Sandia Crest Flowers
I still have lots of photos from our week in New Mexico…so many wildflowers! This is a small selection from Sandia Crest east of Albuquerque, New Mexico. The Sandia Crest Highway takes you up to over 10,000 feet and the trail takes you out along the edge of a cliff and then back through the woods behind. We have here, as far as I can tell, one of the Wild Onions (perhaps Nodding, but at this elevation it looks considerably different than the Nodding I saw lower down), Columbine, Bluebells, and Paint Brush. I selected these photos for the contrast in color and for the isolation against the background (provided by the 600mm macro on the Sony Rx10iv). For macro I use program and my standard custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. Assembled in FrameMagic. These are all at f4. Paint Brush is at ISO 500 and 1/500th, Bluebells and Onion at ISO 100 and 1/1000th, Columbine at ISO 100 and 1/640th.
Blazing Star Display
Northern Blazing Star, Kennebunk Plains, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — This one of the denser stands of Northern Blazing Star on the Kennebunk Plains this year. Blazing Star is a fire dependent plant of glacial sand plains and is very restricted by just how little of that habitat remains undeveloped, both in Maine and all across the northern states to the Rocky Mountains. We are blessed that the Kennebunk Plains were kept open, first for wild blueberry production, and then as a Nature Conservancy Preserve, and that it is managed, in part, for fire dependent species like the Blazing Star. Stands like this one are getting harder and harder to find. Having it, basically, in my backyard (a short trike ride away) is very special. I used moderate telephoto, 107mm equivalent, on Nikon B700 to compass the image slight to show the stand to best effect. Program mode. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4.5 @ 1/1000th.
Goldenrod and Blazing Star
Goldenrod and Northern Blazing Star: Kennebunk Plains Preserve, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — Now that the heat wave has broken and the air quality is rising here in Southern Maine, I was able to get out to the Kennebunk Plains on my trike to see how this year’s crop of Northern Blazing Star is coming on. As I suspect from early blooms, it is a good year for Blazing Star. From Rt. 99 as you drive by, large sections of the Plains look purple with the flowers standing above the grasses. If you walk out any of the roads (all roads on the Plains are now closed to vehicle traffic, except the short section that gives access to the parking on the south side of Rt. 99) you will find that the stands are mostly not as dense as they look form Rt. 99. They never are, but they are impressive enough as it is. Goldenrod is also in full bloom, and the combination, where they grow together, provides a very striking contrast in color and form. Frame the pair from a low angle against the August sky and you have an image worth remembering 🙂 Nikon B700 at 71mm equivalent with macro engaged. ISO 100 @ f4.5 @ 1/1000th. -.3 EV exposure compensation. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Cassin’s Finch
Cassin’s Finch: Capulin Snowplay Area, Sandia Crest Highway, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA — As near as I can figure this is a juvenile male Cassin’s Finch. From the right angle you could see just a blush of reddish on the chest. There was another bird with it that was probably the adult female. Both sat above the water drip at the Snowplay area for most of the time we sat there…going on an hour. We left primarily because I came to the suspect we were keeping them from their drink (and partially because our two non-birders had exhausted the entertainment factor of the old road through the picnic area). Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. ISO 160 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Santa Fe Lizards
New Mexico Whiptail 
New Mexico Whiptail 
Chihuahuan Spotted Whiptail 
Desert Grassland Whiptail 
Little Striped Whiptail 
Plateau Fence Lizard
In the six days we spent in and around Santa Fe, New Mexico, we encountered several different lizard species. The trouble is that all but one were whiptails, and I do not know enough about whiptails in general, and New Mexico whiptails in particular, to reliably distinguish them where the species overlap as they do in Santa Fe. Also there are several possible Fence Lizards in New Mexico. I have captioned the images with my best attempt at an ID based on the resources I could find on the web and in apps. Anyone who really knows their Southwestern Lizards can feel free to correct me. 🙂 To complicate matters, the New Mexico Whiptail is a fertile, female only, hybrid between the Little Striped Whiptail and the Desert Grassland Whiptail, both of which also occur in Santa Fe. So. All photos with the Sony Rx10iv at or near 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Green-tailed Towhee
Green-tailed Towhee: Capulin Snowplay Area, Sandia Crest Highway, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA — My daughter Sal who lives in Albuquerque took us up Sandia Crest Highway to get away from the high temperatures and wildfire smoke settled over the city and to find some birds to photograph. We stopped at the Capulin Snowplay Area and walked down to the springs where there is water drip that attracts all kinds of birds depending on the time of day. This Green-tailed Towhee came and took several baths in the unaccustomed heat. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Flame Skimmer
Flame Skimmer: Leonora Curtin Wetland Preserve, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA — The morning of my daughter’s wedding celebration in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Carol and I went out to explore the local cienega (marsh or wetland in Spanish) just south of town. It is one of the very few natural ponds and wetlands in the high desert of northern New Mexico, and is owned and managed by the Santa Fe Botanical Gardens. Three short trails and some boardwalks provide access to birds, flowers, and dragonflies in season. We saw very few birds, probably because we were not there at dawn, but there were a good number of dragonflies and damselflies, and lots of interesting (though mostly invasive) flowers. This is the Flame Skimmer…a largish dragonfly, and certainly a highlight of any trip to the Southwest. There were two active around the little observation platform built out over the pond. It took me the better part of a half hour to catch one sitting close enough for a good photograph. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent from about 6 feet. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/640.
