Tag: Jan Marks

Finally Blue…by Brad Marks

Greetings from the tundra – well, the Illinois tundra that is. We got a good 7 inches of snow yesterday on top of around 4 inches earlier in the week. My driveway looks like a classic West Point defensive position now being outlined by a 3 foot hardened ridge. The worst however is the temps came screaming down, bottoming out around -7F early this morning – windchills in the -24F range. If there was any hesitation to head south, that has been completely discarded. First a few more events to take care of. We had my families Christmas gathering just before this latest storm hit, Intrigued has their party coming up (lord help us ha), we have Linda’s family’s Christmas, then our Christmas and some final appointments to get out of the way first – one being hopefully the final release from my ankle surgeon (Bri needs to run). While I tend to all the logistics involved with those gatherings, I am going to have Brad take the helm and bring you another one of his adventures out east. Take care everyone, stay warm and may your hearts be merry this Christmas season.

Take it away Brad…

Being almost, but not quite, new to birding, I tend to trust the names of the birds to be descriptive.  The more Jan and I go out capturing our feathered friends on “film”, the more I learn the names may or may not describe the bird at all.  Or the characteristic described can only be seen when the bird has met its demise and is splayed out on a display board somewhere.

One of our first encounters with wading birds was in South Carolina a few years ago, we took photos of everything.  It was the first time I came within 19 photos of filling up a very large memory card (at least that’s what the counter on my camera told me) successfully squeezing over 3,700 images onto the card that day.  Downloading the photos later took quite a bit of time, as did recharging the camera batteries.  Jan and I were shooting from about 8 am until 4:30pm.  We weren’t shooting nonstop, but we did take nearly 7,500 photos from a single day’s outing spread across three cards.  This was way before Jan got her 200-500mm lens and was stuck using my 70-200mm with a 1.4x TC attached.  I was still using a monopod, which helped hold up the 200-500mm on my gripped D300; it does get heavy after a while. 

Sorting and categorizing the photos once we were home was a marathon event.  I ended up doing the sorting twice because I was only casually identifying the birds that looked different from the ones in the next set of images.  That’s when I learned that many of the juvenile versions look completely different from the adults.  Their names also do NOT help in the slightest in identifying juveniles.  Rookie mistake on my part.

This year, Jan and I finally saw an adult version of today’s bird that does indeed look like its name.

The day started out rather chilly in spite of being in what I would call the Nearly Deep South in February.  We had begun to traverse Laurel Hill Wildlife Drive at Savannah National Wildlife Refuge on the state line between South Carolina and Georgia.  Technically, we were standing in South Carolina by a couple hundred yards.  A winter wind was blowing that day, so we didn’t start out spending much time outside the car.  Near a small wind break Jan spotted something moving near the reeds at the edge the marsh. 

Little Blue Heron found by Brad and Jan Marks at Savannah National Wildlife Refuge, South Carolina

Hit the jump to see more of this “little boy blue”.

Continue reading Finally Blue…by Brad Marks

The Best Camera…by Brad Marks

Well, I honestly thought things would slow down after the Halloween weekend – you’d think I would learn. Still working hard each day to de-battery all the props, break them down and get them stowed back away in the tubs/boxes. Fortunately, I did really well on those grade school spacial relationship tests. School counselor, “Have you considered a career at Mayflower?“. Some of my time is being siphoned off thanks to having to build new shelving in the outbuilding – apparently I went a bit overboard (Linda says “a bit” is a gross understatement) acquiring new props while I was sequestered in the guest bedroom due to the ankle surgery – Ted over at TJPhoto (link here) even warned me about that. Add in trying to get Ruger qualified for the CPE agility nationals, therapy and all the homestead chores I delayed due to the haunted trail event and …well, a perfect time to feature another of Brad’s adventures. Take care everyone, I should be caught up…umm, relatively caught…up…ehhh, somewhat caught up..ah hell, I think I need to go back to work so I can get all that free time back I used to have ha!

