Posts in Category: wildlife
Eastern Pondhawk
Eastern Pondhawk, Wells, Maine, USA — I suppose one of the reasons I like Eastern Pondhawks is that they perch so nicely for photos. 🙂 But I do like the colors, and the name. Okay, so what is not to like about the Eastern Pondhawk. You get my point? This was taken at small drainage pond on the grounds of a senior citizen housing complex (really upscale semi-attached condos) just behind Route 1 south of Kennebunk and north of Wells. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Halloween Pennant
Halloween Pennant, Day Brook Pond, Kennebunk Barrens Nature Conservancy, Kennebunk, Maine, USA. — This is the subject of yesterday’s Day Poem, in all its transient glory. This dragonfly is newly emerged…you can tell by the extra cellophane like gloss on the wings…and, of course, I saw it come in off the water and land on what had to be it’s first flight. The wings gain strength quickly and it only perched a few times, very briefly, before it was off somewhere inland. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Swallowtail dreaming…
I was headed out on my bike with my camera when I saw this very tattered Swallowtail butterfly working the Day Lilies by our driveway. I managed a few shots before it was off into the trees across the road. It never really posed for me, but I like this shot for its color, composition, and for the dreamy quality. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
How small is a Snowy Egret?
Snowy Egret: Kennebunk, Maine, USA — You can rule out any trick of perspective here, since the Egret is clearly in front of the Herring Gull, so this gives an accurate idea of just how small a Snowy Egret really is. Way small! Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Time for Tiger Swallowtails
There is a poem:
The Tiger Swallowtail, drunk on
Marigold nectar, staggered from
flower to flower, letting me take
its picture in its many poses,
recording the accidents of posture
as it probed the blossoms, one
after another. Full wings, both
front and back, and the furry tiger
body, as it came and went, just
at eye-level in the long plastic
planters on the rail of the deck.
What could be finer on a sunny
July afternoon…with the cool
breeze attempting, again and
again, to lift it. It few off, oh
several times, and I waited in
front of the open deck door, for
it to circle back and find fresh
flowers…and it did…giving me
all the Tiger Swallowtail I need.
We get two Tiger Swallowtails here in Southern Maine: The Canadian and the Eastern…and since they overlap, hybrids are always possible, and apparently are becoming more frequent…or at least more frequently observed. Though I have tried, I can not say for sure which one this is. This time of year Eastern is more likely, and it is large and yellow enough to be one…but this butterfly shows at least some of the marks of a Canadian. It is certainly “fresh”…unlike most of the swallowtails I photographed last month, which were all well worn and ragged around the edges. I don’t think I saw a single one with both tails intact. Anyway. I always enjoy Tiger Swallowtails, the biggest and brightest of our New England butterflies. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. On the first shot I used Program Shift to increase depth of field slightly. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. These are both pretty much full frame, just cropped a bit for composition.
The Snowy Egret in its moods
Snowy Egret: Kennebunk Maine USA — The Snowy Egret is such an elegant bird, until it isn’t. 🙂 I found this beautiful creature along the margin of Back Creek where it passes under the access road to our local beach. Just doing its Egret thing. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Turkeys at the bath…
Dust bath that is. Turkeys like their dust baths. This flock of hens and poults, near Laudholm Farms in Wells, Maine, had found a sandy spot at the edge of a corn patch and were having a grand old time covering their feathers in dust to fight feather mites. Even the poults were enjoying it. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Tom in repose
When I went out for my ebike ride yesterday, I came across the Laudholm flock of Wild Turkeys grazing on the lawns and in the corn patch on Laudholm Farm Road. Of course I had to stop for a few photos. The Laudholm flock is used to being looked at, as they are often along the road there, so they pretty much just left me to do my camera thing while they very slowly moved off. This is, I think, a Tom, by the beard and the intensity of the color on the head…as well as the sheen to the feathers. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Spangled among the flowers
This is a female Spangled Skimmer dragonfly showing to good advantage among the meadow flowers. 🙂 Sometimes nature photography is as much about the “setting” as it is the creature. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. Taken at the Forever Wild Preserve in Kennebunk, Maine.
Photobomb :) Turtle and Dragonfly
Just for fun. I always take a short burst of photos at about 4 frames per second…just to make sure I get the shot. I saw this happen through the viewfinder, but did not know if I actually got it until I got the sequence up on the tablet at home. 🙂 The turtle, a smallish Painted Turtle, was sunning itself high above the water (high for a turtle) in Day Brook Pond. The turtles at Day Brook are among the most skittish I know of, perhaps because so many people take their dogs there to swim, so I was surprised when this turtle did not immediately dive off and back into the water when I approached. I am, of course, happy that it did not. (The Dragonfly, though not quite in focus, appears to the a Chalk-fronted Corporal.) Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.