First Brown Creeper in our yard
On Christmas Eve day I was looking out at the feeding station on our back deck behind the kitchen when I spotted a tiny bird on the deck below the feeders, gleaning among the fallen seed. It was a Brown Creeper, the first I have seen in our yard in over 20 years of living here in Kennebunk, and maybe only my third in Maine. It few off into the trees along the treeline between our house and the neighbors, where it stayed long enough for me to call my daughter Sarah, who is visiting for Christmas, to see scattering up a trunk. Yesterday it returned to the feeders…first on the suet and then on the fallen seed, and I managed a few shots of it before it flew off. It is apparently part of a mixed feeding flock which includes at least 6 Eastern Bluebirds, a Purple Finch (also a rare yard bird), White-breasted and at least one Red-breasted Nuthatch, a Downy Woodpecker, and numerous Black-capped Chickadees and Tufted Titmice. Such excitement! But the Brown Creeper is the real treat. Sony RX10iv at about 800mm and 1000mm equivalent (600mm optical and bit of Clear Image Zoom). Program mode. Processed in Polarr.
Resplendent Quetzal
No one knows, exactly, what function the extended tail coverts on the Resplendent Quetzal serve in the male’s life…though the suspicion is that they are purely decorative…and serve only in attracting the right females. They loose them after breeding season. This male posed nicely in the breeze, giving us the full effect. Sony RX10iv at 3.5 frames per second and 600mm. Program mode. Assembled to an animated gif by Google Photos, and edited in ImgPlay.
Animated Toucanet
Our brief stop at Miriam’s Quetzals, half way down the road from 11,000 feet on the PamAm highway, to 7000 feet at Savegre Mountain Hotel and Resort, did not get us a Quetzal (wrong season for Miriam’s Quetzal tree), but it did get us (the ZEISS Birding group in Costa Rica) a exceptional view of an Emerald Toucanet. Google Photos found this sequence of 3.5 frames per second shots from my Sony RX10iv, and stitched them into an animated gif, which I then edited and improved in ImgPlay. I have posted a still from this sequence previously, but I can’t resist posting the animated version. I mean, can you really get too much of an Emerald Toucanet? Sony RX10iv at 600mm. Program mode. Processed in Polarr.
Bluebird’s in the yard…
We have lived here in Kennebunk for 25 years, more or less, and we had the first Bluebirds in our yard two years ago, just about this time, for Christmas. They came all winter that year, and stayed for nesting somewhere in the area (though not in the box I nailed to a tree along the edge of our yard) and they came again the next year, and stayed with us through the first brood last summer…and then they were gone. We did not see them the second half of last summer or this fall. My daughter and I were discussing it as we drove back from the bus station where I picked her up for her Christmas visit. Then, she was standing at the back deck door in the kitchen watching the birds at the feeder and said, “Isn’t that a bluebird?” And, of course, it was. Four showed up over the next few moments, after I went out and shook down some mealworms for them in the feeder…2 males and 2 females (or immature birds from the last brood of the summer). So that is our little Christmas miracle for the year…or one of them. Having 3 of our 5 daughters home (my 7 daughters) and trusting the others are safe, and enjoying the day is another, as is the day itself, and what we remember on this day. Joy. Blessing. The gift of love in the baby Jesus…and, of course, the gift of love in Christmas Eve Bluebirds at the feeder! Merry Christmas.
White-necked Jacobin
This is a series of shots at 10 frames per second of a White-necked Jacobin Hummingbird, taken at Dave and Dave’s Costa Rican Nature Pavilion in La Vergin, Costa Rica. Dave and Dave, father and son, have a wonderful set up for bird photography around their home, including a hummingbird feeding station that combines just enough feeders (with a low sugar content) to attract the birds, and enough natural nectar sources (with a higher sugar content) to keep them coming back and provide natural perches for photography. Google Photos found this sequence in images in my photo roll, taken with the Sony RX10iv, and animated it to a gif, which I then cropped and edited in ImgPlay, before re-saving it as a high quality gif and as a short video. Note the tongue 🙂 Dave and Dave’s is a must place to visit if you are in the Sarapiqui area of Costa Rica.
