Rufous-tailed Hummingbird, Rio Santiago Nature Lodge, Honduras
Outside here in Southern Maine, we are well into a spring snowstorm. About 3 inches on the ground as I write this and perhaps another 3 expected before noon. On the second day of spring! That is life in the northern latitudes. So, as an antidote, we will drop back 6 weeks to my time in Honduras, and the Rufous-tailed Hummingbird taken at the Rio Santiago Nature Lodge on the slopes of Pico Bonito.
I will return to Hondruas in June, at the height of hummingbird season, and we will spend at least one day at Rio Santiago. You can come too! It is a Point and Shoot Nature Photography adventure. Bring you camera and a Point and Shoot attitude, and we will have a lot of fun with the birds, mammals, butterflies, flowers, and landscapes of Honduras, all from the comfort of the the world class Lodge at Pico Bonito…in the company of fellow Point and Shoot photographers. Great photo ops, good learning, and great people. Visit my Point and Shoot Nature Photographer site for more information.
Nikon P900 at 1500mm equivalent field of view. 1/400th @ ISO 640 @ f6.3. Processed in Lightroom. (We will have lots of time to learn to photograph hummers like this, and, for those who want it, even instruction in post processing).
This is your chance. Great pricing for a great Point and Shoot photo adventure.
Carol came running
early to the bedroom,
“turkeys in the yard,”
and I went running
barefoot and still wet
from the shower, camera
in hand, out the front door.
Indeed, four big birds
in full spring finery…
feathers aglisten in the
morning sun with
colors rarely seen,
(barely imagined).
They strutted mindlessly,
as only turkeys strut,
(I know they call it
a trot but it’s not…
something between
a strut and a stroll)
up the middle of the
road to the neighbor’s
yard where they circled
back just in time
to be a Turkey heart
attack for the lady
in the SUV taking the
corner on Brown
Street a tad too fast.
They scuttled (again
a better word than trot)
through another yard
into the relative safety
of a patch of forest
and where gone.
Ah to be as mindless
and a carefree as a
Turkey in the spring.
Snow Bunting, Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, W. Kennebunk ME
We had amazing skies yesterday afternoon and of course I went looking for a venue to feature them. They were coming in from the west, so after a few shots from the beach looking inland, I headed out to the Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area…one of the few places in forested Southern Maine where you have a decent horizon in all directions. The Kennebunk Plains are a remnant sand plain habitat, traditionally kept open by wildfire, and now managed with fire for several endangered and marginal species in New England and southern Maine. Black Racer snake, Northern Blazing Star (wildflower), Upland Sandpiper, Wood Lily, etc. Not to mention the abundant wild blueberries (not endangered but rare in Southern Maine), or the occasional amazing skies.
I was back in the car, actually backing out, and the first drops of rain were falling when a flutter on the ground between me and the edge of the parking lot caught my eye. I stopped and rolled down the window, then went for my camera. At first I thought it might be a Longspur of one variety or another but I soon realized that it was a Female Snow Bunting. I can’t not say for sure, but I think it might be a life bird for me…and certainly a first in Maine. It was all by itself, and I had the impression that it was running ahead of the storm. It was certainly feeding frantically along the edge of the grass.
This is a 4 panel collage of the bird so you can get a good look. Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/400th @ ISO 400 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom and assembled in Coolage.
It seems like my last three trips run together, though they where spread over more than a month in real time. Maybe it is because they were such photographically productive trips. The birds were the best they have been at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge in many years. Honduras was amazing, even better than a year ago, and San Diego had all the usual subjects on display, AND I had two excellent days in Anzo Borrego Desert with flowers in bloom and a Desert Bighorn encounter. I brought home over 700 keepers from each of the three trips, and I have only shared a very few of them. That makes me feel image rich and time poor 🙂
This is Reddish Egret standing against the sun. It is not obvious, except in this pose, that the reddish base of the bill is actually translucent. I saw the same thing on Black Skimmers later this same day, and have already posted a pic of that effect…but I never would have guessed that either bill would let this much light through…would light up like this with the sun behind. This is off Black Point Wildlife Drive at Merritt Island NWR.
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 320 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.
Harbor Seals, Children’s Pool Beach, La Joya California
Harbor seals can give birth on land, on floating ice, or in the water. This is, I think, a new-born Harbor Seal, making contact with its mother for the first time out of the water. They identify each other by sniffing each other’s breath. I was in San Diego at the height of the pupping season for Harbor Seals, and saw many new-borns on the beach at Children’s Pool in La Joya just up the coast. I have never seen an actual birth. One of these years I will be there at just the right time.
Nikon P900 at 1600mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 320 @ f6.3. Processed in Lightroom.
