Maine! Merlin
Merlin: York County Maine, USA, September 2024 — Not a great photo (too far and against the light) but a great bird, for me at least. I am not totally positive I have seen a Merlin in Maine before, and this is only one of a very few I have ever seen. It came winging into the top of a tree well out in the marsh while I was turning to go back to the trike and sat long enough for a burst of photos, before it swooped out across the marsh to amuse itself with a flock of Greater Yellowlegs…putting them all up in the air and then chasing them. In the process it got too close to a Kingfisher perched on a tall pole (a dead sapling stripped of all its branches) way out by the river, and was itself set upon. The Kingfisher was just defending territory, but I looked up the Merlin’s diet and Greater Yellowlegs, while certainly at the larger end of the scale for Merlin prey, is definitely on the list. Bold bird! The Yellowlegs is at least equal in size to the Merlin. And all this from what amounts to a meat-eating parrot. Sony a6700 with the Tamron 50-400 Di iii VC zoom at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my bird and wildlife modifications. Heavily cropped, upscaled, and processed in Photomator.
Maine! Knot what it looks like
Great Egrets: York County Maine, USA, September 2024 — I spent over an hour sitting at the edge of the marsh a mile inland from the mouth of the river, observing a mixed feeding flock of Egrets and Herons and took several sequences of these two as they hunted close together. They struck this pose a few times. You will have to study the image closely to see that their necks are not, in fact, entwined. It is not a knot…just a trick of perspective and the way the foreground grasses frame the birds. Still, it makes for an interesting photo. Sony a6700 with the Tamron 50-400 Di iii VC zoom at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my birds and wildlife modifications. Highlight metering. Processed in Photomator.
Maine! September marsh Egret
Great Egret: York County Maine, USA, September 2024 — I continue to be amazed and delighted by the number of Egrets and Herons we have this year in the marshes and on the sandbars at the mouths of our Southern Maine rivers. This year you find mixed feeding flocks, generally with a few Great Blue Herons, and this month with Greater Yellowlegs, scattered in marsh pools…one day here, another day there, all along the river at high tide. This egret was part of such a flock and flew in, while I was standing on the path, to the small, kiddy-pool sized pool closest to me, perhaps 30 feet away, and proceeded to hunt the grasses and water just at the edge. Add the increasingly colorful September marsh grasses and the light of the early September sun, and it makes for a rare Maine portrait of a Great Egret. Sony a6700 with the Tamron 50-400 Di iii VC zoom at 523mm equivalent. Program mode with my bird and wildlife modifications. Animal/bird recognition and Highlight metering. Processed in Photomator.
Maine! Calico Aster
Calico Aster, also known as “white woodland aster” is a small flowered aster of, as you might guess, woodlands throughout North and Central Americas. It is a late summer, early fall bloomer. This one was growing in the Walsh Woods Arundel Land Conservancy. Sony a6700 with the Tamron 50-400 Di iii VC zoom at 109mm equivalent. Program mode with my macro modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Maine! Great Blue Airways
Great Blue Heron: York County Maine, USA, September 2024 — There seem to be a lot of Great Blue Herons, compared to this time in past years, still hanging out in the marshes at the mouth of the river. There were 3 three together yesterday, with 3 Great Egrets and close to a dozen Snowy Egrets, all feeding in the same area of the marsh. The Herons were more mobile, moving from place to place in full flight and I had a chance to get some decent flight shots of them skimming the grasses and landing. Sony a6700 with the Tamron 50-400 Di iii VC zoom at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my action and flight modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Maine! Brush stroked marsh
As the angle of the sun lowers in September, I have always liked the range of textures and forms that marsh grass takes, as though a painter has been at work on the canvas. Sony a6700 with the Tamron 50-400 Di iii VC zoom at 81mm equivalent. Program mode (with my bird and wildlife modifications just because that was what the camera was set to). Processed in Photomator.
Maine! Siblings
Bald-Eagle (immatures): York County, Maine, USA, September 2024 — There has often been an immature Bald Eagle down at the river mouth these past few months, but here is proof that there were at least two all along. Clearly siblings, to be sitting so close. Sony a6700 with the Tamron 50-400 Di iii VC zoom at 75mm and 477mm equivalents. Program mode with my bird and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator and assembled in FrameMagic.
Maine! Ring-bill beach
Ring-billed Gulls along the surf line of a little beach in a small cove between rock headlands here in Kennebunk, Maine. Sony a5100 with the Sony E 10-18 f4 zoom at 15mm equivalent. Superior Auto with Landscape Scene Mode. Processed in Photomator.
Maine! By the glint in your eye
Ring-billed Gull: York County Maine, USA, September 2024 — There was a good sized flock of Ring-billed Gulls at the beach last week, working the surf line and just off-shore. They were pretty secure and very busy, so I worked my way close enough for some intimate portraits. I like the glint of sun in this one’s eye as it turned its head away from me just a bit, intent on something in the water. Sony a6700 with the Tamron 50-400 Di iii VC zoom at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Maine! Tumble
A little tumble of water in the Mousam River at Roger’s Pond Park. I was out looking for Eagles, which have begun to hunt the river at the park again as fall comes on, but I also wanted to experiment with some moving water. Sony a6700 with the Tamron 50-400 Di iii VC zoom at 384mm equivalent. Program mode with my macro modifications…program shift to f29 and 1/20th for the silky water effect. Hand held. Processed in Photomator.