Burrows and Brags

We have finally made it back home from our winter migration to Arizona. This was a first for us this year as we usually make our way to south Texas. Not our most memorable trip by any means as the cold decided to chase us all the way there and then quickly caught back up to us on our way back. Not sure I can blame that on Arizona, although for two years in a row Linda has caught Covid in the week heading into a planned trip out there. We have decided it cursed! Not all disappointing. Hiking the Arizona mountains was a lot of fun, new birds added to the life list, a new RV for Linda and I had the opportunity to spend my birthday in Vegas. Suspect back to Texas next winter, but we’ll possibly take another trip out to Arizona later in the year to give it a fair chance. Oh, worst part is I managed to catch some wicked crud in Las Cruces on the way back and now having to deal with that crap.

Before getting into today’s featured feathered friend, a quick self-pat on the back. January officially kicked off my 17th year of blogging here at Intrigued. 

Time has certainly flown by along with all the features we try and bring you each and every month. A big thank you to Brad and his staff (Jan and Allyson) that have shared their stories these last couple of years bringing new sights and wildlife species to the Intrigued story. Will continue to have more posts coming from that team. Extending our appreciation to the behind the scenes Intrigued staff that make this machine hum and especially to all our readers who make this effort so enjoyable. Raise your glasses to an exciting 17th year and beyond!

Okay, enough of the self-praising, let’s get to today’s featured feathered friend.

Burrowing Owl found at Anahuac NWR in January 2023

Hit the jump to read more about our yellow-eyed friend.

Continue reading Burrows and Brags

Scandal on the Water

In today’s post we are going to do some time traveling.  Trust me, I am trying to chip away at the backlog or minimally get back to a reasonable delay – getting harder to remember all the details of a given trip into the field.  Unfortunately, it seems to be a Sisyphus effort as I filter through just about all of the images previously processed and then I discover another folder from a trip I haven’t even touched yet.  Should probably join a Photographers Anonymous group – “Hello, I’m Brian and I take a LOT of pictures”.  On the bright side, an abundance of material it is a good problem to have if you are a blogger.

I did finally get the massive Haunted Halloween Trail posts up.  Those take a serious chunk of time to gather and document the walk throughs.  If you like Halloween and don’t mind your image cache being inundated, you might check out those posts.

Now let’s get to our featured feathered friend.

American Wigeon December 2016

Hit the jump to read more about our featured dabbler.

Continue reading Scandal on the Water

Scares and Calms

Apologies to my wildlife readers.  It has been a while since I’ve had the chance to feature one of our feathered friends.  It’s not that I haven’t been busy – in fact just the opposite. Decided it was time to bring you a little haunt for February – screw you mushy and smoochie Valentine’s Day, we scare aficionados are putting our zombie masks on and shuffling all over this shortened month.  Thanks to many hours (and days) later the full Haunted Trail of Tears 2019 series was released.  If you want to know how we do Halloween … wait.. how about Februween … then take a gander at the tour posts.  Warning check your fears at the door ha!

Hoping that didn’t scare your feathers up.  Maybe a therapy duck will help calm the nerves.

Mottled Duck found at South Padre Island Birding and Nature Center December 2016

There now, breathe in, breath out while staring at the purdy duck.  Immerse yourself in the warm comfort brought by the tranquil waters of the Texas Gulf Coast.  By the way, let me know if that worked to calm your nerves – I’ll pick  me up a bunch of Mottled Ducks and hit our local ICU and pay it forward for the great therapy dogs they let Linda enjoy while she was up at Mayo.  If there is any chance of convincing a hospital director to let me bring a duck into their establishment, it better be clean.  Of all the ducks I’ve come across I think the Mottled might have the best chance.   I’ve never seen one of these specimens that didn’t look like it came straight from the salon.

Mottled Duck found at South Padre Island Birding and Nature Center December 2016

Hit the jump to learn about my new business idea!

Continue reading Scares and Calms