Take it away Brad!….

Jan and I were on a trip to see a few of the National Parks near the West Coast.  If you haven’t been to see the flora and fauna of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, you really need to.  My mind is still reeling over the scale, on both ends, of what we saw.  Tiny brightly colored birds flitting amongst ginormous Sequoias over 250 feet tall.  I think Warbler Neck could just as easily be renamed Sequoia Neck.

While we were there, it would have been a shame not to see the Pacific Ocean since it was only a few miles from where we were staying near Anaheim.  I mean after all, it’s the Pacific Ocean!  It covers nearly 1/3 (over 30%) of the surface of the entire Earth.  An actual and verifiable fact.

On our last day in California, Jan and I took a side trip to Newport Beach to see the ocean.  As we got closer and closer to the beach, I noticed the price for parking kept rising and rising.  Finally, a spot opened up that only cost a pittance by West Coast standards (the equivalent of two café lattes and a bran muffin) to park before 10am.  Our thought was to leave the big cameras in the car and simply walk along the beach for a few minutes, just to enjoy the sand and the ocean.

After crossing 50 yards of flat sand, Jan and I came to the ocean’s edge.  I felt bad for the few people sitting on their surfboards just a few yards offshore waiting for a wave; the ocean was flat calm.  I’ve seen larger waves in mill ponds.  Jan and I had not expected to take any photos of shore birds on our five-minute beach stop, so we left the big cameras in the car.

Marbled Godwit found by Brad Marks

Here at Intrigued, we call that foreshadowing…

Continue reading The Best Camera…by Brad Marks

Sea Parrots…by Brad Marks

We did it! I am proud to say the Haunted Trail of Fears 2025 is officially in the books. All that is left is to haul it all back out of the woods, let it dry and then pack it away until next September. It is practically impossible to add up the number of effort hours this event requires as it extends well over 10 months when you add in all the project planning, prop building, assembly and tear down. Add in all the incredible help we get (including my brother Ron who spends weekend after weekend down here leading up to the event itself). Long hours starting early in the morning and rarely ending before well into the next day. This is what we live for here at Life Intrigued’s Haunt Department so through it all we are wearing big smiles (unless absolutely too tired to make those muscles move ha). Overall, I can proudly say it was a great success. Rain did move in on us the last night, but all but two guests made it through the nearly a mile haunt completely dry (even the two who didn’t make it out of the valley until the rain started had a great time as the drizzle coming through the tree canopy upped the eeriness in the dark woods). I’ll be posting some pics and likely videos from the event in future posts. For today, Brad is going to bring you one of his adventures from the northwest while I try to give the body a badly needed rest before starting tear-down tomorrow.

Take it away Brad…(note, Brad is still on his latest assignment)

Regular Wildlife Intrigued readers may remember a birding adventure Jan and I took out into the Atlantic Ocean in unstable seas (here).  We were chasing a “must see” bird; one of those “life” birds that are usually only seen on nature shows.  You know the ones, where the producer has a huge budget and dozens of cameras and weeks and weeks of time to sit and wait for the money shot.

A year ago, we were on a 65-foot boat out in the Atlantic that was bobbing like a cork on rough seas (4-6’ waves) for almost three hours.  I had taken a double dose of Dramamine and wished I’d taken a third.  Jan was getting bounced around and bruised from the fiberglass benches we were seated on.  I couldn’t see anything because of the zero-visibility fog we were sailing through.  The sky was various shades of dark grey.  I vowed I’d never get on a boat that was less than 500 feet long ever ever ever again when it is out of sight of land.

And I haven’t, except for a quick tender trip in Hoonah, AK, but that was for only 100 yards on flat calm water.  The last ship Jan and I were on was 1,083 feet long when we sailed from Alaska to Vancouver last August.  That ship had some great nature programs on board given by The Ship Naturalist Robert Raincock (find him here or here).  He was very popular helping to point out various birds, whales, and pinnipeds (seals) as the ship cruised the Inside Passage south from Alaska.  BTW, what’s the difference between a boat and a ship you may ask?  We were told, in no uncertain terms, that ships carry boats.  Clear enough to me.

