Daily Archives: October 29, 2017

Oct292017

Heavy Medal

Halloween is nearly upon us!  If the day itself isn’t scary enough, the fact that it is officially the last day of the month sends shivers down my back as I have to check my quota for the month – 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 … whoa.  It appears I am down a post and my fears are realized.  Normally this would be more of an issue, but to be honest, I already had the topic and the related images worked up. Just needed to put some letters together and punch my ticket to the next month.

With the close of the month, thought it was fitting to feature the close of the 2017 race season.

WhiskeyDaddle Race 5K and Half Marathon Oct 7th, 2017 Peoria IL

The WhiskeyDaddle was held the weekend of October 7th in downtown Peoria, IL.  Technically this was a new race for me and the inaugural running for this event.  In actuality, this was more of a rebranding of an existing race than an entirely new one.  I had run the previous October PNC Marathon races a couple of times opting for the half distances each time.  The race coordinators (Shazam Racing) decided to transition this race to the WhiskeyDaddle to give a local flavor to the event. If you did not know, Peoria played a large part in the prohibition years in relation to the local Whiskey distillery.  The race now has a Whiskey theme to it and they changed the course up a bit.  Now you start in a different location and end on the river front instead of the civic center.  I like to think I had something to do with that having completed several surveys encouraging them to move the finish line to a new location – absolutely no reason to waste the money to end there – the seats were mainly empty and it felt like a morgue. In addition to making the slight course change, they also added a pre-race 5K similar to the Illini Marathon.  Compete in both and you get a third medal.  If you know me, you know there was no way I was going to pass up the opportunity to get THREE medals.

WhiskeyDaddle Race 5K and Half Marathon Oct 7th, 2017 Peoria IL

Hit the jump to learn how this race turns out.

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Oct292017

Different but the Same

As of last night, my busy October is now officially over.  Most of that was taken up with our own Haunted Trail efforts which consumes my mornings and nights and everything in between and a number of races to close out the official run season.  That gives way to some additional Halloween parties where we get to enjoy the Halloween labors from our friends.  Two of those closed up this weekend leaving my calendar fairly free beyond a garage full of decorations that need to put away for next year (some of them are still drying out from the multiple days of rain they had to endure before finally getting them all pulled out of the woods).  The last critical task for the month is to complete my blog quota and then we’re ready for whatever November has to offer.

Since we talked about the Yellow-Rumped Warbler in my last post figured it made sense to provide an immediate contrast with the other sub-species of this colorful bird.

Yellow-Rumped Warbler - Myrtle shot on Wisconsin trip April 2014

As mentioned previously, there are two main classifications of the Yellow-Rumped.  The one we covered in the last post was the Audubon variety as noted by their full yellow throat.  The other variety is the Myrtle which you are viewing here.  Yes, it has the yellow shoulder patches and the yellow crown in similarity with the Audubon version.  And it pretty much goes without saying that it too sports the yellow patch on the rump.  This wasn’t very easy to tell in the previous Audubon series, so let’s correct that now.

Yellow-Rumped Warbler - Myrtle shot on Wisconsin trip April 2014

Hit the jump to see and read a bit more about this sun painted Warbler.

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Oct292017

The Same but Different

Greetings to my readers!  A week ago I was standing out in my woods surrounded by a multitude of Halloween decorations.  My non-wildlife blog will get an in depth look at that event, but I mainly point this out as a comparative perspective.  See, I was standing out in my woods surrounded by creations of the dead IN MY T-SHIRT.  October 21st and it was perfect out even in the dead of night.  The week before a rainy, chilly, windy mess of a day.  Now fast forward a week to today. Once again, standing in the woods surrounded by a multitude of Halloween decorations. This time in someone else’s haunted trail and more pertinent to the lead in –  IN 2 SHIRTS, 2 COATS and GLOVES.  Talk about one hell of a temperature swing for out here in the Midwest.  Think it was even trying to flurry a bit towards the middle of the day.  Other than a training run tomorrow, think I’ll just stay in and get caught up on my blog quota for the rapidly closing end of the month.

As a lead in, let’s take a look at a very colorful bird.

OOO

That there is a Yellow-Rumped Warbler.  This pretty specimen was shot while on a trip out to the Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado back in May 2014.  Technically it was an add on from a trip to the Denver area for the Teacup Dog Agility Nationals.  Linda bribed me with a trip through the park in order to convince me to head out there.  I’ve have now tried two times to get the White-tailed Ptarmigan up on the Tundra trail – both coming up empty.  Making the best of it, I did get some other specimens in the park, which included the one you are seeing here.  Note, I intend to continue going back there until I get that bird checked off my list!

KK

Hit the jump to see and read a bit more about this colorful Warbler!

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