With every generation of Point and Shoot cameras, flight shots become easier. Not that they are ever easy. At least at the St Augustine Alligator Farm wild bird rookery there are lots of opportunities to practice. Great Egrets are big targets, but they move remarkably fast even when coming in for a landing. It is not easy to keep them in the frame. The fact that the Sony RX10iv’s focus is up to the task of tracking them in flight and the lens is so sharp through the whole zoom range are huge advantages, and makes the camera totally worth its price for the wildlife photographer. Sony RX10iv at 490mm. Program mode with birds in flight modifications. +.3 EV exposure compensation (for shots against the sky). Center fame, lock on, continuous auto focus. 1/1000th @ f5.6 @ ISO 125. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.

Snowy Egrets, St. Augustine Alligator Farm wild bird rookery, Florida

Another Snowy Egret action sequence from the St Augustine Alligator Farm wild bird rookery, in St Augustine Florida. These two males took exception to each other’s nest material foraging and faced off aggressively. Lots of posturing and prancing and flights of fancy, but no real damage done. Sony RX10iv at 600mm. Program mode with action and flight modifications. 1/1000th @ f4 @ ISO 400. Processed in Polarr and assembled in FrameMagic.

Snowy Egret, St. Augustine Alligator Farm wild bird rookery, Florida

The Snowy Egrets at the St Augustine Alligator Farm wild bird rookery are in full breeding plumage and full breeding mode. This male is coming into a nest. I think he might have spotted an intruder…likely a Cattle Egret or another Snowy, and was making his presence known to try to dive the intruder off, so he could reclaim the nest. Fighting mad and dancing on air! Sony RX10iv at 442mm. Program mode with birds in flight modifications. 1/1000th @ f5 @ ISO 125. Processed in Polarr and assembled in FrameMagic.

Roseate Spoonbill, St. Augustine Alligator Farm, St. Augustine Florida

The wild bird rookery at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm (a world class zoo despite its name) is one of the best places in the US to photograph nesting waders…including increasing numbers of Roseate Spoonbills. They are actively building nests this week and this bird flew regular sorties out and back between a pile of twigs under the trees and its nest above the boardwalk. I was not the only photographer tracking the flights. Sony RX10iv at 468mm. Program mode with birds in flight modifications. 1/1000th @ f4 @ ISO 250. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.

Carolina Saddlebags, Guana River Reserve, St. Augustine Florida

As I said in yesterday’s Day Poem, there were hundreds of Carolina Saddlebags dragonflies around the Education Building at Guana River Reserve in St. Augustine Florida, and I counted at least 50 over the highways between Jacksonville and there. What I did not say, is that most were migrants, last year’s well worn individuals, coming back for another season in our temperate climate. This is the only one that I caught resting in over an hour of watching them, and, as you can see, it is well worn. Sony RX10iv at 600mm. Program mode. 1/1000th @ f6.3 @ ISO 100. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.

Lichen, Emmon’s Preserve, Kennebunkport Maine

As I mentioned a few posts ago, we have a lot of limbs, and whole trees, down in our forests…evidence of the power of the series of nor-easters we had in March. They brought with them some residents of the higher elevations of the wood, like this mat of lichen encasing a fallen limb. I am pretty sure there are at least 2 species in this mat, maybe more. I find the complexity of the design fascinating…and far from random. Sony RX10iv at 24mm. In-camera HDR. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.

Eastern Skunk Cabbage, Laudholm Farms, Wells, Maine

The Eastern Skunk Cabbage is in flower this week wherever the ground is just the right balance between wet and dry, between swamp and forest. Here in Southern Maine, it grows on the sides of ditches, banks above vernal pools, and the wettest sections of mixed marshy maple forests among the roots of silver birches. I learned a bit about the structure of the flower this morning on wikipedia. The outer twisted purple shell is called a “spathe” and the inner flower cluster, rarely seen but glimpsed here, is called the “spadix”. The flowers push up through the mud and leaf mold ahead of the huge green leaves and are one of the more striking evidences of spring in the Maine woods. Sony RX10iv at 600mm. Program mode. 1/500th @ ISO 640 @ f4. Processed in Polarr.

Crocus, Kennebunk, Maine, April 16

Freezing rain coming in sheets sideways,
parking lots flooded with ice water over
the holes in my crocks, crocus huddled
in a bed of slush, my weatherproof jacket
soaked throug in minutes. What a day
for mid-April, nothing short of a betrayal.
The birds are flocking the feeders, and
after one short round of errands, I am
nursing hot coffee over the computer and
the beginnings of a real weather grudge!

And what a lot of good that will do me.

Crocus huddled in a bed of slush, indeed! Not April weather even in Southern Maine. Sony RX10iv at 600mm. Program mode. 1/500th @ f4 @ ISO 2000. (Not bad at all for ISO 2000!) Processed in Polarr and Apple Pbotos.

Crocus, Kennebunk, Maine, April 16

Freezing rain coming in sheets sideways,

parking lots flooded with ice water over

the holes in my crocks, crocus huddled

in a bed of slush, my weatherproof jacket

soaked throug in minutes. What a day

for mid-April, nothing short of a betrayal.

The birds are flocking the feeders, and

after one short round of errands, I am

nursing hot coffee over the computer and

the beginnings of a real weather grudge!

And what a lot of good that will do me.

Crocus huddled in a bed of slush, indeed! Not April weather even in Southern Maine. Sony RX10iv at 600mm. Program mode. 1/500th @ f4 @ ISO 2000. (Not bad at all for ISO 2000!) Processed in Polarr and Apple Pbotos.

Hermit Thrush, Laudholm Farms, Wells Maine

On my first really birdy day of spring 2018 in the forest of Laudholm Farms (Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve)…along with both Ruby and Golden-crowned Kinglets, Blue Jays, Robins, Crows, Northern Harrier, Kestrel, Bluebird, and Eastern Phoebe…I caught this Hermit Thrush low to the ground and between trunks. It sat there just long enough for a few pics. Of course, except for the Blue Jays, Robins, and Crows, I only saw one of each of the other species, so “birdy” day is relative to the slow start spring and migration are getting this year in southern Maine. Sony RX10iv at 600mm. Program mode. -.3EV. 1/500th @ ISO 500 @ f4. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.