Little Blue Heron – Life Intrigued

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”.

Electric Blue

UPDATE: Thanks to the keen eye and birding expertise of Ted Jennings (link here), I’ve learned something new as a result of this post. My original identification of this post’s featured feathered friend was an immature Little Blue Heron. This was based on the overall white coloring, dark legs and the two toned bill…and not seeing the markers for the other options pointed out in the original post. Ted brought up the possibility of something I had not considered, the much rarer white morph of the Reddish Egret. They have very similar markings to the immature Little Blue, but are a bit larger and more distinctly have, a “shaggy” feathering on their head and neck. That fits my specimen perfectly! Updated my post accordingly – THANK YOU TED!! It is a good day whenever I can grow my birding knowledge.

Greetings everyone! I have been a bit out of pocket since we started or migration south just before the start of the New Year. Always a hassle to get from overnight camp to the next stop and then the connectivity can be sketchy, although, admittedly I must admit, Internet access via phone or local Wi-Fi is much better than just a few years ago. Guessing a surprise benefit of the Covid years. From the trip perspective, we have been lucky enough to meet up with some friends of ours who moved out to Benson, AZ. Always good to catch up on the latest activities in person – novel idea eh? (for the record, I am NOT a Facebook user). Birding has also been good, now up 67 birds for our Average Year ’24 which includes 5 lifers so far – that means 5 more posts coming out say sometime in late 2027 hehehe. Some of us at Intrigued have an embarrassing large backlog. There has been one glaring negative to this point (and likely to carry well into next week)…IT’S COLD! I know, shocking to hear someone from the Midwest say that in January, but remember we travel south to get away from the heartland tundra. We are not ruling out that we were voodoo cursed while in New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl back in 2002. Ever since then, we have brought unseasonably cold weather to whatever destination we vacation – just ask Texas about the ice storm they had a few years back. So far we have just missed snow in New Mexico and bracing for freezing temps the next couple of nights here in Arizona ugh. It is what it is, but the birds have still been active and my brother Ron is flying down here today to add to his checklist – writing this post as we wait for his flight to arrive.

To warm up a bit, thought I would feature an encounter from last year’s human migration.

Little Blue Heron found at South Padre Bird Viewing Center in January 2023

Hit the jump to see a few more shots of this “Electric Blue”.

Cotton Balls on Stilts…by Brad Marks

Greetings everyone! Linda and finally made it back from Rochester, MN. We were up there for Linda’s annual heart checkup and I am pleased to report everything looks excellent. Linda has a bit of PTSD on these visits from all that has been through up there, but she pulled through like a champ. We even celebrated by going to our favorite restaurant, Canadian Honker – DELICIOUS. Think I have mentioned this before, but there are two things that always strike me about the Mayo campus. First is the perfect entropy that plays out in their waiting room. It happens in every medical waiting room since Covid, it’s just on a larger scale there. By entropy, I am referring to the fact patients will always pick the set of chairs that maximizes their distance from anyone else. I enjoy watching the visible thought process as the options narrow ha. The other intriguing element is everyone walking around with cotton balls on their arms. Pretty sure 95% of the patients with visits that day have to start out with a phlebotomist. Just thinking about all those pokes makes me want to faint. Luckily Brad is back with a much happier story about fluffy balls to help put my mind at ease.

Take it away Brad…

Have you ever been digging through some stuff piled on your desk or the kitchen counter and found something you thought you already took care of? Well, that’s this story. I started writing just after Jan and I were in South Carolina this past February. We were (OK, I was) overwhelmed with the embarrassment of riches of birds to photograph and write about. I think I mentioned in an earlier story that we took well north of 11,000 photos over the course of three days. Our primary reason for being in the area was not birding or photography. We had really been trying to leave snowy February in Illinois behind for a week. We also wanted to visit a State Park or two to be out in Nature without a parka. It just so happened that the birding was rather spectacular, “forcing” us to fill up memory cards along the way. I guess that’s what two backup SSD drives are for.