Our morning started with a slow and careful cruise into Glacier Bay National Park.  We wanted to be sure to see glaciers while we still have them; we were not disappointed (may be a future story).  Margerie Glacier is one of the few glaciers that is still advancing in North America, even though it detached from the Grand Pacific Glacier in the 1990’s.  This 21-mile long glacier is about 1.25 miles wide at the waterline and 250 feet tall.  In other words, it is roughly 7 times the length of our ship and nearly half again as tall above the water.

Tufted Puffin found by Brad and Jan Marks

Hit the jump to learn about our new +1 enjoying the Alaskan waters.

Continue reading Sea Parrots…by Brad Marks

Mistaken Identify…by Brad Marks

Things are really heating up on our Haunted Trail event. You are already aware of this, so no need to go into further detail on that – of note though, my pillow recently filed a missing person’s report on me. These are the days I regret giving up caffeine so many years ago. Fortunately for me, Brad was able to stockpile some posts to keep you entertained while we try to deal with the nasty clown infestation in the woods. Today Brad is bringing you another adventure from one of their favorite locations – Hilton Head Island. Note, Brad and Jan are back on assignment and will have limited access to respond to comments, apologies in advance for that. Suspect the Intrigued HQ is in absolute chaos with both of us gone (I’m looking at YOU legal department!). Time for me to head back into the haunt lab.

Take it away Brad….

As many of our long-time readers know, Wildlife Intrigued photographers constantly travel these United States to bring you the latest on birding, and sometimes, human behaviors.  Jan and I have had a very busy photo assignment calendar these past couple of years.  To show the extent Wildlife Intrigued will go to bring you a story, a year ago while on assignments, we saw both oceans buffering the United States.

Jan and I spent a few chilly mornings on Hilton Head Island on the Atlantic Ocean last February.  I thought South Carolina is supposed to be warmer than Illinois in February.  The afternoons all ended up being quite lovely.  However, one morning, there was ice on the fence near the ocean at sunrise.  After a brief shiver and then a short ride in our warm rental car, Jan and I ended up at a favorite place from prior visits:  Fish Haul Beach at low tide.  Time for a small sidebar to share what I learned about the names of various tides.

Marbled Godwit found by Brad and Jan Marks at Hilton Head Island

Hit the jump to learn more about this upturn billed featured feathered friend!

Continue reading Mistaken Identify…by Brad 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

Singin’ in the Sunshine…by Brad Marks

It is a big week for me. The first phase of my medical “bad boy” sentencing is up this Thursday! Fingers crossed everything looks good so I can transition into the next term consisting of a walking boot and physical therapy. I cannot wait to be at least semi-mobile again. Before the good advice comes pouring in, Linda already gave me the “treatment” yesterday at dinner. {With a stern look that would be truly forbidding to those less conditioned to it hehehe} “Now, you know what to do the next time you think you turned your ankle in a race RIGHT!?!” “Yes” I proudly responded without a moments hesitation “..not tell you about it!”. She may seem flabbergasted, exhausted, disappointed and claws out ready to pounce, but deep down inside she knows me better than that (and still agreed to marry me – crazy eh!). Honestly, I will try to be more careful – these last couple of years have been rough on the body. While I mentally prepare for what is going to be some brutal first therapy sessions, going to let Brad take you with him on another Colorado adventure. Oh, Brad’s suspicions were correct, I just finished processing almost all the tins of the 2024 birding season (over a terabyte). Just have a quick trip to Colorado to get through from last September and then I’ll be current to this year!!

