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.
Tonight we are heading back to Paris After Dark!
On the Road: Week of August 24 (5 am)
Albatrossity – The Sandhills of Nebraska
Auntie Anne – The “Lesser” Parts of Versailles
?BillinGlendaleCA – Amboy
Steve from Mendocino _ Paris Atmosphere
Jerry – Blue Ridge MountainsParis After Dark: Week of August 24 (10pm)
Wag – Paris, 3/2018
Paul in St. Augustine – Paris
Steve from Mendocino – Paris atmosphere
donatellonerd – Paris — home
Auntie Anne – Paris Week PicturesAnd now, on to Albatrossity! Stunning photos today – that flower is absolutely breathtaking. But will no one think of the tadpoles? (ouch) ~WaterGirl
Albatrossity
Elizabeth and I made a getaway to the Sandhills of Nebraska and the Niobrara River in July. It was a six-hour drive over some fine blue highways, and we stopped once (to have a picnic lunch) along the way. We ended up 30 or so miles south of the NE/SD border, at a guest house at the Hutton Ranch Wildlife Sanctuary. The house and sanctuary are owned by a conservation organization, Audubon of Kansas, whose board of directors Elizabeth serves on. Yeah, I know that owning property in Nebraska is a bit weird for a Kansas conservation organization, but long ago and far away Kansas and Nebraska were lumped together. They probably still are for many folks who live east of the Hudson River…
At any rate we spent four days up there in a part of the country that is underpopulated and underappreciated. I saw one other person (other than guys driving by in their big pickup trucks) in 4 days, and Elizabeth saw none, since she was out hiking purposefully on the Sanctuary most of the time that I was wandering around aimlessly looking for photo opportunities. Here are some pics from that trip; an additional 8 images will follow in a week or so.
Sunrise is one of my favorite times of the day in flyover country. Here’s the sunrise greeting us on our first morning there; the silhouetted object in the foreground is an old busted down Conestoga-style wagon. This ranch was homesteaded in 1880, when wagons like that were still in style.
It was the time of the summer when lots of birds are busy parenting. This Black Tern was one of many skimming over a pond that contained many bullfrog tadpoles. It contained a lot fewer by the end of the weekend; I watched these guys catch tadpoles and carry them off to the waiting babies every chance I got. And they carried off a lot of tadpoles!
Another cool marshland bird is this rail, an adult Sora. I found adult and young Soras in this marsh, and was able to get a decent picture of this normally secretive bird.
Barn Swallows were also busy feeding young. So many hungry mouths!
There is no active prairie-dog town on the sanctuary these days; there once was a nice-size colony, but it got flooded out in the heavy rains last year. But there were still a few Burrowing Owls in the vicinity, and this one was unhappy with me when I inadvertently stopped the car too close to her burrow. The babies had fledged; I saw one just down the road, waiting on a fence-post for a meal. As soon as I figured out why she was upset with me, I left the scene so that she could continue taking care of the kids.
The wildflowers were amazing. Here’s just one of them, in dawn light. Indian Blanket (Gaillardia pulchella), also known as Firewheel or (confusingly) Indian Paintbrush, which is also the common name for an entirely different plant, Castilleja coccinea.
The Sandhills of Nebraska are also within the breeding range of one of our more unusual birds, the Bobolink. We see them in Kansas in spring and fall migration, but it was a real treat to find a wet meadow with a dozen or so of these counter-shaded beauties.
This is the Niobrara River from the Norden Bridge, just north of some gorgeous property owned and managed by the Nature Conservancy. In the 1970s the Bureau of Reclamation proposed building a dam here. That met with great resistance, and it was never built. Now the river is a National Scenic River and hopefully immune from dam-building zealots. A good history of that struggle can be found here.
JPL
Lovely pictures. Mama’s protect their young as they should.
HinTN
That owl definitely had your number. The sunrise sky is wonderful. Thanks for these.
Van Buren
Very nice. Seems like a very serene part of the world.
Stevie
Just beautiful! Thanks!
waynel140
“Put me down, you bitch!”
This year in Central Texas, I saw fields of gallardias following the bluebonnets. I’ve never seen them so numerous along the roads. I think this is also another sign of climate change. We are drying out. Al, which side of the dry line are you?
eclare
The expression on that owl’s face…
Wag
Fantastic photos, as always.
The Sandhills are an amazing place. When I drive to visit family in Minnesota I like to turn off I-80, head north at North Platte, and head through the Sandhills to I-90. The undulating hills are hypnotic.
Geologically, the Sandhills are really cool. Most people don’t realize that there is an area of sand dunes in the middle of our country that are the size of the dunes of Saudi Arabia, locked in place by the grasses of the Great Plains. Remove the grasses, and the dunes would move again.
p.a.
????????????
JPL
It is a beautiful sanctuary, and I wonder how much conservation land will be left, if trump wins in November. He’ll use the power of eminent domain to seize whatever he can.
Laura Too
Stunning, thank you!
MelissaM
Beautiful. I want to walk alongside you through there.
waratah
Tadpoles have another enemy, children. I remember catching them with my brothers with the hope of watching them turn into frogs. Sadly we could not keep them alive long enough.
Great photos and story thank you.
greenergood
So beautiful!! As a New Yorker, I ‘ve never spent any time in Kansas, Nebraska-type lands (esp. now having lived in Scotland for 35 years …). Went once to the Left Coast when an early teenager with my parents, and once to OK/TX later, but my only visuals of these beautiful Midwest lands are Terence Malick’s films Badlands and Days of Heaven – and his attention to the amazing landscape makes it a character in those films. Your photos are part of that education for me. Also too, thought Terns were only seabirds – since we’ve got plenty of them here, and I’ve a cultivated Galliarda, which looks a bit like its wild cousin, but is VERY showy.
J R in WV
Thanks for these wonderful pictures of the beautiful parts of the Great Plains. We drove across Kansas mostly on the little blue line roads once, was really pretty. We visited a little community museum, partly settler material from the old times, partly minerals and fossils from chalk beds along creeks in the area. Old timer has species named after him who found it, loved chatting with him.
But I’m an old rockhound… would love to have a species named for me, a way to be a little more immortal…
ETA: Can you canoe on that little river??
BigJimSlade
Bobolink, Burrowing Owls, and Barn Swallows for the win!
Jay Noble
@J R in WV:
Yes! It’s one of the main attractions of the Niobrara.
We also tank down it as in use stock tanks for canoes
Jay Noble
@Wag:
And in a mighty hurry given our winds
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@BigJimSlade: Yes!
Albatrossity
@Jay Noble:
There is often plenty of drinking in that activity; it may be the origin of the phrase “getting tanked”!
Bill Dunlap
To appreciate the history of the Nebraska Sand Hills and Niobrara River, pick up Old Jules by Mari Sandoz. Jules was her father and a mean cuss of a pioneer. This link is to the Old Jules Trail in the area around Gordon and Rushville. http://www.old-jules-trail.com/trail.html
Beth Schultz
Kansas is full of wonders! Thanks for sharing one of them with such beautiful photos.