Tag: Killdeer

Baby Kill’ers

Welcome to the third entry in the “Baby Month” theme! Hopefully the title didn’t scare anyone off as it can be construed differently if the specifically placed apostrophe is interpreted incorrectly. If you made it to this point, you are good to go, no fear, there are adorables on the way … in just a bit. First the traditional banter to bring you up on the world of Intrigued.

The ankle is progressing, a bit slower than I expected/wanted, but as long we are getting closer to being back on the ultra circuit, I’ll stick with the program. I was actually released from the brace during yesterday’s therapy session. It was mainly being used as additional stability during the more intense exercises, but all the work during the sessions and more importantly, the religious commitment to the home workouts (minimally 3 times a day), it is ready to go solo! Still trying to be smart about it, keeping mindful on uneven ground and watching like a hawk for any crazy old ladies at the grocery story so they don’t ram me with their carts – it’s a thing folks, so much that it was one of the first things the surgeon warned me about after surgery…and you thought the only grey hair danger was on the road ha. Told my therapist that all the work on their basketball court (side shifts, braid walking, ladder hopscotch and lateral ladder steps, etc.) are bringing back a flood of memories from my grade school basketball practices – thank god no suicides or flutter kicking yet ‘cuz that crap sucked hehehe.

No on to the topic that soothes the heart – wildlife babies!

Killdeer Chicks found at Sweetwater Wetlands Park in Gainesville, FL in April 2023

If you like those adorable fuzzy bird fledglings, hit the jump for an extra helping.

Continue reading Baby Kill’ers

Killdeer…by Brad Marks

Sitting here killing time one keystroke after another. Now in the midst of the annual “digital clean-up” process and it is mind numbing. Part of this is making the final push to cross the finish line of the PC migration marathon. Some of it is due to massive procrastination last year (okay, maybe last TWO years) and need to get the birding folders/spreadsheets/trackers etc. updated. Then there is the standard annual rollover resets of the blog post backups and general archiving that needs to be done to keep my OCD from raging out of control (and NOBODY wants that). I’ve said it once, I’ll say it again, I need to go back to the corporate grind in order to get all my free time back! The good news is I think my North American Bird List folder (link here) is updated. That is my running gallery for the best shots of every bird on the list in case a client wants a specific species or if I want to author something someday. Even updated the left navbar with the latest count – 421 species! While I slash through minutes like Scooby through snacks, going to turn it over to Brad to bring you a North Carolina “killing” of a different sorts.

Take it away Brad…

There’s something about being warm during the winter months.  Jan and I live in the middle of Illinois, so February is usually a heavy flannel month.  Jan suggested we head southeast for a week to escape a bit of winter (really didn’t need much arm twisting).  We also wanted to see what we could see in a new part of the country for us.

Jan and I spent a week at Myrtle Beach, SC last winter.  During one of our “free” days on the trip (they are all “free” when you are retired) we headed to North Carolina since it was just up the road a piece from where we were staying.  The locals all said to go to a preserve a mile or two across the state line.  Our GPS was a bit confused for a while, taking us down unpaved roads to an empty lot at the edge of the water.  This can’t be right.  We stopped in a parking lot for a few minutes and picked a spot (on an actual map) that might actually get us to the coast, without having to stop to ask for directions.  Our new destination was Sunset Beach. 

After driving across the long and tall causeway bridge, we arrived in a small community of summer cottages on a narrow spit of land just a bit offshore in the Atlantic called Sunset Beach.  I’m not saying it was a ghost town, but there were very few cars around, and even fewer moving about.  Once I found the parking lot near the beach, I readied the cameras.  Before I closed the hatch on my car, there was some movement in the sparse foliage behind me.

Killdeer by Brad Marks

Hit the jump to read more about Brad (and Jan’s) adventure.

Continue reading Killdeer…by Brad Marks

Is That Double Stuf?