At first, I treated every white wading bird the same as I was trying to identify them. I learned that some white wading birds are supposed to be blue, not white. I also learned that all of the medium-sized white wading birds aren’t all the same bird. I guess you need to pay attention to their feet, legs, and bills to know for sure.

Hit the jump to learn more about the “fluffy factor”!

GAWWS (Great! Another White Wading Shorebird) or Déjà Vu All Over Again…by Brad Marks

We are now in the pressure zone, a mere two weeks before the big haunt and my days are starting to feel like back to back ultras. The good news is we are making progress – a lot of that thanks to my brother Ron spending multiple days down here helping me out. Probably have maybe 3 or 4 days max to wrap up the new props before clearing the trails and starting the mind-numbing battery installation phase. Last year required well over 300 AAs, 50 AAAs, 120 9vs and a myriad of other formats – with all the new props those numbers are going to jump significantly. Note, things would go a LOT faster if the younger generation(s) would stop sucking on batteries causing that #$%@#%@#$# little screw to be on all the battery compartment lids. Fortunately in all this chaos, I have been able to get in a little birding…

You might have noticed I am back to using my injured elbow…how about we just keep that to ourselves for now, first rule of Fight Club – “Don’t talk about the elbow”. While I toil away, Brad is stepping in to once again throw me a lifeline with one of his birding adventures. He is currently out in the field on assignment, so responses will be dependent on his connectivity – if we are lucky he will stumble upon some forgotten jungle tribes with Internet access points and let us know how it is going. Well, “I Bis” be getting back to the haunt work.

Take it away Brad…

I think I’m finally beginning to understand why Brian has such a backlog of bird stories. When he and Linda travel south during the winter, he racks up 200+ birds per “vacation.” Jan and I encountered 56 on our trip to Huntington Beach State Park in South Carolina last February. As I was reviewing photos for other stories, I noticed this unassuming bird in the background of many of the photos. I started writing this story just after our trip. I guess it was on my keyboard too long because in the meantime, Brian published a story on this exact same bird (link here). Well, not the precise bird, but a bird of the same species. So, what to do, what to do . . . Should I scrap it or continue writing about the same bird, but with a different perspective and habitat? After a week or so I chose to continue the story.

I have to admit that initially, I was going for the herons and egrets. But our featured bird today is no less exciting than those are. Granted, its name is grander than the lighting in these photos allows. Jan and I found these wading birds very early in the day, less than an hour after sun-up.

Hit the jump to read more about our pink legged friend.

Green Legs and Hamming

Well, we are well into September and it is turning out to be as expected…BUSY. Thankfully Brad has come to my rescue with his recent adventures. He is now getting ready to go back out into the field and I wanted to give him some time to gear up… and…wait for it… wait for it…allow him time to properly celebrate his 1 year anniversary with Intrigued. Was shocked it has been that long until going back and reviewing all his posts since that debut… if I count correctly he has let us ride shotgun on 31 adventures! Normally we would have a small celebration with cake and alcohol, but since the infamous “sparkler incident” our kitchen has been under renovation and our baker is still bandaged up tighter than a mummy on our haunted trail. In lieu of that, let’s all give Brad (and his crew Jan and Allyson) a big round of applause. Best of all, he has plenty more in the queue to keep us entertained going forward.

While the celebration continues, I thought I’d work on a post while the paint dries on my two new 8 foot (yes, foot!) spiders – we grow ’em big out here in the Midwest country. Can’t wait to show everyone how those turn out. Looked into my queue and found today’s featured feathered friend.

Little Blue Heron found at Galveston Island State Park in January 2022

Hit the jump to “Say hello to my little friend”

Blue Imposter…by Brad Marks

Welcome to June everyone! Admittedly I am a bit behind – things are… hmmm… let’s go with “normal” for Intrigued… translated… running around like headless chickens trying to get everything that needs to be done between the runs. I naively thought there would be an abundance of time after I retired, nope! This month is especially demanding as it is the last month of hard training before the first ultra of the season scheduled for the first week of July (link here). Heat conditioning, hydration/nutrition validation and worst of all, 20+ mile brutal hill runs … my body can’t wait until taper. While I ice to keep the black and blue bruising out of my legs, will turn the post duties over to Brad to tell us about a different kind of blue.

