Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

Giving up is unforgivable.

Not all heroes wear capes.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

Giving in to doom is how authoritarians win.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

When they say they are pro-life, they do not mean yours.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

If you cannot answer whether trump lost the 2020 election, you are unfit for office.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

So many bastards, so little time.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about its history.”

Welcome to day five of every-bit-as-bad-as-you-thought-it-would-be.

The lights are all blinking red.

This chaos was totally avoidable.

Bark louder, little dog.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

You are here: Home / Photo Blogging / On The Road / Albatrossity / On the Road and In Your Backyard

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.

I recently spent some time in Southern California, visiting an old friend from grad school days in Riverside and environs. The main focus was bird photography, so we went to the coast, to the mountains, to the desert, and to the Salton Sea. Here are a few of the shots from that trip

California Thrasher

Taken on 2018-04-17

Big Morongo Preserve

Not usually so cooperative, these birds generally skulk in the shadows.

Dulzura Kangaroo Rat

Taken on 2018-04-18

Motte Reserve, Riverside County

Yeah, I know that this is not a bird. But k-rats are cute and fuzzy, and a challenge to photograph since they are strictly nocturnal, so I thought I’d include this shot.

Rufous Hummingbird

Taken on 2018-04-16

Riverside CA

Male Rufous Hummingbird, in a backyard in Riverside which hosted all 5 of the expected SoCal hummer species (Rufous, Anna’s, Allen’s, Black-chinned, and Costa’s)

Male Costa’s Hummingbird

Taken on 2018-04-16

Riverside CA

Another flashy male hummer from that backyard in Riverside

Western Sandpiper

Taken on 2018-04-15

Salton Sea, CA

Shorebirds are the main attraction for birders at the Salton Sea this time of year, and there were plenty of these Western Sandpipers to see and photograph

Surfbird

Taken on 2018-04-14

Crystal Cove State Park, Orange County CA

Not a bird that I usually see in my home state of Kansas, so it was nice to find a flock of these guys foraging on some rocks as the tide came in one morning

Female Vermilion Flycatcher

Taken on 2018-04-17

Big Morongo Reserve

The ruby-red male that this bird was paired with was being a royal pain in the ass, refusing to pose for any decent pictures. But this bird was very cooperative, and perched in a low cottonwood branch for this pastel portrait

 

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

23Comments

  5. 5.

    Schlemazel

    That is some fine picture takin’, thanks

    really love hummingbirds they are tiny jewel boxes

  7. 7.

    Mary G

    You are a master photographer and it’s nice to see birds from my home area. I went to the Salton Sea a couple of years ago, and there were a lot of interesting birds there, the water smelled so bad we had to leave after five minutes. It’s a problem because it’s eventually going to dry up and then all that pollution will be picked up by the wind and be breathed in.

  9. 9.

    Waratah

    Thank you. First time for me to think a rat was cute. The birds are beautiful and I agree with with Ozark Hillbilly the last one is my favorite.
    My daughter went to Palo Dura Canyon recently and was excited to see a road runner close up in the camping area. the photos she took with her phone camera showed the Canyon still beautiful even with the drought.

  14. 14.

    David Evana

    @rikyrah: I find sandpipers relatively easy because they are predictable and usually on a simple background. It’s the ones who hop gaily from branch to branch that I lack the patience for.

  17. 17.

    Elizabelle

    Love Albatrossity’s wonderful bird photos. Thank you again.

    The thresher’s hooked beak interests me. Clearly, there’s an evolutionary benefit to the thresher; what’s up with that beak?

    And I like the K-rat too.

  19. 19.

    J R in WV

    I will third the question about camera/lens, exposures, apertures, etc. Am I the only one who includes that? Seems interesting to others who shoot anything.

    My longest lens is 300mm, and it’s hard to get a good clean exposure without bracing it or myself against something stationary and solid at that length.

    Great photos, Albatrossity!! Keep up the good work, and thanks for sharing with us!

  20. 20.

    Albatrossity

    Thanks, all. Yeah, I don’t usually include camera/lens information in the captions, because most folks find it to be very boring. These were all shot with a tripod-mounted Canon EOS 5D body and a 500mm lens combined with a 2x teleconverter to give an effective focal length of 1000mm. Some (suich as the k-rat, hummingbirds, thrasher and flycatcher) were shot with an on-camera Canon 430X III flash and a Better Beamer flash extender, so aperture and shutter speed would be different for those pics. I’ve not played around much with flash before, other than for hummers, so this was all an interesting experiment!

  21. 21.

    Steeplejack

    Last August Albatrossity wrote this about his gear:
    Most of [the photographs] were shot with a Canon EOS5D (Mark II) body and the 100-400mm Canon zoom lens. All were handheld or shot with the aid of a monopod; IMHO tripods are too heavy/​unwieldy to lug overseas or into a forest, etc. All in natural lighting.

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