Yellow is the color
Yellow is the color of the flowers of Arroyo Hondo Open Space in Santa Fe, New Mexico in August…or at least the predominate color. These are from a morning hike there with our daughter Anna. There were heavy thundershowers later in the day, so who knows what new treasures will bloom today. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. Assembled in FrameMagic.
Parking lot birding. American Robin in Santa Fe
American Robin, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA — Needs must. After breakfast at our hotel in Santa Fe I had a poke around the parking lots of the adjacent buildings to see what I could find for today. I saw a couple of uncooperative butterflies and this Robin singing in the top of a tree. Nikon B700 at 1440mm equivalent. Program mode. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Clouded Sulphur in Blazing Star
Clouded Sulphur: Kennebunk Plains Preserve, Maine, USA — Monarchs are not the only butterflies to be happy to see the Northern Blazing Star in bloom. While there were not as many Clouded Sulphurs as Monarchs, there were still good numbers, and the numbers will increase as the full bloom comes on. Nikon B700 at 1440mm equivalent. Program mode. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Juvenile Northern Mockingbird
Northern Mockingbird: Kennebunk Plains Preserve, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — This juvenile Northern Mockingbird had me going for a few moments. In the excitement of first seeing it and getting off a set of record shots while it was still partially obscured by foliage, I tried to make it into all kinds of other species…with that (abnormally?) long tail and speckled breast…but then it hopped up onto a more exposed branch and I had to settle for a young Mockingbird…especially as I have seen the adults in the area all summer. It was hyperactive and gave me all sorts of poses in the few moments before it moved on. Nikon B700 at 1440mm equivalent. Program mode. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
More Monarchs in Blazing Star
Monarch Butterfly: Kennebunk Plains Preserve, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — More of the Monarchs among the early Northern Blazing Star on the Kennebunk Plains. A study in color contrasts. Nikon B700 at 1440mm equivalent. Program mode. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Monarch among the Blazing Star
Monarch Butterfly on Northern Blazing Star: Kennebunk Plains Preserve, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — The first early blooms of Northern Blazing Star are just opening right now. It looks like a very good year for Blazing Star on the Kennebunk Plains as there dense stands of plants about to bloom over wide areas of the plains. Already the insects are gathering. I saw more Monarchs than I have seen in several years yesterday, even in my short hike through one section, as well as a couple of Cloudy Sulphurs and Wood Nymphs, hundreds of Bumble Bees and wasps, and some very large and very loud hornet like things. The Monarchs, in particular, are beautiful feeding on the Blazing Star. For those who don’t know, Blazing Star is a threatened and protected species across most of its historical range, and here in Maine. The Kennebunk Plains are managed, in part, for Blazing Star. I leave on Monday for a week in New Mexico and I hope the full bloom is still going on when I return. Blazing Star and the insects it attracts in August always make for one of my favorites times of year on the Plains. Nikon B700 at 610mm equivalent. Program mode. Spot focus. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Turkey in the hay (field)
Wild Turkey: Near Emmon’s Preserve, Kennebunkport, Maine, USA — I detailed this experience in yesterday’s Day Poem, but essentially I stoped on my eTadpole recumbent trike to look at a dragonfly in a ditch and there were two turkeys sheltering in the tall grass and flowers on the far side. This one poked its head up to see what I was up to and I managed a few shots (once I got my camera untangled from the bag where rides between my legs on the trike). There were not completely open lines-of-sight as the hay was just about as tall as the turkey, but it is at least an evocative shot. It was a very hot day for southern Maine and the Turkeys were struggling with the heat. Nikon B700 at 1400mm equivalent. Program mode. -/3 EV. Spot focus. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Egrets along the Mousam
Great and Snowy Egrets: Kennebunk, Maine, USA — For Kennebunk in southern Maine, this is a good sized concentration of Egrets. It is not like Florida in the winter, but in August we get Egrets, both Great and Snow, staging their way south, and stopping over in the marshes along the coastal rivers for a few weeks. The top panel is at 228mm equivalent on the Nikon B700, and the bottom panel is from the same spot at 1440mm equivalent. Both shots are somewhat limited by the light haze of smoke from the western fires which has reached Maine in the past few days. Nikon B700 in Program mode. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos and assembled in FrameMagic.
Fresh Brown Creeper
Brown Creeper: Alwive Pond Preserve, W. Kennebunk, Maine, USA — A couple of grab shots of a Brown Creeper I encountered on the tail in to Alwive Pond. Grab shots are about all I seem to get of this hyperactive bird. This must be a fresh bird…either this year’s fledgling or a bird with brand new tail feathers. The tail feathers of our New England creepers are generally very worn and tattered, and considerably shorter by the time I see them. It is also particularly “brown” for an Eastern Brown Creeper. 🙂 Nikon B700 at 1440mm equivalent. Program mode. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Morning visitor: Cardinal
Northern Cardinal: For a week or so we have had the neighborhood male Cardinal visit our feeding station early in the morning, just about sun-up. Yesterday both the male and the female came. They don’t let me get even right up to the inside of the deck door…if so much as a shadow of me shows they are off, so this was taken from well inside through the double-glazed door. Still a handsome bird! Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. ISO 4000 @ f4 @ 1/500th.