Unlikely acrobatics…
One of the most enjoyable things about watching Cedar Waxwings, for me, is the acrobatic poses they get into while feeding. This is good example. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. Roger’s Pond Park, Kennebunk, Maine, USA
Chickadee in the wild
We get Chickadees at the feeders on the deck right outside the back deck doors all year long…but as I have said before, Chickadees “in the wild” are somehow much more interesting than our backyard friends. This one was on the Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area near Kennebunk Maine, USA. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
All kinds of strange (and beautiful)
Native phragmites reeds at the edge of the marsh at the Wells Reserve at Laudholm Farms in Wells, Maine. I zoomed out to 600mm and shot the stand of reeds waving in the wind, and then sorted out the most effective shots. Going for the total abstract reality look. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Chipper Poem
There is a poem with this, today’s Day Poem.
3/11
The chipmunks were out in force at
Laudholm Farms this unexpectedly
warm March day. The temperature
hovered just below 70, and the sky
was clear and blue. I watched a
chipper scamper in the woods, and
then, becoming aware of me. freeze
at the foot of an adolescent maple…
too big to be called a sapling, but
still small enough to be in its dancing
days in the shade of its elders. Up
or around, I had to wonder, thinking
of the chipmunk, and then, taking
a step closer for a photo, the chipper
dived under (not a direction I had
considered) into a unseen hole where
what will be a buttress root in a hundred
years jutted out from the base of the
tree. I walked on, not wanting in any
way to diminish the chipmunk’s en-
joyment of the rare, fine March day,
especially as it was clearly evident
he had no intention of spoiling mine.
Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Silver Birch
A bit of Silver Birch bark detail from Laudholm Farms in the crisp light of a clear early March afternoon. I like the way the texture of bark contrasts with the lovely bokeh of late winter, early spring forest. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Feisty Chipmunk…
On our first really warm day of spring…hovering just under 70 degrees…this chipmunk at Laudholm Farms in Wells, Maine, was pretty full of himself, feisty even. He was not sure he was going to give me the right-of-way on the boardwalk through the lower woods along the Rachel Carson NWR border…though he did finally take the leap off the edge and into a pile of brush. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos and assembled in Framemagic.
Variations on a theme Cedar Waxwings
What will I do with my
hundreds of photos of
Cedar Waxwings from
the past few weeks…
I see it as an installation…
a bare room, wide pine
board floor, white walls,
neutral gray ceiling, subtle
track lighting, and hundreds
of Cedar Waxwing shots
hung in rows upon the walls,
in all the poses they get
into, the improbable
acrobatics of plucking
berries, dozens of berry
in the beak, the classic
meditative portrait with-
out one fine feather out
of place…groomed by
the wind of their own
passing, no two shots
the same, but so
similar…they might be
all one bird. “Variations”
I would call it,
“Variations on a theme
of Cedar Waxwings.”
Here are two ways of envisioning my Variations on Cedar Waxwings. A Gallery where you can page through them, and a video slideshow.
Cedar Waxwings once again…
Again with the Cedar Waxwings. Though the birds in general have become more active in the past week, Cedar Waxwings are still the primary photo subjects in Kennebunk right now. This is from a few days ago, and from the largest flock I have seen in one yard yet…over 40 birds. I like the way the two birds interact within the frame here. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. Kennebunk, Maine, USA
Chipper in the March sunshine
A Chipmunk on the boardwalk through the Maple Swamp at Laudholm Farms (Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve), in Wells, Maine. The chippers are just beginning to be seen out most days here in Southern Maine. This one held this pose for at least a full minute as I took photos. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Ruddy Turnstones
We return to Florida and the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival in Titusville. On my last day there, my daughter Sally and I did a loop around Black Point Wildlife Drive and then the short loop of Gator Creek, where we found a small flock of Rudy Turnstones, which we pulled over to watch in two different spots as they moved along the waterfront. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. Assembled in FrameMagic. Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, Titusville, Florida, USA.