Well, the latest exploration is nearing completion.  Time to turn the RV northward and begin the return leg.  Like a good Oreo, our trips tend to be a bit crunchy on the ends, but sweet and delicious in the middle.  This year the special ingredient was our first fallout resulting in a Warbler extravaganza.  Before you get too excited about the future posts, be patient. On a normal outing I can be a bit heavy on the shudder – after this trip I will likely need months of therapy to simply uncurl my index finger.  Not to mention I haven’t even scratched the surface from the January trip.  Getting way ahead of myself – focus Bri, focus!

Killdeer found at Emiquon National Wildlife Refuge in April 2017

As we are officially over the hump, I can dive back into the older captures.  Tonight’s featured feathered friend comes to us from Havana.  Ummm, before you start having a flashback to a bad Patrick Swayze sequel, that’s Havana, ILLINOIS.  A rather nondescript small rural town that happens to sit near Emiquon National Wildlife Refuge – the jewel of the Midwest when it comes to birding.

Killdeer found at Emiquon National Wildlife Refuge in April 2017

Hit the jump if you have a sweet tooth.

Continue reading Is That Double Stuf?

A View to a Kill

So last post was a bit on the dark side.  Not sure what talk of a dirty deed done dirt cheap gets you on the parental controls scale for the web, but we here at LifeIntrigued have little regard for censorship. Be damned Mr. Rogers, bring on the dancing horses.  Actually I better be careful or they might not let me in the collegiate campus safe zone Oh No Mr. Bill.  (Note, I was trying to get Mr. Salty and Mr. Hand worked into the same paragraph but I got nuthun”.

Hell, let’s focus on another Killer!

JJ

What you see here is a stone cold devil spawn of a bird.  Murderer of many, savior to none.  Just look at those eyes, burning death, piercing stare, a witness to the bloody pools of ruin left in the wake of destruction and pillage that is sure to accompany any encounter.

JJ

“You talking about me? You talking about ME… then who the hell else are you talking”.  Lighten up Francis (or Bickle).  To be honest, it is quite possible this particular bird just got roped with a bad name.  It could be a sweet sweet bird that opens doors for little old ladies and helps the blind to see.

Hit the jump to see a few more shots of the Killdeer.

Continue reading A View to a Kill

Project Chekov: Kingbird and Killdeer

Today’s featured bird was a bit of a surprise to me.  Linda and I were up in Baraboo, Wisconsin checking out the International Crane Institute and decided to tear ourselves away from the Cranes and take a little walk out on their trails.  Birders will never pass up the opportunity to check out the locals.  We quickly came to a marshy field with an abundance of cattails.  There were a few Red-Winged Blackbirds meandering about on the edges of the treeline, but not a whole lot of activity in the field itself.  At the time I thought this was a little strange thinking this would be a great spot to hang out if I had wings.  About that time I noticed what looked like a dark spot in the middle of the marsh.  Time to bring out The Beast.

Sure enough, it was a bird!  Without a lot of other options I decided to make the best of the situation.  This meant hand-holding an 8 pound glass on a bird that didn’t even fill up one focus point.  The fact that you can actually tell it was a bird is a miracle in itself.   I had to bring the subject in a little closer in the digital darkroom.

While processing the pictures it began to dawn on me this little excursion into the field may have yielded a new check on the ol’ birding list.  To the reference books!  Well, after going through a number of different options I landed on an Eastern Kingbird which .. wait for it… is indeed a new bird – yeah! (assuming it was classified correctly – feel free to weigh in with comments).

Hit the jump to continue reading about this interesting bird

Continue reading Project Chekov: Kingbird and Killdeer

The Birding Answer to The Shining

And were back and keeping the theme.  Once again were highlighting the wildlife at Emiquon National Wildlife Refuge.  Today’s post was a very rare sighting that not many people have had the pleasure of witnessing at this particular wetlands.  Behold our newest entry to Life Intrigued… drum roll …

The Prairie Peacock!

