Tag: Canada Goose

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

Baby Dogs in the Water, so Baby Geese on Land

Wow, has this been an event packed month and we are only halfway through it.  Just got back from the Teacup Dog Agility Association (TDAA) Nationals up in Maple Grove, Minnesota (just outside of Minneapolis).  Raven was the primary competitor, but Ruger got to run a couple of runs at the beginning of the event.  4 out of 6 qualifiers for Raven – Ruger… well let’s just say he still has a full head of puppy in him.  I’ll give more details in upcoming posts (waaaayyy behind on my July quota, that’s for sure).  On our way back we had the opportunity to get Ruger introduced to Dock Diving.  He has zero fear of anything and thought he would enjoy the sport – his brother is also getting his” feet wet” so to speak in the sport as they apparently both have a love for driving their owners crazy with their endless energy. 

This first session was just to start introducing him to deep water. His breeder introduced him to water features when he was just a few weeks old (part of his performance familiarization). This was the first time since then he had been in water beyond his groomer baths. By the end of the session he was getting much more comfortable with his swimming skills and would leave the dock to get his favorite ball and come back. Everyone was shocked when he put his head completely underwater to go after his ball – apparently that is an extremely good sign! Needless to say we will be signing up for more sessions and finally getting out and filling the 6’x10′ pool we bought him last fall. We can’t wait until he takes his first leap off that dock!!

Being that we just got home from the week long trip, I had to pull today’s featured feathered friend off the wayback queue.

Canada Goose at Chain O' Lakes State Park, Spring Grove IL in June 2017

Hit the jump to see more graceful swimmers.

Continue reading Baby Dogs in the Water, so Baby Geese on Land

Happy Belated Mother’s Day

I am all kinds of late on this particular post.  I was going to put it out Saturday and then got distracted and then planned to squeeze it in Sunday.  When those days passed I figured yesterday at the latest.  Clearly this Mother Goose is not pleased with my priorities.

Canada Geese found at Emiquon National Wildlife Refuge in May 2017

So, without further delay, Happy belated Mother’s day to my mother and all the other mothers out there that are tasked with raising us and preparing us to take on whatever the world decides to throw at us.  From the path of gosling to adulthood, they are either there physically to help guide us or at least in spirit as we continue to build off whatever lessons we were able to put in the memory banks.

Canada Geese found at Emiquon National Wildlife Refuge in May 2017

Hit the jump for more gosling fun.

Continue reading Happy Belated Mother’s Day

Shrooms and Goslings in the Concrete Jungle

Every year I forget how much work it takes to keep the ol’ homestead up.  During the winter months I get a bit of a break as the tasks related to the woods are somewhat suspended beyond dealing with unexpected downed trees overpowered by the additional weight of snow and ice.  That all changes when spring starts to push its weight around.  Lucked out today as the clouds decided to pelt us with water balloons.  To the blogosphere!

Canada Goose and Goslings found in University of Illinois campus in April 2018

I tried my hardest to find some chickens or something equivalent in recognition of my Alma Mater choking away its number one seed in the NCAA Tournament, but no luck.  Crap, just realized I could have used an American Coot being that I always refer to them as water chickens.  Already have the Canada Goose worked up for today’s post so let’s stick with that.

Canada Goose and Goslings found in University of Illinois campus in April 2018

Hit the jump if you are curious about where today’s featured feathered friend happens to be sitting.

Continue reading Shrooms and Goslings in the Concrete Jungle

A Family Goodbye

Hello from isolation state! Looks like my broke state of Illinois is heading for another lockdown starting this Friday. One day after my planned official goodbye to my “corporate” family. Due to the pandemic precautions, we have been required to work at home since March and it looks like that requirement will remain in effect until at least April of next year. I would not be surprised if that gets extended. Truthfully, my IT organization has limited impacts to remote working as we are typically engaged in projects that span to all parts of our enterprise covering all parts of the world. I’ve had the pleasure/inconvenience (pick your viewpoint) of conversing with team members in Asia/India at 10pm, then working with our European members the next morning followed by our North/South American colleagues throughout the day. It has been a wonderful career allowing me to engage with some of the brightest minds across the globe, be introduced to new viewpoints and certainly learn to broaden my own perspectives as a result. The work deliverables I think will be easy to let go – I’ve mentioned before that working on high profile projects (some in the multi-billion dollar range) can take its toll. What I will definitely miss are the relationships. Some I have enjoyed for the entirety of my 31+ years and many others developed over that continuum. I remember the retirement gatherings I used to attend during my early career days listening to the guest of honor refer to his coworkers as family and thinking that was odd. Now I know exactly what they meant and I know exactly how they felt as they said their goodbyes. All the pressures I’ve encountered during my years at work are probably going to pale to how much stress there will be tomorrow trying to keep my composure in front of a computer camera. A virtual goodbye probably has a reduced emotion compared to directly shaking the hand and thanking them for all the advice, all the mentoring and for being an invaluable sounding board that directly lead to my successes. Hoping one day I can take the time to do that once this pandemic crap is past us although clearly it will be more difficult say goodbye in person to my international colleagues. Many of them would travel to the US for our architecture summits I coordinated so we could at least meet face to face once a year – and that, of course, was canceled in this my farewell year.

