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.
This week we start with Albatrossity (surprise!) and then Argiope takes us to Catalunya, which is near Barcelona. We have the start of a series from the Eastern Sierra from UncleEb, TKH takes us to the Grand Canyon, and we have the start of a series in Canada and New England from Elma.
Albatrossity
A couple of lingering summer birds are featured this week, with migrants and winter residents making up the remainder of the batch. Winter is coming. It’s also time to let you know that I have assembled two calendars for 2023. Those are the perennially popular Birds of Flyover Country and the back-by-popular-demand Bird Butt version. Those links take you to the Lulu.com site, where you can preview each of these and place your orders. Thanks for your support in the past!
Gray Catbirds (Dumetella carolinensis) linger here as long as the pokeberries and dogwood berries hold out. In recent years a few have overwintered in Flyover Country, but most of them will be in the backyards and thickets of the Gulf and Atlantic coasts. Click for larger image.
Scissor-tailed Flycatchers (Tyrannus forficatus) are also a species that lingers into the late fall here, despite the fact that they look like delicate tropical birds. I’ve seen them in early November a couple of times (once in a sleet storm) ; they are tougher than they look! Click for larger image.
For a few weeks in the fall Orange-crowned Warblers (Leiothlypis celata) are the most abundant migrant warbler in my patch of Flyover Country, and they come in several versions (4 recognized subspecies). This is one of the duller subspecies, L. c. celata, which breeds in the Canadian taiga and winters in the southeastern US. Like the catbird, this is becoming a more common wintering species here as well. If you live on the West Coast, you should see the most colorful subspecies, L. c. lutescens, which hangs out there year-round. Click for larger image.
The only warbler that expected here in winter is the Yellow-rumped Warbler (Setophaga coronata). The colorful alternate (aka breeding) plumage has been replaced by this dull basic plumage, but it’s still nice to have at least one warbler species here for the winter, eating the hackberries and the honeysuckle berries since they cannot find very many insects here in the coming months. Click for larger image.
Next up is a common migrant, the Savannah Sparrow (Passerculus sandwichensis), which has a whopping 21-28 recognized subspecies (depending on which taxonomic authority you consult). Some of these can be IDed based on plumage features, others by their restricted geographic range. We’ll just call this one a Savannah Sparrow and leave the quibbling to the experts. The type specimen was collected in Savannah GA and named by the pioneering American ornithologist Alexander Wilson. Click for larger image.
Unlike the Savannah Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrows (Zonotrichia leucophrys) only has four recognized subspecies. Maybe we need to find some bored taxonomist to tackle that deficiency… Also unlike the Savannah Sparrow, it is possible to visually ID all of the subspecies. This is an adult Eastern Taiga (aka Eastern) White-crowned Sparrow, Z. l. leucophrys, identified by the pale lores (the space between the eye and the bill). Click for larger image.
And this is a Western Taiga (Z. l. gambeli or Z. l. nigrilora, depending on which taxonomic guru you consult). Dark lores are the key feature. Birds like this are common here in winter, and pretty rare east of here, where the pale-lored leucophrys subspecies predominates. In my part of Flyover Country I’d say the mix was about 50-50 between the dark- and pale-lored versions. Here’s a video of one of these guys tearing into the seed head of a foxtail plant. Click for larger image.
In former years this bird, a sprightly Ruby-crowned Kinglet (Corthylio calendula), was merely a spring and fall migrant in these parts, and wintered south of here in Texas. Our expected winter kinglet was its sister species, the Golden-crowned Kinglet. That has changed. The first Ruby-crowned Kinglet seen on the Manhattan KS Christmas Count (which was initiated in 1949)was a single bird, in 1974. That year they also tallied 82 Golden-crowned Kinglets. In the last decade we averaged just about 8 Ruby-crowned and 16 Golden-crowned Kinglets on our Christmas Count. The times (and the climate) are a-changing. Click for larger image.
