Eastern Bluebird in crabapple/chokecherry: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, January 2026 — more shots of the Bluebird with the red berries…this time an attempt to suggest the active nature of the encounter. The berries were evidently reluctant to let go, but the bluebird was determined. I have not been able to determine if this particular winter berry tree is crabapple or chokecherry, or some ornamental. Sony a6700. Sigma 16-300 at 450mm equivalent field of view. Program with bird and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator. Assembled in FrameMagic.

Eastern Bluebird in crabapple. Kennebunk, Maine, USA, January 2026 — I went to the pond by the river to look for eagles…I saw one there this week for the first time this winter. None yesterday. But just as I was thinking of leaving, I walked up to check the crabapple tree one more time for Cedar Waxwings or Robins. There was one Robin, and a pair of Bluebirds enjoying the small red fruits (no Cedar Waxwings yet this winter). The Bluebirds would swoop down from a maple branch overhead and wrestle a berry from the branch, with lots of wing flapping and struggle, and then fly back up to eat it. I picked this photo from 30 or more frames I took as the bird returned, because even though it is the female, it shows the most blue on the bird, and I wanted the contrast with the red…and I adjusted the crop at least half-a-dozen times trying to get the right balance of bird and berries. It turns out to be a somewhat unconventional framing, but it works for me. Sony a6700. Sigma 16-300 at 450mm equivalent field of view (cropped to close to 800mm fov). Program with bird and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.

Another shot of the January water meadow in the marsh along the lower Mousam River here in Kennebunk, Maine, USA. I like the feathery grasses in the foreground, and the pools stretching out behind under the heavy sky. It is more of an “atmospheric” shot than a standard landscape. Sony a6700. Sigma 16-300 at 24mm equivalent field of view. Auto Landscape Scene Mode. Processed in Photomator.

Kennebunk, Maine, USA, January 2026 — I went out yesterday to explore with my camera, what I call a “photoprowl”, down along the Bridle Path where I have not been since the whole pacemaker saga. We have had enough rain and warmish days now so that the snowpack is completely gone, but it is still January light, low, and horizontal even in early afternoon. The sun broke through as I got nearer to the ocean, and though the clouds were still massive, they only added drama to the winter sky. This is a view I have photographed many times in all seasons. This happens to be a panorama…5 wide-angle shots stitched together by a very clever app on my iPad. It is close to the full 180-degree field of view of the human eye, and way wider than our normal 60-degree field of active attention…so it bends both spatial reality and our brains. But it captures a bit of the waiting, resting, beauty of the January day, when the earth is still asleep but maybe dreaming so avidly of spring that it has kicked the covers off. To really “see” the image, you will have to turn your phone sideways…or view it on as large a screen as you have. Sony a6700. Sigma 16-300 at 24mm x 5. Auto with Landscape scene mode. Processed in Photomator and assembled in Bimostitch Pro.

Black Skimmer: Blackpoint Wildlife Drive, Mettitt Island National Wildlife Refuge, Titusville, Florida, USA, January 2025 — Once again, we go back a year to the 2025 Space Coast Birding Festival. I always try to find some Skimmers skimming to practice on. I don’t get to see them often enough so that my encounters are ever anything more than practice. My first attempts are always an exercise in frustration, but if I persist and get more opportunities, I generally come away with a few keepers. Modern cameras make it easier…but easier is a relative thing. 🙂 Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600mm equivalent field of view. Program with my action modifications. Processed in Photomator.

Cattle Egret: Blackpoint Wildlife Drive, Merritt Island NWR, Titusville, Florida, USA, January 2025 — Returning to my last visit to the Space Coast a year ago. The Cattle Egrets hunt lizards right at the edge of the road on Blackpoint. You can often pull up beside them, roll down the window, and just about reach out and touch them as they hunt. (Probably not a good idea, lest they mistake your finger for a lizard.) They are so close it is a challenge to focus on them and keep them in the frame long enough for a photo. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600mm equivalent field of view. Program with bird and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.

