Tag: Texas Gulf Coast 2022

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”

Continue reading Green Legs and Hamming

How Bizarre, How Bizarre

I would first like to welcome everyone to August…or as I like to say “holy crap we are now less than two months from our annual Haunted Trail Event” (link here). Being behind is standard operating procedure when it comes to the haunt side of Intrigued, but thanks to my little mishap I am doubly under the gun. The good news is I saw the therapist today and I’ve apparently made impressive progress in getting the swelling out and my flexibility has jumped considerably. At Linda’s insistence, the race last Saturday and my return to the scene of the crime for an 8 mile trail run last night were both confessed. His response…”I had no doubt after our first session”. We are going to get along just fine (Linda rolls eyes). With that said, today’s therapy work did push my limits and now replicating Caine’s branding scene with a giant bag of ice (link here). Grasshopper no like putting ice on elbow. With the inevitable hand numbing, thought this would be a perfect time to go with a post I’ve been saving for just such a time – heavy on pictures, lighter on words.

Oh, almost forgot! We wanted to wish Jan (Brad’s wife) well on her St. Jude run that launched today. Her team is running from Memphis, TN to Peoria. IL to help raise money for that great organization. Last I heard she had finished her first leg and her next one comes before the sun comes up tomorrow morning – and you think I am the crazy runner ha. Watch out for those evil trees.

American White Pelican found at Goose Island State Park, Rockport Texas, January 2022

Hit the jump to “see” more about what has this Pelican’s tongue so to speak!

Continue reading How Bizarre, How Bizarre

Freebird

Howdy folks! My apologies, it has been a while since hearing from me. Been a bit of a struggle with my injury and the therapy exercises are pretty much wiping me out after the 4th session of the day. The thought of then trying to type with one hand turns into a frustration bridge too far. The good news is every day is an improvement and more of a check of my expectations than a criticism of the healing progress. Linda can confirm, I’m hard to handle when not getting my miles in – fortunately, I have been able to walk ~7 miles a day so that is burning some of the crazies off. A heaping dose of gratitude to Brad for holding down the Intrigued complex while I’m trying to get better. Figured we would give him a rest from having to deal with not only posting, but also keeping those pesky lawyers in line – like trying to get mercury back in the bottle. Note, did anyone else use to have quicksilver races on the school bus when they were kids? We use to put drops in the channels in the tread between the seats and bet on which one would make it to the back first – it was a different time for sure ha. I digress, how about we get to today’s feathered feature of the day.

Tricolored Heron found at South Padre Island Bird Viewing and Nature Center January 2022

Hit the jump to read more about this glamorous Heron.

Continue reading Freebird

Wet, Still and Feisty

Howdy folks. I have good news. Brad has checked in and thanks to a harrowing escape from a very agitated splinter tribe of the Baka, he’ll be returning to home base soon yeah! Best of all, he has digital cards full of future post fodder sure to entertain our readers. I’ll have to wait to hear the full office report out – dodging poison darts sounds like some serious popcorn munching stories. Linda and I are heading out into the field ourselves. Just a week stint for us, although I contend it feels a lot longer with limited amounts of sleep in Sin City. Expecting a big boost to my current Average Year count (link here) currently sitting at a respectable 210 thanks to two recent visitors to our feeders. Just to set the schedule, this will be the last post of the month from me in order to give me a chance to respond to comments etc. before we jet out. Brad will then take the helm to close out what is left of February and the first post or two in March.

With the admin work out of the way, how about we get to today’s featured feathered friend.

Green Heron found at South Padre Island Bird Viewing and Nature Center in January 2022

Completely opposite the sun soaked issues I had to deal with in the previous Cattle Egret post, today’s series is more of a literal drenching. Rather than having to battle the exposure gods to keep from blowing out the brilliant whites of that Egret, I found myself trying to suck in all the light I could to pull this Green Heron out of darkness. Rain had just passed, the sky was still thick with overcast and the waters around the South Padre Island Bird Viewing and Nature Center (and now Alligator Sanctuary) had taken on a dreary tone.

Hit the jump to see a few more pictures of our rain soaked shore hunter.

Continue reading Wet, Still and Feisty

Rails and Tails

Hello everyone! Trying to get ahead of the posting curve as it looks like we might be heading back out for an extended period of time in the proverbial field. If plans work out it will be later this month – cautiously trying to not jinx us as we had some very difficult times trying to get to places towards the end of last year. Unexpected family situations and a bout with Covid threw those plans right into the dumpster. More on that as we electric slide closer to those dates. In the meantime I have some topics in my queue and there are several in Brad’s queue I want to get to before then. He will be traveling as well, so doing my best to get everything timed out correctly. To keep things rolling, here’s a series I took back in January 2022 (essentially yesterday for those of us here at Intrigued ha).

Coyote found at Galveston Island State Park, TX in January 2022

As you can hopefully make out from this distant shot, today’s feature has fur instead of feathers. Hit the jump to learn more about this rather big eared creature that showed up while I was hunting for Clapper Rails.

