Jack-in-the-pulpit
The parking lot and trail at the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge here in Southern Maine has been closed until just this past weekend, so I have not been able to check on this year’s crop of Jack-in-the-pulpits near the bike rack were they have been growing for several years. Now that the parking lot is open, I stopped by on my eBike to see what was up. I suspect the first plants were transplanted as part of a “wild garden” concept, which has since gone completely wild. The Jacks that grow there are the largest I have ever seen…way larger than I could have ever imagined Jack-in-the-pulpits could get. The oldest plants are over 3 feet tall with many pulpits…and some of the pulpits themselves are 6 inches in length. The leaves can be a foot long. These are really big plants. And they are spreading. There are now two smaller plants along side the bike rack that were definitely not there last year. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at various focal lengths (the Sony has full time macro focus). Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Ducks in a row…
Mallard, Kennebunk Plains Nature Conservancy, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — I was out at Day Brook Pond on the Kennebunk Plains looking for dragonflies yesterday and came across this family of Mallards out for a stroll…or swim, perhaps is better…but that does not catch the “feel” of it as well as stroll. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Fledgling Purple Finch
Purple Finch, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — I have featured this young male Purple Finch before in a more active pose, but he deserves a portrait shot. 🙂 Such a subtle beauty. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Woodchuck
There is a poem that goes with this:
6/24
My wife surprised a woodchuck standing
by our steps out front (a first for our yard
in our 25 years here) ...or he surprised her...
big and grizzled over brown, with those
ever-growing buck teeth hanging out. He
scampered under our front steps. Then
when she went back out to try to find
him, he was standing on the bottom step
of our back stairs, bold as nobody’s
business. By the time I got the camera
and snuck around the house, he was
standing right there at the corner and
disappeared back around. I crept to see
if he had stayed, and there he was, standing
by the porch, surveying the yard as though
it were his domaine. Makes us wonder if
it is he who has been eating the marigolds,
and what else he might take a fancy to
as the garden grows. We are not running
a woodchuck restaurant here. It is not that
he is not welcome, but I am not sure how
good a neighbor he intends to be. I don’t
envision a big hole in front garden being
a welcome addition to the yard. Time
might tell. Of course he might have just
been passing through (unaware that the
governor has mandated a fourteen
day quarantine for tourists in this time
of coronavirus). Whatever. I think it is
okay to be be concerned when Wood-
chucks show up in the neighborhood,
and not for the marigolds alone.
Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Chipper at the fountain
The water feature I put in for my backyard photo blind has been a mixed success. I would have to keep it running all the time I think, for the birds and other critters to get used to it and figure it out more than they have. The Chipmunks were actually the first to learn to use it, and this youngster is supremely confident now. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Froggy went a courting…
American Bull Frogs, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — The drainage pond at our local hospital health center is full of huge Bull Frogs, among the biggest I have ever seen, and certainly the biggest collection of big frogs that I have come across. Here we have both a male and a female. For some reason I see far fewer females than males…or perhaps it is just that I am noticing the difference more often. 🙂 I would not make a good Bull Frog. 🙁 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Beach Rose Pond
This little pond is right on Route 9 between Brown Street and the Kennebunk/Wells town line. The beauty of this view stopped me on my eBike as I rode by yesterday. Sony Rx10iv at 24mm equivalent. HDR mode. I used Program Shift to select a small aperture for increased depth of field and selective focus on the roses. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Proud and not purple yet…
Immature Purple Finch, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — This has to be one of this year’s fledglings. It shows just a hint of color in the plumage. By next spring it will be more pronounced, and by summer this will be a full purple male. Or that is my theory at least. He was really enjoying the buffet of aphids on the bittersweet vine. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Proud and Purple!
Purple Finch, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — This is most likely the first-year male that was just coming into its purple this spring. The other male we have coming to our feeders is even more intensely colored. He enjoyed a long drink from my stacked buckets water feature. I used the chair blind again. What a great invention. I sat it just into the edge of the shade of one of our big maples and had a very pleasant hour close to the birds. Then just packed it away into the shed. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Delta-spotted Spiketail
There is a poem that goes with this:
6/18
Stalking one of the (admittedly,
kind of ugly) drainage ponds
on the grounds of one of the
senior citizen condo complexes
(very upscale) between here
and Wells behind Route 1,
I was hit hard enough to stop
me in my tracks with one of
those “whoo, what is that!”
moments. You know them if
you are into any kind of nature
study...I get them still once in
a while, in birding, and I am
new enough to the whole dragon
and damselfly thing so they can
still happen on any outing. This
was a dark dragon, relatively
large, with bright yellow spots
and big jade green eyes, something
I certainly had never seen before.
“Whoo, what is that!”
Those moment are certainly
part of what keeps me birding
and a big part of what has me
hooked on dragons and damsels.
“Whoo, what is that?”
And then you have the fun of
finding out...digging out the
books and apps and coloring in
the background, fitting the critter
into the complex framework of
what we know about dragonflies
and damsels and life in general.
(This was a Delta-spotted Spiketail.)
That too is part of what keeps
me watching and photographing
nature. Always something new
to see and learn. How great is that?
Says it all. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.