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.
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
Have a wonderful day, and enjoy the pictures!
Today, pictures from valued commenter Albatrossity.
Another stop on my trip west to see birds and warm up was the Casa de San Pedro B&B near Sierra Vista AZ. Nestled between the Chiricahuas on the east and the Huachucas on the west, this part of Arizona has some splendid birds and birdwatching opportunities. The B&B caters to birders, and has plenty of feeders (nectar feeders for the hummingbirds and seed feeders for seed-eating birds) to keep you busy. They also host periodic hummingbird banding demonstrations, see their calendar for the schedule (https://www.bedandbirds.com/upcoming-events.htm). It is amazing to watch hummingbirds get banded with their tiny bands on their tiny legs!
Taken on 2019-04-01 00:00:00
San Pedro River AZ
The Zone-tailed Hawk is an interesting bird; it mimics a Turkey Vulture with a dihedral wing posture and a dippy flight pattern, in hopes of fooling some hapless mouse or bunny. This fine specimen soared right over the feeder stations several times during the day. Lots of birders go to AZ with hopes of seeing this species, and this is the best look I have ever had!
Taken on 2019-04-01 00:00:00
San Pedro River AZ
The Pyrrhuloxia, or Desert Cardinal, is another species that lots of visitors to southeastern AZ hope to see. This handsome male perched and sang for us along the San Pedro River.
Taken on 2019-04-01 00:00:00
San Pedro River AZ
There were several Lazuli Buntings frequenting the feeders, and they looked particularly handsome in their fresh spring plumage.
Taken on 2019-04-01 00:00:00
San Pedro River AZ
This male Black-chinned Hummingbird was one of many at the feeders at the Casa de San Pedro.
Taken on 2019-04-01 00:00:00
San Pedro River AZ
Rufous Hummingbirds, like this stunning male, were also abundant at the feeders there.
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
Mary G
Albatrossity is always such a fantastic way to start the week of On the Road! The Lazuli Bunting is my favorite this week.
JPL
Fascinating pictures. The black chinned hummer appears to be ready to pounce if necessary.
Baud
Albatrossity always brings the best birds.
OzarkHillbilly
Huh, I thought it was unique to buzzards.
?BillinGlendaleCA
Good shots.
debbie
Awesome photos, but I’d like a word with whoever named the Black-Chinned Hummingbird. Wouldn’t Brilliantly Violet-Throated Hummingbird have been a better choice?
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@Mary G:
This.
@Baud:
This also!
And as my pal BillinGlendaleCA, with whom I share a day/month of birth notes, good shots (high praise from such a skilled photographer) while I’ll say wonderful and amazing.
Also, Alain – my continued good wishes for your FIL’s post op recovery and your family is in my thoughts.
Albatrossity
@debbie: Indeed that would seem to be a better name. But in most light situations it does indeed appear just plain black. Of course that is also true of Ruby-throated Hummingbird and most others! Who knows what goes through the minds of folks who named these birds?
And I echo the good wishes for continued and speedy recovery for Alain’s father-in-law. Please do keep us posted!
arrieve
Yay, birds! I’m tempted to head to Arizona.
And continuing to send good wishes to Alain and family.
Wag
Amazing photos. That area do southern Arizona has a great diversity of habitats, and is a birding magnet. The Basin and Range topography sets up archipelagos of mountains floating in a desert sea, allowing mammals to bred in isolation, which in turn leads to a high diversity of species. A favorite spot of the world for me.
Steve in the ATL
@debbie: it looks like it’s wearing a purple choker! Had it recently shopped at Hot Topic?
mad citizen
Great pics as always! When I read this phrase “and they looked particularly handsome in their fresh spring plumage” for some reason I’m hearing Michael Palin say the word “plumage” from a Python sketch. Maybe the Dead Parrot Sketch?
TomatoQueen
Marvelous birds, beautiful shots
rikyrah
I totally respect those that can get these beautiful shots of animals :)
Miss Bianca
You take the BEST bird photos!
I am so excited because the hummies just showed up last week at the Mountain Hacienda! Strong sugar mix out there in the feeder – and they’ll need it, poor little things, because it just dumped six more inches of snow up here!
Harbison
Wow. Truly excellent captures.
Beautiful birds.
J R in WV
Hummers are SO predatory, tiny dinosaurs with hot rod speed.
Once, we had a big crowd of hummers for the summer, with multiple feeders on the back deck. I was sitting in a chair reading some 15 or 20 feet from the feeders, when two hummers in a chase came around the corner of the house. The two birds were at maximum speed, and split on either side of my face — I could feel the wind they threw to generate their amazing speed.
Fortunately they were going too fast for me to try to duck or dodge, it was all over in a second or two, I’m just glad I had time to look up from my book and see them coming at me at 30 or 40 mph.
Amazing pictures, Albatrossity, keep up the great work!!
Martin
I have to vent about Betos climate plan. It’s not that there’s necessarily anything wrong with it, but the way Democrats present these things simply dooms them. When we commit $1T or some such arbitrary amount, it’s intended to signal to other progressives the degree of commitment to the plan. Wow, $1T is a lot, he must take it seriously. But everyone else reads $1T in new taxes because it was presented as $1T in new spending. And Democrats do this constantly.
California didn’t get where it is on this issue with massive taxation and subsidies, yet everyone seems to believe that we did. We got there by taking $1T in spending that would have happened anyway and simply steered it into a better place. So, the average electric bill in the US is about $110/mo. It’s around $90 in CA. Around $125 in AL. There’s 100M households in the US, so we right now have about $10B per month going to residential electricity generation. What CA did first was to say that if a utility could convince their customers to use less electricity, the consumer and utility could split the savings. That is, the utility can raise rates enough to capture half of the savings. The utility used the recovered money to buy CFCs or LEDs or do appliance rebates to customers – one time costs that would net them a little bit of money every month. At the same time, the state made it more expensive to build and operate fossil fuel plants and cheaper to build and run renewables. So the recovered money was also used to switch their operations to cheaper forms of energy production. 12 million households, around $12B per year in spending that was happening anyway, over 4 decades is half a trillion in spending just out of CA, that was slowly being steered toward climate benefits. No new taxes, no new spending, just a set of economic incentives to steer the economy from a more damaging one to a less damaging one.
Democrats need to learn how to talk about these ideas in these terms, because they way they’re doing it now makes it sound like they’re trying to bankrupt the nation. Same goes for healthcare and a few other issues. Single payer can be mostly paid for by shifting existing employer spending into vastly more efficient government spending. Again, almost no net cost to consumers, just a shift in how the dollars are used. But they’ve utterly failed to communicate that,.
mad citizen
Martin, I like your point that the D politicians need to be more literate when explaining their plans. But Cali electric rates are roughly twice as high as most places in the U.S. The bill looks comparable because heating/cooling degree days are very low compared to most of the country, so usage is low in California.
In other words, that 20 to 25 cent per kilowatt rate contains a LOT of artificial things. Call them subsidies, taxes, regulatory noise, whatever. But your neighbors in Nevada and Arizona pay much less for electricity than CA does.
Low cost renewables are definitely coming on for new generation for all of us, regardless of climate change. Turning over the fleet will take a decade or two.