Great Egret (in a tree)
Great Egret: Kennebunk, Maine, USA — We have a few Great Egrets around all summer, in the tidal marshes along the lower Mousam River, and the other marshes along the coast, but this week we have many…along with high numbers of Snowy’s as well. I could see them from the bridge on Route 9, up-river in the marsh and in the trees, so I turned up the Bridle Path, which runs along the back side of the marshes, to see if I could get closer. Not ideal light, but about as close to a Great Egret as you are going to get in Maine. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Blue Dasher, with sparkles.
Sometimes it is the “other” stuff in a photo that makes it’s appeal. In this case a portrait of a Blue Dasher dragonfly on a reed at the pond at Southern Maine Medical Center here in Kennebunk is transformed by the sparkles on the water, and what the lens does to them. The circles are actually refraction patterns formed when the light, reflecting off the water behind the dragonfly, passes through the diaphragm of the lens (the little hole that controls how much light gets to the sensor). The pattern they make lifts this dragonfly portrait out of the ordinary. Or that is what I think anyway. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Blazing Star pollinators…
Northern Blazing Star, Kennebunk Barrons Nature Conservancy, Kennebunk, Maine — Though the Blazing Star crop this year is not what I expected after a controlled burn, there are clearly enough blossoms to attract a wide variety of pollinators. Many different insects are attracted to this endangered plant, which is good, as it gives the plant its best chance at survival within its highly restricted range. It’s a good deal for the insects as well. 🙂 Left to right and down, Cabbage White butterfly, Clouded Sulphur butterfly, Cuckoo Leaf-cutter Bee (sp?), Green Metallic Sweat Bee (sp?), Leonard’s (?) Skipper, and Monarch butterfly. I am sure if I had spent more time there I could have found others as well. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Why you have to photograph every Chickadee :)
Black-capped Chickadee, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — I wrote a poem the other day about how taking photos of Chickadees is “paying your photographic dues” so you are ready when a real rarity shows up at your feeders…but there is, as this photo demonstrates, more to it than that. You just never know when a Chickadee (or other common bird) is going to display an interesting behavior. I would not have gotten this shot if I had not already been focused on the bird when it happened. In fact I was in the middle of a burst of photos already that started with the bird nicely posed on the branch. This just happened. 🙂 And that is the way it works. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Ruffled feathers: Tufted Titmouse
Tufted Titmouse: Kennebunk, Maine, USA — It seems to be the season for ruffled feathers. Many of the birds coming to the feeders these days are looking kind of ratty. 🙂 This Tufted Titmouse is usually a sleek, well groomed looking bird, but not today! Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Handsome Heron
Great Blue Heron: Wells, Maine, USA — I would not call a Great Blue Heron beautiful…though I recognize its beauty. I think “handsome” is a better word. This handsome Heron was hunting frogs around a drainage pond on the Senior Condos complex behind US1 just over the Wells line. I got off my bike to look for dragonflies and might have missed the heron if it had not moved. I was certainly not looking for it and it was way down the other end of the pond. It was not bothered by me there, and allowed me to walk down quite close to it, in relative terms. I might have been able to get closer, but I did not want to flush it. There are a lot of frogs in that pond, and I wished the heron all the success it deserved. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. This is a portrait exposure, so pretty much full frame. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Downy Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker: Kennebunk, Maine, USA — Chickadees, Chipping Sparrows, and Downy Woodpeckers. The regulars at our feeders…they come many times a day, every day. The Chickadee and the Downies are even with us all year. This shot is from my backyard photo blind, near the hanging suet cage, and this is one of three Downies that live in our yard…mom, pop, and a fledgling from this year. I have photographed this bird many times…but, as with Chickadees and Chipping Sparrows, you can never have too many Downy Woodpecker shots. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Sub-adult Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — We have a pair of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds coming to our sugar water feeder many times a day, and have had all summer. I have seen them returning often to the pines over my feeding station by my back-yard photo blind, but if they are nesting there, the nest is too high for me to find it in the branches. There are at least two younger birds around now. This sub-adult male came and hovered right outside the window of my blind…eye to eye with me, and then at least toyed with the idea of bathing in my water bucket fountain, before perching very briefly for this shot…in the deep shade of course, but we take what we can get for hummingbirds here in Maine. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Black and White Warbler
Black and White Warbler: Kennebunk, Maine, USA — This might be the second Black and White Warbler we have had in our yard over the past 20 years, but, if so, it is ONLY the second. I was totally surprised to see it land among the feeders at my photo blind. It came by a few times while I watched, but getting a photo was difficult. It was a very active bird, and was working, very Black and White like, close in to the branches behind the foliage. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Golden-crowned Kinglet!
Golden-crowned Kinglet, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — I got the chair-blind out again yesterday afternoon and spent an hour and a half watching chickadees come and go…along with the more occasional Chipping Sparrows. I was ready to pack it in when we got a sudden flurry of activity that included, not one, but two new birds for our yard. First a Black-and-white Warbler, and then a Golden-crowned Kinglet! I have seen both birds in Maine, but the Golden-crowned only in Acadia. This is female Golden-crowned, and a very scruffy bird at that…either it had been bathing recently or it is in molt. Still, a Golden-crowned Kinglet in our yard! You will probably see the Black-and-white Warbler tomorrow…unless I get something really spectacular today 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. The chair blind, by the way, is the best thing ever! It is a double blind…with two seats…so I have lots of room, and it packs up in seconds so I don’t have to leave it out.