Snowy Egret
Snowy Egret: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, September 2025 — One of the Snow Egrets (of which numbers are increasing finally) got up and flew around me toward the other side of the marsh. I was ready for it, more or less. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 @ 600mm equivalent. Program with action modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Marsh
Snowy Egret: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, September 2025–the marshes in southern Maine are never more beautiful to my eye than in early fall when the saltwort (or glasswort) turns bright red against the greens and golds of the grasses and the reeds. Add a Snowy Egret in flight with open wings…and there’s an image worth looking at. I think. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with action modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Phoebe
Eastern Phoebe: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, September 2025 — while looking for Egrets in the marsh, this very active Eastern Phoebe came for a visit…or, I suppose, it was really me visiting his territory, which, for whatever reason, he is still defending well after nesting season. That’s Phoebes for you. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600mm equivalent. Program with birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Trouble
Eastern Grey Squirrel. Kennebunk, Maine, USA, September 2025 — I wrote about these adolescent squirrels we have coming to the deck. They have not yet learned deck etiquette. They can have all the spilled seed they want, but they cannot get on the feeders to spill seed (or in the flowering pants to bury seeds). These are the rules! And you can see what this one thinks of that. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600mm equivalent. Program with birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Indian Pipe again
Indian Pipe (Ghost flower): Kennebunk, Maine, USA, September 2025 — We are having rain, blessed rain! for the next few days and I can almost hear the earth sigh. Bring it on! Next week we might have a whole crop of Indian Pipe. Time will tell. I found this little emerging clump coming up against the dry odds in the forest where I go. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 133mm equivalent. Aperture program. f14 @ 1/40th. Processed in Photomator.
Egret
Great Egret: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, September 2025 — Still not nearly the number of Egrets, neither Snowy or Great, as we had last year. I suspect the little brine shrimp or whatever they eat in the tide pools did not hatch out this year because of our drought. We will have to wait until next year to see if this is a permanent change, or a temporary setback or some of both. Either way I am always pleased to see such a handsome bird. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600mm equivalent and cropped. Program mode with my birds and wildlife modifications. (Highlight metering). Processed in Photomator.
Indian Pipe
Indian Pipe (Ghost Flower): Kennebunk, Maine, USA, September 2025 — Still out looking for mushrooms to photograph, but the forest is so dry there are not even any (many) Indian Pipe. Indian Pipe is a strange little plant that has no chlorophyl of its own. It is, as far as we know, a parasite on the fungi network that helps to nourish certain trees…tapping into the same source the trees do. The relationship between the fungi and the trees, is however, beneficial to both, making it symbiotic. If the Indian Pipe benefits the fungi, we are not aware of it yet. (I have my suspicions it does. But that is just me.) Anyway, a very interesting plant. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 75mm equivalent. Aperture program with my macro modifications. (f13 at 1/20th from a small pocket sized tripod). Processed in Photomator.
Different
I have come to the conclusion (probably premature) that we just are not going to get the forest mushrooms we had last year this year. So, while out there looking I looked for other things to photograph. What about these lichen bodies on thee base of a tree? Pretty strange, right? Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 @ 88mm equivalent. Cropped and enlarged using Photomator’s Super-resolution AI. Aperture program with my macro modifications.
Eagle surprise
Bald Eagle: Roger’s Pond Park on the Mousam River, Kennebunk, Maine, USA, September 2025 — Surprise, surprise! I have not seen an eagle on the Mousam all summer, but here one was in one of their favorite haunts, it the trees across the Mousam River from the pond. A bit too far as usual, but you have to try (or at least I do). Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600mm equivalent (and heavily cropped to something like 3000mm). Program with bird and wildlife modifications. (With highlight metering to preserve the whites as best a possible.) Processed in Photomator. (Carol asked for a print of this for the wall, so I used Super-resolution and made her one.)
Flying Ruby
Ruby-throated Hummingbird: Kennebunk, Maine, August 2025 — Of course the real challenge is to get the hummingbirds in flight. It is not nearly as hard as it used to be, before bird recognition, eye-tracking, auto focus. Now days it is just a matter of patience (and a bit of hand-eye coordination that comes with practice). And of course totally dependent on how cooperative the hummer is. 🙂 So still a gift really, despite our fancy equipment. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with action modifications. Processed in Photomator.