Posts in Category: beach
Maine! Discovering its wings
Piping Plover: York County, Maine, USA, June 2023 — This Piping Plover chick is 2 to 3 weeks old. It will not fly for at least another week, maybe more, but it is beginning to stretch its wings. This same day there were maybe 2 day old chicks at other end of the beach (they were well away from the nest and that does not happen generally for the first day or so), and they were only half this size…that is the body was half this size, the legs do not grow much after hatching. Piping Plovers grow into their legs 🙂 Notice the fine fringe of down feathers still on the wing. And let me remind you that this photo was taken from at least 30 feet with a long lens and cropped in for scale. I would never get as close to the chick as it looks here, and neither should you. 🙂 OM Systems OM-1 with 100-400mm zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom bird modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro. ISO 200 @ f8 @ 1/1250th.
Maine! Song Sparrow
Song Sparrow: York County, Maine, USA, June 2023 — What is better than a Song Sparrow singing! This one was on the back side of the dunes on one of our local beaches, apparently trying to drown out the surf. OM Systems OM-1 with 100-400mm zoom at 1600mm (2x digital converter). Program mode with my custom bird modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro. ISO 200 @ f9 @ 1/1600th.
Maine! Willet close up
Willet: York County, Maine, USA, June 2023 — Here is that close-up of the Willet from our local beach that I mentioned yesterday. The adults are no longer guarding this area, so I assume they decided to relocate. I saw them further out in the marsh yesterday, and a whole group on the other side of the river mouth. This one was definitely sticking its tongue out at me. OM Systems OM-1 with 100-400mm zoom @ 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my evolving bird modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro. ISO 200 @ f7.1 @ 1/1000th.
Maine! Tern in flight…
Least Tern: York County, Maine, USA, June 2023 — Another composited image of a Least Tern in flight at the mouth of one of our local rivers…entering hunting mode. Three shots at 25 frames per second, clipped out and arranged and processed in Pixelmator Pro. Program mode with my evolving birds-in-flight modifications. OM Systems OM-1 with 100-400mm zoom at 800mm equivalent. ISO 320 @ f6.3 @ 1/3200th. +.3EV.
Maine! Piping Plover chick
Piping Plover: York County, Maine, USA, June 2023 — One more from my brief encounter with the Piping Plovers. It is hard to say how old this chick is. They are up and running the beach within hours of hatching. I know it is at least a day old because my wife saw them the day before. There were 3 chicks from this nest, and each chick, if it survives to flight stage, is a success story. Maybe next year this chick will nest one beach further north, or at the north end of this beach, and that will be a bit more Piping Plover territory reclaimed! OM Systems OM-1 with 100-400mm zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my evolving birds modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro. ISO 200 @ f7.1 @ 1/1600th. -.3EV
Maine! So, just what exactly are your intentions?
Piping Plover: York County, Maine, USA — Okay, I guess it needs to be said again. You should never get as close as it looks like I might be from this photo to an endangered Piping Plover. I was not actually anywhere near that close. It is a long lens and a cropped photo that makes it look that way…and I did not approach the birds…they worked their way closer to me as I stood still. They are reclaiming territories on popular tourist beaches this year, and we want them to succeed. If you visit you will see them working between their posted nesting areas up against the dunes and the tide-line. It is what they do. Enjoy them, but give them their space. This bird is clearly aware than I am there…and I backed away and left soon after this was taken. He evidently wanted to explore the section of beach I was standing on, and I let him. 🙂 OM Systems OM-1 with 100-400mm zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my evolving birds modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro. ISO 320 @ f6.3 @ 1/3200th.
Diving Least Tern
Least Tern: York County, Maine, USA — The Least Tern is also listed as “endangered” in Maine, and its nesting sites are protected. And again, this year they are nesting on our popular tourist and fishing beach. Please give them space. This diving Tern was over the river, right above the heads of the fishermen…but after considerably smaller prey. This is composite of a series of shots of the same Least Tern diving on prey…taken at 25 frames per second, with the OM Systems OM-1 and the 100-400mm zoom at 800mm equivalent and assembled during processing in Pixelmator Pro. I could edit out the slight halos around the birds but I think in this case it adds to the effect, as though the tern was disrupting the air and carrying light with it. Taken in Program with my evolving birds-in-flight modifications. ISO 250 @ f6.3 @ 1/3200th.
Beach Roses in the view
The beach roses (Rugosa Rose) are in bloom in southern Maine. Beach Rose is an invasive species, originally from the Asia, that was imported and planted to stabilize dunes all along the Atlantic coast. You see it everywhere through most of the summer here in Maine. The flowers develop into Rose Hips…and are made, not so much in Maine, but in other Atlantic states, into a jam or jelly. They do make a great foreground for the skies of June…or this June at any rate. We have had a lot of these days lately. iPhone SE with Sirui 18mm lens. Auto with intelligent HDR turned on. Processed in Apple Photos.
Maine Great Egret
Great Egret: Parson’s Beach, Kennebunk, Maine, USA, June 2022 — We have both Great and Snowy Egrets, pretty much all summer, in small numbers in the marshes behind the dunes along the coast. Nothing like the flocks, and multiple flocks, you see in Florida, or even Texas, and the individual birds stay pretty much far out in the marsh, so I don’t get very many photo ops. This one flew into a tidal pool behind the dunes fairly close to the beach access road while I happened to be there on my eTrike. A nice looking bird! Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed (and enlarged) in Pixelmator Photo. Finished in Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f5 @ 1/1000th. .
Beach Rose
Rugosa Rose, or Beach Rose, grows on the backsides of our ocean dunes and long access roads all along the coast. I see as hedges in people’s yards within a mile or so of the sea as well. It is not native. It comes from the coastal areas of Northern China, Korea, and Japan, and was introduced in Connecticut and on Nantucket Island in the 1840s. From there it as spread all up and down the New England coast.
This is an ultra wide close up, taken with an 18mm equivalent lens on the Sony a5100 from about 8 inches. I like the ultra wide perspective on the occasional close up. Program mode. Landscape Creative Style with -1 Saturation. Processed in Polarr.