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.
We are everywhere this week!
Albatrossity
About the time the avian migration slowed down this year, the spring semester ended and Elizabeth turned in grades and was officially free. So we headed about 6 hours north to one of our favorite places in the world, the Hutton Niobrara Ranch Wildlife Sanctuary in the Sandhills of Nebraska. We rendezvoused with another writer and English professor, whose roots are also in the grasslands of the Great Plains, even though he currently lives and works in Alabama. Sanctuary for wildlife served as sanctuary for us as well.
If you have never heard of the Niobrara River, or if you have heard of but never been there, here is an overview map of the region, with a couple of sites marked so you can follow along below. Near the NE-SD border, the Niobrara is a National Scenic River. In the upper reaches near the town of Valentine, canoeing, tubing, and kayaking are popular activities, since the Niobrara is a rocky-bottomed and fast-flowing stream there. It widens out and flows a bit more gently in the stretch near the Hutton Ranch. And if you want to know more about the sanctuary, here is a history of the Hutton Sanctuary, and a link to my first On The Road photo-essay about the place, from 2020. Click here for larger image.
Unfortunately, our first day at the ranch was cool and rainy, making bird photography somewhat problematical. So we did a road trip from the ranch house to Norden (population 7), then down to the Norden Bridge and the Niobrara Valley Preserve. The latter is a 56,000 acre protected area, managed by the Nature Conservancy, operated as a working ranch (both bison and cattle). It has a hiking trail and some stunning views of the river. We saw a couple of young bison bulls sparring, as well as some impressive American Bison (Bison bison) bulls like this one! Click here for larger image.
Overcast days, as long as they are not too overcast, can be good for photographing some birds, since there are no harsh shadows to deal with. This Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum) has a smooth soft plumage already, so it proved to be a good subject for this day. Click here for larger image.
The next day started out gloomy and rainy again, but by afternoon there was some actual sunlight, and some of the local birds were singing. So I made a brief excursion to see what would blunder in front of my lens. One target species was Bobolink (Dolichonyx oryzivorus), which are abundant birds in this part of Nebraska, and visually striking with their counter-shaded plumage (darker below and lighter above, in contrast to most other birds. This male was singing lustily just about quarter-mile from the ranch house. Click here for larger image.
Many birds have pale fringes on new feathers that gradually wear off to reveal the more intensely-colored breeding-season plumage. This male Bobolink is a good example. The inset shows the belly and part of the wing of the bird, with pale skinny fringing on the tips of some of the feathers. According to the Birds of the World account for this species, these feather tips should have worn off by early May, resulting in a jet-black appearance for those feathers. However, according to those authors, the “thin fringing on belly, flanks, and undertail coverts persist the longest.” Click here for larger image.
Another extremely common resident here (and in most of North America actually), the Red-winged Blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus) were singing and displaying from just about every other fencepost. This male was more subdued than some of his conspecifics. Click here for larger image.
The object of his affections, a female Red-winged Blackbird. One of the more confusing of our native songbirds, this creature has induced weeping and gnashing of teeth in many field ornithology students. Click here for larger image.
The iconic voice of the Sandhills, Western Meadowlarks (Sturnella neglecta) were also showing off their vocal skills that afternoon. Listen to this one and see if it helps your Monday. Click here for larger image.
Eastern Kingbirds (Tyrannus tyrannus) were hanging out with the Western Meadowlarks, which is surely a sign of DEI or wokeness or sump’n. They are are usually avid chasers of any flying insect in their vicinity, but this one looks pretty much bored by the tasty snack flying toward it, Perhaps it had a full tummy already. Click here for larger image.
On our last evening at Hutton Ranch, we were treated to a fine Great Plains evening sky, illuminating a cottonwood stand in the prairie just south of the ranch house. ‘Twas a good way to end the day. Click here for larger image.
Winter Wren
Looks like a special place!
stinger
A National Scenic River, you say? Sounds like it needs a golf course and a casino hotel or two. (PLEEZE don’t bring it to the attention of the Felon.)
Thanks for the song of the Western Meadowlark. It is a day brightener! Lovely photos, all.
MartyIL
Thanks for the pictures and narrative. Sounds like a great place to see plains nature.
SteveinPHX
Thank you for the prairie birds. I have not been anywhere near their territories since I started bird looking!
zhena gogolia
I would love to see a Cedar Waxwing.
