Posts in Category: wildlife
Plover chick again
Piping Plover chicks: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, June 2025 — It was amazing to spend an hour with these two, maybe two day old, Piping Plover chicks and their parents on the beach yesterday. The chicks are totally fearless…eager to explore, finding all kinds of tasty bugs, running like wind-up toys across the sand, going nowhere in particular. The parents are frantic, trying to herd them and protect them from all the considerable dangers in this world. Sound familiar? So much fun, and such a privilege to watch. And a real challenge to photograph, if you into that as well. If you take a close look at any of these photos, you will see why Piping Plover chicks give any camera’s auto focus fits. The things are blurry by nature, intentionally blurry. No sharp edges but their legs, no contrast to the plumage, which is itself too fluffy and undefined to focus on, and their eyes are always hooded, half open, and deep set. No target at all. Still, with persistence, and throwing away way all the many many near-misses, it is possible to come home with a few keepers. 🙂 Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my birds and wildlife modifications. (I kept switching back and forth between focus areas but I am not sure it made any difference.) Processed in Photomator.
On its own already
Piping Plover chick: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, June 2025 — I have been seeing photos of this piping plover chick since it hatched a week ago, but not seen it myself until Monday. They blend in so well with the sand, and it is, after all, only one tiny puff of feathers and toothpick legs. It is so small and so fuzzy, that the camera still will not focus on it even at a week old. It is pretty much independent now. The parents have even given up trying to keep it corralled to the safe zone behind the nesting area ropes. It is running all over the beach. Which is probably why I finally saw it. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600mm equivalent (and heavily cropped at that). Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Flame Colored
Flame-colored Tanager: Batsu Gardens, San Geraldo de Dota, Costa Rica, March 2025 — Batsu Gardens is a project of one the grandsons of the original settlers in the Savegre Valley. High on the mountain side above the stream there is little terrace with flowering and fruiting plants, and two shelters where birders and photographers can sit and watch or photograph the visiting hummingbirds, tanagers, toucans, parrots, finches, silky-flycatchers and ground doves. This is the Flame-colored Tanager, one of the most common tanagers of the mountains, and one of the brightest colored. Almost like flame 🙂 Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Tern turn turn
Least Tern: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, June 2025 — I am still very much “practicing” to be a Tern photographer…at least a terns-in-flight photographer. They are way faster and more agile than either I or my camera. Still persistence sometimes almost pays off. 🙂 This is almost a satisfying shot. Almost, if I don’t look too close. I will try a slightly faster shutter speed next time out. I remind myself it is not about perfection. It is only about catching a hint of the grace and beauty of the living tern. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my birds-in-flight and action modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Magnolia
Magnolia Warbler: Magee Marsh Boardwalk, Oak Harbor, Ohio, May 2025 —The Magnolia Warbler is one of my favorites to photograph at Magee each Biggest Week in American Birding. So bright. So bold. And when you find one feeding at eye-level they generally stick to one area long enough so that with patience you can get a few good shots between the leaves. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Plover
Piping Plover: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, June 2025 — There are probably more Piping Plover pairs on our local beach than I have seen. They tend to be illusive and blend in well with the environment. Which is a good thing, all things considered. It is how they have survived this long, though as the density of humans, and their dogs and litter, has increased along the coast-line, survival has become harder. Which is why they are now protected, and why the upper edgers of the beach, above high tide line and up against the beach rose, where they nest, is roped off on most beaches in Southern Maine right now. I ask, as always, that you give them space. This is a long telephoto shot, and cropped to fill the frame. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Backyard Turkey
Wild Turkey: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, June 2025 — The past few days we have had Turkeys in our yard in the morning and sometimes in the afternoon. I am sure they live in the patch of forest across the street, but come out to hunt insects and invertebrates in the relatively short grass of the neighborhood yards. That’s okay by me. I like to see them, and as far as I can see they are doing no harm. Adds a bit of wild to the neighborhood. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Singing Quetzal
Resplendent Quetzal: San Geraldo de Dota, Costa Rica, March 2025 — If you go out early in the morning to whichever wild avacado trees are currently fruiting in the Savegre River Valley around San Geraldo de Dota, you are almost guaranteed to see perhaps the most sought-after bird in Central America: The Resplendent Quetzal. The Quetzals are Trogons, but with exceptionally long outer tail covert feathers that stream behind the males, brilliant green and red and white plumage, a remarkable crest and a bright yellow beak. Altogether resplendent! Mario, our guide convinced us to NOT go out early…if the birds are near the road there are literally bus-loads of tourists, birders, and photographers there at daylight…anywhere from 50-100…all jammed together in the road, jostling for a good view and swinging big lenses and tripods with such abandon that it can be dangerous…and at the very least…somewhat unpleasant. He asked us to trust him that he could find Quetzals later in the morning. It was taking a big risk, as, after sunrise, Quetzals are much less predictable. We got to the fruiting trees mid-morning, and no more than stepped off our transit van than we heard at least two males calling. And then they were there. Resplendent in the morning sun, chasing each other through the dense cloud-forest canopy. Such a treat. I could see Mario relax and bask a bit in the vindication. Quetzals are never easy to photograph…never close enough or in ideal light…but I got some of my best Quetzal photos ever that morning. This shot is of a resplendent male singing, and though it is still a heavy crop of a high ISO image, I am pretty happy with it. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my bird and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Cape May
Cape May Warbler: Magee Marsh Boardwalk, Oak Harbor, Ohio, May 2025 — One of the things to love about being at the Biggest Week in American Birding on the Erie shore in Ohio is that many of the warblers are singing on their stopover…as though they are just too full of song to hold it unit they reach their nesting grounds. 🙂 This Cape May, photographed through foreground foliage, is a good example. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Bobolink
Bobolink: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, June 2025 — The Boboliks are back, nesting in the hayfields along the road in to our local beach, singing from the tops of the saplings. This was taken on a day when the air was full of Canadian wildfire smoke. The smoke did not dampen the song, but it definitely dimmed the photo. Bobolinks are close to invisible most of the year, but during nesting they certainly put on a show. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600mm equivalent. (From the seat of my trike). Program mode with my bird and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.