Posts in Category: birds
Eastern Towhee
Eastern Towhee: Kennebunk Plains Preserve, Kennebunk, Maine, USA, June 2022 — Sorry, this will always be the Rufous-sided Towhee to me, counter-part to the Spotted Towhee of the west. It must have actually been the Eastern Towhee when I started birding, but I started in New Mexico, and my books were probably not the latest editions, so I learned it, on my first birding trips east, as Rufous-sided. By the time I actually moved east, it was fixed in my mind. I have to look it up when I see one, because I do remember that I know the wrong name. I just don’t immediately remember the right one. Strange brain. Anyway, there are, some years, quite a few Eastern Towhees out by the pond on the Kennebunk Plains Preserve…and this is a good year for them. Their songs echo along the whole long pond edge, so there are at least a couple of pairs, and I had both the male and female of this pair in view at the same time. Such a handsome bird! Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixomator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/1000th.
Tennessee Warbler
Tennessee Warbler: Metzger Marsh Wildlife Area, Oak Harbor, Ohio. USA, May 2022 — While looking for my life-photo-op for a Canada Warbler around the Metzger Marsh parking area, I spent a while in front to this tree long the dike above the parking watching a variety of warblers hunting among the catkins. This Tennessee was among them. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Red-winged Blackbird
Red-winged Blackbird: Metzger Marsh Wildlife Area, Oak Harbor, Ohio, USA, May 2022 — One morning later in the Biggest Week in American Birding, I went to Metzger Marsh instead of the boardwalk, as I had heard reports of several Canada Wablers there the morning before, and I had yet to see, let alone photograph a Canada Warbler. I posted that pic a while ago, my first ever of Canada Warbler. 🙂 While there, of course, being the Erie Shore and May, there were lots of other birds. This Red-winged Blackbird, which just might be the most numerous common bird in North America, was insistent that we all take note that this was his patch! Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixomator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/640th.
Mourning Warbler
Mourning Warbler: Magee Marsh Boardwalk, Oak Harbor, Ohio, USA, May 2022 — The Mourning Warbler is a hard bird to see, let alone photograph, at least at Magee, where they tend to say low in the vegetation, mostly under the ground cover. And there is a LOT of ground cover at Magee this year, due to the massive blow-down of the mature cottonwoods that used to provide shade for the forest floor. This one hopped up on a twig two inches above ground for a brief look-around, just as I came up on a group of birders who had been tracking it by the movement of the undergrowth for twenty minutes already. 🙂 Right place, right time, and ready! That is my wildlife photography recipe in a nutshell. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixomator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 250 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Cedar Waxwing among the Apple Blossoms
Cedar Waxwing: Magee Marsh Boardwalk, Oak Harbor, Ohio, USA, May 2022 — There is almost always a crowd of photographers under the apple tree that blooms in May along the Magee Marsh Boardwalk. There are often birds among the blossoms, and it makes a very attractive setting. I have photographed a dozen species of warblers there, as well as Baltimore Oriole and, of course, Cedar Waxwing. The Cedar Waxwings eat the apple flowers, and there can be many in the tree at once when they come through. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f5.6 @ 1/1000th, minus .7 EV. Difficult lighting.
Prothonotary: I spy a spider!
Prothonotary Warbler: Magee Marsh Boardwalk, Oak Harbor, Ohio, USA, May 2022 — All the warblers at Magee during the Biggest Week in American Birding are busy hunting and gleaning, but none more obviously than the Prothonotary. I caught this one picking spiders out of webs right by the boardwalk, paying no attention to me only a few feet away. 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.
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. .
Prothonotary: prodigious singer
Prothonotary Warbler: Magee Marsh Boardwalk, Oak Harbor, Ohio. USA, May 2022 — The Prothonotary Warbler is a prodigious singer, as anyone who lives in their nesting territory can testify. And, at least at Magee during the Biggest Week in American Birding, they often sing right in your face! They are not shy about it at all! Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Magnolia Warbler in Ohio
Magnolia Warbler: Magee Marsh Boardwalk, Oak Harbor, Ohio, USA, May 2022 — though I have been sharing some local Odonata and wildlife, I am only half way through the photos I took in Ohio in May during the Biggest Week in American Birding…and some of the remainder simply MUST be shared ( 🙂 ) This is one more of the thousands of Magnolia Warblers who begged to have their photo taken during the week I was there. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 200 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Cardinal!
Northern Cardinal: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, June 2022 — Our neighborhood Cardinal came to visit the other morning, before the sun was really up, but he stayed on the deck rail long enough for me to run to get the camera. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 6400 @ f4 @ 1/400th. (So, not much light at all to work with.)