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.
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.
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.
Tree Swallows: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, July 2025 — There were 4 swallow on the branch when I lifted the camera, and then this happened 🙂 Thankfully the Program choose a shutter speed of 1/1000th so I got the shot. 🙂 Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600mm. Program with my birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Eastern Kingbird: Kennebunk, Maine, July 2025 — If you follow my work (play 🙂 you have seen this Eastern Kingbird before. It has taken the territory that belonged to an Eastern Phoebe for many years along one of our marsh paths. This is just (to my eye) a pretty picture. I like the bird. I like the pose. I really like the weathered wood of the stump and its bold form, and I like the background of mottled brown and green. It does not say much about anything, but it is pretty. And maybe that’s enough. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400. Program mode. Processed in Photomator.
Least Tern: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, July 2025 — The Least Terns are apparently feeding chicks now. They hide really well so I have not seen one yet…but I have not gotten close enough to really look. I could not figure out was all the “courting” behavior meant…males offering fish…until I looked it up this morning. The chicks are fed on regurgitated fish, so the only way for a male to feed is offspring is to offer the fish to his mate…or do the job himself. I think maybe the hope, among the males, that they might get lucky again has something to do with it too…and that, as they say, is how the species survives. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.
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.
Carolina Wren: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, June 2025 — The wrens are family Troglodytidae which means cave dweller, and I can see, in this photo, how they might have been the inspiration for illustrations of the cave dwelling dwarfs. And now, having had that thought, I cannot see them any other way. Dwarf birds, with all the character of a Tolkien dwarf. I think that might be okay. 🙂 Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.
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.
Ruby-throated Hummingbird: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, June 2025 — Lousy light is often the best light for hummingbirds, if you want to catch the gorget in all its glory. The day stated overcast and dull yesterday, but, for the first time this summer the male Ruby-throat was very active around the feeder, and was posting guard on the little branches we have fixed to the deck for perches, and I had time to watch it and get some photographs. They needed treatment for noise in post, but the gorget is as good as I have ever seen it. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.