Carolina Wren! in Kennebunk
Carolina Wren: Kennebunk, Maine, USA — Look who showed up under the feeders on our back deck! Carolina Wrens are not unheard of in Maine, especially at feeders during the early winter, but this is a first for our yard! In fact, most range maps had a little extension up the coast of Maine as far as Portland colored as regular, even breeding, for Carolina Wren, with an area up into southern Canada where they are “rare”. I just don’t think of them as coming that far north, and this is my first, not only for our yard, but for Maine. It showed up a few days ago for a few moments when Carol saw it and was able to describe it well enough so that I knew what it was…but then yesterday, early, it came with the neighborhood mixed feeding flock and was on the deck for long enough for me to get the camera. These shots are through the glass of the deck door. I would love to have one settle in and nest in the yard. Wouldn’t that be something! Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro on the Mac Air. ISO 1600 and 2000 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Uganda Edition: Northern Puffback
Northern Puffback: Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park, Uganda, August 2022 — We must have been very near the maximum elevation for this bird…and I would have said we were higher there in the parking area for the Gorilla Trek in Bwindi. The Puffbacks are bushshrikes, and the Northern is the most common in western Uganda. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/640th and 1/800th. .
Ant birds! Chestnut-backed and Bicolored
Chestnut-backed and Bicolored Antbird: Danta Corcovado Lodge, Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica, December 2022 — I promised you more birds from the mixed feeding flock attracted to the army ant swarm we found at Danta Corcovado early one morning, and then I got distracted by our backyard birds 🙂 These are two of the birds closely associated with army ant swarms…among the many that are attracted to the insects and small vertebrates that are fleeing from the ants…so closely associated that they have “ant” in their name. They are indeed Antbirds: The male Chestnut-backed Antbird and either a male or female Bicolored Antbird (they have the same plumage, while the female of the Chestnut-backed lacks the black on the chest.) Again, because they are so intent on hunting when you see them, it is often possible to get very close. However, since they are hunting low to the ground in heavy canopy, there is never enough light! Sony Rx10iv at about 580mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications with multi-frame noise reduction. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. Equivalent ISO 6400 @ f4 @ 1/100th and 1/80th. (very little light!)
Uganda Edition: Green-headed Sunbird
Female Green-headed Sunbird: Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park, Uganda, August 2022 — There were several female Green-headed Sunbirds around the parking area for the Gorilla Trek in Bwindi the day we visited, but we never did see a male. So it goes. At least the females of the the species are among the more colorful female sunbirds. The Green-headed also has much larger range than the Albertine Rift birds we have been looking at…it can be found in the highlands of East Africa as far south as Mozambique and throughout equatorial West Africa. Sony Rx10iv at 591mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 2000 and 800 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
White-breasted Nuthatch
White-breasted Nuthatch: Kennebunk, Maine, January 2023 — While we are on the subject of backyard birds, here is our resident White-breasted Nuthatch. We have a pair that come daily to the feeders on the back deck, year around. So let us take a moment to celebrate White-breasted Nuthatches. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro and Apple Photos. ISO 1000 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Uganda Edition: Blue-headed Sunbird
Blue-headed Sunbird: Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park, Uganda, August 2022 — Another Albertine Rift endemic, from around the parking area at the trailhead for Gorilla Trekking. Gordon, our guide for the morning, and an excellent young guide/birder said, “Oh get this one! Take a photo!” and I did my best. We only saw it for a moment, though it can be fairly common in its restricted range. What a stunner! Sony Rx10iv at 591mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro and Apple Photos. ISO 500 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, January 2023 — When we first moved to Kennebunk, going on 30 years ago now, and up to a few years ago, a Red-bellied Woodpecker was a rare sighting in our yard. In fact we had probably been here at least 10 years before we saw our first one. Over the past 5 years, the number of sightings has steadily increased, and they have started coming to our back-deck feeding station on a semi-regular basis. We will go a month without seeing one, and then have a month, or a week at least, when they are at the feeder several times a day…I say “they”, but it could be just one…I have yet to see more than one at a time. They are among the most skitterish of our backyard birds. They generally disappear if there is slightest sign of movement in the house, but even at that they seem to be becoming more bold, or more secure. This one allowed me to stand behind the thermopane glass of the deck door, close enough so I had to zoom out to fit the bird in the frame, and take its photo as it used the feeder. Sony Rx10iv at 458mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro and Apple Photos. ISO 1250 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Happy 2023: Red-breasted Nuthatch
Red-breasted Nuthatch: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, January 2023 — To celebrate the first day of 2023, I will come back home from my 2022 travels. It might seem from my postings that I must spend most of every year on foreign soil…but the fact is that I am only away from Maine for a few weeks each year. Most of the time the only birds I see are at the feeders on our back deck or somewhere around the town of Kennebunk. 🙂 I don’t see the Red-breasted Nuthatch every day…but the last few days at least one has been around, maybe more than one. Weather patterns have kept our feeders busy all day with the local mixed feeding flock coming by at least once an hour and staying for 15 minutes or so each visit. This was taken early yesterday, through the thermo-pane glass of the deck door. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro on the Mac Air. ISO 1000 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Uganda Edition: Northern Double-collared Sunbird
Northern Double-collared Sunbird: Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park, Uganda, August 2022 — another bird from around the edges of the parking lot for the Gorilla Trek in Bwindi. Sunbirds are among my favorite African birds and I always have my eye out for them…and often spend way too much time photographing them when they are around. They have the intense colors of hummingbirds…but they sing! The Northern Double-collared has a restricted range along the Albertine Rift in southwest Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi and a larger range in the highlands of Kenya, as well as range in Western Africa. Sony Rx10iv at 580mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro and Apple Photos. ISO 500 and 400 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Northern Barred-Woodcreeper
Northern Barred-Woodcreeper: Danta Cocorvodo Lodge, Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica, December 2022 — On our way for a morning excursion to the observation tower at Danta Corcovado, we happened on a swarm of small army ants crossing one of the trails…two swarm lines actually… one just below my cabin and one further down by the bridge over the stream. It is amazing how many birds, including this Woodcreeper, are specialized ant swarm feeders. For the next few days I will be sharing some of these ant swarm birds. I did a little research this morning to refresh my memory. Army ants are nomadic. They do not build permanent nests like other ants but can stay in a camp or bivouac for up to 20 days, foraging in lines out from the camp and feeding the queen as she broods eggs (up to a million eggs a month so these swarms are huge). The new worker ants reach maturity just as the eggs hatch and the whole swarm has to move on, in order to find enough food to feed the new larvae. That is generally when you see the long lines of ants moving through the forest. If you look carefully you will see that ants are moving in both directions as they carry prey back to feed the larvae and the queen, which are being carried along in the rear of the march. They pretty much kill any living insect or spider, small reptiles and amphibians, even birds, that they encounter (though many army ants can not actually consume the birds they kill)…so they stir up just about everything that is able to get out of their path. A surprising number of birds have specialized in following the ant swarms and feeding on the insects, spiders, an small vertebrates which are exposed as they flee. Some of them have the word “ant” as part of their name, but the Northern Barred-Woodcreeper is rarely seen except when an army ant swarm is passing over an open trail…as one was on that morning at Danta Corcovado. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications with multi-frame noise reduction. Processed in Pixelmator Pro and Apple Photos. Terrible light so equivalent ISO of 2500 @ f4 @ 1/500th.