Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans in disarray!

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

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

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

with the Kraken taking a plea, the Cheese stands alone.

Consistently wrong since 2002

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

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

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

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,

On The Road and In Your Backyard is a weekday feature spotlighting reader submissions. From the exotic to the familiar, please share your part of the world, whether you’re traveling or just in your locality. Share some photos and a narrative, let us see through your pictures and words. We’re so lucky each and every day to see and appreciate the world around us!

Submissions from commenters are welcome at tools.balloon-juice.com

 

 

Today, pictures from valued commenter Albatrossity.

The topic of visiting Palo Duro Canyon in the TX Panhandle came up in the comment thread of a recent “On the Road” post, so I thought I would post some pics that I took there last December. We were on our way back from a first-time visit to Big Bend, and took a detour to show some friends this unexpected jewel in a part of the country that gets very few visitors.

Taken on 2017-12-29 00:00:00

Palo Duro Canyon, TX

Cardinals seem brighter than usual in the winter, and this one was no exception!

Taken on 2017-12-29 00:00:00

Palo Duro Canyon, TX

It was foggy the morning that we headed into the Canyon, so there was a lot of hoarfrost on the trees and grasses up on the rim. Once we got down into the Canyon itself, that disappeared.

Taken on 2017-12-29 00:00:00

Palo Duro Canyon, TX

One of the iconic birds of the TX Panhandle. This guy came sauntering down a path toward me and just kept walking on by after I got a few shots of him.

Taken on 2017-12-29 00:00:00

Palo Duro Canyon, TX

An abundant bird in the thickets at the bottom of the canyon

Taken on 2017-12-29 00:00:00

Palo Duro Canyon, TX

Lots of these sparrows spend the winter in the TX Panhandle.

 

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.

 

Submissions should be sent via the all-new form at https://tools.balloon-juice.com

Reader Interactions

25Comments

  1. 1.

    WaterGirl

    Albatrossity, your bird photos are the highlight of the On the Road threads for me. That second bird photo today just blows me away What an amazing bird, not to mention amazing photo of the bird. Thanks so much for sharing your talents with us.

  2. 2.

    Mart

    Birds look great. Nearly twenty year’s ago my wife planned a trip to Big Bend and environs. I was not paying attention to the details due to work travel. When we got there I was like damn, them thares mountains in Texas! I sometimes wonder if they build that wall, what it would do to the wildlife and the beauty of that area.

  6. 6.

    J R in WV

    Wonderful photos of pretty birds. Canon, I guess, with the longer lens? How far away were those birds when you shot the photos?

    Thanks for sharing the photos. If I take I-40 across to AZ ever again I’ll stop there to see the ravines.

    There are such places all around Gleeson AZ near our winter camp, I’ll try to do some deliberate bird hunting this winter when I go out there.

  8. 8.

    Elizabelle

    I could go for Albatrossity’s blog of bird photos and interesting places.

    Love the bird photos. You can almost hear them.

  10. 10.

    WaterGirl

    This is the last week of voting to see which Bunny groups get the hay donations. Top 5 organizations win; it looks to me like there are 6 that are seriously in the running at this point, and of course any of the others could surge at any time.

    TaMara will be on the road and asked if I would keep up the reminders about voting. The group TaMara is in contact with is COLORADO HOUSE RABBIT SOCIETY

    I have no idea if daily voting is allowed — I haven’t tried to vote more than once — but I imagine one could at least vote once from all their different devices. :-)

    http://oxbowanimalhealth.com/hay-giveback/

    You get to help bunnies and also give a boost to TaMara, who does so much for us. You don’t even need to write a postcard; just go to the link and Vote!

  12. 12.

    WaterGirl

    @cleek: Holy shit-ski! I have an ad blocker in Safari but after reading your comment, I opened this thread in Chrome, where I do not have an ad blocker.

    Holy fuck that’s a lot of ads. No wonder my phone overloads (and BJ takes FOREVER to load) if have have BJ open.

  18. 18.

    WaterGirl

    Albatrossity, I thought I would mention that I heard someone from BJ refer to your bird photos as “National Geographic quality” photos.

    I am not the person who said it, but I couldn’t agree more.

  19. 19.

    opiejeanne

    Beautiful, absolutely gorgeous photos of birds, Albatrossity.

    Pretty sure the bird just below the roadrunner is a towhee, which are becoming scarce in some areas of the southwest. We are amused when we see them in the garden because they scratch the ground the way chickens do and they seem fearless.
    The sparrow is a white-crowned sparrow. Great shot of that one too.

  21. 21.

    CapnMubbers

    @opiejeanne: Yup, the bird below the roadrunner is a spotted towhee. Probably a male, females have similar coloring but the black is duskier.
    Love all the photos, as always from Albatrossity. Thank you.

  22. 22.

    WaterGirl

    Albatrossity, i ke[t hoping you would comment here this morning so I could see if your nym contains a link to a website where I could possibly purchase a photo.

    edit: I just thought to google your num and balloon-juice.com. I found your nym on a previous post and nope, no website linked.

    If you see this, maybe you could let us know if there is somewhere to possibly purchase a photo? Or contact info to inquire about that? thanks.

  24. 24.

    Albatrossity

    @WaterGirl:
    Thanks, all

    The file uploading tool seems to strip out the title for each picture. But the birds have been identified by sharp-eyed commenters. Besides the cardinal, the others are Greater Roadrunner, Spotted Towhee, and White-crowned Sparrow. And yes, these were all obtained with the Canon rig I mention in previous threads.

    WaterGirl, in a previous thread (quite a while back) there is a link to a local gallery where my prints are sold. Take a look there (https://snwgallery.com/search-works.php?keyword=rintoul) and see if any of those strike your fancy. They will ship to you from there. But if none of them are what you want, send me a note at grosbeak57 at gmail dot com and let me know what you would like, and we’ll work something out.

  25. 25.

    WaterGirl

    @Albatrossity: Thank you! I copied your comment so I will have it for later so I can go through it. And I’ll have your email that way, also.

    So the awesome creature at bird photo #3 is the Greater Roadrunner. I just googled to be sure that was the correct name for the right bird. I like your photo better than the 12 that came up with Google! I just love him. You really are talented.

    Have you thought about having that site linked to your nym? You probably know this, but if you put the URL in the “website” field below name and email, your nym will be clickable to that website.

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