…take it away Brad!

It’s not really an imposter, but the name for this nearly white bird doesn’t seem to fit very well. A little while ago I wrote about the great blue heron (link here). This one is about a smaller heron cousin: the little blue heron (Egretta caerulea), another +1. This is a juvenile version of the little blue heron. No, not a middle-school type of juvenile making fart jokes. I’m talking about the juvenile variety that doesn’t have its adult plumage yet. Contrary to what the name implies, the only thing blue on this little heron at this point is the end of its bill. For now. Its feathers will turn darker blue in its second year and look similar to a smaller version of the great blue heron. The only coloring kept from childhood into adulthood is the bill and greenish legs. The white feathers are replaced by a purple-maroon colored neck and a dark slate-blue-colored body. Until their darker adult plumage grows in, they are very easy to spot in their surroundings.

Hit the jump to read more about this incognito wader.

Comedy on the Boardwalk

Greetings everyone!! As a tremendous surprise to myself, I’ve once again managed to survive the most stressful part of the year. The regulars here are well aware that my year pretty much revolves around one event, a celebration dedicated to my favorite holiday – yep, the night of the Great Pumpkin. Around here, we do it slightly different as we celebrate at the beginning of October and instead of one night, this year we opted for not one, not two, but three nights of epic spookiness. In an effort to keep our guests as safe as possible, we extended the days to keep the numbers down each night, removed the food element to eliminate congestion points and set up the trail in a manner to maximize social distancing. Another Halloween Haunted Trail is officially in the books! All that is left is to finish putting away the items for next year and the all important rest to recoup the strain on the body. Decided I would do a little resting first.

Little Blue Heron found at South Padre Island, Texas in January 2017

Going back to the Texas Gulf Coast for today’s featured feathered friend. South Padre Island is one of our favorite winter destinations and looking forward to being able to spend some extra time down there towards the end of the year. I need to hit the books and figure out what the target bird is going to be this year – early favorite is on the Groove-Billed Ani. That bird has been tops on the list for the last three trips and each time came away with an empty tin. The Chihuahuan Raven is mighty tempting as well and let’s not forget about the Mangrove Yellow Warbler… wait, did he say Mangrove Warbler… thought we already had tha…..shhhhhhh…. we promised to wait until Ron starts posting on the He Who Owes Me Bigly event.

Little Blue Heron found at South Padre Island, Texas in January 2017

Hit the jump to see a few more pictures of their local comedian.

Continue reading Comedy on the Boardwalk

Trifecta Scores One

Welcome back everyone! Hope everyone had a good holiday and didn’t go too far overboard on eating. Always a tough holiday for me since I have a bad habit of doing the math on what it will take to work off every dessert that I opt to enjoy. You gotta splurge every once in a while otherwise all those workout sessions start being …well w o r k rather than an opportunity to enjoy some sweetness. Been a busy holiday for me so decided to take a quick break and rest the legs – fingers were itching to do something, so brought up the WordPress dashboard and away we go.

Today’s post doesn’t feature one bird… not even two birds, rather THREE birds. A true birding trifecta. Let’s start with this pretty Heron.

Heron shot near Galveston, TX in November 2013

That my friends is a Tricolored Heron. It was shot while on our Texas birding trip back in November 2013. In fact, all three birds in this post were taken on that particular trip. My apologies, but I cannot remember the exact location this one was taken at. Maybe Linda can remember and let us know in the comments. I do recall that there were a number of small channels that were being used by kayaks – possibly a state park. Likely somewhere near Galveston.
Heron shot near Galveston, TX in November 2013

Hit the jump to read more about this bird as well as two other large waders.

Continue reading Trifecta Scores One

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