Archive of the Odd

Welcome to our newest web feature, Found Fiction Friday! With authors’ permission, we’ll be posting stories from our issues online. Formatting is still unique to the books, but the story is free for all to read.

Today’s story is by Gabrielle Bleu. Gabrielle Bleu has been an avid birdwatcher for years. Favorite sightings include: great blue herons,
pouldeau, and black-capped chickadees. Vultures are always treasured, as are storks. When not watching birds, Gabrielle also enjoys admiring lichens. Their work on natural history collections has appeared in Hexagon magazine, and their documentation of animal movements at The Colored Lens. Follow her on twitter @BeteMonstrueuse for birdwatching photos, and find more of their work at gabriellebleu.com.

It originally appeared in Issue 2.

Warnings: Death (human and animal), deteriorating mental state

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Red Rock Canyon Open Space, Colorado Springs, January 12, 2019

• Steller’s Jay (1)
• Black-capped Chickadees (heard chicka-dee-dee-dee calls x 12 discreet times) (saw 15 or 20)
• House Finch (8) (5 males; red heads)
• Unidentified call (x 1 times) (shrill)
• Rock Doves hanging out on red stone formations (maybe 2 dozen?)
• Swallows flitting out of the little holes and pockmarks in the stone (20 or 30)

Notes: Not sure what kind of swallows I saw. Barn, maybe?

Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs, January 13, 2019

• Crows (7) (in parking lot)
• Rock Doves (around a dozen)
• Black-capped Chickadees (seen and heard many, 20ish)
• Prairie Falcon (in window of Kissing Camels red rock formation)!!
• Spotted Towhee (2)
• American Robin (3)

Notes: First time seeing a Prairie Falcon!

Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs, January 19, 2019

• Parking lot crows (7) (all hung out right by my car when I got back to lot)
• Prairie Falcon circling above Kissing Camels
• Black-capped Chickadees (heard only)
• Black-billed Magpies (4)
• Owl in distance à being harassed by crows
• Crows (not parking lot, harassing owl in distance) (4)

Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs, January 20, 2019

• Parking lot crows (5)
• Rock Doves (a few of them hanging out on lower portion of Kissing Camels)
• Black-capped Chickadees (heard, maybe 4 individuals)
• Steller’s Jay (1)
• Black-billed Magpie (1)
• Shrill call (unidentified)

Notes: Need to try and remember to look up unidentified call.

Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs, January 26, 2019

• Parking lot crows (3) (black feathers scattered in parking lot)
  • Huddled near visitor’s center (grounded by a raptor?)
• Black-capped Chickadees (heard only, chicka-dee-dee-dee x 8)
• 1 Rock Dove trotting along paved portion of trail
• Shrill call x 2 (still unidentified)

Notes: Not a lot of action today

Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs, January 27, 2019

• Parking lot crows (2)
• Shrill call (unidentified)
• Black-capped Chickadees (heard only) (chicka-dee-dee-dee x 2)

Notes: Worse than yesterday. Very few sightings. Trying to figure out mnemonic to look up unidentified call I keep hearing. Sounds like “run-and-hide”? Will try searching for that.

Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs, February 2, 2019

• “chicka-dee-dee-dee” x 1
• “Run-and-hide” call x 3 times (couldn’t find any info. Bad mnemonic?)
• Odd bird sitting in the window between the Camels, looking down at trail
• Crow feathers on hood of car

Notes: Bird in Camels window looked like some sort of weird hornbill. But I don’t think we get hornbills here? I got my binocs on it just in time for it to fly away. It was blocking out a lot of the window beforehand, way bigger than the Prairie Falcon perched there last week. Would have to be bigger than a Bald Eagle or similar-sized bird too. Feathers in its claws–predator bird.

I KNOW I didn’t hit any of the crows. The feathers would be in the car grill anyways, if I had.

Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs, February 3, 2019

• No parking lot crows 😦
• “Run-and-hide” call x 3 times

Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs, February 9, 2019

• Saw no birds

Notes: weird day

Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs, February 10, 2019

• Nothing (?)

Notes: Something has changed

Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs February 16, 2019

• “Run-and-hide” call

Notes: Done with the Garden, I think. Going to stick further north on outings for a while.

