Well, I have to say it has been quite the week and one of the few times I don’t mind the time accelerating past. Now we will start transitioning into the Christmas spirit here at Intrigued HQ keeping in mind there is still an important holiday to celebrate – in direct obstinacy to the corporate merchants who want us to start celebrating red and green long before orange and black has had its day. While I continue to tend to the weakened body part(s) and we get used to a sadly much quieter home, Brad is going to bring us a new feathered friend for he and Jan.
Take it away Brad…
I think I’ve found the secret for finding those small little spastic birds; let Jan take photos while I’m doing something else. Shhh! Don’t tell her. Oops, it’s probably too late since she edits my stories before they go out.
Earlier this spring Jan and I were visiting the wildlife areas near Las Vegas. Brian has posted on this particular bird from Henderson Birding Viewing Preserve (story here). I had just gotten off the phone when Jan found me wandering one of the trails of Clark County Wetlands (here), looking for her. She said she found a little yellow bird and then asked me, “What is it?” Hard to tell from the little LCD view screen on the back of Jan’s camera.
Hit the jump to read more about this desert resident.
Well hi there! Brad has a special treat for you today and comes courtesy of a trip he and Jan took to the upper northwest of the US – as in very north, very west and definitely very upper! I had been holding on to this out of jealousy…I mean as a safety net, yeah, that’s it (almost ended that with a reference to Morgan Fairchild, but that would have dated me big time ha). With the travels coming up I wanted to make sure I had at least one story ready in case there was a gap in connectivity. Great news as we just received Brad’s latest batch of adventures, so we are absolutely good to go. Now, I may not have been kidding on the jealousy front. I do have a list of nemesis birds that haunt me daily. For some reason I either failed to get them in the tin or worse, never managed to get eyes on one. These are all affectionately called “Effin” birds. I’ve had the distinct pleasure of going after this particular Effin family over 5 times now, which have all consisted of long hikes above 10,000 feet. Have not even seen one of them for my efforts! Whenever our staff goes out in the field I tell them to bring back one of the Effins off my list. Going to cut Brad and Jan some slack as they are still relatively new around here, but when I tell them to “bring one back” I literally mean to bring a live specimen back for me!
Time for me to shed a few shades of green hue and get you to Brad’s adventure. Take it away Brad…
As Brian noted in previous posts, Jan and I survived our August photo assignment to the wilds of Alaska. This was one of those places we’ve always wanted to visit, but didn’t want to do half-way. I think our 17-day Alaska trip (land and sea) gave us a good intro to this truly wondrous and wild place. We both recommend a trip to Alaska. Go ahead and book it, I’ll let you catch up later.
Only about 2% of the state is accessible by roads. The rest must be visited by some other mode of transportation including: boat, plane, horse, dog sled, four-wheeler, SUV/Truck, tour bus, or on foot. Thankfully for Jan and I, most of the places we visited were by road, only a few were on foot. We did see and hold a very cute sled dog puppy (maybe a future post).
Thirty-five years ago, when Jan’s dad retired from a major manufacturer based in Illinois (BTW, he just celebrated the same thirty-five years of retirement and is still going strong), her parents took a 6-week driving trip to Alaska. Yes, that’s right. They chose to drive to Alaska from Illinois. As Jan’s dad is fond of telling us, “When you’ve driven from Illinois to Seattle, you are about halfway to Alaska.” (Now to be completely fair on the length of the driving trip, Jan’s dad did have to order and replace the hydraulic lifters in the car’s V-8 engine somewhere inside Alaska, but that only added 2-3 days to the whole adventure. Yes, he had tools in the trunk of the car.) We experienced similar travel times. No, not six weeks, but it did take us nearly 9 hours of flying, via fairly circuitous route, to reach Fairbanks from Illinois. Fairbanks is only about 100 miles from the Arctic Circle, or 64 degrees, 56 minutes north latitude. That means the sun sets for only a couple of hours each night during summer months, leaving us with a twilight-y sort of sky for sleeping. For those keeping score at home, I think this is a latitude record for Wildlife Intrigued.
As Jan’s parents discovered on their trip, there are many colorful people and stories along the way. One of those stories is about the town called Chicken in Alaska. The good people of the town wanted to name it after a local bird from the tundra, but no one could spell the bird’s name. They ended up calling the town “Chicken.” Stay tuned for the real bird’s name in just a bit.
If it looks like one, acts like one and easier to spell, then it must be one – hit the jump to read more about this Chicken!
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.
Did you spot today’s featured feathered friend? Hit the jump to read more about this well camouflaged discovery.
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.
Hit the jump to knock this easy pitch out of the park.
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.
Hit the jump to read more about a certain Coyote’s nemesis!
Haunts in the home stretch, weather is annoying me more than the ridiculous tiny screws on purchased props, trying to get miles in on a tired body and my head has put out an APB in search of its favorite pillow. Welcome to “hauntlife”. Last thing you want me to do is try to put sentences together, so even though Brad is out on assignment, he’s going to bring you an adventure from the exotic, untamed and dangerous realm of .. wait, did he say “subdivision”!?! Must be the sleep deprivation. Take care everyone, you are assuredly in good hands for the next week or two.
Take it away Brad…
Intrigued HQ gave Jan and I this assignment during the Fall of 2023, just after Brian’s visit to Las Vegas (here). We were just coming off a multi-day visit to Yosemite, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, with probably well north of 10,000 images already in the tin. Jan and I met Allyson in Las Vegas (isn’t that fun when your adult children choose to spend time with you, even if they have to pay for the airfare?) to spend time together and see a few shows. With so many demands on our time in just a few days, we were unable to look for today’s subject.
Fast forward to Spring 2024. Because of a flat tire on our rental car the prior day (see A New Low link here), we had to compress our extensive birding assignments (thanks to the taskmasters at Intrigued HQ) into one less day. On the day we found these little jewels, it really came down to either having a shower and getting cleaned up after nearly 10 hours outside in Las Vegas, or take a chance that we might find what we were looking for. I’m very glad we rolled the dice in favor of the birds.
I plugged in the secret coordinates into the GPS app, and we started on the adventure to find today’s birds. When the GPS app said, “You have arrived”, I thought for sure it had gone bonkers in the desert heat. Jan and I found ourselves in the middle of a subdivision. But the GPS app said we were there (and we all know they are never wrong) so I parked the car next to a long chain link fence. The fence was surrounding what looked like an empty city block. As I was prepping the cameras, a 40-something couple rode by on their bicycles. All they said was, “There are two of them out right now,” and pointed to the other end of the chain link fence as they pedaled away.
Finishing up camera assembly (Jan’s first as always), I gently closed the hatch on the rental so I wouldn’t frighten the birds, if they were, in fact, still there. Jan and I moseyed about a hundred yards along the length of the fence until we got to the far corner. Not knowing how large our quarry was, neither of us really knew how far out to be looking. Were these birds larger than the small scrub brush we were seeing? Or were they the size of a can of your favorite soft drink (soda or pop depending on where you are from)? Then I saw these two, sitting up proud as you please, not very far away.
Hit the jump to see what caught our attention on the other side of the fence.
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.
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.
Hit the jump to find out what caught our attention!
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.
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.
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
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.
Life Intrigued 