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.
On the Road: Week of April 26 (5 am)
Albatrossity – Spring 2021 in Flyover Country #2
JanieM – China 2/8
?BillinGlendaleCA – The Whitewater Preserve
UncleEbeneezer – SE Asia Valentines (Part 4): Reunification Palace
Steve from Mendocino – The Caribbean 1/4
? And now, back to Albatrossity.
Albatrossity
Often spring in flyover country will sort of sputter along. A few days of cool overcast weather, a few days of hot weather, and then all of a sudden it will be summer. As I write this we are still sputtering. Yesterday we had a high of 86F, today it is cool, overcast, and drippy with occasional excitement from a passing thunderstorm. So these pictures will reflect that; there will be some winter birds, some migrants, and some year-round residents warming up for the summer season.
Our backyard feeders have an abundance of several species of woodpeckers in winter; we have Northern Flicker, Downy, Hairy, Red-bellied Woodpeckers, and Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. All of them like this suet log, although when it is nearly empty I get the stink-eye ,like this Downy Woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens) male is giving me.
Another yard constant, more abundant in the winter but definitely here year-round, would be Wild Turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo). And it is full-blown courting season for them right now. Here are a couple of studly toms displaying in the neighbor’s yard to an audience of pointedly disinterested hens.
Ring-necked Pheasants (Phasianus colchicus) are not native to North America (although they are the state bird of South Dakota), but can be found here year-round. And they are handsome birds! This rooster clearly shows all of the colors found in any bird plumage anywhere!
Not a yard bird (at least in my yard), but definitely a winter resident, the Song Sparrows (Melospiza melodia) are busting out in song right now. In the Manhattan area we are barely off the edge of the breeding range for this bird, although it is a common breeding species in much of North America. So this one was probably just practicing, soon to pack his bags and move a bit north.
Eastern Phoebes (Sayornis phoebe) are one of the earliest signs of spring around here, and when they arrive they always announce it with a song. Just about every bridge and culvert in this part of the state will host a pair of phoebes, it seems.
Loggerhead Shrike (Lanius ludovicianus) is a species that has been declining in this part of the state for the last few decades, so I was thrilled to see one this spring. It was even more interesting to see that it was eating something I did not know they ate – earthworms. And I’m not alone; a literature search for shrike dietary items found no mention of earthworms in the diet of these birds. But that may be because all of the dietary analyses focused on pellets, the globs of indigestible stuff that hawks, owls, shrikes and kingfishers cough up after digesting the rest of the critters they eat. It’s not likely that the pellets coughed up by this shrike would have any evidence of an earthworm meal!
Another bird that does not spend the summers locally, but can be an abundant spring and fall migrant, is the Great Egret (Ardea alba). This one has the full complement of fancy nuptial feathers, but those seem to have gotten wet; they are all stuck together and trailing behind the bird like a soggy stick.
Many male North American ducks have incredibly colored plumages in the spring. This Gadwall (Mareca strepera) is not one of those, but take a close look at the plumage patterns and textures on this male. In my mind this is an very pretty bird.
Horned Grebes (Podiceps auritus) in the spring are also very handsome, with those sporty yellow head panels and bright red eyes. Commonly seen in migration across the continent; they are headed to Canada and Alaska lakes and wetlands for the breeding season. On their way back in the fall they will be a lot less colorful!
Finally, here’s a shot that is hard to get, and I was very lucky to get it. Horned Grebes fly very fast, and also are generally very content to sit in the water (or under the water) until a meddling human goes away. But a pair of Horned Grebes flew by as I was walking along a dike at Quivira, and my camera was already set for photographing birds-in-flight. So I aimed and fired, and this was the result. I was lucky (and happy) to get this shot!
OzarkHillbilly
Our Eastern flycatchers (phoebes if one prefers) are back and building their first nest of the year in the carport. They’ve been doing this for 7 or 8 years. Gotta figure the spot gets passed down thru the generations. Also got buzzed by a couple of male hummers yesterafternoon. Got right to work and made some nectar and put out a feeder post haste. In 2 weeks I’ll have 50-75 of the little buggers and every time they run out they will be coming to my window saying, “HEY! GIT WITH THE PROGRAM, BUDDY!!!”
One day I may calculate how much I spend on sugar feeding them. Than again, maybe not.
Rob
I really like that Downy Woodpecker photo.
I haven’t seen any hummingbirds this spring, though I finally saw Chimney Swifts and catbirds on Saturday (a week and more after other birding friends).
