Posts in Category: birds
One good tern deserves another :)
Common Tern, Mousam River, Kennebunk Maine
Another Common Tern in flight shot from my recent session at the mouth of the Mousam River here in Kennebunk Maine. This one was taken at the full 600mm equivalent of the Sony RX10iii, and then cropped for scale. Just keeping a tern in the frame at 600mm is a trick in itself. 🙂
As above. Exposure 1/1000th @ ISO 100 @ f4. Processed in Lightroom.
Curiosity, thy name is Cedar Waxwing :)
Cedar Waxwing, Day Brook Pond, Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, W. Kennebunk Maine
Curiosity, thy name is Cedar Waxwing (to paraphrase (or misquote) Shakespeare), but honestly, I can think of few birds that look as continuously curious as the Cedar Waxwing. It might be the hairdo, or the angle of black mask, but Cedar Waxwings always seem intently interested in whatever has their attention. This one was hunting teneral dragon and damselflies along the shore of Day Brook Pond on the Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area near our home in Kennebunk Maine. Freshly emerged odonata seem to make up a good portion of a Cedar Waxwing’s diet, at least this time of year.
Though you have to enlarge the image to see it, this shot has an impressive amount of feather detail. The superfine feathers of Cedar Waxwings make a really good test of a camera’s resolution. Sony RX10iii at 600mm equivalent field of view. 1/250th @ ISO 125 @ f4. Processed and cropped slightly for scale and composition in Lightroom.
Common Tern :)
Common Tern, Mousam River mouth, Kennebunk Maine
The Common Terns are having a meeting
at the mouth of the Mousam River,
where it runs into the sea. Some fishy
thing must be running because they are
active in large numbers along the coast
and up the river a quarter mile. They rest
along the sandbar where Back Creek meets
the Mousam, and are a constantly evolving
gyration of birds along the far shore, diving on
that fishy thing, and then coming back to the
sand bar to show off their catch. Watching
them puts any airshow you ever saw to shame.
Nothing can match the grace and ease of those
who’s lives depend on their prowess in the air.
And I tried to catch just a bit of that with my camera 🙂 Sony RX10iii in my slightly customized Sports Mode. 1/1000th @ f6.3 @ ISO 100. About 470mm equivalent. Cropped and processed in Lightroom.
Hummer on the deck
Ruby-throated Hummingbird, the yard, Kennebunk Maine
After I got back from Honduras early this month, I went out and bought a hummingbird feeder, as a kind of antidote to hummingbird withdrawal. We have a few Ruby-throated Hummingbirds coming now, but this the first one who is making him/herself at home. It is most likely an immature female. It allowed me to work my way to about 6 feet from it, and then only took off because it was ready to go. Not the best light as the sun was behind a cloud, but still… There is a poem.
We have, maybe, a “resident” hummingbird
coming to our feeder, and resting on the
apple branches we bolted to the deck for
perches round the feeding station. It might
be a young bird…it has that look about it,
and it let me within six feet today…buzzing
up into the trees overhead not because I was
there, but just because it was ready to go.
It was back again a dozen times in the next
few hours, always perching near the top of
the apple branch, spending sixty seconds
at a time at the feeder, sipping up the red
nectar. Of course I have photos, which I
will share tomorrow. I feel privileged to
play host to such a special creature…Ruby-
throated, though its chin is yet bare…still
I could get lost in the iridescent beauty of
of its green back, in the intricate detail
of its breast and wing feathers. Lost, I say,
or found in beauty. What a way to go!
Sony RX10iii at 600mm equivalent field of view. 1/250th @ f4 @ ISO 250. Processed and cropped slightly in Lightroom.
Snow Egret fishing…
Snowy Egret fishing. Lower Mousam River marsh, Kennebunk Maine
There are often Egrets in the marsh pools along the lower Mousam River near my home in Kennebunk Maine. The river edge and marsh there is part of Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge. I caught this Snowy Egret in the act, doing a fishing dance more typical of it’s Reddish cousin. Ah well, success is all that matters…though I know fishermen who would say it is not about the catch at all. I have a feeling Egrets would not agree. 🙂
Sony RX10iii at 600mm equivalent field of view. Sports Mode. 1/800th @ ISO 100 @ f4. Processed in Lightroom and assembled in Coolage.
