Posts in Category: beach
Ring-bill
Ring-billed Gull: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, August 2025 — Another handsome gull from the beach on Tuesday. This one is a Ring-billed Gull. I asked Google AI to give me its age or plumage status from the photo, but it told me it could not do that, and I certainly do not know myself. Gulls! Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 493mm equivalent. Program with my birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Greater Yellowlegs
Greater Yellowlegs: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, August 2025 — The shore birds are beginning to come back trough on their way south already here in southern Maine. This is not the first Yellowlegs I have seen, but it was standing nicely along the edge of the stream where it flows out to the river. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with bird and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Still feeding
Least Tern: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, July 2025 — Least Tern chicks are still being fed even after they are flight born and making short hops up and down the beach. This one is not quite ready to fly, but any day now. I spotted the chick in an open area and put my stool down and sat at a respectful distance and waited until the terns settled and then about 20 minutes more before a parent came to feed. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600mm equivalent. Program with my bird and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Chick
Least Tern: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, July 2025 — I knew the Least Tern chicks had to be in there somewhere (there being the posted and marked off section of beach up against the top off the dune), but they hide so well that I could not find them. So yesterday I made it my mission to find one. I found not one but two dozen 🙂 And I had my stool with me so I sat and watched them for a while, getting anointed several times for my effort…but the parents settled and I got to see several interactions, both between parents and chicks and chicks and chicks. They are so fast on their tiny feet! Here we have a parent apparently scolding offspring. That is both what it looked and sounded like. The chick is several weeks old and will be flying, short hops down the beach, any day now. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600mm. Heavily cropped and upscaled. (I was a lot further away than this looks). Program with my bird and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Voice
Least Tern: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, July 2025 — I generally get terns in flight just about figured out just about in time for them to disperse after nesting, and I might not see another tern this close until next year. 🙁 Still. This one was voicing its appreciation (or displeasure). Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my birds-in-flight and action modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Ready or not!
Least Tern: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, June 2025 — If you walk by the areas where the Least Terns are nesting on the beach, this is going to happen. Even if you are well away from the protective strings that set off the nesting area from the rest of the beach. I am not sure, but I suspect the Terns actually enjoy buzzing humans as though we were gulls or foxes…I think they know we are not after their eggs, but they really enjoy seeing us duck and flinch. Besides, I was sitting on my stool with no treat to them at all. But what do I know? Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my birds-in-flight and action modifications. Processed in Photomator and assembled in FrameMagic.
Interactions
Piping Plover: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, June 2025 — I took my little collapsing plastic stool (the ones that look a little like a Dalek from Dr. Who) down to the beach yesterday. I got to watch the two week-old plover chicks interact with each other and one parent for 30 minutes or so (without causing too much alarm to the nesting terns behind them). That was the plan for the stool all along, and it worked. The chicks are a little more used to being out of the egg now…not so frantic to explore the whole world all at once. The sun was fierce and I think they were eager to find some shelter under the adult’s wings. Sure looked like they wanted to cuddle though, and who could resist? The plovers live a precarious life sharing the beach with humans. At least while I was there they had some protection from the gulls. Which is maybe why they are willing to share the beach with us. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600mm equivalent (and considerably cropped). Program mode with my birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.
A bit full of himself (herself?)
Willet: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, June 2025 — Looking a bit full of him/herself? I know that is a total projection and the Willet is not feeling anything I might think, but I am human and can not help myself 🙂 Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Plover chicks: the movie!
Something different for today. Music (very imperfect) on my little Aether tongue pan. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600mm equivalent. Program. Photomator. Enjoy.
Plover chick again
Piping Plover chicks: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, June 2025 — It was amazing to spend an hour with these two, maybe two day old, Piping Plover chicks and their parents on the beach yesterday. The chicks are totally fearless…eager to explore, finding all kinds of tasty bugs, running like wind-up toys across the sand, going nowhere in particular. The parents are frantic, trying to herd them and protect them from all the considerable dangers in this world. Sound familiar? So much fun, and such a privilege to watch. And a real challenge to photograph, if you into that as well. If you take a close look at any of these photos, you will see why Piping Plover chicks give any camera’s auto focus fits. The things are blurry by nature, intentionally blurry. No sharp edges but their legs, no contrast to the plumage, which is itself too fluffy and undefined to focus on, and their eyes are always hooded, half open, and deep set. No target at all. Still, with persistence, and throwing away way all the many many near-misses, it is possible to come home with a few keepers. 🙂 Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my birds and wildlife modifications. (I kept switching back and forth between focus areas but I am not sure it made any difference.) Processed in Photomator.