Hidden Reach

Hello everyone! Going to let Brad have a small break from covering for me while I’m on the mend. Difficult enough bringing you the recent rapid fire posts, but having to deal with all the standard stuff around the headquarters is a daunting task without the added burden of keeping our unruly legal department under control – may have to up his bonus this year, but don’t tell him that. As far as an update on the surgery front, there has been a small hiccup with the transition from the surgical dressing to the surgical boot that has brought some unexpected discomfort (oddly more painful than the surgery itself). Other than that, surgeon says everything looks good. He also reiterated the “no weight for 5 more weeks” edict within earshot of Linda which threw a giant wrench in my well contrived plans – back to the drawing board. Seems like everything I want/need now is just out of reach from my crutches and scooter which is starting to annoy me – oh, except for my running shoes that are beyond just “out of reach” to the point I have no idea where the hell they are now. Linda’s devious I tell you, devious. Let’s see, pull up browser, type in H-O-K-A.com and get me some new sho…oh crap, here she comes…backspace, backspace, backspace, H-A-U-N-T.com, “Who, what, me!?! No, no, I’m, just looking for new haunted trail props” – this is going to be a long 5 weeks. Note, I did make a new haunt-to video which I’ll mention at the end in case you are interested.

While searching through the photo queue, I noticed something in one of the image sets that made me laugh in reference to my current situation. Perfect, welcome to tonight’s featured feathered friend.

Northern Flicker found at Desert NWR, Las Vegas, in January 2024

Hit the jump to see a Northern Flicker characteristic I have never seen before!

Continue reading Hidden Reach

That Shaft Be Red

First off, Happy New Year Everyone!!  I can’t believe we have officially put another year in the books.  Every time it comes to this point on the calendar I ask myself where did the year go.  Although I was able to get a lot of objectives checked off, there always seems to be that undertone of “I should have done more”.  It will soon be time to set my new resolutions – I never do it until a few weeks into the new year to give me time to ponder what my goals are really going to be.  For now, I’ll simply pat myself on the back having just completed a decade of blogging.  That’s right, today represents the start of the 11th year here on the ol’ blog.  It will be a few more days before the end of year stats are ready to post, but we’ll touch more upon that proud accomplishment when that post comes out.

For now, let’s ring in the new year with a new variety for my birding list.

Northern Flicker - Red Shafted - shot in Colorado May 2014

The Northern Flicker in itself is not a new check on my list having been featured back in March of 2016 (link here).  If you look close at the pictures in that previous post, you will notice there is black line extending in from the bill.  This represents one of the two subspecies of the Northern Flicker.  Since it is black, it is easy to identify it as the “Black-Shafted” variety.

Northern Flicker - Red Shafted - shot in Colorado May 2014

I might have just fibbed, hit the jump for a correction!

Continue reading That Shaft Be Red