Posts in Category: birds
Red-eyed Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo, Laudholm Farms, Wells Maine
I am sure I must have seen a Red-eyed Vireo in Maine before last week, but I can not remember when. This specimen was active in the trees above the main path to the beach at Wells National Estuarine Research Center at Laudholm Farms in Wells Maine last week when I walked in to photograph the Least Terns at their nesting site. Just a bit too backlit to see the red in the eye 🙂
Sony RX10iii at 600mm equivalent field of view. 1/400th @ ISO 100 @ f4. Processed and cropped slightly for scale in Lightroom.
Least Terns in flight: Happy Sunday!
Three Least Terns in flight. Laudholm Beach, Wells Maine
“If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light!” Jesus
To the generous eye, the glory of God is all around us in the natural world. Sunsets and sunrises, the drama of clouds over a sunlit landscape, the energy of a storm, the quite beauty of flowers…God’s glory is all around us. And no where, as I see it, more clearly than in birds in flight. Grace and power, intense purpose accomplished with such ease it looks to us like play…our spirits soar just watching, and it takes a hard heart indeed, or one terribly distracted, not to be driven to praise.
There is only one place where the glory of God is more clearly revealed…and that is, as Paul says, in the unveiled faces of God’s children. May your eye be generous to see the glory of God today, and may your unveiled face reveal that glory to all who see you. Happy Sunday!
Piping Plover
Piping Plover, Laudholm Beach, Wells Maine.
Piping Plovers are endangered in Maine, largely because the beaches they prefer for nesting are also the beaches both Mainers and tourists prefer for sunbathing, jogging, walking dogs, and general recreating. Add in the population of cats that inhabit beach houses all along the coast, and the native foxes, raccoons, snakes, and gulls…all of whom prey of the eggs and chicks of the Piping Plover, and, if the nest does not get stepped on by a tourist, it is likely to be raided before the chicks hatch or fledge. The State of Maine and the Federal Government have set aside “Protected Areas” for the last nesting colonies of Piping Plovers on our beaches, but dogs, cats, and natural predators can’t read the signs or “see” the stakes and orange ropes that are supposed to keep the areas safe. Neither can, apparently, some tourists. It especially irritates me to see people running their dogs on beaches with nesting colonies, contrary to the clear posted signs. Maine Audubon has a volunteer/paid program that puts people on the beaches to monitor the nesting areas and keep as many predators (human, canine, feline, and other) away from the birds…but they are only there during daylight hours. And of course, the Piping Plovers themselves pay no attention to the protected areas either. They might or might not nest behind the barrier, but they certainly do not feed there. This Plover was way down the beach from the posted signs, running along the little line of green stuff deposited by the receding tide. Back up at the nest area, the State has erected a wire mesh enclosure around a cluster of nests, but while out feeding, the Plovers are on their own. The number of chicks fledged each year in Maine is counted in low double digits, and that is on a good year.
And they are such cute little birds. Full of attitude! This is a panel of 4 shots of the same bird (one of only two I saw that day on the beach). Sony RX10iii at 840mm equivalent. 1/1000th @ ISO 100 @ f5.6. Processed in Lightroom and assembled in Coolage.
Least Tern takes a dive!
Least Tern plunge fishing, Laudholm Beach, Wells Maine
I went out yesterday specifically to find birds in the air so I could practice Birds in Flight with the new Sony RX10iii. To have a chance at BIFs, you need somewhere there are birds pretty much constantly in the air…a lot of birds is better than a few. My prime BIF locations are Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico for Sandhill Cranes and Snow Geese, and the wild bird rookery at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm for Wood Storks and Egrets. The only reliable place around home is the very end of Laudholm Beach where the Little River comes to the sea, and where there is a nesting colony of Least Terns (and a few Piping Plovers…both endangered in Maine) on both sides of the river. This time of year the Terns are in full breeding mode and are actively plunge fishing in the Little River. Now there is a difference between catching Cranes or Storks in the air, or even geese, and catching a Least Tern in the air. Terns are smallish, and Least Terns are both tiny and fast, which makes keeping them in frame long enough for the camera to focus and then getting off a burst is very challenging. I will go back today, even though it is the better part of a two mile walk each way, to try some techniques I discovered in reading the camera manual last night…after reviewing yesterday’s take.
What we have here is high speed sequence of a Tern diving. As you can see, the Tern goes completely under water after its prey. I can not imagine the strength it takes to break the surface on the way out and get into the air with a fish, even a small fish, in your mouth.
Sony RX10iii in Sports Mode. 600mm. 1/1000th @ ISO 100 @ f4. Processed in Lightroom and assembled in Coolage.
