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Autumn is Coming, Get the Whiskey

Burrrr, someone let the fire go out around here.  Not sure what is going on with the weather as it his heading down to 44F tonight.  Granted we are a mere 3 days from the official end of summer, however, I think we deserve a longer one this year as our fun in the sun months were devoured by that bastard pandemic.  It also doesn’t help that I’ve been trying to save all of my vacation days for an end of the year blowout in a desperate attempt to salvage what’s left of this year (need to start filling that photo queue for the upcoming 2025 blogging season hehehe).  Lemons into lemonade, at least the threat of another heat stroke during the training runs is eliminated.  In honor of the cooling temps, going to stick with the winter shoot from the last post.

Black-Capped Chickadee found on Brimfield Lot in March 2018

Hit the jump for a couple more shots of the Black-Capped enjoying winter.

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All Hail the Crown

I think my body may need a quick recharge as tonight’s 7 mile run was a bit of a struggle.  Apparently the 16 miles I ran on Sunday and the 6 previous weekends of at least a half marathon distance has finally caught up with me.. or all the hours spent working on trails on the off days.  Regardless, Bri needs to rest tonight.  Good news for you is rest for me equates to ample time to push out a post.  Tonight’s featured friend should bring a smile to the face of fellow birder blogger HJ over at Avian 101 (https://avian101.wordpress.com/).

Northern Cardinal found on Brimfield Lot in March 2018

Catch one of HJ’s Red Galleries if you want your fill of these brilliantly colored Northern Cardinals (and, of course, be sure and catch his other gorgeous bird shots).  I do not have near the number of Cardinal shots that HJ does, but this bird has been featured several times in the past – one from the summer (link here) and one from the winter (link here).  Today’s series actually goes back to some winter shots from my backyard back in March 2018 (yes, another series from like yesterday hehe).

Hit the jump to see a couple more shots (literally) of this crowned royalty.

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Flying Rays of Sunshine

And we’re back!  Howdy everyone, hope your day is treating you well.  My day has been packed solid – 15 mile run in the morning, worked on painting the new coffin prop for the haunted trail, spent a couple of hours in the woods getting the trail ready and then went back and put another coat of paint on the coffin.  Now I’m officially maxed out and sitting here catching the season of Halloween Wars. Since I am unable to actually just sit and watch TV, figure it would be an excellent time to get one of these postie thingies out.  So, here we go with our latest featured feathered friend.

American Goldfinch found on Brimfield lot in May 2018

Last post I focused on one of my most hated birds, the Asshat Cowbird.  Trust me, it truly is a despicable bird.  I like to keep my karma balanced, so today I’ve chosen a bird that I happen to have great fondness for.  This little yellow beauty is an American Goldfinch.  If you happen to be from the contiguous States, then you are probably already familiar with this Finch as they are abundant throughout.

American Goldfinch found on Brimfield lot in May 2018

Hit the jump to read a bit more about our ray of sunshine.

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Asshats

Greetings all!  Hope you enjoyed the deviation from all the usual feathers in the last post.  Always good to feature something other than birds to give everyone a break.  Although I have been getting some feedback requesting I stay away from the Snake topics.  Which means, of course, there will be slither posts coming sometime in the not too distant future hehehe.  I think it best we all try to face our fears or there’s little chance to get comfortable with them.  I can state for a fact that standing on rafters three stories up while building our house definitely helped quell some of my height fears. Been a dreary week around here with all the rain (needed for sure), but there is a lot of woods work to do before the upcoming Halloween event.  I can’t afford to be sitting around here staring out the windows.  Figured it would be a good time to feature this.

Brown-Headed Cowbird found on Brimfield IL Lot in May 2018

Oh, before I forget.  With the time crunch from the Halloween work and some key deliverables due on aggressive timelines at my day job, I’ll probably get these posts out shorter than usual – content and timewise.  Everything should be back to normal in October and I can finally take a break and relax a bit – been a long year so far and just need to get over this last hurdle.  Now back to this jerk of a bird.

Brown-Headed Cowbird found on Brimfield IL Lot in May 2018

Hit the jump to read more about this lowlife bird.

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A Case of Mistaken Identity

Things are looking up around here for a change.  Our tax evading governor had to put his tail between his legs and rescind his latest emergency order that tried making criminals of any business owner that had the audacity to defy his proclamations.  This thanks to thousands of angry responses and 6 democrat IL state congressmen on the JCAR that couldn’t even stomach the backlash and dropped their support.  You are in a bad place if even democrat politicians think you are a douche in this state.  Now with that little bit of Corvid-19 news off my chest, let’s talk about this pretty girl.

Northern Bobwhite found on in Brimfield IL in September 2017

Ain’t she a beauty!?!  Well, maybe not compared to the Texas finds with their colorful array of rainbow colors, but she has a feel of patrician with her finally matched color palette and classy headdress.  I still remember with great detail on the day she came to visit me way back in September 2017.  Yes, this is coming to you from the “lost but now found” collection.   Oh, for the record, I am pretty sure I have enough images processed off my image queue to take me into at least 2025 at my current post production rate – so lemonade out of the virus lemons.  Linda I were driving home from an extended trip in our RV when at the entrance to our driveway our featured feathered friend poked her head out of the tall grass at the side of the road.

Northern Bobwhite found on in Brimfield IL in September 2017

Hit the jump to read a bit more about this “surprise” visitor.

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Fresh Hairy

Well, we just made our way back up to Minnesota for Linda’s three month Mayo follow up on her heart surgery.  Just need to make sure her upgrades are working as intended.  Unfortunately, looks like we will need to blow out of here as soon as possible as this place is planning to get 5-10 inches of the fluffy stuff  mixed with strong winds – starting just an hour or so after her last appointment.  Being Midwest natives, snow generally doesn’t get us too anxious – it’s the people that are not used to bad condition driving that breeds the concern.  On our way up we came upon an ominous scene as they were loading a body into the coroner’s vehicle on the side of the road.  According to the local Davenport news, the driver lost control exiting the highway – and that was on dry pavement.  No need to get too worried about things in the future – live in the now I say – and by now I mean showing off my latest +1 on the ol’ bird list.

Hairy Woodpecker found on lot in Brimfield 11/15/201

If you spend any time at all at Intrigued you are fully aware that although I may live in the now in the real world, I actually live years in the past in the cyber world.  Not sure exactly when I lost control of my photography queue, but it is a constant reminder that pressing the little shutter button on the camera is the easy part.  Getting captures moved to long term storage, flipping through the haul to figure out which ones are actually worthy of touching up, toiling away in the digital darkroom, getting the images uploaded and then ….well, then the most fulfilling part, adding words and showing them off to the world.  (Note, Ron used to make fun of me for being so far behind .. until he starting wildlife blogging and is now in the exact same boat hehehe).  Then there are times like today’s featured bird that are fresh out of the tin from an encounter a mere 10 days ago.  Yes, that was days and not years.

Hairy Woodpecker found on lot in Brimfield 11/15/201

Hit the jump to learn more about this surprise encounter.

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