Continue reading Rails and Tails

Tweety Bird

Howdy everyone! Big thanks to Brad for his latest contribution to the wild side. Apparently those Crabbies can be devious – you bad Crabbie, very very very bad Crabbie! (my end of year bonus also includes Seinfeld references, not just Monty Python .. cha-ching link here). The plan was to get both my race recaps done while Brad held down the fort – lazy Bri only finished one, but it was a biggie. If you need some material to help you get to sleep the long and dry recap of the bittersweet 100K ultra attempt is now posted (link here). Should get the other race done by the end of the week. With all the hoopla around the acquisition of a certain “blue bird” company, thought it would be a perfect time to bring out today’s featured feathered friend.

Social Flycatcher found at University of Texas Rio Grande Valley in January 2022

Let me guess, you thought it was going to be a “blue” bird – well, maybe at least some bluish hue to it. Nope! Our bird is colorful, but no blue. So, why is this such a perfect time to feature this particular bird … could it be Elon’s favorite bird..hit the jump and I’ll explain everything.

Continue reading Tweety Bird

Bat Country

Hello my wonderful readers!! It has been a while for me – at least on the wild side of Intrigued. Before I go any further, want to give a big thanks to Brad for filling in while I focused on the haunted trail and more importantly, trying to get back on my feet after last weekend’s beat down. He has really upped our game and brought us some great adventures. Based on all the positive comments, we hope to transition Brad from “lifeline status” to regular contributor. Hoping he is up for it! Just need to negotiate some of the details (hazard pay, office size, profit sharing percentages, film stipend, number of ultras required to compete in a year, access to corporate jet, bonuses for weaving “craptastic” into posts etc.).

I will likely cover the race in more detail in a future post, so I’ll just sum it up with “imagine being stapled to a chicken trying to cross an eight lane highway”. Cold, wet, beaten, bruised, blistered and at some point you eventually ask yourself why they hell am I stapled to a chicken. The results were bittersweet. I came up a mere 10 miles short of the 100K, but shaved nearly 2 hours off my 50 mile time and won my age group. Pretty bummed I didn’t hit the main goal, but when I hit 50M Linda gave me the stern “you’re done” look. Normally I’d fight her, but essential parts were bleeding/oozing and that last loop would have likely been 3 hours of intense pain. This one smarts a little as I rarely miss a goal. I owe a big thanks to the encouragement everyone extended leading up to the test!

Okay, back to why you are really here – to read Brad’s latest adventure ha! Time for me to suck it up and get back to work. Bringing you a special feature today that I’ve been saving for this very month. Give a great big welcome to my latest +1.

Bat Falcon found at Santa Ana NWR, Texas in January 2022

How cool is that!!! Eeesh, guess it is a little hard to make out. There’s a good reason for that – Ron and I were standing in near darkness at our southern border trying to get this uber-rare bird in the tin. I was trying every trick in the book, crank up the ISO, ratchet up the aperture, drive shutter speed to dangerous levels, stand on one leg, blood sacrifice to the camera gods…pretty ugly. How about a visual aid.

Bat Falcon found at Santa Ana NWR, Texas in January 2022

There, now you can at least tell it is a bird – and with a major clue to what species.

Take your best guess and hit the jump to reveal the mystery guest.

Continue reading Bat Country

Frustrating Fulvouses

Howdy everyone! Although I did get another Halloween project out on the mothership (Our updated UV Light Bombs link here), it has been a bit of time since we’ve had a real wildlife post. To remedy that, today I wanted to bring you a new lifer bird in thanks for having to sit through that rather lengthy project post(s). Some house cleaning before I get to that.

First off, I left my readers hanging on the outcome of the Bix7 race. Some details were provided in response to a few of the comments that asked how it went. As a whole it went quite well! The weather probably lands in the top 5 best conditions I’ve had for that event. End of July races in the Midwest can be brutal with the heat and humidity sucking out every bit of moisture in your body. I’ll never forget the year the course was littered with runners getting IVs in the street gutters. Somewhat cool at the start and smattering of clouds that kept a lot of the humidity in check. They did add a new layer of asphalt to the middle of the race course a year or two ago and for some reason that portion really cooks ya’. Beyond that – no performance excuses can be levied on the race conditions. My primary focus was on the tender ankle. Right before the gun went off I gave it a very stern lecture on how there would be NO whining, NO bitching and certainly NO pansy footing tolerated – there was Whitey’s popsicles at stake and nothing was going to jeopardize getting that delicious post race treat – Linda calls me a medal whore.. in reality I am more of a popsicle whore ha. To keep with tradition, I’ll put a full account of the race in a future post (on the mothership), but as a summary – ankle did just fine. Had some minor swelling afterwards, which was less than expected so complete success. Note – the next day I was moving a ridiculously heavy washer up a truck ramp and the damn thing fell on top of me pinning my injured ankle under it. That pissed me off, but I couldn’t yell at the ankle for that – that was all me and the guy I was helping getting distracted by a Squirrel. Although extremely frustrating at the time, ended up being okay and no additional damage occurred – at least not the serious kind. Ankle continues to improve and now with the ultra race coming up here in October, I’ve been hitting the trails hard and it is holding (always mind over body!).

In honor of being frustrated with the washer incident, decided this, or should I say these, would be a good feature for today.

Fulvous Whistling-Duck found at Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge, Anahuac, TX in January 2022

Hit the jump to read about why these Fulvous Ducks are equated to rampaging appliances

Continue reading Frustrating Fulvouses