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Nuts!

Wow, I feel like a true slacker.  Something like the 15th of the month and I have not cranked out a single post yet.  Normally I would feel worse than I currently do when in this situation, but the calendar has been full to the brim as of late.  Getting close to Halloween (ask my wife, any day of the year is close to Halloween to me), so working hard on new animations for the Trail of Tears, grass up to my knees in our back lot and a big race coming up in a mere two days.  At least the last of the taper runs are done for that race – pretty darn hot out there as of late making those a total sweatfest.  Still shame on me for once again getting behind on my posts.  Maybe I need a swift kick in the nuts I mean pants to get me going!?!

Speaking of Nuts (hey, these lead ins don’t right themselves you know hehehehe!)

Clark's Nutcracker spotted in Rocky Mountain National Park in May of 2014

How do you like that fine specimen?  For those of you who don’t spend their spare time buried in bird reference books, that there is a Clark’s Nutcracker.  It was shot in the Rocky Mountain National Park back in May of 2014.  Yes, I know it was more than three years ago – I cringe every time I think about my backlog.  A backlog that has grown significantly as of late thanks to no less than two bird outings in the last 3 or 4 weeks and another one a few weeks away.  Of course, my brother Ron and I never came upon a Clark’s since those outings were local.  You have to travel a bit to see these charcoal creatures.

Clark's Nutcracker spotted in Rocky Mountain National Park in May of 2014

Hit the jump to read about and see a few more pictures of this monochrome bird.

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This One is Hard on the Nuts

I have decided to OCCUPY the MAN CAVE with my AMAZING and GINORMOUS Yellowstone photo collection reading about Beyonce’s BABY BUMP and wondering what the BLOWBACK will be on Katy Perry’s divorce.  All of this has led me to believe that being a PET PARENT is going to be the NEW NORMAL even with all the SHARED SACRIFICES that comes with it.  But enough of this rambling, let’s go out and WIN THE FUTURE through deception and TRICKERATION.  Oh, and THANK YOU IN ADVANCE for all your comments!

Whew, my apologies for that opening.  I was scanning the Internet and came across this years list of banned words from Lake Superior State University.  They do this every year to save our sanity from over-hyped words.  With only a few days left I wanted to make sure I used them all at least one more time.  Having done this now (some for the first time ever) I can assuredly say they will not be missed.  Here are a few other words I’d like banned for 2012 based on the shameful over use in the media

  • Slam (and all derivatives)
  • Bashes
  • Crash
  • Grills
  • Undecideds
  • Outrage
  • Weep
  • Obamacare
  • Gallup
  • Facebook

Have I distracted you enough to forget this is really another bird post from our Yellowstone trip?  Well, I tried.  This is the last of the bird posts from Yellowstone and with a small bit of sadness, the likely last post of the year (there may be one more depending on when my year end summary gets done) – where has this year gone?!  The reason I left this one to the end is thanks to our favorite orthopedic surgeon Dr. Giselle there was no need to spend a lot of time rifling through reference books to identify it.  As soon as the shutter went off on this bird…

Dr. Giselle immediately identified it as a Clark’s Nutcracker.  Having never seen this bird before, I was very appreciative of the assist.  Per the reference books, this particular bird prefers open coniferous forests in mountains.  A big checkmark on that – I left this wider shot with the evergreens as validation of that.  It is a member of the jay and crow family but chooses to walk like a crow than hop like a jay on ground (do scientist actually get paid for these observations?).  As is the custom here at Lifeintrigued, let’s bring that bird in for a closer look.

Hit the jump to learn more about the Clark’s Nutcracker

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