Blue Doctor Butterfly
Pic for today: Blue Doctor Butterfly
We were on our way back from a hike in the secondary rainforest at La Selva Biological Station in the Sarapiqui River Valley of the Caribbean lowlands in Costa Rica when this amazing butterfly flitted across the path in front of us. We immediately started calling for John, the bug guy in our group, to come running and get a picture of it. It was like nothing either I, or John, had ever seen before…well, it was a bit like a swallowtail, but I had certainly never seen anything with this color pattern. It took a bit of searching when I got home, but I tracked it down as a metalmark, the Blue Doctor, Rhetus periander, one of three similar Rhetus species in Central and South America. Some authorities have it ranging from Mexico to Peru, some limit its range in the north to Costa Rica. It is generally listed as “common” in its range, but elusive. Amazing bug! Sony RX10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode. Processed in Polarr.
Bat Falcon
As we were driving down the Caribbean slope in Costa Rica, between the Continental Divide in the Central Volcanic Range and the Sarapiqui River valley in the lowland rainforest, our driver spotted this tiny Bat Falcon, waaaay over on a dead snag rising out what was left of the La Paz River canyon. I mean waaaaay over, barely a dot against the background foliage. I don’t have any idea how he spotted it. He found us a little margin on the side of the twisty mountain road and we pulled over to study the bird in the scope and take a few photographs. It was a long way awaaaay. These are the best shots I could manage with my Sony RX10iv’s 600mm equivalent. They are heavily cropped, and show the effects of all that air between camera and bird, but they are unmistakably a Bat Falcon. Bat Falcons are small falcons that live, primarily, on small birds caught in flight…but they also hunt bats and dusk, which is clearly where they got their name. Sony RX10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode. Processed in Polarr.
Brown Violetear
In going through some pics from early in the ZEISS Birding trip to Costa Rica, I came across this set of unprocessed shots of the Brown Violetear Hummingbird from La Paz Waterfall Gardens on the continental divide north of San Jose. Given the Polarr treatment, and assembled for viewing in ImgPlay, here they are. The Bird Name Gods have renamed the Green Violetear to Lesser Violetear. Can it be long before the Brown Violetear is the Greater Violetear? Not that they are not distinctly Green and Brown as well as Violeteared, but when has that ever mattered? Sony RX10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode. Processed in Polarr.
Prong-billed Barbet
Soon after La Paz Waterfall Gardens, just over the continental divide in the Central Volcanic Range, on the way from San Jose, Costa Rica to the lowland rainforest on the Caribbean side, there is a little Soda, a mom and pop restaurant, perched on the sheer drop-off where they have feeders out back on a high deck that overlooks the San Francisco Waterfall. It is often a good place for Tanagers, Hummingbirds, Barbets, and the occasional Emerald Toucanet, plus they serve coffee and snacks. I have never seen the Toucanet there, but this year there were a few Prong-billed Barbets hanging out…a life-bird for me…and everyone else on both the back-to-back ZEISS Birding and Point and Shoot Nature Photography trips (except for the local guides, of course 🙂 As Barbets go, the Prong-billed is not spectacular…with its olive and brown color pattern, and its large silver bill, but it is a good bird none-the-less. Sony RX10iv at 600mm. Anti-motion Blur mode (to compensate for the low light under the heavy tree cover and cloudy sky). Processed in Polarr.
Popular Plant, Batsu Gardens, Costa Rica
Whenever I stay at the Savegre Mountain Hotel (it might be the Savegre Mountain Resort now), in San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica, I try to arrange an afternoon at Batsu Gardens, high on the mountain-side across the Savegre River and overlooking the hotel grounds. One of the younger members of the founding pioneers’ family has established a garden with viewing shelters and feeders where you can sit and watch and photograph many species of mountain hummingbirds, tanagers, and the occasional Emerald Toucanet to your hearts content…all while sipping the supplied coffee. There is a restroom provided. All mod cons, and hummingbirds to boot! There are flowering and fruiting plants all around the viewing platform, so it is often possible to capture the hummingbirds away from the feeders, in a more natural setting. This plant attracted both the White-throated Mountain Gem (formerly the Grey-tailed Mountain Gem) and the Lesser Violet-ear (formerly the Green Violet-ear). Sony RX10iv at 600mm equivalent. My birds and wildlife modifications to Program Mode. Processed in Polarr.