Red-tailed Hawk with prey
Juvenile Red-tailed Hawk with prey, Laudholm Farms, Wells ME
I included a poem in yesterday’s post that highlighted this juvenile Red-tailed Hawk that swooped down from a tree ahead of me and pounced on something in the grass. It then proceeded to kill its prey…which evidently took some doing…as the hawk repeatedly jumped up into the air and pounced again. I thought at the time that the hawk might have taken a snake…which would definitely fight back and be hard to kill, but in hindsight it might have been that the juvenile was just inexperienced and would have had trouble with anything. 🙂 It was a great encounter. I felt privileged to be a witness, and was so excited that it was difficult to hold the camera still enough for shots. My primary impression was the size of the hawk. You rarely see them down on the ground like this and this close, and the bird looked huge!
Sony RX10iii at 600 and 1200mm. Exposure on Program but all about 1/640 @ ISO 100 @ f4. Processed in Lightroom and assembled in Coolage.
Cedar Waxwings
Cedar Waxwing, Wells National Estuarine Research Center at Laudholm Farms, Wells ME
I took a photoprowl to Laudholm Farms yesterday (Well National Estuarine Research Center at…). It is always good to be there, and it is only about 6 miles from home (shorter as the crow flies), but yesterday was especially wonderful. I wrote a poem about it.
Any photoprowl that begins with
Wild Turkey in the tall grass beside
the road, and ends with a juvee Red-
tailed Hawk swooping in on prey,
killing it, and eating it in front of me,
not 40 feet away in low brush,
is a good photoprowl! And that is
not to mention the flock of 100
Cedar Waxwings moving through
the wild apple trees in the wood
beyond the Monarch Meadow, or
the Rose-breasted Grosbeak singing
against the sun, or magic of spring
light on new leaves and the forest
coming alive, or the Thrushes, or
the Blue-eyed Grass, or the Red
Squirrel, or wild Geraniums, or
the unbelievable cluster of Jack-
in-the-pulpit growing right beside
the boardwalk…I mean, Jack-in-
the-pulpit! So strange, so beautiful.
And for all that…all that wonder seen
and shot, home in time for lunch.
Now that is a good photoprowl!
This is one of that flock of 100 Cedar Waxwings, one of two large flocks I encountered on my prowl. I think Cedar Waxwings are among the most elegant of birds…silky feathers and subtle colors set off with crayon bright flashes on the tail and wings. Beautiful altogether.
Sony RX10iii at 1200mm equivalent (600mm plus 2x Smart Tel-converter which crops a 5mp image out of the center of the sensor to achieve twice the magnification). 1/640th @ ISO 100 @ f4. Processed in Lightroom.
If you are interested in my daily poems you can follow them at Day Poems 2016 (http://daypoems16.blogspot.com) or on Facebook in my stream or in my Day Poems 2016 collection on Google+ (https://plus.google.com/u/0/collection/0uunr}
Grooming
Tricolored Heron, St. Augustine Alligator Farm wild bird rookery, St. A, Florida
Birds spend a lot of time on maintaining their feathers: grooming, preening, oiling, rearranging, etc. Not surprising. When they are not hunting, feeding, breeding, or feeding young…they are probably grooming. This Tricolored Heron at St. Augustine Alligator Farm’s wild bird rookery is busy on the underside of his wing. A long neck comes in handy that way.
Nikon P900 at 1000mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 400 @ f5.6. Processed in Lightroom.
Blackburnian Warbler x 4
Blackburnian Warbler, Magee Marsh, Ohio.
Back to Ohio and Magee Marsh today for this 4 shot collage of Blackburnian Warbler…certainly one of my favorite warblers. Like a live spark. 🙂
Nikon P900 at 1600mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 280 @ f6.3. Processed in Lightroom and assembled in Coolage.
Immature Red-shouldered Hawk
Immature Red-shouldered Hawk, Washington Oaks Garden State Park, Florida
Back again to Florida for today’s pic. This is an immature Red-shouldered Hawk at Washington Oaks Gardens State Park south of St Augustine Florida. I saw a similar hawk last year when I visited, so I was kind of looking for this hawk when it appeared in the huge Live Oaks above the water features in the shaded part of the garden. It appeared as though on cue, and my students (it was a Point and Shoot Nature Photography field trip at the Florida Birding and Photo Fest) were duly impressed 🙂
Nikon P900 at 1200mm equivalent field of view (pulled back for context). 1/160 @ ISO 400 @ f6.3. Processed in Lightroom.
Another Oriole in Apple
Baltimore Oriole, Magee Marsh, Ohio.
Back to Ohio today for this Baltimore Oriole in Apple blossoms. An action shot.
Sony RX10iii at 600mm equivalent field of view. 1/250th @ ISO 100 @ f4. Processes and cropped for scale in Lightroom.