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
The Sweet Springs Sanctuary was a birdy spot, so here are some more cheery coastal California critters for your enjoyment. And now that the holiday shopping season has started, if you need a bird calendar to go with your Pets of Balloon Juice calendar, I have prepared three this year, including the jackal favorite, Bird Butts. Check them out here!
Dark-eyed Juncos (Junco hyemalis) are year-round residents in this part of the country, so there were a lot of them for me to photograph. Here’s one showing off those distinctive white outer tail feathers. Click here for larger image.
One of the delightful birds of the American West, the Bushtit (Psaltriparus minimus) travels with a crowd nearly all the time. That includes the breeding season, as this species is one of the first birds ever described as benefitting from helpers at the nest. Social, talkative, and busy would be good descriptors for these guys. Click here for larger image.
This is also a Bushtit, but the yellow iris tells us that it is an adult female. Iris color of adult males (like the one in the previous image) and youngsters is dark brown. These guys are a challenge to photograph, so I was quite happy to get good shots of both the sexes. Click here for larger image.
This colorful creature is a Townsend’s Warbler (Setophaga townsendi), which breeds in the Pacific Northwest and winters in California, Mexico, and Central America. This bird butt shot was in the final running for the calendar this year, but didn’t quite make the cut. Maybe next year! Click here for larger image.
Another year-round resident here, the Anna’s Hummingbird (Calypte anna), is found in both urban and rural areas, and may be one of the few species which has benefited from the human population boom. The breeding range in the early 20th century was confined to Baja Mexico and California, but it now is a summer resident all along the Pacific coast from BC to Mexico, as well as much of Arizona, and parts of New Mexico and Texas. This expansion is attributed to their fondness for cultivated gardens, as well as hummingbird feeders. Click here for larger image.
White-Crowned Sparrows (Zonotrichia leucophrys) are familiar to birders across the country, but this is a plumage you won’t see much of outside of the breeding range. This is a juvenile, fresh out of the nest, based on the streaking on the breast and the duller plumage overall. Click here for larger image.
Perhaps the parent of the bird in the previous image, this adult White-Crowned Sparrow sports that eponymous spiffy crown pattern, reminiscent of the old-time University of Michigan football helmets, for the oldsters among us. Click here for larger image.
This Western Fence Lizard (Sceloporus occidentalis) was in the scruffy coastal shrubberies, apparently looking for his fence. I was not able to help him find one, so he may still be wandering around out there. Click here for larger image.
This lovely flower, which was being guarded by the male Anna’s Hummingbird seen in an image above, is Bush Monkey Flower (Diplocus aurantiacus). It is native to the state, but apparently adapts well to living in your garden. Judging by the vigor with which the hummingbird was defending this patch, I’m guessing that it would be a great choice for a hummingbird or pollinator garden. Click here for larger image.
Don
Had to refresh to get this, but definitely worth hanging around. These are some of your best pics, imho.
Betty Cracker
Poor lizard. Hope he finds his fence!
Cristin is anm dom
I alway read but never comment. Thanks to all the front pagers for keeping me almost sane. Do you have a book, Albatrossity?
SteveinPHX
I will 2nd Don above. Amazing photos!
Albatrossity
@Cristin is anm dom: Thanks all! As I have said many times, bird photography is what keeps ME sane (ish).
Re a book, I don’t have a book of bird pictures. I do have an online introductory college biology textbook, but I suspect interest in that is pretty low. Bird picture books have gone the way of the dodo, with the advent of the internet and the explosion of digital photography options that include one’s phone. But I do make wall calendars every year, as noted above, and although that is also mostly a labor of love, people do seem to buy them, gift them, and otherwise fined them to be useful.
JeanneT
Some time ago I read Ursula LeGuin’s novel Always Coming Home, set somewhere in what had been California. Your pics from the past weeks fill in some of the visual details she described – including the monkey flower. Nice!
Rob
@Albatrossity: I also read but hardly ever comment. That said, I just bought all three of your calendars! Two for us and one for a birder friend (we’re birders too).
Albatrossity
@Rob: Thanks! I hope you all enjoy the calendars; a spot of beauty every month is certainly going to be valuable in the coming year!
MCat
Thanks once again for the marvelous photos. Yes, they definitely help to keep me sane. Such beautiful little creatures.
Torrey
Heh! After Saturday’s game, the first thing I thought of when I saw the White-Crowned Sparrow picture was the Michigan helmet. As always, wonderful pictures. Birds are fine things to think about as we start yet another week.
mvr
Juncos are a favorite and that is a nice photo of one. Not sure why we see them mostly in the winter in Nebraska and when we go to the mountains in Wyoming in the summer. Lincoln is not that far north of you but they don’t seem to be year round residents here. On the other hand, they have been back for a few weeks now and we see them daily.
Thanks as always for the photos!
Albatrossity
@mvr: Sorry for the confusion. The caption for the junco picture notes that they are year-round in “this part of the country”, but that actually refers to coastal California, which is the part of the country where I was at the time. Yeah, we only see juncos in the winter here in Flyover Country. And there are plenty of them out there right now!
Cristin is anm dom
I would buy a book, but I suppose it would be very expensive to produce. Your photos are always amazing.
mvr
@Albatrossity: Thanks! I was being thick not to figure that out.
stinger
Love the fluffy breast feathers on both Bushtits. Many birds are quite smooth there.
Western Fence Lizards would seem to be pretty safe from any aerial predators. I remember that wonderful coloring from an earlier post.
hotshoe
I do recommend planting monkey flower (called “sticky monkey flower” around here, because the leaves are resinous and yes, sticky) if you can. It really is a great choice for low water gardens, survives full summer drought and heat, but has the advantage over some other chaparral plants of tolerating some watering or summer rainfall as long as the soil is well-draining, so it can share space with more water-needy garden plants.
Supposedly CA monkey flower is zoned 7-10 (that is, average minimum temp zero). With global warming, that’s probably half of USA ;)
Wapiti
When I was a kid in California, we called the Western Fence Lizards “Blue Belly Lizards” because they have two blue stripes on their underside. When I was a teen, an old almond grower showed me the trick of using a wild oat stalk to make a noose to catch them.
Regarding juncos, I learned them as “Oregon Juncos”, but 3-4 apparent subspecies have been renamed “Dark-Eyed Juncos” since then.
munira
What beautiful colors on the junco – great shot.
TheOtherHank
Back in my misspent youth I used to refer to what I know are white crowned sparrows as Ranking Roger birds. Ranking Roger of the English Beat
JustRuss
Lovely pics. We rented a house on a lake for the weekend, I went for a sunrise paddle then while I was soaking in the hottub a belted kingfisher landed on our dock, about 20 feet from me. First time seeing one in person.