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! Dave put his post together for us on Thursday, but not to worry, Albatrossity is already at home and well as you are reading this.
We have some treats this week, check the schedule below! I rearranged the schedule a bit so we can have the Halloween post on the 31st, and I’d like to have some fall color every week for awhile before the snow starts.
(click on the image to see the bigger, non-blurry version)
Albatrossity
As I write this I am in the hospital to treat a recurrence of atrial flutter. I got my heart rebooted this morning, and that went well. I feel fine, and am ambulatory and cantankerous. But they are starting me on a different anti-arrhythmic medication that has complications in some patients. So the treatment protocol calls for me to be here for another 48 hours. Ambulatory and cantankerous, but also away from the image files that I normally would need to put together my On The Road submission. Click here for larger image.
Rather than skip a week, and also to give me something to do, I decided to choose ten images from the previous 10 years of shooting bird pics, and share them here. These may or may not be my exact favorite images from their respective years, but they are images that have a story, brought me delight, and that I think need to be shared. So here ya go, and I’ll be back in the regular saddle next week for sure.
In 2013 we went to Brazil, spending some time in Manaus (in the Amazon Basi) and also in the Pantanal, a vast wetland in the southwest of that country. Too many birds to mention, but a great favorite was the Plush-crested Jay (Cyanocoraz chrysops). South America has some great corvids, but this one ranks at or near the top for me! Click here for larger image.
In 2014 we were spending our second winter in a house that backs up on a 40+ acre woodlot, and I was getting lots of yard birds that I had not seen in previous yards where I lived. This Eastern Screech-owl (Megascops asio) perched in a cedar tree right outside our dining room window one snowy evening. I had to shoot the picture through window glass, but it was a memorable evening. Click here for larger image.
A cross-country trip to Moscow Idaho in 2015 took us across the Bighorn Mountains, where this Mountain Bluebird (Sialia currucoides) posed nicely for the camera. Click here for larger image.
In 2016 we took a trip with a KSU Study Abroad class to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands. Elizabeth was one of the instructors, and I was a TA. It was a great trip, highlighted by a trip to Punta Pitt, on the east end of San Cristobal, where this Blue-footed Booby mom was incubating her two young booblets. Click here for larger image,
I retired from the university in 2017 and started to devote more time to work on my bird photography hobby. I had pictures of Whooping Cranes (Grus americana) from past years, but this was my first opportunity to photograph them in flight, and it was a group that included one rusty-tinged young bird, hatched out the previous summer and making its first trip south. Click here for larger image.
Konza Prairie is a great natural area and research station just about 10 miles from my house, and also a great place for Bird photography. I love this 2018 shot of a male Blue Grosbeak (Passerina caerulea), because it includes some habitat clues (dogwood berries) and has a faint tinge of the pinkish morning light as well. Click here for larger image.
Retirement meant that I got to spend some time on photographic walkabouts in places and seasons where I could not visit while I was working. One of those places and seasons was Southeastern Arizona in the springtime in 2019, where I got this shot of a statanic-looking male Rivoli’s Hummingbird (Eugenes fulgens). Red eyeshine really adds a lot to my appreciation of this species! Click here for larger image.
2020 brought lots of changes, with the COVID pandemic restricting travel opportunities significantly. But we were able to get away that fall to the Hutton Wildlife Sanctuary in a very isolated part of northern Nebraska, and I managed to get a flight shot of a Sharp-tailed Grouse (Tympanuchus phasianellus). Click here for larger image.
In 2021 travel had opened up again, thanks to vaccines, and my son and daughter-in-law came to visit from California. While we were touring some of the local birding spots, we found the first Merlin (Falco columbarius) of the season. From the looks of that full crop, it had just had a big breakfast! Click here for larger image.
In 2022 I was well into my fascination with the wintering Red-tailed Hawks (Buteo jamaicensis) that grace this part of Flyover Country from October to March. But this one is special. He is banded. I got to participate in the capture and banding of this bird in February of 2021. It returned in the winter of 2021-2022, and again in the winter of 2022-23. I await its return from the far Northwest again this season! Click here for larger image.
