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.
It’s Albatrossity Monday, and UncleEb, TKH and Elma all continue with their series! We finish up the week with a real treat with Steve from Mendocino.
I still don’t know what you guys have all been thinking about these last few weeks :-) but this would be a good time to submit that OTR post you have been considering putting together.
Albatrossity
Birdwatching in a midcontinent winter often consists of watching the birdfeeder from the comfort of your home, or wandering through cold fields while braving a wind chill in the “colder than Ann Coulter’s heart” range. Neither of those scenarios are ideal for photography. I have spent the last couple of winters cruising back roads looking for hawks, so you may see a lot of hawks here as winter moves in.
But first we’ll go back to a favorite bird food source here this fall, the Pokeberry (Phytolacca americana). After a couple of hard freezes, there are still a lot of fruits on the pokeberry bushes, but they have shriveled up. Pokeraisins? Pokeprunes? Take your pick! Click here for larger image.
And even though the catbirds and warblers have scooted south for the season, the winter-resident birds are still enjoying the raisins. Here are some closeups of a couple of sparrows, Harris’s Sparrow (Zonotrichia querula) at left and White-crowned Sparrow (Z. leucophrys) at right, with telltale traces of pokeberry pigment staining their beaks. Click here for larger image.
After the pokeberries are gone (which may be next April, since we had a bumper crop this year), the sparrows will turn their attention to the seeds of our state flower, which also are abundant this year. These sunflowers, near one of our local fishing lakes, got decorated with cattail fluff. Click here for larger image.
Here’s one final look at a fall passage migrant perched in the fall colors, a Marsh Wren (Cistothorus palustris). A few linger here in the winter nowadays, but most will be in the Gulf Coast states or in Mexico. Click here for larger image.
As one might imagine, the influx of flocks of sparrows also means that we see some birds that like to eat sparrows. One of those is the Merlin (Falco columbarius), a feisty falcon of open country and an avid predator of small birds. These are only winter residents here, alas, but I’ve already seen several and it’s only mid-November as I write this. One intriguing sighting was a young Merlin (at left in this photo) who was sitting on a branch just minding his own business when he was accosted by an adult male American Kestrel (Falco sparverius). Merlins are pugnacious and rarely back down, but this kestrel convinced him to vacate that branch and move away. I have rarely seen Merlins successfully bullied, so this was a memorable sighting! Click here for larger image.
More Merlin! Here’s an adult female (based on the grayish, not brownish) crown feathering. Attitude personified. Click here for larger image.
And here’s an adult male. Blue-gray back and boldly banded tail. Despite their small size, these are often very accommodating subjects for photography. They really have no fear of humans, generally. Click here for larger image.
Another winter resident is the Northern Harrier (aka Marsh Hawk, Circus hudsonius), which primarily summers in northern marshes and comes down to Kansas for the excellent rodent populations in the winter. This is an adult female, streaky below and brown above, with the characteristic white rump patch that helps you ID this bird at a great distance. Click here for larger image.
Adult male Northern Harriers are pale and white below, gray above. The Gray Ghost of grasslands and marshes across North America. Click here for larger image.
The final bird for today is a young Red-Shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus), which is quickly becoming a much more common species in my part of the country. Youngsters of this species can be confused with young Broad-winged Hawks (Buteo platypterus), but the dense streaking from chest to belly is a good field mark for Red-shouldered. And by this time of year Broad-winged Hawks should all be in Central or South America; sometimes the calendar is a good ID point as well. Click here for larger image.
OzarkHillbilly
I like Pruned pokes.
Love the Marsh Wren portrait and the dancing Merlin/Kestrel pair
JPL
The Marsh Wren picture is beautiful. Hawks are hunting for food in my backyard. I’m fine with them grabbing a chipmunk or two, as long as they don’t attack my mutt.
Paul in St. Augustine
How do you go about capturing action images, like the Marlin and Kestrel? It’s an amazing photo.
zhena gogolia
Beautiful.
SteveinPHX
Oh man! Just incredible photographs. Starts my week off on a positive note. Thank you.
JeanneT
What zhena said!
Geminid
Thank you Mr. A for these great pics! I have forwarded them to friends in Massachusetts, Atlanta, Charlottesville, and Capetown, South Africa (my friend Joan is visiting that city).
Albatrossity
Thanks, I was just plain lucky with the merlin/kestrel sequence. I was photographing the merlin when the kestrel bombed in. Certainly there was no planning on my part!
That photo is one of the shots in my 2023 Calendar Birds of Flyover Country. Not exactly a pet calendar, but also an excellent holiday gift to yourself or others. There is also, back by popular demand, a 2023 Bird Butts calendar!
Yutsano
It’s raptor season! I’ve always had a fondness for smaller raptors, mostly because they always seem to have permanent Napoleon syndrome. Plus peregrine falcons (not pictured) are beautiful.
Princess Leia
The Merlin/Kestrel is just fabulous! Your raptor shots always thrill me. Thank you so much, Albatrossity!!!
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
What beautiful pictures. Great way to start my day. Also, I was today years old when I learned the pokeberries growing over my back fence are good fall bird food!
JanieM
Just gorgeous. I too love the Merlin and the Kestrel — amazing to have caught that shot. For the sheer beauty of the picture, I would take the second-to-last — the Northern Harrier with the field in the blurry background. Lovely pictures.
munira
Great as always. The encounter between the merlin and the kestrel is epic.
S cerevisiae
Merlins aren’t afraid of much, I have seen them chase off ravens, bald eagles, and blue herons. They nest here in the north woods, once a pair nested in a spruce tree at the edge of my yard and I watched them in the spotting scope raise 3 chicks. They have a piercing cry which is a sign of spring up here.
Mj_Oregon
Your photos are always a lovely way to begin my Mondays. Although pokeberries aren’t native to my area, I think I might try growing them here if they’re not considered invasive. Always looking for new sources of food for the locals!
WaterGirl
@Albatrossity: Even when you say that, I think that you make your own luck. You are surely quiet and infinitely patient, so I bet you catch things that others are less likely to catch.
JustRuss
Raptor rapture!
Albatrossity
@WaterGirl: Thanks. But I still think it has a lot more to do with spending time outdoors (which I can afford to do now that I am retired) than anything else. Patience is good, and observational awareness is good, but time is a key parameter as well!
And the more time I spend away from the news and in the outdoors, the better I feel :-)
mvr
These are all such good photos. Like everyone else my favorite is the Merlin & Kestrel, but then looking at the ones that followed that one I had to think twice about whether it was still my favorite. I enjoy the Harriers we have up here and as you say appreciate their having a white patch so that I can tell them apart from other distant raptors.
Thanks!