Red Rocks Trail, Golden, February 18, 2019 (early morning)

• Mountain Bluebird (seen while driving to trail)
• Some sort of hawk on red rock outcropping
• Chickadees (16)
• Steller’s Jay (2)
• Scrub Jay (3)
• Northern Flicker (1)

Notes: Mountain Bluebirds are a fave! I’m pretty sure it was one–it was blurry and blue, flitting along side of road. I’m going to say it was a mountain bluebird.

Couldn’t make out the hawk or markings too well, not enough info for ID.

Red Rocks Trail, Golden, February 19, 2019 (early morning)

• Chickadees (10)
• Spotted Towhee (1)
• Dark-eyed Junco (7)
• Hawk circling (unidentified)
• “Run-and-hide”

Red Rocks Trail, Golden, February 20, 2019 (early morning)

• Hawk feathers on trail
• Dark-eyed Junco (3)
• Chicka-dee-dee x1
• Hornbill on red rock outcropping

Notes: “Hornbill” is the same kind as before. We DON’T have Hornbills here, not native. I looked it up. I don’t think it even really is a Hornbill (False Hornbill? Is that anything?)–great big horns coming out either side of head above the bill (???).

Identifying features: Horns are crescent-shaped, ivory colored. Grey feathers, black wingtips. White mask. Red underwings (?) (odd coloration to have there).

Red Rocks Trail, Golden, February 21, 2019 (early morning)

• 3 “Run-and-hides”
• Hornedbill circling overhead

Notes: Calling it a Hornedbill for now, as it’s not a Hornbill specifically. Horns seem an odd feature–can’t be aerodynamic, seem like they would be heavy. Could they be hollow? Are they a feature in mating? The horns do help account for the large overall body size, would need it to support horns, generate lift.

Doesn’t cast an ordinary shadow – shadows from horns on ground as it circles.

Red Rocks/Morrison Slide Trail, Golden, February 22, 2019 (early morning)

• Yellow dog leash dangling from outcropping of red rocks
• No dogwalker nearby
• No loose dog nearby
• Large, mangled body pinned on rocks
• Hornedbill Shrike eating
• Horns bloody
• Bill bloody
• Cried when it saw me, mouth wide
• “Run-and-hide”

Notes (mid-March, might have forgotten some details, but I don’t think I did): Saying it’s a “Hornedbill Shrike.” Had what I’m calling shrike-like behavior – prey pinned on rocks. If the body had been smaller maybe the bird would have impaled it on something, but too big to truly skewer on anything.

Might be attracted to red sandstone formations for this feeding behavior? Or the color of the stones helps it pick out prey?

Can’t find ANY info on it. No logs in any apps. I can’t get past the HORNS coming from its bill.

Skipped Sandhill Crane migration in Alamosa this year. Couldn’t bear the thought of seeing it there. It’s so much bigger than the cranes. The dog must have been the size of a crane, from the body.

Missing person in the Golden trail area. Going to avoid trails for a bit.

Greenbelt Plateau trail, Boulder, August 4, 2019

• 2 bald eagles in tree along roadside on drive up (good sign)
• NO large red sandstone formations here; grassland
• Meadowlarks (3)
• Goldfinch (2)
• “Run-and-hide”

Notes: Ran to car. Hornedbill Shrike not specific to red rocks.

Park by zoo, August 24, 2019

• Peacock calls (from zoo) (many)
• Chickadees 🙂

Notes: No news about zoo losing a bird, Hornbill or not. Have not heard Hornedbill Shrike here. Won’t come into manicured city parks?

Park by zoo, August 25, 2019

• Peacocks are quiet
• “Run-and-hide”

Notes: Shadow of its horns as it circles.

August 2019

• Zoo is missing some peacocks

September 2019

• I keep hearing it
• No correlations to anything, shows up anywhere
• Still no Hornedbill Shrike sightings listed anywhere
  • Birding forums all think I’m trolling or wildly misidentifying something

September 2019

• No birds
• “Run-and-hide” outside my window early early mornings
• Gone by full sunrise
• Hiking out to find it. Get proof to list somewhere.

September 2019

• Hornedbill Shrike circling overhead
• Shadow of its horns over me as it Circles circles circles
• Run-and-Hide
• Run-and-Hide