Albatrossity

In past years, we have had enough holiday pics for the 10 days before Christmas.

So everybody, please send in your holiday pics from when you were little!

Just Christmas?   Nope.  All Holidays Matter.

Albatrossity

I noted WaterGirl’s request for pictures of jackal Christmases in the past, and figured I should send some in. Since my dad was a professional photographer, there was always a camera around at Christmas time, and many many pictures of me, my siblings, my aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents that I could share. And many of these are Kodachrome slides, thus the colors are still bright and vivid despite the passage of many decades since these were shot. So here are a few of these; no bird pics today, sorry (but you can still find bird pic calendars for sale!). You don’t know any of these people (in fact, some of them are a mystery to me!), but you might still get a kick out of the details of tree decorations, house décor, clothing, presents, facial expressions, etc. Hope you enjoy the trip down memory lane!

My parents were married in the spring of 1948, and my elder sister was born in 1949. So we’ll start with a couple of shots from Christmas 1949, as near as I can tell. But since I wasn’t around yet, your guess is as good as mine!

On The Road – Albatrossity – Mid-century Modern ChristmasesPost + Comments (50)

We have birds and flowers and a trip to Amsterdam, should be a great week!

Also, we’re coming up on the holidays, so please send in your pics from when you were little so we can do a week or two of those before the holidays.

You can either submit your holiday pics as an OTR post or you can send the pictures to me as email attachments.

(click the image below for a bigger, non-blurry version of the schedule)

Albatrossity

Mid-September in Flyover Country is one of the finest times to be here. Decent temperatures, fall flowers in abundance, and, of course, bird migration all combine to make it a very pleasant interlude between hotter-than-holy-hell summers and icy wind-blasted winters. So here are some pics from September in my part of the galaxy. And some links to the three 2024 bird photo calendars I have created this year. Enjoy!

On The Road – Albatrossity – Mid-September in Flyover CountryPost + Comments (23)

Albatrossity starts off the week by telling us all about the birds and the bees, and then we are treated to four beautiful days in nature with Uncle Eb and lashonharangue.

(Click on the image below for a bigger, non-blurry version.)

Albatrossity

Picking up where we left off a couple of weeks ago, here are some more shots of late-summer and early fall birds and other critters here in Flyover Country. Hope you enjoy them!

And 2024 calendars are now available. Christmas is coming!

On The Road – Albatrossity – Late Summer and Fall in Flyover CountryPost + Comments (18)

This week, we have all things lovely.  Monday with Albatrossity, two days of stunning fall color, and a wonderful trip to Panama.

Click on the image below for a bigger, non-blurry view of the schedule.

Albatrossity

I was recently pondering the passage of the seasons here, and I was awaiting the arrival of one of my favorite winter birds here, the Merlin (Falco columbarius). This small falcon species was late arriving this year (as were many of our other northern migrants), but now there is an abundance of them. I don’t think there is a collective noun for this species, since they rarely if ever occur in numbers, but it has been good to see them finally get back here, even if I only ever see one at a time.

Then it occurred to me that I have a LOT of images of this species (I mentioned that it is one of my favorites!), and that it might not stretch the boundaries of an OTR post to devote some text and pixels to a single species. After all, these birds are On The Road when they winter here, even if I am not. So here is an experimental foray into images and information about this fine bird.

Merlins are a circumpolar falcon species, with three subspecies breeding in North America and six that breed in Eurasia. The latter range from Iceland to the Pacific coast of Russia, but I have seen none of those, since my few times in Europe were always in the temperate regions in the summer, when Merlins would be in the Far North. Clearly I need to get out more!

In former times they were employed as falconer’s birds, and their small size made them popular as a “lady’s hawk”. Noblewomen, including Mary, Queen of Scots, flew them.  These birds do not think of themselves as delicate or demure, however. Temperamentally, Merlins seem to believe that they are the size of an eagle, and are notoriously pugnacious. At hawk-watching stations it is not unusual to see one of them dive-bombing a larger hawk, just for the fun of it, apparently.

So here are some Merlins for your enjoyment.

On The Road – Albatrossity – Merlins!Post + Comments (20)

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.

On The Road – Albatrossity – Summer into Fall 2023Post + Comments (15)

Happy Monday!  We have another great week ahead.

(click on the image below for a bigger, non-blurry OTR schedule for the week)

Albatrossity

Thanks for all the good wishes last week. I can report that I escaped the hospital a half-day early, after convincing the cardiologist that it might be stressful to release me at the same time that KSU football game traffic was peaking (the stadium is just across the street from the hospital). The new medication seems to be working fine, and it is very good to be home with Elizabeth!

I’m gonna pick up where I left off prior to last week, with some birds and bugs photographed in mid- and late summer. Lots of variety here, and no real theme.

ETA: Helping with the healing process, Harley has returned for the 11th winter in a row.

If you don’t remember who Harley is, here’s the backstory.

On The Road – Albatrossity – Summer, interruptedPost + Comments (23)

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.

On The Road – Albatrossity – Flashes from the pastPost + Comments (27)