This bird is highly admired for it’s adaptive quality to blend into any marsh area in the prairie wetlands.  It is not uncommon for you to walk right past them dismissing them as a large dandelion or an isolated clump of prairie grass.  I will admit that I do benefit from this unique characteristic.  Whenever someone comes over and comments about the weeds in my yard I smugly inform them that we are blessed with a local muster of prairie peacocks!

You buying this?  If so, consider yourself gullible.  In case you live a sheltered life in the city, the bird of the day is actually a Plover.  These birds are all over the place at Emiquon enjoying the shores of the flooded lowland.  Confirming our field guides, this bird is very noisy and very cautious.  They did not want me very close at all and they made haste whenever the barrel of the Beast turned their way.  Last post I mentioned that there was an upcoming bird sporting the red eye color.  Well, here it is.

This Plover’s eyes are a little brighter with a larger pupil compared to the more blood red of the American Coot.  Like the Coot, they are a perfect for photography because they tend to keep their eye on you (if they are aware of your presence) making for very nice compositions.  Generally I see them walking the shorelines on their stilt like legs.  I think the one below failed to judge an oncoming wake.  It was looking around to make sure none of the other inhabitants saw his mistake.

Hit the jump to learn more about the Emiquon inhabitant

Continue reading The Birding Answer to The Shining

Just About a Wrap on Vacation Birds

As promised previously, I’m cranking through the remaining photo shots from last year’s vacation.  This year’s vacation is closing fast and since we are headed to a state I’ve never been, the assumption is the shutters will be snapping non-stop.  I have already picked up that region’s field guide and perusing it from time to time in order to set my wildlife checklist.  Last year almost all the animals on the list were checked off, with the exception of the Wolf and Mountain Goat.  Time is short today so I better get to this set of birds.  The first image is of a Chickadee that is fairly common both around my house and apparently out there.

I mainly added this picture because I liked how the little one was tucked inside the evergreen branches.  The field guide actually claims this is a Mountain Chickadee, but to be honest it looks exactly like the ones outside my window as I type this blog.  It does say the habitat is coniferous forests.  Based on this photo, they nailed it.  Wow, as I looked out the window to verify with a chickadee on my feeder, I spotted a raccoon holding onto a branch above my feeder and paw over paw pulling up my bird feeder over the squirrel baffle.  Please hold while I deal with this evil spawn.  …….  the problem is solved.  Geesh, it’s 5:44pm in the afternoon, they are definitely getting bolder.

The next set of photos is from a small pond we stopped at because it had a ton of creatures flying out and diving under a bridge next to the road.  They were flying so fast I couldn’t really tell what they were, so I decided to get out and try to figure it out.  The first consideration of bats were thrown out pretty quick due to the coloring, which led to some type of swallow.  Although I clipped this one, it did show the coloring pattern that led to the identification.  Nothing like trying to look through the viewer and try to get one of these bullets in your field of shot.

I was in the process of putting the lens cap back on the camera and closing up shop when all of a sudden one of the swallows fell completely out of the sky and landed on the water.  Finding this odd, I ended up taking the cap back off in order to use the zoom to get a better view of the scene.  There the bird remained motionless just floating on the water for what must have been at least 3 minutes.

The assumption was it was dead for what reason remained a mystery.  Eventually the little guy stirred a bit and began to come to life.  Slowly it started to beat the wings to build up momentum to escape the water.

Likely due to the extra weight from the wet wings, it was quite a struggle before it was able to gain flight again.  This shot is actually one of my favorites as it was taken just a split second after reaching freedom.

I am hoping it is just a shadow, but the shot actually looks like it might have left some blood where it landed.  Based on the amount of birds flying around at break neck speeds, the odds are it collided with another swallow and lost consciousness for a little bit.  It looked fine as it gained altitude, but eventually I lost it in the swirling mass so best wishes.

Please hit the jump to see the rest of the set.

Continue reading Just About a Wrap on Vacation Birds