Maine! Song Sparrow on ice
Song Sparrow: York County, Maine, USA, March 2024 — The recent snow and ice event here in southern Maine had the birds sticking close to the feeders for two days and we had our first Song Sparrow of the year in our yard. I saw my first in York County a month ago (though that was a really early bird) and saw a flock of them out near a local pond two weeks ago, but this is the first of the year in the yard. The ice adds a touch of interest as well. OM System OM-1Mkii with M. Zuiko 100-400IS zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom bird modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Costa Rica! Winter bird
Rose-breasted Grosbeak: Feathers Garden, Savegre Mountain Hotel and Spa, San Geraldo de Dota, Costa Rica, December 2023 — Of course at least some of the December birds of Costa Rica are the summer birds of North America. Most long distance migrants end up further south, but a few of our warblers, tanagers, and orioles spend the winter in Costa Rica…including the Rose-breasted Grosbeak…holding its own for color (though only a shadow of its breeding self) among the bright tropical birds of the cloud forest. OM System OM-1 with M. Zuiko 100-400IS zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom bird modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Maine! Bluebird in frozen Maple
Eastern Bluebird: York County, Maine, USA, March 2024 — Another shot from our frozen Monday here in Southern Maine. Bluebird and iced Maple buds. OM System OM-1Mkii with M. Zuiko 100-400IS zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom bird modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Florida! Deadly dance
Snowy Egret: Blackpoint Wildlife Drive, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, Titusville, Florida, USA, January 2024 — After my workshop day in Cocoa Beach at the Space Coast Birding and Nature Festival, I arrived early at Blackpoint Wildlife Drive, to find the Egrets and Spoonbills feeding avidly in the ponds right behind the entrance sign. Parking is awkward there, but in just 20 minutes I got more photos of Egrets dancing on the water than I had ever hoped to get. Part of it was the OM System OM-1 with its bird detecting, eye-tracking auto focus, and part of it was that I have never seen so much concentrated action in such a small pool. This sequence shows how effective the whole dance-on-the-water thing is for Snowy Egrets…though I still suspect they have more misses than hits. It is certainly fascinating to watch, and I have enough photos from this one stop to share for the next week or more. 🙂 OM System OM-1 with M. Zuiko 100-400IS zoom at 300mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds-in-flight and action modifications. -1.0EV, 1/1600th second. Processed in Photomator.
Maine! Icy Sunday
Sunday Morning in Maine. This is a hand-held focus stack with the OM System OM-1Mkii and the M. Zuiko 100-400IS zoom at 338mm equivalent. Program mode. Processed in Photomator.
Maine! Carolina Wren far from home?
Carolina Wren: York County, Maine, USA, March 2024 — not so long ago this Carolina Wren in the icy branches after our weekend storm would indeed have been far from home, but their range is extending north and they are now becoming regular in York County (and breed as far north as Orino and Ellsworth). A few winter over. We have had one in our neighborhood for the past 2 years as a regular visitor to our feeders for mealworms and especially the mealworm crumbs the Bluebirds drop. OM System OM-1Mkii with M. Zuiko 100-400IS zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom bird modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Costa Rica! Green-crowned Brilliant
Green-crowned Brilliant Hummingbird: Feather’s Garden, Savegre Mountain Hotel, Spa and Reserve, San Geraldo de Dota, Costa Rica, December 2023 — After our lunch and the amazing bird show at the Miriam’s Quetzals, the rest of the group took jeeps up into the Cloud Forest for a walk high above Sevegre Mountain Hotel. I have done that walk many times and decided to stay behind and spend the afternoon at Feather’s Garden, a small back yard garden that is maintained by Melvin, a guide who lives on the Resort grounds. I have stayed at Sevegre many times, and somehow never knew this garden existed. It is designed for photography, with a small shelter in case of rain, chairs to sit in and watch the birds come and go. It is well through out, well maintained, and attracts all the birds common at the 7500 foot elevation of Sevegre, including this Green-crowned Brilliant. You can have high expectations for any hummingbird named Brilliant and the Green-crowed (or Green-breasted as it sometimes called) does not disappoint. OM System OM-1 with M. Zuiko 100-400IS zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom bird modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Maine! Post Card Cardinal
Northern Cardinal: York County, Maine, USA, March 2024 — We woke yesterday to trees glistening with frozen rain after maybe 3 inches of snow on Saturday. Right at first light our neighborhood male Cardinal was under the pines and up in the glistening branches…too far away and still too dark for a photograph. As the sun got up, I bundled up and spent an enchanted hour or more photographing birds…bluebirds, robins, goldfinches and even the Carolina Wren…in the back yard among the icy branches…but I kept hearing the siren call of the Cardinals somewhere out there in the larger neighborhood and eventually it was too much. I went walkabout with my camera. I went around our local blocks many times. I could hear the Cardinals calling but wherever I went, by the time I got there, the Cardinals were somewhere else. Finally I traced them to some tall trees a few corners over from our house. They were close. I could hear them but I just could not see them. And then the male popped out of a hedge of evergreens right in front of me, right at eye-level, way lower than I was expecting from the calls. Alright! A gift pure and simple. I took way too many photos. This is not necessarily the best one…I have many I will keep…but the one I chose this morning. OM System OM-1Mkii with M. Zuiko 100-400IS zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom bird modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Florida! Cruickshank Woodpeckers
Red-bellied and Pileated Woodpeckers: Helen and Alan Cruickshank Sanctuary, Rockledge, Florida, USA, January 2024 — While looking for (and at) the Florida Scrub Jays that are the main attraction at the Cruickshank Sanctuary, I encountered a couple of woodpeckers. One was the very orange variety of the Red-bellied Woodpecker they have in Florida, and the other was a female Pileated. I am always happy to see either as they are both fairly elusive around my home in Maine…or I should say more elusive than our other local woodpeckers. I see them less often. The Red-belled was right against the sun and required a good amount of Exposure Compensation, and then some extra shadow control in post processing. OM System OM-1 with M. Zuiko 100-400IS zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom bird modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Maine! Bluebird in the snow
Eastern Bluebird: York County, Maine, USA, March 2024 — Nothing like a March snowstorm to bring the birds close in to the feeders. Our Bluebirds and chickadees and nuthatches and titmice and woodpeckers (both Hairy and Downy) are with us every day (just about) but yesterday, as the snow and then freezing rain fell, they were with us all day…never going further from the feeders than the overhanging branches. There were also the five or six bullying Robins that seem to be laying claim to our back yard, a few Mourning Doves, a Carolina Wren and a large mixed flock of black birds that passed through and did their best to empty the seed feeders under the pines while I was warming supper…mostly Brown-headed Cowbirds but some Red-winged Blackbirds and Starlings as well. This Bluebird does not look very happy, up there with the snow on the branches and the brave first maple buds for contrast. My camera got very wet and so did I getting this shot…but no harm done. OM System OM-1Mkii with M.Zuiko 100-400IS zoom at 800mm equivalent. Processed in Photomator.