Greatest Sloth encounter ever!
Three-toed Sloth: Canopy Tower, Panama, July 2022 — This Three-toed Sloth climbed up into a tree right by the tower the first day I was here, and has been in the same tree until yesterday, when it disappeared. Late in afternoon yesterday while playing my flute on the tower, it emerged from behind a big bunch of leaves where it had been hidden in the next tree over, and I watched it sipping water from various leaves and flower clusters as it moved down one limb and up another over the course of 15 minutes. I even got video! The light was great, the sloth was as active as I have ever seen one, and I was at eye-level. Could not get any better! Sony Rx10iv at 526mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 500 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Blue Cotinga
Blue Cotinga: Canopy Tower Lodge, Panama, July 2022 — There was a fairly heavy fog around the Canopy Tower yesterday morning when we climbed up top to see what was happening. I had actually gone down for breakfast when one of the lingerers came half way down the stairs to tell us there was “a very special bird.” And it was. The male Blue Cotinga. I am always surprised by how large Cotingas are. Eventually the bird came close enough for a shot even through the fog. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 500 @ f4 @ 1/500th. Plus 1 EV.
Pic for today: Violet-bellied Hummingbird
Violet-bellied Hummingbird: Rainforest Discovery Center, Panama, July 2022 — I took about 300 photos of this hummer to get 3 good ones. The Rainforest Discovery Center on the Pipeline Road in Panama is an great place for hummers. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications and multi-frame noise reduction. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. Equivalent ISO 6400 @ f4 @ 1/160. Plus .7EV.
Panama bonus: Another Canopy Tower greeter.
Another greeter at Canopy Tower. I took over 2000 frames today, so even after editing I am going to have a lot of photos from Panama. This is only the first full day :). This is a Geoffroy’s Tamarin, a small primate. A family lives around the tower and visits many times a day. I want them to be cute…but they are really quite fierce looking! I have shots of them grooming each other which make them seem a bit more sociable. Sony Rx10iv at 371mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications and Multi-frame Noise Reduction. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 1250 @ f4 @ 1/500.
Greeter at Canopy Tower
Red-lored Parrot, Canopy Tower, Panama, July 2022 — There were 5 Red-lored Amazon Parrots waiting to greet me when I arrived at the observation level of Canopy Tower after my flights and being picked up at the airport. Nice of them. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 250 @ f4 @ 1/500th. Plus 1.7EV for the backlight.
Big Green Bee in Purple Knapweed
I am on the bus, already at 3am, on the first leg of my journey to Panama and the Canopy Tower and Canopy Lodge. Yesterday at our family 4th of July cookout I walked the edge of an overgrown meadow looking for a photo to post on my way to the airport. This big Green Metallic Bee…very big as Green Metallic Bees go…in the fresh Knapweed caught my eye. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f5 @ 1/1000th.
Azure Bluet
Azure Bluet: SMMC Kennebunk, Kennebunk, Maine, USA, June 2022 — The grasses around the drainage pond at Southern Maine Medical Center in Kennebunk were full of Azure Bluets…probably more than a dozen visible in every square yard. What they lack in mass they make up in numbers 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 250 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Asian Lily
An Asian Lily in late afternoon light. From our front yard. 🙂 Happy Sunday!. Sony Rx10iv at 447mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 640 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Flower Long-horn Beetle
Flower Long-horn Beetle (sp?): Emmon’s Preserve, Kennebunkport, Maine, USA, June 2022 — I stopped at Emmon’s Preserve while out on my eTrike the other day, looking mostly for dragonflies. There were none in the upper meadow, or around the small pond near the Kennebunkport Land Trust headquarters house. ?? I did find this consolation prize Long-horn Beetle of indeterminate species along the edge of the trail. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/640th.
Leaf-cutter Bee
Leaf-cutter Bee: SMMC Kennebunk, Kennebunk, Maine, USA, June 2022 — This is most probably a Leaf-cutter Bee, which I found working the flowers around the drainage ponds at Southern Maine Medical Center in Kennebunk. (Less probably it is a Mason Bee, which apparently looks and acts very much like the Leaf-cutter…but which builds mud nests). Both are solitary bees, great pollinators, but not honey makers. In looking them up this morning I found that there is a whole Leaf and Mason Bee culture out there, with firms that will sell you starter sets to establish the bees in your garden or farm or orchard, to help with pollination, and lots of instructional material on-line about keep them. Who knew. Not I. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. (This is a heavy crop, enlarged with Pixelmator’s ML Enlarge tool.) ISO 100 @ f8 @ 1/1250th.