We will see how this goes tomorrow, but all this talk of family led to today’s featured topic.

Canada Goose and Goslings found at Kaufman Lake in Champaign, IL in April 2018

Although clearly on a different level, it seemed appropriate to bring you a series on a bird family. Now, I have brought you pictures of little goslings before (link here), but they are just so damn cute I can’t stop taking pictures of them. I am not a good judge of age when it comes to birds – not like they come with birth certificates or anything of the such. What I can tell is relative age groupings from the early chicks/goslings seen here, to the more juvi state as they start taking on more of their adult feathering and then finally adulthood.

Canada Goose and Goslings found at Kaufman Lake in Champaign, IL in April 2018

Hit the jump to read more about our family of Canada Geese.

Continue reading A Family Goodbye

Baby Crap Factories

And we are back once again.  Figured I’d make the best of it as I sit her nursing a pretty banged up left leg.  Not entirely sure what is going on, either my karma got screwed up somehow, just a series of unfortunate events, something is wrong with my running cadence or I’m going blind.  Any of those are in play at the moment pending further study.  A week ago I took a “snowboard” fall on the trail.  For those that haven’t had the pleasure of learning how to snowboard, front edge falls are both instantaneous and brutal.  Clipped my foot on a root that was hiding in the weeds alongside the trail.  You learn quickly that you get your ass off the ground and keep running before your body has a chance to have second thoughts.  6 miles further and a night of rest resulted in a softball size bruise on my shin.  Flash forward to this morning at the farthest extent of a 13 mile trail run where my left foot clipped a rock strategically positioned to maximize pain.  That left blood on the trail and a rather intriguing 6 miles back to the car.  2 minutes before that I was in fluffy trail dust, but nooooo, can’t go down there, I have to pick the section covered in sharp rocks.  Now sitting here speculating how long the gashes will take to heal and what new colors of the rainbow will be added to my already banged up leg.   Bright side, my ribs seem to have survived the impacts, so we’ll be back on the trails before the week is up.

While I mend, let’s feature some Goose play.

Canada Goose found at Chain O' Lakes State Park, Spring Grove IL in April 2017

I saw these two while doing a little birding at Chain O’ Lakes back in April 2017.  Guessing there was not a lot of targets in the area as I tend to take a few shots of these Geese and continue on.  There is no shortage of Canada Geese in the area.  Just did a quick check of their region and if the range maps are correct, these distinctive Geese or abundant in North America as a whole.  They do come up short in the Central America region, very odd gap in eastern California and what looks like just east of the Rockies in Canada.  Probably got wind of the mass exodus out of California, but unaware of the no-go zone in Canada.

Canada Goose found at Chain O' Lakes State Park, Spring Grove IL in April 2017

Hit the jump to see what these two were up to.

Continue reading Baby Crap Factories

Hostile Waters

I’ve had this set of pictures processed and ready to go for some time now. They were actually taken at Emiquon National Wildlife Refuge back in March 2015. If you are new to the blog you might be saying to yourself “Good lord that was like more than a year ago!” Contrast that with the long time reader who expressed equal excitement that “this was like yesterday compared to most of the posts here!” It’s all about perspective and that happens to be the theme for today’s post.

For the uninformed birders out there, you might look at this royal looking species and think about how regal its behavior must be as it paddles around the calm waters of the Emiquon preserve.
Mute Swan and Canada Goose at Emiquon National Wildlife Refuge - April 2015

Maybe it gives the classic royal wave as it spots spectators along the shoreline exercising their index motor skills as they press on their expensive cameras.  Splendid in white with a stoic stature that reinforces those lofty expectations.  One might guess these Mute Swans are gracious to their fellow watermates , maybe even hanging out directly with the commoners to enhance the self worth of those not born into such privilege.