Scuffletuffle
Gorgeous photos!
Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)
All beautiful pics, but WOW a Horned Grebe in flight!
E. phoebes are back here in PA and House Wrens are back and singing in the yard now too. The warblers, tanagers, orioles, buntings etc. Should be here any day now. I keep an eye on Birdcast. Based on their summary of weather, winds and radar you got a good migration there in the mid-west last night! Here along the east coast the winds are wrong now but Birdcast’s forecast maps show us getting more migrants tonight and tomorrow night.
Laura Too
Wow, the last one is spectacular! Thanks!
Betty Cracker
Lovely photos, as always! :)
I think our Eastern Phoebes have decamped for the season; haven’t seen one lately. The return of the hummies is our first sign of spring.
cope
Lovely, hopeful photos, thanks. The only suet we have ever put out was one of those cage things and it never seemed to attract much attention. Maybe if we put one in the trees rather than near the front door, some of those pecking birds will show up.
The wild turkeys remind me that one of the biggest instant frights of my life was when I unknowingly walked up on a wild turkey in some woods in Colorado and that thing BURST off the ground and flew up into a nearby tree with a maximum of noise and commotion. Scared by a turkey…hard to live down.
matt
Comment moved. Nice birds.
MelissaM
Mother Nature Creator handing out feathers: So we have solids, we have edged, we have spotted, we have patterns. Which would you like?
Mr. Pheasant: Yes, please.
MazeDancer
Beautiful!
J R in WV
The standard, usual, common great big frabjous job of work, again.
Thanks so much Albatrossity! Gotta spend some time in your neck of the fields and plains some day. Or just keep watching for your birb photo sets…
Not quite off topic, we have had a strange horrible flying thing appear on our farm this morning — roaring helicopter with a dangling cross between a giant vertical chainsaw and a flying bush hog, making an unbelievable sound as they do more clearing of power-line rights-of-way. I wish I had had the energy to get dressed and grab the camera to shoot the copter bobbing up and down along the power-lines near the house. Which were already visited by a ground crew last fall, but any improvement is welcome if it keeps the power on in storms.
mvr
Nice photos, as ususal. The Grebe in flight has amazing detail especially of the feet pulled back if I am seeing it right.
Do all of those woodpeckers stay through the summer? It seems like you implied that some or all might move North.
dnfree
Your photos and explanations are fantastic. We used to live on a wooded lot near a park, with all kinds of bird visitors, especially woodpeckers. Now we live in a senior development with young trees, too many of which are Bradford pears. We mostly see robins, sparrows, red-winged blackbirds, and mourning doves. Your photos help. (We do have sandhill cranes, thanks to the retention ponds.)
jackson
Your pictures make me so happy. I grew up with meadow larks, quails, and scissor tail flycatchers in or around my yard. Southeastern OK. Don’t know if they’re still there.
jackson
Oh yeah, there were always bluebirds when I was little but they stopped coming when I was in my late teens. Late 60s. My mother was devastated.
JanieM
All the pictures are great, but the three little birds in the middle, starting with the Song Sparrow, are so infectiously cheerful that they will keep me going all day.
Albatrossity
@mvr: Most of our woodpeckers that are here in the winter will be here all summer too. The only one that heads north is the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. But we will have Downy, Hairy, Red-bellied and Northern (yellow-shafted) Flickers year-round. And right now they are plowing through the suet!
Albatrossity
@J R in WV: Crikey, that contraption on the helicopter sounds downright hellacious. Dangling that thing near a powerline is sort of a sphincter-tightening notion as well…
J R in WV
@Albatrossity:
The sound was unbelievable — as if the War of the Worlds had started just over the top of the ridge behind the house.
The device was at least some 12-15 feet long, covered with saw blades and dangling below the copter quite a bit below the aircraft.
Was amazing to hear and see… There was a ground crew cleaning up debris thrown onto the driveway road also too. Neighbor shot video with sound, short 11 second is 20Mg but doesn’t include the actual dangling bushhog , longer ones can’t be emailed. May post it somewhere, if so I’ll pass along a link.
Albatrossity
@J R in WV: Per usual, there’s already a YouTube video…
mvr
Thanks! We have had downy &red bellied woodpeckers as well as flickers at our backyard feeders in Lincoln, but I haven’t seen the sapsucker and think I saw a hairy woodpecker just once. The three I mention all visited our suet and nut feeders all winter (along with Carolina Wrens, two kinds of nuthatches and some sparrows) but only the downy woodpeckers continue to be interested in the suet.