Again, nothing much happening in the neighborhood critter-wise in early January, but when out on a photoprowl (or out anytime and anywhere), I keep my eye peeled for anything that might fill my frame. This tree trunk is wet from falling rain and melting snow, and that only brings out the contrast in color and texture provided by the rugged bark and the delicate (if dense) moss and sketchy lichen. Add the few pine needles at the bottom to give scale to the whole composition, and I can spend some time with this image. Sony a6700. Sigma 16-300 at 52mm equivalent field of view. Aperture with macro modifications. f10. Processed in Photomator.

Grey Squirrel: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, January 2026 — Things are pretty quiet in our neighborhood, critter-wise, here in the early days of January. We pretty much are reduced to the year-round resident birds (with a few who winter here from higher latitudes) and even the chipmunks and mice are somewhere out of sight, keeping warm and alive. The squirrels, on the other hand, are out and about, and as active as ever. In summer, you see the squirrels stretched out as long as they can reach along a branch in a shady spot on their bellies with their legs hanging down on either side, trying to cool off in the mid-day sun. In winter, they cuddle up to branches near the trunk out of the wind, paws tucked under, in a sunny spot if they can find one, trying to stay warm. Clever critters. Sony a6700. Sigma 16-300 at 450mm equivalent field of view. Program with bird and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.

Black-capped Chickadee: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, January 2026 — I took a photoprowl around the neighborhood the other day and came back with this. This is not a photograph of a bird, but a photograph of light with a bird in it. There are lots of things “wrong” with this photograph from a technical (and maybe even aesthetic) standpoint, but somehow it just works for me. It whispers something I want to hear and I find myself being still to listen. The round highlights in the background are called bokeh balls, and are an artifact of focused light, while the slanting subtle wave-like lines are produced by refraction of light through the branches of the tree. I could not have intentionally produced, or even predicted, that background effect. Then you have the strong busy diagonals of the more-or-less in focus bare branches cutting mostly against the grain of the background, and the halo of backlight caught in the feathers of the chickadee. And finally, you have the bird itself…those knowing eyes. It has a delicate, oriental feel to it…or maybe almost impressionistic. And again, it had to “just happen”…I would not even begin to know how to produce this effect. Sony a6700. Sigma 16-300 at 450mm. Program with bird and wildlife modifications. +1EV for the backlight. Processed in Photomator.

Eastern Bluebird: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, January 2026 — This is another hard-to-get shot, in a totally different way than yesterday’s Cardinal deep in the brush. The first round of feeder birds often comes just at dawn, just as the sky lights up behind the feeders, and we have had glowing sunrises many mornings recently. A week or so ago, I thought, “I wonder if I could catch a bird on a perch against the light of the rising sun?” and I have been watching for the right timing these many days, bringing the camera to the kitchen as I write my morning posts and drink my decaf coffee, just to be ready. Yesterday, the sky was right, and the birds cooperated. I had to use the flip-out LCD screen on the camera to get a low enough angle to frame the bird against the dawn glow, but I got off several shots of bluebirds and finches. This is my favorite, even though the bird looking out of frame gives it a unique tension. From a technical standpoint, shooting in this kind of low light required a high ISO, 12800, to maintain a shutter speed of 1/500th (the camera handles those settings for me…I do not have to think about it in the moment). The image is quite satisfying, technically, I think, considering the challenges. And it pretty much satisfies my vision when I first thought about the possibility. Not exactly what I saw in my mind’s eye, but then that is part of the fun of doing real-world photography. AI could maybe have generated something closer to what I envisioned, but not this unique vision of a real bird doing the unexpected against a real dawn sky. Sony a6700. Sigma 16-300 at 433mm equivalent field of view. Program with bird and wildlife modifications. +.7EV for backlight. Processed in Photomator. (no noise reduction).