it has been a bit of time since we’ve had a real wildlife post. To remedy that, today I wanted to bring you a new lifer bird in thanks for having to sit through that rather lengthy project post(s). Some house cleaning before I get to that.

First off, I left my readers hanging on the outcome of the Bix7 race. Some details were provided in response to a few of the comments that asked how it went. As a whole it went quite well! The weather probably lands in the top 5 best conditions I’ve had for that event. End of July races in the Midwest can be brutal with the heat and humidity sucking out every bit of moisture in your body. I’ll never forget the year the course was littered with runners getting IVs in the street gutters. Somewhat cool at the start and smattering of clouds that kept a lot of the humidity in check. They did add a new layer of asphalt to the middle of the race course a year or two ago and for some reason that portion really cooks ya’. Beyond that – no performance excuses can be levied on the race conditions. My primary focus was on the tender ankle. Right before the gun went off I gave it a very stern lecture on how there would be NO whining, NO bitching and certainly NO pansy footing tolerated – there was Whitey’s popsicles at stake and nothing was going to jeopardize getting that delicious post race treat – Linda calls me a medal whore.. in reality I am more of a popsicle whore ha. To keep with tradition, I’ll put a full account of the race in a future post (on the mothership), but as a summary – ankle did just fine. Had some minor swelling afterwards, which was less than expected so complete success. Note – the next day I was moving a ridiculously heavy washer up a truck ramp and the damn thing fell on top of me pinning my injured ankle under it. That pissed me off, but I couldn’t yell at the ankle for that – that was all me and the guy I was helping getting distracted by a Squirrel. Although extremely frustrating at the time, ended up being okay and no additional damage occurred – at least not the serious kind. Ankle continues to improve and now with the ultra race coming up here in October, I’ve been hitting the trails hard and it is holding (always mind over body!).

In honor of being frustrated with the washer incident, decided this, or should I say these, would be a good feature for today.

Fulvous Whistling-Duck found at Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge, Anahuac, TX in January 2022

Hit the jump to read about why these Fulvous Ducks are equated to rampaging appliances

Continue reading Frustrating Fulvouses

I Got a Wedgie

So, how many readers out there thought this was going to be the month!?!  .. as in the month after years and years of successfully hitting my self-imposed 6 posts a month quota… was it finally going to come to an end.  Fear not, I shall not let me loyal readers down.  I am tremendously relieved that July is a long month as I needed just about every second to get this taken care of.  In case you are counting the Wildlife posts and coming up a bit short, a lot of my free time was spent detailing some rather elaborate props that were added to the Haunted Trail of Tears last year on the mothership blog.  If you like a good Halloween scare, feel free to check those out (links here: Westworld 2.0 Posey Line and Ned).  For the last post of the month (with little time to spare), thought I would stick with my “white” theme for July.

White Ibis found at Anahuac NWR in December 2017

Some would say I should have led with this species of the Ibis for the anniversary post.  As mentioned previously, this would not have earned me a precious +1 like the White-Faced delivered.  Admittedly, the White Ibis is a bit more charming and more fitting to the whole white wedding extravaganza.  The good news is unlike the Glossy Ibis and the White-Faced Ibis, there is no difficulty in identifying this one .. ‘cuz it’s white ha.

White Ibis found at Galveston State Park in December 2017

Hit the jump if you want to see a wedgie… sure you do!

Continue reading I Got a Wedgie

A Broken Tradition

Each year around this time, I check the image queue for the traditional Thanksgiving Day post.  Admittedly, I was a bit shocked when the queue was devoid of Wild Turkeys – a jestful reference in tribute to all the Turkeys that show up on many of our kitchen tables today.  Of course, those are mere hybrids of the wild version having been “engineered” to maximize the meat at the cost of  making them completely useless from a bird perspective.  Their wild versions are not the most adept in the flight category, but at least they can get off the ground and make it to a nearby tree if so desired – domestic Turkeys are chained to the couch with remotes in hand .  Alas, the tradition has been broken.  I will  have to put the Wild Turkey on the top of the 2020 hunt list (right below the elusive Snow Bunting), so this doesn’t happen again.  While I am at it, might even help Ron get a decent shot in the tin as his luck with these game birds ranges somewhere between “it’s in there somewhere” and “damn, them Turks have Cheetah speed to cause a blur like that”.

All hope is not lost, I did find a substitute.

Turkey Vulture, Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge, Texas Gulf Coast, December 2016

Definitely not one that poses any threat of ending up on our dinner tables, but it at least has “Turkey” in the name.  The Turkey Vulture is not new to Intrigued, having debuted all the way back in 2014 (link here) and popped up several time since then (link here).  Unlike true Turkeys, these rather ugly looking creatures can fly … well at least soar with the best of them.  No hopping from tree to tree, these strong winged Vultures will ride the thermals to dizzying heights, making it look effortless as they slowly circle the grounds below looking for victims of predators, age, illness and the most wasteful of all… humans in their deadly deuces and curly-wurlies.