Santa Fe Red-winged Blackbird
Red-winged Blackbird: Santa Fe Canyon Preserve, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA — Playing catch up from what turned out to be a very productive (photographically) trip to celebrate our daughter’s wedding (a year after the fact due to Covid) in Santa Fe, New Mexico. This is probably the same Red-winged Blackbird I have seen several on several past visits, above the remains of 2 Mile Reservoir in the Santa Fe Canyon Preserve. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/640th.
American Three-toed Woodpecker!
American Three-toed Woodpecker: Sandia Crest, New Mexico, USA — On our final day in New Mexico we visited our two daughters who live in Albuquerque, and since the smoke from the fires to the west was dense in the valley, we decided to do some birding, photography, and hiking up on Sandia Crest above the city and the smoke. We hiked out along the cliff-tops on the Sandia Crest Nature Trail and then turned back through the forest just behind the cliffs. There was considerable bird activity, and among several more “to be expected” species, we tracked down this pair (perhaps and adult and juvenile or a male and female) of woodpeckers. Three-toed Woodpeckers…a somewhat rare and hard to see bird that is known to haunt the Crest. The birds were a good way back in the forest from the trail, besides being partially obscured by foreground trees. I used the full 600mm equivalent of the Sony RX10iv’s zoom, along with my custom birds and wildlife modifications to Program mode…then cropped heavily…down to maybe 1/8th of the frame and processed using my normal birds and wildlife presets in Polarr. Then I saved the images and reopened them in Pixelmator Pro to use the Machine Learning super-resolution tool to increase the file size back up to about 2/3s of a full frame, then recropped to give me something like the equivalent of a 2400-3000mm lens on a full frame camera. I mean these birds were tiny in the original frames, and only really identifiable in binoculars. Finally I used the AI processing tool in Apple Photos to add a little presence. Given the challenges, I am pretty happy with the results. At least you can see the three toes in the first shot. 🙂 ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/640th.
Unexpected Visitor: Cooper’s Hawk
Cooper’s Hawk: Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA — We had gathered at my daughter and son-in-law’s home in Santa Fe for a backyard cookout / rehearsal dinner for their one year, delayed due to Covid, celebration of their wedding vows…20 or so people chatting in groups in the backyard, when a biggish bird swooped down at about 5 feet through the yard, just at my wife’s eyelevel and only about a foot from her face, and then swooped up into the tree over the grill. It sat there for at least 15 minutes giving us the eye as at least some of us paused to wonder at it. I was the official casual photographer at the event so I had my camera in my hand and got some photos. At first I thought the hawk had some plastic wrapped around its talons and tail, but closer examination of the photos when I got home showed that it had picked up something furry and apparently grabbed the plastic along with whatever it caught. After a while it moved on into a tree in the next yard, where it stayed for at least the next hour. Hopefully it got its prey, and itself, untangled from the plastic before it moved on. We have seen three individual Cooper’s Hawks in the 5 days we have been Santa Fe…one at the Santa Fe River Preserve where it is to be expected…this one making this unexpected visit to a backyard full of people…and another hunting House Sparrow along the Camino Real hike and bike trail along the Santa Fe River channel. It must be a good year for Cooper’s Hawks in Santa Fe. Sony Rx10iv at about 370mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. ISO 640 @ f4 @ 1/500th.