Ready or not!
Least Tern: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, June 2025 — If you walk by the areas where the Least Terns are nesting on the beach, this is going to happen. Even if you are well away from the protective strings that set off the nesting area from the rest of the beach. I am not sure, but I suspect the Terns actually enjoy buzzing humans as though we were gulls or foxes…I think they know we are not after their eggs, but they really enjoy seeing us duck and flinch. Besides, I was sitting on my stool with no treat to them at all. But what do I know? Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my birds-in-flight and action modifications. Processed in Photomator and assembled in FrameMagic.
Wren thoughts
Carolina Wren: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, June 2025 — The wrens are family Troglodytidae which means cave dweller, and I can see, in this photo, how they might have been the inspiration for illustrations of the cave dwelling dwarfs. And now, having had that thought, I cannot see them any other way. Dwarf birds, with all the character of a Tolkien dwarf. I think that might be okay. 🙂 Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Interactions
Piping Plover: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, June 2025 — I took my little collapsing plastic stool (the ones that look a little like a Dalek from Dr. Who) down to the beach yesterday. I got to watch the two week-old plover chicks interact with each other and one parent for 30 minutes or so (without causing too much alarm to the nesting terns behind them). That was the plan for the stool all along, and it worked. The chicks are a little more used to being out of the egg now…not so frantic to explore the whole world all at once. The sun was fierce and I think they were eager to find some shelter under the adult’s wings. Sure looked like they wanted to cuddle though, and who could resist? The plovers live a precarious life sharing the beach with humans. At least while I was there they had some protection from the gulls. Which is maybe why they are willing to share the beach with us. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600mm equivalent (and considerably cropped). Program mode with my birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Not a ho hummer!
Ruby-throated Hummingbird: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, June 2025 — Lousy light is often the best light for hummingbirds, if you want to catch the gorget in all its glory. The day stated overcast and dull yesterday, but, for the first time this summer the male Ruby-throat was very active around the feeder, and was posting guard on the little branches we have fixed to the deck for perches, and I had time to watch it and get some photographs. They needed treatment for noise in post, but the gorget is as good as I have ever seen it. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.
A bit full of himself (herself?)
Willet: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, June 2025 — Looking a bit full of him/herself? I know that is a total projection and the Willet is not feeling anything I might think, but I am human and can not help myself 🙂 Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Singer in the stones
Song Sparrow: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, June 2025 — This pair of Song Sparrows were evidently hunting insects or some other small invertebrate in the stones under the bridge over the tidal creek on our local path through the marsh. I was on the bridge. 🙂 Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600mm equivalent. Program with my birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Poser
Eastern Kingbird: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, June 2025 — You never know what you will find along the Bridle Path when you go with your camera, but that’s the fun of it! This Eastern Kingbird posed for me, on a couple of different perches, coming and going as it hunted over the marsh. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600mm equivalent. Program with my birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Landing flaps
Great Blue Heron: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, June 2025 — There are not many Great Blues around yet this summer. Seems like there were more last year by this time. ?? Sometimes though you are just in the right place at the right time. All landing flaps down! Spilling air from the wings. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600mm equivalent. Program with my birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Plover chicks: the movie!
Something different for today. Music (very imperfect) on my little Aether tongue pan. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600mm equivalent. Program. Photomator. Enjoy.
Plover chick again
Piping Plover chicks: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, June 2025 — It was amazing to spend an hour with these two, maybe two day old, Piping Plover chicks and their parents on the beach yesterday. The chicks are totally fearless…eager to explore, finding all kinds of tasty bugs, running like wind-up toys across the sand, going nowhere in particular. The parents are frantic, trying to herd them and protect them from all the considerable dangers in this world. Sound familiar? So much fun, and such a privilege to watch. And a real challenge to photograph, if you into that as well. If you take a close look at any of these photos, you will see why Piping Plover chicks give any camera’s auto focus fits. The things are blurry by nature, intentionally blurry. No sharp edges but their legs, no contrast to the plumage, which is itself too fluffy and undefined to focus on, and their eyes are always hooded, half open, and deep set. No target at all. Still, with persistence, and throwing away way all the many many near-misses, it is possible to come home with a few keepers. 🙂 Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my birds and wildlife modifications. (I kept switching back and forth between focus areas but I am not sure it made any difference.) Processed in Photomator.