Tag: Tucson AZ

RRedbird

Apologies for being a bit out of pocket as of late. All our field staff including me are ..well..out in the field. Among them, Brad and Jan are filling up their tins abroad and Linda and I are dealing with the wet and cold weather currently ravaging south Texas. Surprisingly, the birding has been pretty impressive given the conditions. My brother Ron flew down to join in some birding for a week and just got on the plane to return to Chicago where it is snowing with a windchill of -4 – okay, I’ll stop complaining about our weather. In Ron’s short time here we were able to find him just under 150 new birds for his Average Year tally. That puts him at roughly 100 in the top 100 eBirders by species for the Texas region (note, actual positioning can fluctuate during the day based on reporting). Pretty impressive, but not to be outdone, with my extended time in Texas I am officially at 165 bird species. That puts me around 48th place for the entire Texas region. That is 52 birds ahead of last year’s pace, which you will recall, ended with a tally of 325 (see the finally updated full 2024 stats here). Shockingly, that means in the 15 days so far this year I already have 55% of the annual goal of 300. Tells you how hard it gets to find new birds as the year progresses. I do want to give a shoutout to all the wonderful birders we have met down here, including Steve and Lisa who guided us through Santa Ana NWR yesterday. Always willing to strike up a conversation and assist with any sightings. Warms my heart to know the birding community bonds continue to be strong.

I suspect there are some out there that could have predicted today’s featured feathered friend. After the last post on the Phainopepla, it just seems appropriate to go with another incredibly hard bird to spell that also has a spectacular punk-do.

Pyrrhuloxia found at Saguaro National Park outside Tucson, AZ in January 2024

Hit the jump to read more about this chunky member of the Cardinalidae family

Continue reading RRedbird

Imperio

Okay, going to say firmly and for the record to our Texas friends…we are NOT responsible for the frigid temps that have made its way down here this week. Purely coincidental that we happened to have arrived around the same time of the cold snap. We are definitely not used to layering this much in the south and Linda actually had gloves on today while visiting Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownsville. So cold the Monkeys were considering cuddling up with the Lions. Fortunately, the birding has been living up to our high expectations. Currently at 112 species fresh into the new year. I am behind my 2024 Average Year stats (link here), but did manage to get the 2025 page created and updated (link here). For the curious, I ended last year at 325 checks thanks to a late surge in December. Currently sitting 35 species ahead of that pace, but 19 behind 2023. Many birds still left to tin down here and plenty of time to get that done – sitting pretty, enjoying the pretty colors!

South Padre Island Sunset January 2025

Apologies to those back home, we feel for you suffering through the snow and temps in the teens ..no, no, we really do! (Brad, can you make sure the maintenance crew puts extra salt on our Intrigued HQ walkways).

Enough chit chat, time to get to work and present today’s featured feathered friend.

Phainopepla found at Saguaro National National Park, AZ in January 2024

Hit the jump to learn more about our “black robed” friend.

Continue reading Imperio

A Greater Setback

I suppose you could say it is a fitting time for getting things “wrapped” up. All the excitement of seeing the festive colored boxes with their pretty bows bringing joy to kids and adults. The catalyst for this heartwarming affair, a jolly big-waisted fellow that shimmies down the chimney (or alternative burglary entry point into your homestead). Unfortunately, my coal colored gift this holiday year reflects some bad actions earlier in the year. To be exact, October 12th, one of those days that now takes its rightful place among my other noteworthy “mishaps”. The ankle specialist wasn’t wearing festive clothes yesterday, but he did take the time to wrap my gift in a shiny shade of black coal…ho, ho, ho, you are the proud recipient of a non-displaced double fracture! Grinch said WHAT!?!?! Now, in my joint’s defense I need to apologize for all the hurtful comments hurled at it since race-day. It was not faking it for sympathy, a stunt that it has pulled many times in the past – nope, it was damaged and now I am the proud receiver of a black boot that will loudly proclaim I’m damaged goods to anyone we come upon during the next 6 weeks. No running, of course, no long birding hikes (we’ll see) and beach time is likely right out. My Texas trip just took a mighty blow thanks in large part to the first orthopedic surgeon I went to in early November telling me it was nothing, take two aspirin and find your own way out of the office. Lost 4 weeks of recovery time and I’ve been doing chiro visits and physical therapy that was likely making it worse – shocked that it didn’t displace as a result of all the yanking and twisting. While I try to move on to the acceptance phase, decided it was an appropriate time to feature the totem animal for all runners.

Greater Roadrunner found at Saguaro National Park West, Tucson, AZ in January 2024

Hit the jump for some looks at a bird that probably has more running shoes in its closet than I do..and that is saying a LOT.

Continue reading A Greater Setback

A Prickly Perch

We are in the heart of December and it’s busier than Santa’s workshop here at Intrigued. We have family Christmas gatherings to attend, staff performance reviews to administer, year end house/lot tasks to perform, RV prep and the most dreaded of all..packing for our migration south. We have about a week left to get all these items checked off our list. Now, the good news is we did have our Intrigued family holiday gathering and that went amazingly well – no law enforcement or ambulances needed this year which is a huge relief from the past. We probably owe that to Brad’s brilliant idea to move our performance reviews until AFTER the party hehehe. I probably was not supposed to reveal the source of that idea! In no small part to still being lamed up, I was able to chip away at my well-storied backlog of field excursions. Through a daily regiment in the digital darkroom, both the March 2023 trip through Alabama/Florida and the trip through New Mexico/Arizona/Nevada this last January are now completely processed. This provides plenty of fodder for posts while we are down south. Couple that with all the stories from Brad and Jan’s assignments, we are in very good shape to keep you entertained during the coming year. To give you just a taste of the new finds from Arizona, thought I would bring you a primary target going into that trip.

Female Gilded Flicker found at Catalina State Park in Tucson, AZ in January 2024

For those not familiar with the Sonoran Desert landscape, that impressive structure you see is a Saguaros Cactus. Hit the jump and we’ll provide a few more details about this cactus before getting to the real reason we were focused so much on this Arizona state plant.

Continue reading A Prickly Perch