Donatellonerd
Those are some of the most remarkable bird pictures i’ve ever seen — and i’ve seen lots of your remarkable ones. i look forward to Mondays because of them (Pollyanna’s glad game, what’s there to be glad about on Mondays?). Hope you’re feeling better and also better.
cckids
The pictures and stories are, as always, lovely. Feel better soon!
mrmoshpotato
First picture – “I don’t always look this surprised! YOU always look this surprised! Surprise!”
Hope your health keeps getting better.
WereBear
@mrmoshpotato: LOL.
Great pics! Takes so much patience.
OzarkHillbilly
Your scraps are as good as a 6 course meal at a 5 star restaurant.
eclare
These photos are amazing! Did you hear the screech owl screech?
Take it easy and do what the doctors tell you! Glad you’re home.
Princess
Every one of these is a gem.
SteveinPHX
I love this every Monday morning!
pinacacci
Your work has always been a gift and a treasure. Thank you for sharing what you see.
TaMara
All stunning, as always. Hope your hospital stay is easy and the results are what you need.
I have a friend who suffered from something similar – he had surgery this past spring to severe some extra nerves he had developed that created the flutter (there is an actual name for this condition, but I was on a plane all day yesterday and haven’t finished my first cup of coffee yet this a.m. so that’s the best I can do).
Despite some skepticism, that simple procedure ended his symptoms completely. Hoping your new meds have the same effect.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
Thank you for these! It was a beautiful way to start the day. My favorite is the plush crested jay, I like corvids for some reason, possibly because they remind me of my self… :)
Albatrossity
@TaMara: Thanks! Yes, hopefully my case can be treated with medication, but it is actually good to know that there are other viable options if this doesn’t work. So far it works pretty well, maybe even too well. Currently my resting pulse is 45-50 bpm. Dosage adjustment may be able to bump that up to a more normal (for me, historically) 55-60. Right now I’m just grateful to get out of the hospital!
Denali5
Thanks for sharing these amazing photos. I have never seen a blue grosbeak- so much to learn about the world of birds!
WaterGirl
@OzarkHillbilly:
High praise, indeed!
Tarragon
Wow, the Rivoli’s Hummingbird looks like it’s lit from within
WaterGirl
@Tarragon: It really does!
zhena gogolia
Lovely pictures, as always. Best wishes for full recovery.
stinger
What a spectacular set of images — some local, some exotic. Your camera lens always helps my ocular lenses do better! Glad you are on the mend!
Kristine
Gorgeous photos. I especially loved the blue grosbeak photo because I have those dogwood in my yard (they’re gray dogwood, Cornus racemosa)
(PS best wishes that the new heart med works a treat)
Embra
It may be a Rivoli’s Hummingbird to most, but it’s a Dark Brandonbird to me.
These photos are even more spectacular than usual. Thanks so much for sharing them with us over the years. And best of luck to you on the new medication.
mvr
This is quite a collection of spectacular photos!
I hope that the heart adjustment works out optimally for you. I imagine that waiting around in the hospital for two days while they observe you isn’t much fun even when all goes according to plan. I gather that you are now out, so that’s good.
StringOnAStick
The procedure Tamara mentioned is called cardiac ablation and is done via endoscopy so no huge surgery, your doctor can let you know more and if medication is your better option. Best wishes on your ongoing recovery, and thanks again for the beauty you share with us each week!
way2blue
Best wishes that the heart medicine tames your atrial flutter. The photo of a momma booby triggered a memory of visiting Midway Island years ago. No boobies at the time, but I should have paid more attention to all the seabirds!
MobiusKlein
@StringOnAStick:
For me, the ablation did the trick. It’s been 2 years since the procedure, and it’s been great.
Some of the anti-arrhythmia drugs have terrible listed side effects, such as turning your skin grey permanently.
Yutsano
BOOBY!!!
*ahem*
I love all your birds, but every time I see a raptor I remember at one point I considered changing my major from music to raptor biology. Alas, fate and money intervened.
WaterGirl
@Yutsano: Is tomorrow the day you hear about the job? I think you said the 31st.
BigJimSlade
Great set :-)