Great Egret hunting
Great Egret: Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve at Laudholm Farms, Wells, Maine, USA — This is Maine and the Egrets are never as close as I would like, but we do get Great Egrets in good numbers during the extended migration in late summer and early fall. There were two hunting in the tidal marsh beyond the viewing platform in the Maple Swamp. The Sony Rx10iv will take a good crop when the birds are too far away, and this shot had some help from Pixomatic Photo Pro’s Machine Learning Max Resolution…but the main limiting factor with birds across a marsh at any distance, no matter how long your lens or big your sensor, is heat wave interference, and you can see some softening this shot. Still, and elegant bird, even in hunting mode. Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr, Pixomatic Photo Pro and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4.5 @ 1/1000th. -1/3 EV.
Cormorant attitude!
Double Crested Cormorant: Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve at Laudholm Farms, Wells, Maine, USA — I went to Laudholm Farms specifically to fill my photo buffer. When you post a image every day, you have to think about keeping ahead of the calendar 🙂 I found this handsome (and doesn’t he just know it) fellow on the boat dock at the overlook on the Little River. At least I think it is a “he”. I see what might be the beginnings of crests happening above the eyes. We rarely to never see them in breeding plumage here in southern Maine. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/1000th.
Monarch Chrysalis
When I visit the Wells Estuarine Research Reserve at Laudholm Farms in Wells, Maine, I park my trike on the grass beside the bike rack beyond the Handicapped Parking signs. As I passed carefully between the signs yesterday there was a nice fresh Monarch chrysalis hanging, right at my eye level on the trike, from the underside of one of the signs. Too good an opportunity to miss, and before I road away after my hike, I set my iPhone up with the Sirui 10x Macor lens and took a number of shots. It is a fascinating structure, and there were still water drops on it from the rain overnight. Altogether a thing of beauty. It is a rather exposed spot and I can only hope it survives to be a butterfly. iPhone SE with Moment thin case and Sirui 10x Macro lens. Standard Apple Camera app with Smart HDR engaged. Processed Apple Photos.
Bumblebee in the Turtlehead
Someone gave us a few Turtlehead plants many years ago, and they have grown into 4 substantial clumps in the shade of the trees along either edge of our yard. Turtleheads are more commonly a flower of the stream-side. We have the white variety growing wild along the Kennebunk River not from from home. They are such a strange flower, closed in on themselves and not very inviting, but the big bumblebees we have here in Southern Maine seem to like them, and are very busy forcing their ways into the throat of the turtle and back out again laden with pollen. I was out with my iPhone for some macro and semi-macro shots. This one was taken with the Sirui 60mm portrait lens on the Moment thin case at about 2x digital zoom with the standard Apple Camera app. Smart HDR engaged. Processed in Apple Photos.
Hog Island Ketch
This shot is just right at the edge of what I can call Nature Photography. If it were a close up of the sailing ketch then, for sure, it would not be a nature photo…but in this ultra-wide view, the ketch…off Hog Island, Maine, USA…and the boats behind it, become elements in the land, sea, and sky scape. Mostly it is just a pleasing photo. iPhone SE with Moment thin case and Sirui 18mm ultra-wide. Standard Apple Camera app with smart HDR engaged. Processed in Apple Photos.
Muskrat Monarch
Monarch Butterfly, Muskrat Pond, Medomak, Maine, USA — It is the season of the Monarch in Maine, whether I am in Kennebunk around home, or, apparently, further north in Medomak. There are large stands of goldenrod and the invasive Himalayan Balsam between the road and the edge of Muskrat Pond, and the Monarchs were working it on the overcast morning we visited. The color contrasts make the shot. Just another Monarch? Perhaps not in this setting. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. ISO 125 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Eagle, Eagle!
Bald Eagle, Muskrat Pond, Medomak, Maine, USA — This American Bald Eagle was really too far away for photos…but what are you going to do? It was all the way across Muskrat Pond in Medomak, Maine, at least a quarter of a mile, when I visited with the Holbrook Travel group at Hog Island Audubon Camp last this week. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent…but cropped, upscaled, and recropped for maybe the equivalent of 2000mm. Lots of mist in the air too, and crummy light, which did not help either. Still, we do what we have to. 🙂 Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr, upscaled in Pixomatic Pro, finished in Apple Photos. ISO 250, 500, and 400 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Black and White
Black and White Warbler: Medomak, Maine, USA — As part of my day with the Holbrook Travel group at Hog Island Audubon Camp, we took a walk around Muscrat Pond in Medomak, a small village just up the coast from Hog Island. There were birds. Not a great many, but more than a few species…not easy to photograph as they foraged in hedgerows and tree tops…typical Maine August birding when the migration is just getting under way. Just that much north of us they do have many nesting warblers that we don’t see all summer here in Southern Maine, like this female Black and White Warbler, who did come out to the edge of the foliage for a few moments while we watched. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr, enlarged in Pixelmator Pro and cropped for scale, and finished in Apple Photos. ISO 500 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Sundew!
Sundew, Hidden Valley Nature Center, Jefferson, Maine, USA — As promised, we are here today to celebrate Sundew! Sundew is another carnivorous bog plant. Instead of drowning its prey, as the Pitcher Plant from yesterday does, the Sundew has little sticky spikes on open pads that attract insects. The insects get stuck and the nutrients are absorbed. You can see a couple in the shots here. A tiny back beetle, and small green caterpillar of some sort. Sundew is hard to see, even in a bog full of it. The little sticky, spiky, pads are often all that rises above the level of sphagnum moss, though the first shot above shows more of the plant, and those pads are less than 1/4 inch across. In good light you look for the glitter of the crown of tiny sticky beads of gue on the tips of the spine. And then you get in really close for a photo. The shot that shows more of the plant was taken at 600mm with my Sony Rx10iv from about 3 feet (and that was an exceptionally large plant), but the other two are from my iPhone SE with the Sirui 10x macro lens attached. I had to get down on my knees and elbows and bend over the edge of the floating platform, to get the phone within about 1/4 inch of the plants for those shots. Then I had to get back up…not easy at my age. The things we do. 🙂 Still, I would do it again, just for the privilege of seeing and celebrating the strange and wonderful carnivorous, bog dwelling, Sundew plant!
Pitcher Plant
Hidden Valley Nature Center, Jefferson, Maine, USA — I spent the day with the Holbrook Travel group at Hog Island Audubon Camp yesterday, and presented an afternoon workshop on nature photography. One of the highlights was a visit to the bog platform at Hidden Valley Nature Center in Jefferson. I have never seen a better display of Pitcher Plant. (We also found lots of Sundew plants, which I will feature in another post.) Pitcher Plant is a carnivorous plant. Insects are attracted to the water in the pitcher and then, because of the structure of the plant, can not climb back out. They are digested in the pitcher and the nutrients feed the plant. They have a strange flower that is mostly bract. We have them in the remnant bogs in Southern Maine, but nothing like the display at Hidden Valley…just that much further north. Photos with the Sony Rx10iv at various focal lengths for effective framing. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.