Take it away Brad…

At Wildlife Intrigued, most of the photography team (OK, Brian and I) have a backlog of photos as you might expect.  Brian’s backlog is an order of magnitude greater than my backlog, though I suspect with his upcoming ankle “upgrade” he’s going to have lots of time to sort through photos.  Writing a story isn’t necessarily a linear event.  Oh sure, I could go back to the oldest photos and start from there.  However, sometimes a story just sings to me and keeps working its way through my brain until my fingers hit the keyboard.  Voila!  A story is born.  Stories are usually not published, or written, in sequential order either, meaning that back-to-back stories published on Wildlife Intrigued come from different assignments on different years.  That’s my story and I’m sticking with it.

As Jan and I neared the exit of the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Preserve (RMANWP) Wildlife Drive we began to notice the large bison fences.  In reality, I’m not sure these wire fences would stop a determined bison from going where it darn well wanted to go.  Growing up, there was a farm near us that had exotic animals on it, including a camel (one hump), an ostrich, and a very small herd of bison.  Did you know that bison are extremely agile despite their large size?  One evening, at my parent’s dining room window we heard a loud snort.  Glancing up, there was a large bison looking straight into the first story window.  The large furry face stared at us for a few seconds before something off to the side caught its attention.  The bison was off like a shot because two people on horseback were chasing after it.  We were later told the chase lasted several minutes until the bison decided it was tired and hungry.  Once the bison neared the 5-foot-tall fence marking its home, it simply leaped over the fence, in stride, back to its normal corral and began quietly munching on a big bowl of bison chow.  Problem sorted.  That’s when I learned how agile and strong these animals are.  Important safety tip from the National Park Service:  Don’t pet the fluffy cows.

Back to the previously scheduled story.

Today’s feathered friend is not new to Intrigued.  You may have seen today’s featured guest before here.  The prior story is from nearly the same location, just a few miles closer to the mountains of Colorado than I am today.

Sitting on the top wire of the bison fence was this guy, or girl, I’m not really sure.  Unless a pair is sitting side by side, the subtle color differences are not as obvious.  Males can have slightly brighter, or more vibrant, yellow coloring, some might say “lemon” colored.  The black “necklace” may also be darker or more sharply defined.  Not seeing another one nearby for comparison, I’m sticking with my original assessment. 

Western Meadowlark found by Brad Marks

Hit the jump to read more about this winged lemon with a dagger of a bill.

Continue reading Singin’ in the Sunshine…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

Pounce…by Brad Marks

As you can ascertain from this post, I survived the ankle surgery! Quite the ordeal, but Brad and I have two friends going through heart valve replacements up at Mayo right now, so comparatively minor in context. Just wanted to give a quick update as some of you had reached out. Unfortunately, once they got everything opened up, the doctor discovered the injury was worse than expected – not what you want to hear as you are clearing the fog of anesthesia. I’ll get more details during the followup. From Linda’s understanding, in addition to the multitude of expected repairs, the tendon was torn severely beyond initial assessment and strongly suggested those extra 48 miles in the race …..were not helpful (I’ll spare you Linda’s commentary, there might be delicate ears looking over your shoulder). Been some rough nights so far, but Linda is taking great care of me and Brad and Jan are keeping good tabs on me. Won’t keep you any longer as I know you would rather get to another adventure from Brad. Oh, apparently there were some comedians in the operating room as Linda found this when we got home…admittedly, I do laugh out loud every time I see it!!

Take it away Brad…

It’s not very often that Wildlife Intrigued photographers are at risk from their subject matter.  Not often, but it does happen.  Upon reflection, it does seem to be that Jan is the one that most often steps into harm’s way for these stories.

It was a lovely February day on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina.  By lovely, I mean clear skies and no rain.  The temps, however, were hovering just above the freezing mark.  Sea spray overnight had frozen on the fences and seagrass near our hotel on the ocean.  Jan and I decided to wait until the temperatures were at least in the 40’s before venturing outside.  Cold fingers and cold camera batteries do not make good photos.

