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.
TheOtherHank
I’m no Albatrossity, but from time to time birds pass in front of my camera. I scrolled through my library had found enough for a couple submissions. This first set is of raptors I have managed to photographs
My two boys played their share of youth sports. Sitting next to a baseball diamond or swimming pool watching them play was a good opportunity to see soaring birds. This, according to the Albatrossity rule that it’s always a redtailed hawk, is a redtail that was flying around over a little league baseball game.
This, in spite of the Albatrossity Rule, doesn’t seem like it’s a redtail, but it is definitely looking for something.
This picture and the next one are of an osprey coming in to land at its nest that was built on top of tufa formation in the lake.
Here are (Albatrossity Rule) a couple of redtails flirting with one another. I see this behavior fairly often: a couple of birds circle around one another while dangling their legs.
This picture and the next one are of a (Albatrossity Rule) redtail that was soaring over a swim meet.
Mo MacArbie
CA, eh? They’re not all Redtails; sometimes I go for Blue Heron.
Raven
Great pic! I ran youth sports programs for years, baseball is boring (note the holes in the outfield where they stand out there and dig with their shoes) but nothing is worse than swim meets! Hours of sitting around for seconds of activity ! The bullpen indeed!
Rob
These are nice photos! Clear skies to have me dreaming here in cloudy sleet-coated DC.
Gin & Tonic
@Raven: Let me tell you about youth gymnastics for girls, where every girl does the same exact floor routine to the same music, so you sit on metal bleachers for 8-9 hours hearing the same 2-minute piece of music over, and over, and over….
HinTN
@Raven: I was on the other side of it, I guess. I refereed youth soccer (U-18 down to U-8), both on-field and indoor, and umpired little league baseball. Never a dull moment
ETA: Love da boid pix. Thanks
Skepticat
This tiny Bahamian island has quite a population of American kestrels, many of whom survived Dorian. I had our internet tower on my property before the storm downed it, and there almost always was at least one kestrel perched on top. They’re beautiful birds, though the curlytails and geckos don’t think so.
cope
What serene, relaxing photos of highly efficient killing and eating machines.
All the comments above about attending youth sports of most kinds: yes. The comment about participating in youth sports: another yes.
stinger
Few of us are. Still, great pics! I especially like the osprey zooming in to its mate.
Albatrossity
Nice! #2 is a Northern Harrier. Rules are made to be broken, I guess!
eclare
Love the osprey photos!
UncleEbeneezer
@Gin & Tonic: My sister did gymnastics and I went to one meet. Heard that damn song from Casablanca so many freaking times, for their floor routines. I’ve always hated that song, ever since.
UncleEbeneezer
@Gin & Tonic: Also, don’t forget the anxiety of wondering if at any moment someone is going to suffer a paralyzing fall off the beam, uneven bars, vault. The falls in gymnastics are scary as AF. My parents could hardly watch.
TomatoQueen
Same again for figure skating, hours and hours of the same damn thing over and over again and you’re freezing your butt in the bleachers.
Love the birds, especially that rule-breaking Northern Harrier.
pat
Pretty sure that last one is a Golden Eagle.
I’ve been trying to get a good shot of one. I can send in a bad shot…..
Also got a light morph juvenile Rough-legged Hawk yesterday. I was using the camera settings that Albatrossity recommended the other day, and the shots are better than my Golden, but the bird was still pretty far away. Had to crop and manipulate a bit.
TheOtherHank
@Albatrossity:
Thanks for the id of that one!
On the topic of youth sports, I’m all in on baseball being boring. I coached soccer for 8 years, but coaching and bird photography don’t mix. I did like swim meets, though. Yes the kids sit around for an hour or so between each bout of a minute or two of intense activity, but they get to hang out with their friends and the parents get to hang out or help time the meet. And most importantly they’re not at home with all those chores hanging over their heads. Plus, there’s lots of opportunities to photograph the races. If we had a Sports Photos Of My Kids category, I could supply years of photos of swim races.
TheOtherHank
@pat:
I was torn between calling it a dark morph red tail or a golden eagle, but the Albatrossity Rule made me go with hawk.
pat
Let’s hope Albatrossity weighs in!
JustRuss
Love the Mono Lake shots.
Humanities Prof
I’m not a Californian (though I do have a brother there), and I’m not the bird-watcher that either my dad or my brother are, but based on what I’m seeing, the final three shots are all eagles.
The Albatrossity Rule is a good one, and generally accurate. However, the wing shapes for those last three photos don’t look like redtails–they’re too long. They look like eagles to me.
way2blue
@UncleEbeneezer: Try watching your sons compete in wrestling meets (especially after one had his arm broken in his first meet). Held my breath the whole season…
pat
@Humanities Prof:
You might be right. When I look closely, I can see the gold on the back of the neck. And since the last two are the same bird, that makes them both Golden.
I have prepared an OTR post. ;-)
And where’s Albatrossity when we need him?
Albatrossity
@pat: The last one is not a Golden Eagle; no eagle in this country has that underwing pattern, or that golden color on the chest. It’s a Western Red-tailed Hawk, like this one.
pat
@Albatrossity:
Ooops. Thanks for clearing that up. I have submitted my photo of a real Golden for my OTR post. Will look forward to your comments.
pat
search.macaulaylibrary.org/catalog?taxonCode=goleag&q=Golden%20Eagle%20-%20Aquila%20chrysaetos
Steeplejack
Redacted.
Steeplejack
@Steeplejack:
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Wolvesvalley
This is a test of visual mode with Firefox 85.0.2 in Windows 10. I did not get a cursor until I hit refresh. Then able to click in the box to get the cursor and posted this comment.
WaterGirl
Today every time WV refreshes the BJ post, then she can comment – but only after first clicking in the comment box to make the cursor appear.
Without a refresh, clicking in the comment box does not make the cursor appear.
Wolvesvalley
@WaterGirl: I clicked reply to reply to WaterGirl. The comment box supplied the @Watergirl: link but not a flashing cursor. I clicked after the link and got the flashing cursor and was able to type this reply.
Wolvesvalley
@Steeplejack: Still testing the reply function. I did not get a cursor until I clicked in the box after the @Steeplejack link. After it appeared I was able to type this comment.