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.
Albatrossity
A second batch of images from excursions here and there in Kansas this fall. These are again mostly from Quivira National Wildlife Refuge in central KS, taking advantage of the dawn light on those marshes.
One of the great things about early morning light is that it paints colors on birds, particularly white birds, and gives them a new look. These American White Pelicans were soaring in the dawn light, and have never looked better!
Smoky and foggy sunrise, since the Colorado fires were contributing to our atmosphere here most of the fall season. Big Bluestem is the grass in the foreground.
Another take on the foggy sunrise, this one on the day of the fall 2020 equinox. It took a while before the fog lifted that morning.
Reflection of a Great Egret and a Barn Swallow getting breakfast. I think that this is a very relaxing image, but those birds were working hard.
Another smoky dawn, reflected in a still pool at Quivira.
This one took me a while to ID, because although I have seen this species before, I had never seen one in this plumage. It’s a young Common Gallinule, which is a rare breeding bird in this state. I have seen the adults here before, but not the youngsters. A couple of weeks later, at the same spot, I saw an adult with three youngsters (probably including this one), so they must have hatched locally.
Here’s a Savannah Sparrow doing the splits. An abundant migrant in spring and fall here, this guy was one of about 30 in a small flock feeding in a weedy patch at Quivira.
Yellow-rumped Warblers are the other abundant warbler migrant here in the fall, and many stay for the winter as well. Ours are mostly the eastern (Myrtle) subspecies, like this one, but we can occasionally find a western (Audubon’s) version, or, more commonly, intergrades between these two subspecies. This picture demonstrates why these birds have earned the endearing term “butter-butt” among birders in the know.
Sedge Wren doing its morning yoga routine. These are migrants in spring and fall in Kansas, and, like all wrens, seem to have a lot of personality!
Albatrossity
I’ve also had questions in the comments on previous OTR submissions about my calendars for 2021. I don’t want to step on the Pets of Balloon Juice calendar sales, but if you need another calendar featuring Birds of Flyover Country or Landscapes from Kansas to Tanzania, click on those links to check them out. They are excellent holiday gifts, as you know!
Palindrome
Beautiful!
Elizabelle
Love these birds to start the week. So many good photos, I do not have a favorite, but love seeing those birds doing splits. Agile little things.
eclare
That Sedge Wren has a lot of personality!
OzarkHillbilly
Looking at those birds doing splits I have one reaction: Ouch.
MazeDancer
Beautiful light. Beautiful birdies.
JeanneT
Love these photos so much! A good way to start the week.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Oh wow. Those are beautiful.
Spanky
@Albatrossity:
I DO know, and I jumped on it for my hard-to-gift sis & BIL. They loved last year’s.
Albatrossity
@Spanky: Thanks!
Yeah, photo calendars are good gifts for the hard-to-gift, because just about everybody can use one, and just about everybody likes a new pretty picture every month. And it won’t clutter up the house; you can discard it and get a new one next year!
WaterGirl
@Albatrossity: Is it even legal to throw away old calendars? I had no idea that could even be done!
Albatrossity
@WaterGirl: It’s legal, but I never seem to get around to it!
JanieM
The bird pics are amazing, but to me the sky is the most endlessly fascinating thing — as in #3.
How far away are you when you take the bird shots? Let’s say, that last one of the Sedge Wren, which looks like it’s staring straight at you and saying, “WTF, Buddy?” in a scolding sort of way — but which I assume wouldn’t even be there if you were close enough for it to care about you.
Albatrossity
@JanieM: Thanks!
That wren is very small, so I need to be pretty close. I have found that if I lower my profile by sitting on a camp stool for a few minutes, the birds tend to ignore me after a bit. Then I make squeaky noises to attract their attention (most wrens and many sparrows are suckers for that sort of thing), they come look at me for a while. This one was about 25-30 ft away, as I recall.
MelissaM
You take some beautiful pictures!
Re. old calendars, I’ve used them for gift wrap (small gifts, naturally.) Sometimes I get creative about folding because of where the “face” of the picture is on the page. It’s at least one more use for the calendar.
JanieM
@Albatrossity: Thanks! What a great way to spend a morning…. :-)
mvr
These are all really nice pictures. Thanks! And thanks too for the info on how you get close enough to the birds.
arrieve
Gorgeous as always. I especially love the pelicans in the morning light, but they’re all beautiful.
Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)
All thee pics are lovely and others have said the Savannah Sparrow and the Sedge Wren doing splits are great. Actaully the Sedge Wren picture is the best pic of that very sht species I’ve ever seen. Thanks.
Yours in birding,
Mike S. (now with a Democratic President-Elect)
Albatrossity
@Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!): Thanks!
Yeah, they are shy, but they are also very tiny and can easily hide behind stems and such. Over the years, however, I’ve managed to coax a few of them into view. Some of those views can be seen in the US Birds Gallery on my portfolio site. Sadly, there is no way to search that site, but the pics are in roughly alphabetical order, so their images appear after the Scissor-tailed Flycatchers and just before the Short-eared Owls.
Betty
The pelican picture is beautiful. Wrens are adorable. So chipper.
Aleta
@Albatrossity: Thanks
J R in WV
After my stint in the Navy I was familiar with coastal brown pelicans, who are pretty endearing once you’ve spent a year or two watching them plunge straight down into the sea for a bite to eat.
Then, much later on in life, I went rock-hounding out west, mostly Colorado and Wyoming with a one-day swing through Utah. While camping on the bank of the Green River in SW Wyoming we saw quite a few white pelicans, some floating down the river, others flying overhead looking at the water, presumably for breakfast.
We had no idea there were white pelicans!!
Amazing!!! and Stunning when you aren’t expecting them…
Great work!! Now I really need to hear the squeaky noises, also too~!!~
;~)
Munira
Your photos are extraordinary.
Tehanu
Lovely. Thanks.