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.
Happy Monday!
Better get out your hiking boots because we have a week of hiking ahead, in some beautiful locations.
(slick on the image below for a bigger, non-blurry version)
Albatrossity
Here is another potpourri of images from the summer, again with no real theme, but just sharing the beauty of the natural world in a time when beauty seems so necessary.
Photographing hatch-year birds occupied a lot of my time this summer, for some reason. I’d like to think that means that our local birds had a productive year! Here are a pair of young Orchard Orioles (Icterus spurius) exploring the world in their first summer on the planet. Our back yard had a pair of Orchard Orioles this summer, and the babies were seen several times. Click here for larger image.
Northern Parulas (Setophaga americana) are one of the few warbler species that nest in my patch of Flyover Country, they also seem to have had a good year yere. This youngster was quite curious about me and the camera, and posed nicely for this portrait on a lichen-encrusted twig Click here for larger image.
The recently-fledged warbler above looks a lot like its parents, but some birds are a bit more mysterious in their first summer plumage. This is a Red-headed Woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus), but it doesn’t have a red head. It is just starting to show a tinge of red on the back of the head, but these gray-headed woodpeckers consternate plenty of birders here every summer. Click here for larger image.
Ruby-throated Hummingbirds (Archilochus colubris) in hatch-year plumage strongly resemble adult female birds, and it can be difficult to separate the birds by age classes. One clue is the very fresh plumage (no nicks or worn ends) and the scaly look of the buffy-edged crown feathers. Hopefully this one makes the trip to Central America and back here successfully; it’s always good to have more hummingbirds around! Click here for larger image.
Adult male Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are very aptly named, and you can also see the plain green crown (no scaly look) in this picture. Late in the summer these feisty males seemed to be everywhere I went! Click here for larger image.
Another feisty bird that seems to be increasing its population around here, the Painted Bunting (Passerina ciris) truly defies description, especially the male as seen here. The French name for this species, Passerin nonpareil, sums it up pretty well. It is indeed peerless! Click here for larger image.
Spotted Sandpipers (Actitis macularius) do indeed have spotted plumage for much of the summer, but sometime in August, they will usually molt into a very much more drab unspotted version for the winter months. This unassuming bird migrates singly or in small groups, moving twice a year between the summer range (mostly in Canada) and a winter range mostly along the coasts of northern South America. Their jerky stride has earned them some interesting nicknames, including Teeter-bob and Tip-tail. Click here for larger image.
On many summer days I find myself sitting on our back deck in the shade, watching the birds on the feeders or in the surrounding trees. White-breasted Nuthatches (Sitta carolinensis) are here year-round, and are always entertaining. This one was picking off the ants who live in a small hollow in one of the locust trees. Click here for larger image.
Wooly Verbena (Verbena stricta, aka Hoary Vervain) is an abundant and colorful native on our local prairies. And since a lot of the BJ jackals are dedicated gardeners, I thought I should include a flower picture for those folks! Click here for larger image.
Finally, the season for holiday calendars is rolling around, and I am gathering and judging images for my annual Bird Butt calendar. It ain’t complete yet, but this Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus) is certainly a contender this year! Click here for larger image.
HinTN
nonpareil, indeed! Wonderful pictures and commentary, as always. I think I like the nuthatch chowing down the best. I must need breakfast. 🤔
Why do the gray-headed woodpeckers confound the birders. You seem to understand perfectly well that kids these days…
JPL
I love the painted bunting!
eclare
Oooh…a Painted Bunting! Beauty is necessary, thank you.
SteveinPHX
I’m amazed! Thank you for these beautiful, informative photographs!
Rusty
I’ve never seen a painted bunting, very pretty!
J.
Great shots as usual. Particular love the painted bunting and the derriere shot. Thanks for sharing!
Nelle
These are feasts of image and information. We are so fortunate. Thank you. Thank you.
This time of year, as the leaves fall, I like looking for nests on the newly bare branches. For several years, it seemed that I was seeing fewer and fewer. This fall, though, I’m seeing more. Two more in a backyard tree, making three total, a lot for a small tree.
Princess
What a great way to start a week. Your photos are spectacular
Peggy
Thank you for the wonderful photographs. The beauty of nature is a welcome balm.
Xavier
My son the birder described Painted Bunting as looking like something that was colored by a kindergartner.
mvr
That Bunting is striking!
Thanks!
AM in NC
Wow! Love these. Thanks for the variety and for the descriptions.
Miss Bianca
Funny! I am the least competent birder in the world but I was able to look at the juvie woodpecker and say, “Red-Headed Woodpecker” before even noticing the lack of red head plumage! Yay! (probably because we have so many of them up here that I was able to recognize the body coloring.)
All your photos spectacular, as always!
Rob
As always, I love your photographs!
Yutsano
BIRB BUTT!
As always, love your bird pictures on a Monday. Especially a lazy staycation* Monday where I don’t have a lot to do other than fold clothes and maybe go yell at T-Mobile for selling me a defective Otterbox.
*Does it count as a staycation if you’re in a hotel because your bathroom is so rotted it needs to be ripped out and totally redone?