After lunch at one of the cool breakfast/lunch restaurants on the island, we chose to drive to Jarvis Creek Park.  You may remember Jarvis Creek Park from last year’s visit.  The park includes a nice pond/lake (depending on your definition), nearly one mile of paved walking and fitness trails, clean restrooms, picnic areas, a fishing pier, and even a bike repair station.  On the other hand, before you let the children run amok in nature, it also has alligators.  We’ve only ever seen the gators close to the water in the lake, but nothing stops them from crawling up the bank to the walking path, except maybe the effort to get uphill.  (see here for gators from Jarvis Creek Park) 

But that’s not what this story is about.  This is a story about a threat not from the water, but from the sky.  Well, almost a threat in retrospect. 

Jan and I had been wandering around the lake trying to photograph some spastic flying blue streaks (tree swallows) when we paused under the pine trees near the water.  Jan was a bit further along, still trying to catch the tree swallows (future story) and I was watching a gator try to get down it’s first meal of the season.  It was rather gruesome, so no photos here.  We both paused for a second to give our memory cards a chance to catch up, when there was a minor kerfuffle from a tree near the water.

Red-Tailed Hawk by Brad and Jan Marks at Hilton Head

Hit the jump to fly to the rest of the story!

Continue reading Pounce…by Brad Marks

Sleepy Tree Penguins…by Brad Marks

I must say, I am coming off a really enjoyable weekend. Linda and I went up to one of our favorite Illinois parks to the north – Chain O’ Lakes State Park in Spring Grove. The boys had an agility competition and I was looking forward to a final outdoor fling before the shut-down. The boys did well, although they definitely felt the heat on that second day as the Midwest ovens were turned on full. Ron met me there and we got some good birding in despite the heat, adding 4 more birds to my annual count which now sits at 386+3. Just 11 more to go to reach that once thought unattainable 400 unique species plateau. Capping off the weekend, Linda and I added multiple biking excursions and a fantastic day of kayaking all while enjoying camping in the woods. All those outdoor activities also erased any doubts I might have about going through with the ankle surgery as it is pretty swollen at the moment. I want to continue enjoying those outings with Linda and add back in the long runs into the mix – the ankle fix is the path to get me there (I really appreciate all the well wishes everyone has been sending my way). While I get ready for that change, Brad is going to bring you an encounter with a species that went through its own change, albeit less invasive. In 2024, the last hyphen was officially removed from his featured feathered friend.

Take it away Brad…

It’s February at home in Illinois, which means it’s cold.  Jan and I have made an annual escape, three years running now, to someplace warmer than Illinois in February.  This year, and probably the next few, we skedaddled to Hilton Head Island.  On one of our last full days, we decided to try someplace recommended by Ted (see his site here).  After driving for about 90 minutes, only getting lost once, I finally found one of the two parking spaces near the Port Royal Cypress Wetlands.  The wetlands seem to be right in the middle of the town of Port Royal, hence the name of the wetlands.  I’m sure there are more spaces available someplace nearby, but I couldn’t easily find them.  Ted probably knows the secret parking locations. 

The cypress wetlands remind me of Hall’s Pond in Brookline, MA (here); a nice respite in the middle of humanity’s hustle and bustle.  In actuality, I’m not sure Port Royal qualifies for “hustling and bustling” as much as Brookline, MA does.

The pond, or wetland, is only a couple of acres of water surface area.  Once the car was parked, cameras made ready, and the car was locked, I walked to the end of the elevated deck above the edge of the water near the parking area.  There were so many birds and turtles on an island in the middle of the water, with a couple of alligators slowly circling, that I completely missed all of the birds napping in the trees right next to me.  Once the first was spotted, then they all started popping out of the branches.

Black-Crowned Night Heron found by Brad and Jan at Port Royal Cypress Wetlands

Hit the jump to read more about this Tree Penguin and all of its friends.

Continue reading Sleepy Tree Penguins…by Brad Marks