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 everybody,
Today we have a wonderful submission from Albatrossity.
Enjoy the day and celebrate the daily reduction in ever-shorter days; before you know it, the Solstice will be here and we can begin increasing daylight in pursuit of Spring.
In September I took a trip out to California to ostensibly go on a birding trip off the coast, but that got canceled due to high winds and the resultant imminent puking. But here are a few pictures from that trip, to help kick off this new blog site.
Shiprock in the distance, Common Raven in the foregound
Swainson’s Hawk, one of many seen in this part of Colorado
Osprey observing the crowd scene near the beach
Acorn Woodpecker, one of the clowniest birds on the planet
Yellow-billed Magpie, a bird species that is only found in California
Mary G
I’ve missed your amazing bird photos, Albatrossity! And some from the left coast I’ve never seen.
PST
The raven photo is especially remarkable. It somehow makes me think of a Matisse cut-out.
satby
You capture such detail most of us will never glimpse on these birds Albatrossity! Thanks for sharing them.
Quinerly
Gorgeous pictures! Poco and I will be making our 3rd pilgrimage to Shiprock in March. Spending a week in Farmington after Santa Fe and Gallup. Your raven picture is fantastic. It’s a place like no other. On our first trip there, we were there at sunrise one cold January morning. Otherworldly. Plus, the wind. Poco stood perfectly still with his nose to the air. I like to think he felt something….
J.
Great photos!
Doug
Can y’all think of any reason that when this post is on the front page, all the photos appear twice? I don’t mind particularly, but it doesn’t seem like optimal site behavior. (Firefox and Windows 10 on a desktop)
OzarkHillbilly
Tuesdays with Albatrossity, what could be better.
Emma
What an absolute wonder to wake up to. Thank you for sharing your talent.
Baud
If it’s amazing bird pictures, it’s Albatrossity.
donatellonerd
@Doug: same problem, Safari, the OS right before catalina.
DCrefugee
@Doug: Same here. Consistent behavior every time an OTR post is on the front page.
Win10/Chrome Version 78.0.3904.108 (64-bit)
Alain
@Doug: I’ll report this to WG. Thought it was already noted, I’ve been out of the loop the past week or so.
raven
The “Raven”on the fence reminds me of when I was a kid in California. We’d go up to Mount Baldy and hike around and then drive back through the farms around Pomona. We always had .22’s with us and the when we saw the crows in fences we’d stop. If we just watched them they’s stay put but as soon as we pulled the rifles out they were gone!
Betty Cracker
@Quinerly: Took a cross-country road trip once and stopped at Shiprock along the way. “Other worldly” is a good description of it. I’d like to see it again some day.
Amir Khalid
@raven:
Corvids are amazingly smart birds. It doesn’t surprise me that they know what a rifle is.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
These are so beautiful, what a great way to start the day.
laura
I love the yellow billed Magpie! We haven’t had any in our neighborhood since the west nile virus wiped out corvids about 5 or 6 years ago. The crows returned in much smaller numbers but no Magpies as of yet.
Lovely photos all -thank you albatrosity.
mere mortal
“In Pursuit of Spring” would make a really good album title.
Kristine
@Doug: Happens to me, too. Safari on a mid-2013 Mac Air. I also see double on my iPhone, latest iOS update.
HalfAssedHomesteader
@Doug: The weird thing is I predict the repeats will disappear when the next post comes on the front page. That’s what seemed to happen yesterday. Hopefully, this might shed some light on the problem.
Doug
@Alain: Thanks, Alain! Several other commenters are noting it as well, so that should help with the diagnostics.
jackmac
Beautiful images!
arrieve
I love to photograph birds but I never come close to this magic. I especially love that woodpecker. It’s so nice to wake up to On the Road again. Thanks, Alain and Albatrossity!
pinacacci
Wowwww, just amazing. Thank you for these!
Spanky
The post reminded me to go over to Lulu to buy Albatrosity’s 2020 calendar. 30% off ends at midnight!
rikyrah
These pictures are absolutely stunning!
Thank you
TomatoQueen
Oh lovely. The look on the Osprey’s face, and then as a TOON supporter, the Magpie–fabulous.
Also, as to seeing double: yesterday morning on this here gov’t IE machine yes, in the evening on the personal Thinkpad w/Fireyfox, no double. Here, this morning on the gov’t IE machine, no double. I suspect behind the scenes magic.
?BillinGlendaleCA
Great pictures, I’ve tried shooting birds but really don’t have the right lens to do it well. Sigh.
trollhattan
@laura:
Similar in our area, the yellow-bill population took a significant hit but they seem reestablished at least along the river parkway, where they still enjoy their fussing and feuding.
Nothing seems to reduce the vast crow population, who guanofy downtown sidewalks nightly.
Wonderful set. Birding is a very specialized branch [heh] of photography and my meager attempts lend me an appreciation of how very good these are. Well done!
Doug
@HalfAssedHomesteader: You are exactly right, at least on my setup. New post above, photos no longer doubling.
Neldob
Lovely!
Miss Bianca
I could tell that was Ship Rock in the first photo just from the thumbnail!
What amazing photographers we have among the jackaltariat. I, alas, am not one of them.
J R in WV
Typical superior production of frabjous birds. And Shiprock is a magical place, no question. I have the strongest feeling I’ve seen one of those magpies in the flesh before, but was only in CA once, San Francisco, Muir woods, train in from Portland, out towards Denver 4 days later on. Perhaps one was lost into AZ or UT… or they’re pretty common around SF.
Today I only have one set of the photos in the front page, same here on the details and comments page. Linux Ubuntu 18.04.3, Firefox 70.3. First time the duplicate set is properly gone. Sounds like a counter error looping through twice, sometimes, perhaps. Maybe… was that indefinite enuf?
mrmoshpotato
With an awck awck here, and an awck awck there, awck awck awck awck, everywhere an awck awck
Yutsano
@trollhattan: Does anyone else think Albatrossity should be referred to the Audubon Society?
JDM
BTW, I love magpies but think the name doesn’t fit the nattily dressed bird at all. I prefer the Czech name: straka.
WaterGirl
@Doug: Not to worry, it’s been on the developer’s “fix” since the rollout.
WaterGirl
Wow, the Yellow-billed Magpie is amazing!
KSinMA
Gorgeous photos. Thanks!
stinger
@Spanky:
Done. Thanks for the tip!
Albatrossity
Thanks, all. And thanks especially to Spanky for the tip about the 30% off today at the site where I publish my bird photo calendars! There are two this year, Iconic birds of the World at http://www.lulu.com/content/legacy-lulustudio-calendar/iconic-birds-2020/25669047
and Hawks and Owls of Kansas at http://www.lulu.com/content/legacy-lulustudio-calendar/2020-calendar—hawks-and-owls-of-kansas/24948351
It’s good to see On The Road back in business again. Thanks to WaterGirl and Alain for all the hard work that they do behind the scenes!
WaterGirl
Speaking of work behind the scenes, I would like to thank Albatrossity for all of his work cropping and otherwise working with the images you see under View by Topic and View by Author so they would display as nicely as possible.
I’m not sure that either of us realized – at the outset – just how much time that would take, but he did a wonderful job and has been an absolute pleasure to work with.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@mrmoshpotato: No, the raven says “Fuck LBJ”.