Hit the jump to read a bit more about this substitute bird.

Continue reading A Broken Tradition

Hold My Beer Honey

Well, I promised a fellow blogger over at the Cedar Journal (https://thecedarjournal.com/blog/), a steady stream of bird posts in recognition of finally getting out of the pressure cooker.  Probably over promised, but contrary to the great philosopher Yoda, sometimes “Try, there is”.  Linda and I are starting to plan out the winter vacation.  It is no secret we have spent a number of previous years birding the Texas Gulf Coast and then along the Rio Grande River.  There are a number of other birding places we are considering, but hard to pass up the opportunity to get the abundance of birds down there in the tin – and Ron hasn’t ventured down there yet so any new checks allows me to claw back ground on his bird count.  All that planning got me thinking there are plenty of bird shots still to post from our previous Texas trips.

Loggerhead Shrike found at Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, Texas January 2017

Took a quick look to see what was available in the queue and found this set back from the December 2016 trek.  The Loggerhead Shrike is not a new bird to the list having been featured previously back in November 2016 (link here).  The Loggerhead has decided the entire southern region is a sufficient kill zone year round with some forays into the central north during breeding season to spread their reign of terror on even more victims.

Loggerhead Shrike found at Galveston State Park, Texas January 2017

Hit the jump if you want a pre-Halloween scare.

Continue reading Hold My Beer Honey

I Call this Workout Marshfit

Every once in a while I catch a break and it looks like this weekend fits those parameters.  As I sit here typing it is raining, as it did the day before that and the day before that and many of the days even ahead of that.  Apparently the weather gods didn’t notice our annual outdoor Halloween event had been moved a week out.  I can’t imagine what a nightmare it would have been trying to put up and take down all the decorations on the muddy trails – not even sure the ATV could have made it through the pooling water and saturated ground. The wet stuff has made it somewhat inconvenient getting the outdoor pre-work done (mowing, trimming and building the bridge), but the indoor stuff is coming along ahead of schedule… well, except for my self-imposed monthly post quota.  One more post to go after this one as the calendar page is beginning to curl up.  In honor of the marshy like feel to the trails at the moment, thought it would be appropriate to feature this distinctive Wren.

Marsh Wren found an Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge on the Texas Gulf Coast December 2017

Hit the jump to read and see a bit more about this member of the Wren family!

Continue reading I Call this Workout Marshfit

Ring Me Up the ABA

A sad day here at Intrigued.  We had to say goodbye to one of our beloved toy Poodles.  Osiris (Rizzi) lived a good long life, became a well decorated Agility Champion on Linda’s guidance and brought us tremendous joy over the years.  Linda, his brothers and I truly miss him.

The stressometer is peaking again which means it is a good time to relax and get the mind focused on something else for a bit – translated,  it is an absolutely great time to get another post out.  Today’s featured feathered friend has what I’ve always considered an improper name.

Ring-Necked Duck found an Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge, Texas Gulf Coast January 2017

Hit the jump to read about more about this badly named Duck.

Continue reading Ring Me Up the ABA

The Angel of Death

Well, yesterday was the planned 50K date.  I thought things were starting to fall into place – the ankle was healed up enough to bear the dangerous footings on the hilly trails, the rains had subsided enough to let the trails dry up a bit leading to high confidence at the start.  I will post the details on my other blog in due time, but I foretold victory or tail between my legs on a previous post.  Unfortunately, the day ended prematurely with my tail between my legs along with 4 staples in my head.  Mother Nature opted to replace the expected overcast and temps in the 80’s with an overbearing sun and heat index at 100.  Fought through 14 miles and decided to rest a bit at a water station.  Apparently should have kept going as my body revolted – stood up thinking I might get sick only to gain consciousness with people standing over me with blood covered hands – not a vision I’ll forget anytime soon.  Long story short, had a stressful ambulance ride to the ER.  Took in 5 IV bags and a set of staples from a large gash in the back of my head having hit a wooden railing following by the sharp edge of a box fan on the way down (so they tell me).  Pleaded with the doctors to allow me to go back and finish, but they had my wife on their side.  Total failure and my first DNF in 17 years of running.  Looks like another solid year of training, but I’ll be back for some unfinished business.

Enough of that embarrassment, let’s get to something much more entertaining.

Northern Harrier hunting the marshes of Galveston Texas State Park January 2017

Today, I’m bringing you the same Raptor species from two different locations along the Texas Gulf Coast back in January 2017.  The Northern Harrier is one of my favorite Raptors for a couple of reasons.  The first is they are just plain cool to watch while they are scanning the fields and marshes for prey.  Deadly aerial skills that allow them turn on a dime or virtually hang in the air leveraging wind dynamics to determine the best angle to pounce.

Northern Harrier hunting the marshes of Galveston Texas State Park January 2017

Hit the jump to see and read a bit more about this deadly predator.

Continue reading The Angel of Death