Cedar Waxwing
Cedar Waxwing, Quest Ponds, Kennebunk Maine
There is some kind of small Dancer Damselfly emerging right now at our local ponds. They come up from the water’s edge in a visible tide, two or three in sight at any moment, and going on for hours. And where they are emerging, there are Cedar Waxwings. The birds gather around the pond, generally a dozen or more, and swoop in after the dancers as they fly. I wrote a poem about it. For the poem’s sake I named the dancer, but I am not at all sure I am right.
There was a gang of Cedar Waxwings,
silent but deadly, at the little drainage
pond by the medical center parking
lot, picking off newly emerged Dusky
Dancer Damselflies on their maiden
flights…swooping, like the guided
missiles that they are, across the pond,
taking the Damsels on the wing…
It was awesome, totally awe inspiring,
to watch them. Such precision. Such
grace. (Of course I will admit maybe
not so much fun if you happen to be
an unsuspecting Dusky Dancer.)
Faceoff: Brown Violet-ear Hummingbirds
Brown Violet-ear Hummingbirds, Rio Santiago Resort, Hondruas
I have mentioned before that the Brown Violet-ear Hummingbirds were so dominent on this trip to Honduras (the Point and Shoot Nature Photographer adventure at the Lodge at Pico Bonito) that they suppressed the numbers of other species that we saw. They also got in each others’ way a lot 🙂 We saw a lot of confrontations between hummers competing for the same feeders and the same space. The Brown Violet-ear is not a flashy bird by hummingbird standards, but it makes up for it in attitude!
Sony RX10iii at 530mm equivalent field of view. 1/250th @ ISO 640 @ f4. Processed in Lightroom.
Brown Violet Ear Hummingbird
Brown Violet-ear Hummingbird, Rio Santiago Resort, Honduras
The dominant Hummingbird species on our visit to Rio Santiago Resort in the North Coastal mountains of Honduras, by a ratio of 25 to 1, was the Brown Violet-ear. Rio Santiago Resort is actually a small lodge with a few cabins that is justly renowned for the numbers of hummingbirds and the numbers of hummingbird species that work feeders, too many to count, that they maintain. There were certainly hundreds, maybe thousands, of BVEs working the feeders at the lodge. For that reason, we saw far fewer species at the feeders than we expected. Even the most aggressive species, like the Rufous-tailed Hummingbirds, were kept at bay by the sheer numbers of BVEs. This shot, which actually shows the “violet ears”, was taken in the deep shade of the thatched roof over the open air restaurant/bar at the lodge. The roof is lined with maybe 50 feeders, and there are always a hundred or more hummers buzzing overhead while you eat. It is hard to imagine the density of hummers. I was able to stand at at less than 3 feet from the wire supporting the feeders and frame as many BVEs as I wanted. It was dark under there, and this shot was taken at a very high ISO…but it is exactly the kind of shot the Sony JPEG engine does best with, even at such an elivated ISO. Lots of fine detail and a blank background. Sony’s noise reduction routines work very well here.
Sony RX10iii at 600mm equivalent field of view. 1/250th @ ISO 6400 @ f4. Processed in Lightroom.
Sanderlings!
Sanderlings, Laudholm Beach, Wells ME
This is a collage of two Sanderling shots, taken on Laudholm Beach at the Wells National Estuarine Research Center at Laudholm Farms in Wells Maine. I like the light and the sense of movement.
Sony RX10iii at 600mm equivalent field of view. 1/1000th @ ISO 100 @ f7.1. Processed in Lightroom and assembled in Coolage.
Easy Song Sparrow
Song Sparrow. A beach, Kennebunk Maine
This somewhat bedraggled Song Sparrow, singing along the road in to our local beach, could not have been more cooperative. It let me approach, eventually, to within 10 feet. This shot was from more like 20, using the in-camera corp on the RX10iii to boost the reach to 1200mm.
It is an incredibly detailed shot, much like having the bird in your hand. I think it catches the energy behind that song quite well.
Sony RX10iii at 1200mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 100 @ f4. Processed in Lightroom.