Mute Swan and Canada Goose at Emiquon National Wildlife Refuge - April 2015

I referred to those that might hold this opinion as the uniformed.  Hit the jump to find out “the rest of the story”

Continue reading Hostile Waters

Goslings Lounging

Looks like our wonderful 67 degree weather day is going to transition to rain pretty soon.  Good thing I got my run in earlier.  if you recall, I’m in the midst of a Project Austin and today marked the first time on the road since three visits to Accelerated Performance.  Today was all about working on the list of things I need to change in my running form (and that list is long).  The good news is the tweaks resulted in very little pain in the hamstring – definitely a plus since that area usually flairs up during every run.  Maybe those torture deep tissue messages are going to pay off or it is simply terrified that if it makes its presence known it will get the hell gouged out of it again.  With the good news is a little bit of bad news.  Apparently these changes are engaging a different set of muscles that have been neglected due to the injury compensating.  At about mile 4 started feeling the effects and ended up backing down to only 5.5 miles today.  This wasn’t meant to be a quick journey so not concerned yet – real test will be next week to see how quick those neglected muscles are going to take before they kick in.  For now it’s just all about the rest.

Speaking of resting, that is the theme of today’s post.  Apparently my last post scared some of our readers (okay, some being ONE but she has some power over me).  Who wouldn’t want to curl up next to a badger? all fluffy for comfort and you know, NO ONE will mess with you if you are sleeping next to a BADGER (especially a Honey Badger because those are just bad-ass).  Instead I get a plea for a more pleasant looking animals.  Sigh, figured I get kudos for bringing something new and intriguing but instead I get a fear response – not unlike when your lovely wife finds a mouse in the car.  Fortunately, the badger wasn’t the only wildlife we captured that day.  Rifling through the shoot I decided on something more cute and plushy but added some contrast to it by taking it in an icky setting.

This isn’t the first time we’ve featured Canada Goose goslings here at LifeIntrigued (link here) but this is probably the nastiest setting I’ve bothered taking them in.  We had just arrived at the park and was caught off guard by the crowd of visitors.  Generally there is not problem parking in the close lots, but that day we were parked way out on a back road.  On our trek to the entrance these goslings caught my eye – yes, I did say goslingS!

Hit the jump to read more about these cuties

Continue reading Goslings Lounging

Go Downtown and Have a Rat Gnaw that Thing Off Your Face

I hardy hello to all my readers out there!  It’s a new month and time to get going on my posts wouldn’t ya say?  I was planning to get some pre-work done on a future post today while at our dog’s Agility Trial.  Unfortunately, that didn’t happen because I ended up taking pictures all day instead.  The good news is I already had another bird set ready to go.  Actually multiple water fowl earned the post spot today.  I’m going to start with one that apparently got the short straw when it came to appearance draws.  I’m talking about the American White Pelican.

I  spotted this one contently paddling along a small river while on our Yellowstone trip.  The growth on his beak signifies this is a breeding male.  Luckily the chicks apparently dig this blemish and is used in their courtship (no, I don’t want to know how) as well as ritualized combat.  While looking through the lens at this guy, all I could think of was one of my favorite scenes from Uncle Buck when John Candy (rest in peace) lit into the grade school teacher because his niece was characterized as a sillyheart.  Maybe he meant a MUSKRAT (dundun dun dun… blog teaser…).

I was actually disappointed I did not get to see him fish.  At a later time on that trip, I came upon a couple of them out in a marshy lake.

Apparently this is their preferred setting.  It is actually a pretty nice picture with the deep color in the trees contrasted against the bright white of the pelicans.  I had to shrink it down significantly which resulted in losing some of its visual.  Let me bring it in a little for you.

As you can tell (even with the zoom fuzz residuals) that it is another breeding male with likely his trophy wife.  Once again I was unable to witness any fishing activity which sounds pretty interesting.  In one of the descriptions in the bird guide, they described the technique.  They work in groups to herd prey into shallow water or they ease into a school of feeding fish gulping ones that stray close to the surface.  This description did not align with the settings I took these shots based on the most I found together was TWO.

Hit the jump to see two more birds being featured today, the Goldeneye and the Canadian Goose

Continue reading Go Downtown and Have a Rat Gnaw that Thing Off Your Face