The flocks of kinglets and sparrows will often attract predators like this Sharp-shinned Hawk (Accipiter striatus). This is a young bird, hatched in 2022, figuring out how to make a living on its own. It is one of the birds featured in the Bird Butt calendar for 2023. This species does not breed in this part of Flyover Country, but is a regular winter visitor to our woodlots and bird feeders. Most North American birders do not know that there are at least 9 other subspecies of Sharp-shinned Hawk, our wintering birds (A. s. velox) are the most widely distributed. But some of the subspecies in Central and South America are quite handsome as well, like this one (A. striatus chionogaster) from Honduras. Click for larger image.
A somewhat larger predator, the Bald Eagle (Haliaetus leucocephalus) is now a year-round resident here in Flyover Country, thanks to pesky government regulations like the Endangered Species Act. They don’t bother the flocks of smaller birds, preferring fish and waterfowl for their dinner. They also feed on carrion; this one was in the middle of the road tearing apart a dead raccoon when I drove by and spooked it into a roadside tree where it could glare at me. Click for larger image.
David 🌈☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
I once took a photo of two eagles “nesting” (photo)
Spanky
I once came upon a Bald Eagle munching on a roadkill deer, with a fretting flock of Black Vultures milling around ar a (very) respectful distance.
Separately, each species is fairly common here in Southern MD, but that little vignette was unique in my experience.
HinTN
The compostition in the photograph of the Savannah Sparrow is wonderful. Always thankful for your birds and exposition, Albatrossity.
Benw
Awesome photos, as usual. I watched a documentary on Vancouver Island and learned that young bald eagles are mottled brown for a long time!
JanieM
For some reason, I was particularly struck by the variety of backgrounds in these pictures. But also, as always, by the way you manage to pose your models. :-)
Wonderful as always.
JeanneT
Your photos are always the best start to my Monday.
OzarkHillbilly
I has a computer problem. Can’t see pics. I has a sad.
SteveinPHX
Thanks again! Love the photo of the Ruby-Crowned Kinglet.
Betty
@JanieM: More like portraits than photos.
OzarkHillbilly
@OzarkHillbilly: Hooray! I now has pics! Must have shamed the lazy POS into doing it’s job properly by broadcasting to the world that it is a lazy POS.
OzarkHillbilly
@OzarkHillbilly: Now it’s getting back at me by refusing to post my comments the first time I submit them.
I WILL HAVE MY VENGEANCE!!!!!
marklar
Great photos! I love that you caught the brown undertail covert on the catbird (a species that I refer to as the Charlie Parker of birds due to its song)– I rarely am able to capture that!
Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)
Great! That sharpie is a cutie and those white-crowns have such and attitude.
Around here in eastern PA, white-crowned sparrows only occasionally come to my yard on migration, bt they are regular in open farm country where little patches of weeds still exist and the roadside edges aren’t all mowed.
Yutsano
That bald eagle is like, “You interrupted my lunch dude! Not cool!”
I really hope we can keep up bird diversity all over the world. There’s just so many different remarkable species that losing them must hurt us all.
mvr
@Spanky: While fishing in the Driftless region of Iowa years ago we drove up on a bald eagle at a deer carcass. It tried to fly off with it, which was quite a sight as it could get enough lift to drag it along the road while flying but not enough to fully take off with it.
Nice photos by the way. The Kinglet may be my favorite, but the Sharp-shinned Hawk is giving it a run for its money.
munira
Hard to pick a favorite – they’re all so good – but the white-crowned sparrow photo is particularly striking with the the bird and the background. Excellent as always.
TKH
Great pictures. For a given picture, how many shots are you taking to select from? I would appreciate a little information on your process. Thanks
Albatrossity
@TKH: Depends on the subject. For birds in flight I will shoot in burst mode, so I may have dozens of shots to choose from, some of which will be in focus and others that will not! For perched birds I probably can shoot 2-3 shots before the bird moves; maybe even fewer chances for jumpy birds like the kinglet. Some birds (e.g. the catbird) are more leisurely and allow me to get 10-12 frames before they bug out.