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.
I was never much of a bird person until I first saw Albatrossity’s photos in On the Road a couple of years ago. Of course, I didn’t get the flower/gardening bug until I turned 30, so it’s good that we never stop changing. ~WaterGirl
Albatrossity
Part 5 of Spring in Flyover Country and we are really starting to get into the heart of migration. Not just shorebirds and ducks moving, but warblers and vireos and orioles and thrushes and flycatchers, oh my! Here are some shots from the last week of April/first weekend of May 2020.
Bison babies are born in March or April, and are starting to look more solid and less gangly right now. But they still have that orange-brown fur, and this one has an air of insouciance, don’t you think?
Got a new bird for the yard list this spring, and that is not a common occurrence after 8 years in this house. This Black-and-white Warbler showed up on afternoon and did his best “hanging on by my tiptoes” routine. This species of warbler does breed in Kansas, so it is kinda surprising that we hadn’t seen one in the yard before. But it is what it is.
Another lovely warbler that breeds in this area is the Yellow Warbler. Here’s a male, hanging out in a redbud tree that has just about lost its last blossoms. In my experience Yellow Warblers are friendly and accommodating to the photographer, since they come down low to sing and forage, unlike most other warbler species.
The third warbler species in this post, the Palm Warbler, is a migrant on its way to the boreal forests of Canada and Alaska. There are no palms there; the species was first collected in the winter on Hispaniola, shot down from a palm tree there, and named after that tree. Bird names can be bizarre. This species also forages low, sometimes even on the ground, and that made this one easier to photograph. He was singing from a low perch when I found him, and graciously agreed to stick around a few more seconds for a portrait.
Great Crested Flycatchers are well-known to most birders in the eastern half of the US, and their noisy whoops and whistles herald their arrival every spring. This bird is one of a pair that nests in the woods behind our house somewhere, and was photographed from our back deck a day or so after he/she arrived back in Kansas.
A surprising shorebird migrant appeared in front of me at a local lake, this Piping Plover. This is a well-known endangered species which causes closed beaches when they nest on beaches along the east coast. Less well known is the interior population, which nests on sand bars in prairie rivers, an even more dangerous habitat these days. It is estimated that there are only about 8,500 individuals of this species on the planet.
Green Herons are also familiar to many birders in this country, and very similar species are found in the southern hemisphere as well. They are small herons who generally don’t wade in water, but hunt from the shore or from a log near the water. This one ignored me completely, and kept looking for breakfast. I never saw it catch anything, but if looks could kill, he would be eating well…
Final bird is the most colorful paint-by-numbers bird in North America, the Painted Bunting. Despite their fancy attire, they can blend into the forest quite well, like this guy. There are several spots locally where these birds can be found, but we are pretty much on the northwesternmost edge of their range here.
Mohagan
Fabulous pictures! Thanks so much. I never realized how much there was to see in Kansas. :-)
OzarkHillbilly
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Great Crested Flycatcher. The Eastern Phoebes are what we have nesting around here.
Baud
One of these things is not like the other.
Cute bison.
Wag
Wow! You have made my morning.
JeanneT
I repeat Wag’s Wow!
raven
Nice boids.
?BillinGlendaleCA
Great shots.
J R in WV
Great work, as usual. I always forward your sets to my ornithologist neighbor, who is always stunned by the pictures, and that I know this guy who gets birds so well.
Amir Khalid
@Baud:
I know! My first thought was, “That’s a bird?“
Albatrossity
@OzarkHillbilly: Find a recording of the Great Crested Flycatcher; they are noisy and easier to hear than they are to see, but I bet you have plenty of them there.
Salty Sam
“Insouciant Buffalo”; great band name…
stinger
Wonderful, wonderful pics.
Sab
@Amir Khalid: They’re so cute when they are still small.
Van Buren
Greatly appreciated. A lot of time and patience must have gone into just these few photos.
J R in WV
Cornell U has a great ornithology dept, and their web site has a ton of great birb calls, as well as pics, nest cams, etc.
Here’s the page for the Great Crested Flycatcher’s call…
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Great_Crested_Flycatcher
arrieve
Beautiful as always! I love black and white warblers because they’re the only warblers I can immediately identify — all of the others are basically little yellow birds.
I saw a scarlet tanager from my bedroom window yesterday. Lots of them pass through Central Park this time of year, but I’ve never seen one here in Hell’s Kitchen. I thought, Oh maybe they’re here every year and I just never noticed, but it’s really, really hard to miss a scarlet tanager.
Even in Manhattan, Nature is flourishing.
frosty
Great pics!
WaterGirl
You outdid yourself on this one Albatrossity, even for you!
So many great pictures, but that Painted Bunting, wow! He is something else.
MelissaM
Lovely, as usual. I want to snuggle with that baby bison and just listen to all the birds!
Albatrossity
@WaterGirl: Thanks! I like the bunting photo, but my favorite from this batch is actually the Green Heron image. Not as flashy, but a subtle beauty.
@Arrieve: I went looking for a Scarlet Tanager yesterday. They are very rare and local here, and I’d love to get some decent pics of one. But only Summer Tanagers were calling, and although that is a lovely bird, they are definitely more common and less iconic! So I envy you that sighting in NYC; I’ll just keep looking here.
Princess Leia
So look forward to these each week. What a gift you have- thank you so much!
LivingInExile
Lovely as always. My wife always enjoys them a!so.
Steeplejack
@Amir Khalid:
Where do you think they get buffalo wings?
mvr
@Albatrossity:
We get the scarlet tanagers around our cabin in the mountains (9k feet) in Southern Wyoming. Also a differerent flycatcher but one that looks similar to the one you photographed.
Miss Bianca
Long ago in the Before Times, I was dreaming of joining a horseback riding expedition to the Flint Hills, almost entirely because of your photos. It had never occurred to me that Kansas flora and fauna could be so beautiful, and I’ve driven through the state numerous times! Alas, that trip has had to be indefinitely postponed, but thankfully, I still get to tour the area through your lovely photos. Thank you.
Albatrossity
@mvr: Probably not Scarlet Tanager, which would be way out of range in Wyoming. It’s listed as accidental and rare in the checklist for that state
https://bit.ly/3dVEO8H
Maybe Western Tanager?
Albatrossity
@Miss Bianca: Yes, trail rides through the Flint Hills in the spring and fall are quite popular; I think that would be a great experience. Sorry that this is not in your immediate future, but hopefully you can do it someday. In the meantime, I’ll just keep taking and sharing pictures!
WaterGirl
@Albatrossity: More sophisticated, less flashy!
Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)
All great pics. Isn’t it fun when you get a new yard bird!
Thanks,
Mike S.
mvr
@Albatrossity: yes you’re right. Western Tanager. And the flycatchers are cordilleran flycatchers.