We have a lot of red-winged blackbirds on our street. I love them.
The meadowlark song!
JeanneT
Your photos and links to songs DID boost my Monday morning. They certainly are making me feel nostalgic: Meadowlark and Red-winged Blackbird songs especially take me back to my childhood and teen years, and summer vacation days out in the country.
frosty
Looks like a great place to visit – I’ll have to put it on our next western Road Trip itinerary. Great pictures as always.
I surprised myself – I could identify every bird before I scrolled down to the caption, even the confusing female Red Winged Blackbird, but maybe that’s because of how you arranged the pix. I must be getting better at this!
WendyBinFL
Albatrossity, you make my Monday morning every week! The birds are glorious, as always, and that big old bison just can’t be beat. Mr. B commented, “I hope Albatrossity is using a really BIG zoom lens, because otherwise he’s just too close!”
J.
That is one good-looking hunk of bison! And I love today’s bird pics. (Though I love all of your bird pics.) Especially liked listening to the Western Meadowlark, which got my cat’s attention. (She kept looking over to see what was making that noise.)
Albatrossity
@WendyBinFL: Please assure Mr B that I was using a lens with a focal length of 1000 mm, and that there was a fence between me and that big ol’ bison.
@J.: Yeah, my daughter reported that the meadowlark video got her cat’s attention as well. This is a full-service blog, y’know.
Xavier
The Nebraska Sandhills are way cooler than you think they’d be. And they have an extensive literary history too: Willa Cather, Mari Sandoz, Jim Harrison…
mvr
Love that last landscape shot. Landscapes are hard to capture with a camera. It all looks to great when you look at it and then when you see the photo it is often disappointing. This one is great!
I need to get up to that area and explore more. I spent a couple of cold days in Niobrara State Park, but it is on the bluffs over the Missouri where the Niobrara enters and so seemed less prairie-like. I’ve been on the other end of the river in Agate Fossil Beds National monument where it is just a creek in a field. But never in the section you are posting about and I really should explore.
Thanks also for the Eastern Kingbird photo. I’ve been seeing them around places I’ve fished and wondered what they were.
Thanks!
-Mark
KSinMA
These are just wonderful. Thanks!
BigJimSlade
I love it!
That Western Meadowlark, though, does remind me of the old Calvin & Hobbes cartoon, lol.
StringOnAStick
I love meadowlarks, their song maybe the thing I miss that most from Colorado.
BillD
@Xavier: If any reader is in the area, visit the campus of Chadron State University in Chadron and stop by the museum dedicated to Mari Sandoz. She wrote extensively of the settlers and natives of the Great Plains. Old Jules is the memoir of being raised by a crusty pioneer. Crazy Horse is the definitive bio. And Cheyenne Autumn is the story of Native Americans who broke out of their reservation in Oklahoma to return to the Northwest Plains. And there are plenty more.
Gloria DryGarden
I was near the niobrara river in agate fossil beds national monument, where I attended an eclipse. The land was so sacred, whispering with a song of peacefulness. Native Americans used to come down from the reservation in SD to camp on the land and live their old ways. The monument is partly about their story, and has a wonderful museum of things they gifted the landowners there. Glad to be reminded.
im not turning off this meadowlark recording.
And I’m glad Mr bison was far from you. I was up close to one, once, when I unzipped my tent in Yellowstone one early morning. Big.
These are such great photos
Elizabird
Please allow me to non-photo bomb Albatrossity’s introduction to the Hutton Ranch. It is a gem of a place, for sure, a protected area owned by Audubon of Kansas (AOK) and managed for wildlife. Readers of Ballon Juice might like to know: AOK is a nonprofit dedicated to advocacy, conservation, and education… full disclosure, I’m on the board! The organization does good work in the world, most especially in the central flyway (aka flyover country). Albatrossity, under the byline of his real name, kindly contributes a ton of photographs to AOK’s website and publications. Some real gems there, too.
AKA The Man
You’ve made a birder out of me, Albatrossity
Cjhedge
Yippee!! I am so happy I found you on bluesky. I needed this uplift to see beyond the insanity. I’m so glad you and Elizabeth had this fine journey. These images are just perfect… Especially the Cedar waxwing! Love, Cathy
WaterGirl
@Cjhedge: Just seeing this now.
Welcome! I will let Dave know that you wrote this because he couldn’t see it until I manually approved it just now.