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On the Road and In Your Backyard

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On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.

From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.

Submit Your Photos

Good Morning All,

This weekday feature is for Juicers who are are on the road, traveling, or just want to share a little bit of their world via stories and pictures. So many of us rise each morning, eager for something beautiful, inspiring, amazing, subtle, of note, and our community delivers – a view into their world, whether they’re far away or close to home – pictures with a story, with context, with meaning, sometimes just beauty. By concentrating travel updates and tips here, it’s easier for all of us to keep up or find them later.

So please, speak up and share some of your adventures and travel news here, and submit your pictures using our speedy, secure form. You can submit up to 7 pictures at a time, with an overall description and one for each picture.

You can, of course, send an email with pictures if the form gives you trouble, or if you are trying to submit something special, like a zipped archive or a movie. If your pictures are already hosted online, then please email the links with your descriptions.

For each picture, it’s best to provide your commenter screenname, description, where it was taken, and date. It’s tough to keep everyone’s email address and screenname straight, so don’t assume that I remember it “from last time”. More and more, the first photo before the fold will be from a commenter, so making it easy to locate the screenname when I’ve found a compelling photo is crucial.

Have a wonderful day, and enjoy the pictures!

 

Today, pictures from valued commenter Albatrossity.

In mid-February I made a trip to far western KS to look for Golden Eagles and Ferruginous Hawks near a large prairie-dog colony in Logan County. That site also hosts the endangered Black-footed Ferret, but unless you go out at night you usually will not encounter those.

Eagles and Ferruginous Hawks were seen, but none wanted to sit for a portrait session. I did get some other images.

Rough-legged Hawk, adult female

Taken on 2018-02-16

Found this beauty at Quivira National Wildlife Refuge.

Adult Red-tailed Hawk, western (calurus) subspecies

Taken on 2018-02-16

Winter hawks in Kansas often include these western birds, who migrate here from Utah or Colorado or New Mexico. The rufous cast on the underwings and belly is the key field mark for this subspecies

Sandhill Cranes

Taken on 2018-02-16

Heading north to the Platte River in Nebraska, then further north to Canada, Alaska, and eastern Siberia.

Kansas

Taken on 2018-02-17

This landscape has a lot of horizontal layers, but it is not flat. That prairie-dog was also looking for eagles and hawks, probably with a lot more self-interest than I was

 

Thank you so much Albatrossity, do send us more when you can.

 

Travel safely everybody, and do share some stories in the comments, even if you’re joining the conversation late. Many folks confide that they go back and read old threads, one reason these are available on the Quick Links menu.

 

One again, to submit pictures: Use the Form or Send an Email

Reader Interactions

27Comments

  1. 1.

    Spanky

    Great pics! Our Eclipse Trip back in August was to North Platte and the Sand HIlls, an excellent trip that I would hope to do again some day. Our pics don’t do it justice, and of course I didn’t get wildlife pics nearly as good as these.

  5. 5.

    Mary G

    So excited to see Albatrossity pictures again. Love the sandhill cranes. (Autocorrect tried to change that to landfill – WTF?)

  7. 7.

    Elizabelle

    When I see the name “Albatrossity”, I just get happy, because great bird pictures await. Love these.

    The raptors make me glad I am not a very small mammal.

  10. 10.

    Betty Cracker

    Wonderful photos! Sandhill cranes are one of my favorite birds, and it amazes me that the same tall, elegant cranes I frequently meet on sunny golf courses or wooded meadows here in Florida also live in Siberia!

    I took a cross-country road trip back in the 90s. On Route 66, out in the middle of no where, I saw prairie dogs in a field. Charmed, I wanted to capture a photo of the darling critters. Well, every time I clicked the shutter, the little bastards disappeared into their holes.

    This was back before I had a digital camera, so I had to wait until I developed the film to confirm that, yep, I didn’t manage to photograph even a nose or whisker of a prairie dog, but I had a dozen or so pictures of an empty field with holes in it.

    Luckily for us all, Albatrossity is a much more skilled photographer!

  11. 11.

    OzarkHillbilly

    I wanted to head to the Platte this spring for the Sandhill Crane migration but then the youngest got run over and priorities changed.

  12. 12.

    debbie

    Love all the photos, but especially that last one. Having lived only amid buildings, that landscape is awesome!

  16. 16.

    raven

    We were sea kayaking off Orcas Island and the guide said “if you look directly at the sea otters they will dive under water but if you look at them out of the corner of your eye they will stay up”. Damn if they didn’t.

    When googling otters I got this!

    Wild Otter Attacks 77-Year-Old Woman Kayaking on Florida River

    A possibly rabid otter attacked a group of kayakers in central Florida, biting and scratching a 77-year-old woman and ripping off part of her ear.

    The boaters were paddling up the Braden River Sunday, enjoying a peaceful and sunny morning when a wild otter jumped on the kayak of Sue Spector, ran up her back and began clawing at her face, guide Marsha Wikle told InsideEdition.com.

    “She was in the water, her husband was in the water and two other women were whacking the otter with their paddles,” Wikle said of the chaotic scene.

  17. 17.

    No Drought No More

    The democratic party could use a few good religious loons of its own to rally the simple minded: “God blessed California’s north Bay Area with a gentle rain overnight, a sure sign that Governor Brown’s righteous rebuke of a wicked man and his corrupt designs was well received”

  18. 18.

    Waratah

    I am not surprised to see that I am not the only to get excited to see your name for the coming photos.
    Your photos of the raptors show their beauty. I could almost hear the sound the cranes make flying over.

  20. 20.

    cgordon

    Sandhill cranes winter along the Rio Grande, and early spring they group up to fly north, riding thermals until they are way up high. Even then you can hear them croaking like the hinges of a huge door. Amazing birds.

  21. 21.

    Jerzy Russian

    Nice pictures!

    Is a Jayhawk an actual thing to see while in Kansas? I wonder if all of those birds of prey like Kansas with all of the flat, wide open and rodent infested landscapes.

  22. 22.

    Jerzy Russian

    @raven: I saw a sea otter floating by our tour boat off the Alaska coast. He looked happy as a clam.

    I imagine an encounter with an otter or similar critter With No Fucks Left To Give would not be pleasant. I hope she did not end up with rabies or an infection (didn’t click on the link).

  27. 27.

    Albatrossity

    Thanks, all. I do have more raptor pics to share in the future, since yes, Kansas has lots of wintering hawks, even though we do not have nearly enough prairie dogs! But Jayhawks are, alas, a mythical bird.

    Betty,I am currently in your home state, doing some birdwatching and photography in the Tampa/St. Pete area while my sweetie attends a conference in Tampa. I think I got the better of that deal. Lots of things to see, including a bazillion Ospreys this morning at Ft. DeSoto State Park. Still need to find a Roseate Spoonbill and/or a Swallow-tailed Kite, but have seen lots of shorebirds, gulls, terns, and herons so far. Florida, like Kansas, is a lovely state as long as you can ignore the politics!

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