Tag: Galveston Island

A South American Visitor

Our winter migration has come to an end and we are officially back at the Intrigued Headquarters. I am still awaiting monetary gifts of appreciation from our IL based friends for dragging back some warm weather on our way back from Texas (those can be dropped off anytime at our offices!). We were definitely not expecting temps in the mid-50s only a few days after our return. Doubtful that will hold being mid-February and all, but will enjoy it while it lasts. Before we get into today’s international themed post, wanted to mention a few accolades. We here at Intrigued have entered our 19th year of operation from when we started our “mothership” blog as a place to document our experiences and the social encounters that…well…intrigued us.

18 years of WordPress

Over time we started focusing more and more on featuring the “wild” side of life and then I was asked to present at the local Audubon chapter on “Birding and Blogging” to introduce their members to a new-ish media form to get more exposure to their birding passion. This was a great opportunity to curate our love for wildlife and photography and so our sister site Wildlife Intrigued was born – the rest is history as they say…

10,000 posts on Wildlife Intrigued

…and we recently hit the 1,000 post threshold on this sister site!! A big thanks to all our contributors/editors (Linda, Brad, Jan, Allyson, Elfie and the rest of the behind the scenes staff that make the Intrigued complex run smoothly (and mainly keep us out of legal issues ha).

Thanks for indulging us in our accolades, it is time to get you to the reason you are here…BIRDS!

Yellow-Headed Caracara found on Galveston Island, TX in January 2025

Bringing you a special rarity today as thanks for making it through our intro brags. Hit the jump to learn more about this surprise encounter.

Continue reading A South American Visitor

Yellow-Crowned Night Heron

The old adage is time flies for a busy person – and I’ll simply refine that a bit and state that it’s even faster when you are doing something you enjoy. Brad and I always joke that we are busier now than we were before we were retired…noting that the real difference is we aren’t tearing our hair out trying to find those evil spirits in the machine. That isn’t to say it is all stress free down here in south Texas. Some of the local birds prefer not to be seen, much less stare down the end of a large black barrel that goes clicky clicky (at least for us that haven’t made the leap to mirrorless). I am happy to report that after my rather slow start, things have really picked up as we make our way eastward from Big Bend National Park. The count sits at 200+2 which is better at this point than our previous “Average Year” attempts (link here). Ron was even able to make it down here last weekend to get his numbers jump started – he had to go back to zero degree (F) temperatures and that white fluffy stuff, ugh. We are currently at our 4th base camp which is on South Padre Island with the Mangrove Yellow Warbler on the menu. On two unsuccessful attempts so far, but plenty of days left to remedy that. Time to get to the real reason you are here, today’s featured feathered friend.

Yellow-Crowned Night Heron found on 8 Mile Rd, Galveston, Island,TX in January 2025

Based on the shot above, you might think that this is one of those birds mentioned earlier that prefers not to be seen – hit the jump and we’ll see if that is accurate.

Continue reading Yellow-Crowned Night Heron

Rails and Tails

Hello everyone! Trying to get ahead of the posting curve as it looks like we might be heading back out for an extended period of time in the proverbial field. If plans work out it will be later this month – cautiously trying to not jinx us as we had some very difficult times trying to get to places towards the end of last year. Unexpected family situations and a bout with Covid threw those plans right into the dumpster. More on that as we electric slide closer to those dates. In the meantime I have some topics in my queue and there are several in Brad’s queue I want to get to before then. He will be traveling as well, so doing my best to get everything timed out correctly. To keep things rolling, here’s a series I took back in January 2022 (essentially yesterday for those of us here at Intrigued ha).

Coyote found at Galveston Island State Park, TX in January 2022

As you can hopefully make out from this distant shot, today’s feature has fur instead of feathers. Hit the jump to learn more about this rather big eared creature that showed up while I was hunting for Clapper Rails.

Continue reading Rails and Tails