Mr Mallard
Mallard: Spring Brook Pond, Kennebunk Plains Preserve, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — Keeping local again today, with this very cooperative Mallard duck from the pond on the Kennebunk Plains. He was not bothered by my presence at all, and both he and his mate came up on the bank while I was standing there. They saw me…they could hardly miss me in my bright yellow triking togs…but they just did not care. This is pretty much a full frame shot at 600mm. The sun was in and out…in here…so the green sheen on the head is not quite as bright. I like the little peak of blue on the wing. Sony Rx10iv. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 160 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Red-throated Loon
Red-throated Loon: Kennebunk, Maine, USA — I still have lots of photos from Costa Rica to share, but with better weather I am out on my eTrike most days and seeing more of note in the backyard. This Red-throated Loon was hunting mussels on the very altered bed of Back Creek where flows under the bridge on its way to the Mousam River. Red-throated is not as common as, well Common Loon here, but it might just be a matter of overall numbers of the two species. I am always happy to see one…but I do check each one, since we had a Pacific one long ago Christmas Bird Count. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed and considerably enlarged in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4.5 @ 1/1000th.
Wood Frogs!
Wood Frogs: Kennebunk, Maine, USA — Let’s take a break from the exotic birds of Coast Rica to celebrate spring in southern Maine. The Wood Frogs are mating in every vernal pool between home and the beach, all down Brown Street…and I am sure in almost every still water in southern Maine. They seem particularly loud this year. Springs is coming in! Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 200-320 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Golden-hooded Tanager
Golden-hooded Tanager: Las Cruces Biological Research Station (OTS), San Vito, Costa Rica — The Golden-hooded Tanager is another example of the bright tanagers of Central America. It is common on both Caribbean and Pacific slopes from lowlands up into the foothills, where we saw this one at the Wilson Botanical Gardens. The combination of colors on this bird is certainly eye-catching. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with wildlife modifications and multi-frame noise reduction. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. Equivalent ISO 3200 and 1600 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Speckled Tanager
Speckled Tanager: Las Cruces Billogical Station, San Vito, Costa Rica — The tanagers of Central America and South America are among the most colorful of birds. This Speckled Tanager was a life bird for me at the Wilson Botanical Gardens, and an instant favorite. It has a restricted range, not geographically…it is found from Costa Rica south into northern South America, but only at a particular altitude in the foothills of the mountains. It is not uncommon where it lives, but you have to be where it lives. Which is one of the reasons I enjoyed Las Cruces Biological Station and the Wilson Gardens so much…it was my first extended stay in at foothill elevations, and we got to see quite a few new birds, for me, in Costa Rica. Sony Rx10iv at 554mm equivalent. Program mode with wildlife modifications and multi-frame noise reduction. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. Equivalent ISO 3200 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Fiery-billed Aracari
Fiery-billed Aracari: Las Cruces Biological Research Station (OTS), San Vito, Costa Rica — We saw our first Fiery-billed Aracari at Danta Corcovado Lodge, but it was high in a tree from the observation platform, and I could not get the kind of photo that I wanted. The Fiery-billed Aracari is a common bird with a limited range…restricted to the lowland forests and foothills of the Pacific slope of Costa Rica and Panama. Like all toucans, its love of bananas brings it to feeding stations, even the intermittent one at the Organization for Tropical Studies Las Cruces Biological Station. Edwin, our guide, went into town our first night there to buy bananas to stock the feeders off the patio outside the dinning hall just for us, and we were there at first light, before breakfast, to see what birds would come. The Fiery-billed Aracari was an early arrival. For a lover of birds and photography, it does not get any better than this (though we can always hope for better light). Sony Rx10iv at 400-550mm equivalent. Program mode with wildlife modifications and multi-frame noise reduction. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. Equivalent ISO 4000 and 6400 @ f4 @ 1/320, 1/250, and 1/500.
Panama Flycatcher? (in Costa Rica)
Panama Flycatcher?: Calla de Gambia, Golfito, Costa Rica — Our brief visit to Calla de Gambia was certainly productive. This is, I am thinking, a Panama Flycatcher, a bird that, despite its name, has most of its range in northern South America, coming up into Panama on both coasts and limited to the a thin band on very edge of the Pacific coast in Costa Rica. It could be, however, a Great Crested Flycatcher. The photo was taken through the glass on our bus, and I had to adjust the color to compensate. Even so, I would expect a sharper division on the chest and a darker yellow on the belly in a Great Crested. ??? Still thinking Panama. 🙂 If anyone has a better idea let me know. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Purple Gallinule with chicks
Purple Gallinule: Calla de Gambia, Golfito, Costa Rica — The fields along Calla de Gambia were really wet…just sort of being an actual marsh…and attracted many “wetland” species…including this pair of Purple Gallinules raising a brood of chicks. The chicks were well out of the nest, following mom around, but she was spending most of her time feeding them, or fending them off as they begged for food. They were hard to see in the tall grasses of the wet pasture. Sony Rx10iv at 595mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 250 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Green Kingfisher
Green Kingfisher: Calla de Gambia, Golfito, Costa Rica — Still on Calla de Gambia, we crossed a little stream between pastures in an area that might be called “open forest” as much as pasture, since the trees were far enough apart to see all the way across the pasture, but the canopy was pretty solid. From the corner of my eye as we crossed, I caught this Green Kingfisher on a branch right by the culvert and made the bus back up so we could get some better views. It quickly flew off upstream, but not out of sight or out of camera reach. I have, of course, seen Greens in South Texas, most every trip there, but they are still among my favorite birds to see, and our third Costa Rican Kingfisher for the trip. Sony Rx10iv at 517 and 600mm equivalents. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixomator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 1250 and 1600 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Lineated Woodpecker
Lineated Woodpecker: Calla de Gambia, Golfito, Costa Rica — We had our second Lineated Woodpecker encounter, and our first close encounter, on Calla de Gambia as we were walking a short stretch looking for birds in the wet, almost marshy, fields. He was in the trees of the “living fence” that separated the fields from the road. If you don’t know about living fences…in the tropics if you cut a fence pole and stick it in the ground and string wire on it…it will root and grow, put out new branches, and turn into a tree in a surprisingly short time. Over the years, the trees in a living fence can get quite large…certainly big enough to attract a big woodpecker like the Lineated. As usual with close woodpecker encounters, this bird was busy keeping on the back-side of the tree from us most of the time, and the light was almost always behind it. They never make it easy for the photographer. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixomator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 250 and 500 @ f4 @ 1/500th. Plus 1.7 EV exposure compensation for the backlight.