Phainopepla. Palm Canyon, Anza Borrego Desert State Park, CA
The Phainopepla is a silky flycatcher, the only representative of its Central American family to reach the US. It is a desert dweller and is frequently seen around any water source in its arid habitat. This specimen, a male, was along the running part of the stream in Palm Canyon, up toward the Palm Oasis, in Anza Borrego Desert State Park in Borrego Springs California. They feed on insects and Mistletoe berries. Interestingly, according to the wiki, they peal the berries and digest the skins separately from the meat…so they extract maximum nutrition from the fruit. They are the only birds known to practice this trick. Unlike most flycatchers, they are also mimics, with a repertoire of half-a dozen or more other birds calls.
They are certainly striking birds, with their silky, glossy, jet black feathers, jaunty crest, and bright red eye. Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 100 @ f6/5. Processed in Lightroom.
Desert Bighorn Sheep, Palm Canyon, Anzo Borrego Desert State Park, CA
During my encounter with Desert Bighorn Sheep in Palm Canyon at Anzo Borrego Desert State Park in California, the sheep were actively browsing the whole time I watched them…and that is using the word “browse” in its original sense 🙂 They seemed to be stripping fresh leaves, new shoots, and maybe even flowers from the desert bushes. Here you have Indigo Bush (purple) and Creosote Bush (yellow). Note the delicate technique of closing the lips and teeth loosely around the stem and drawing the head back to strip the good stuff! It takes a lot of tiny leaves and shoots to fill the belly of a Bighorn Sheep…which is undoubtedly why they were so intent on their browse.
Nikon P900 at various focal lengths and exposures. Processed in Lightroom and assembled in Coolage.
Rock Wren, Palm Canyon, Anzo Borrego Desert State Park, Borrego Springs, CA
I heard both Canyon and Rock Wren singing in Palm Canyon in Anzo Borrego Desert State Park when I hiked it on Tuesday of this week, but only the Rock Wren showed itself. This has to be a classic image of Rock Wren…sitting on fair sized bolder (rock) and singing loud enough to echo off the canyon walls. Such a perky bird…as are all wrens.
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/800th @ ISO 100 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.
Desert Bighorn Sheep, Palm Canyon Trail, Anzo Borrego Desert State Park, CA
My Year Poem from yesterday concerned encounters with Desert Bighorn Sheep in Anzo Borrego Desert State Park’s popular Palm Canyon. Yesterday was my third hike up the canyon to the Palm Oasis, the first about 6 years ago, and then last year and this. Twice now, on my first hike, and then again yesterday, just where the stream begins to run in its bed, where the Alternate Trail branches off, I have encountered groups of Desert Bighorn Sheep feeding on their way back up from drinking at the stream. The first time was magical as I was alone, and suddenly found myself surrounded by Bighorns. Yesterday I followed a group of tourist/photographers up the Alternate Trail because the Sheep had been seen there from across the canyon on the main trail. There were a dozen of us and three Sheep, but it was still just as magical…just in a different way. Desert Bighorns, at least in Palm Canyon where they encounter people most days, pay little attention to the tourists. They just go about their life-long business of finding enough water and green growth to keep body and soul together in their harsh habitat. This well worn warrior, a ram, shows the effects of both his struggle to survive and his struggle to maintain his harem. Those horns have seen many a battle over breeding rights.
Nikon P900 at 1400mm equivalent field of view. 1/640th @ ISO 100 @ f7.1. Processed in Lightroom.
And here is the poem (with apologies to Emily Dickinson).
Who doesn’t hope for
Desert Bighorn Sheep
when hiking Palm Canyon
(in Anzo Borrego State Park)?
A single encounter is addictive.
Once I stood surrounded
as 15 sheep fed within
20 feet of me, and turned
with that pickling on the
back of my neck feeling to see
one on a bolder right above
me, looking down my collar…
And today… a ram, a ewe,
and maybe a yearling,
went about their business
oblivious to the dozen
would-be photographers
(DSLRs with kit zooms
and even a few phones)
clicking away on the trail
above them…close, so
close I could see the dust
in their coats…so close
you could hear their teeth
tear at the fresh shoots that
sprouted after yesterday’s rain.
I have hiked Palm Canyon
many times and not seen
them…but that does not
stop me hoping every time.
I described La Joya Cove, Scripps Park and the Children’s Pool in La Joya California in some detail yesterday. One of the attractions of the area is the large colony of nesting Brown Pelicans. They are always in full breeding plumage when I visit in early March, and for a big bird, they are strikingly colorful. This bird was resting with a group of 15 or so, on a rock ledge above the Children’s Pool. He has, I think, a very “pondering” air, as though the weight of the universe rests on his hunched shoulders. Maybe it does. 🙂
Nikon P900 at 400mm equivalent (the birds are close!). 1/1000th @ ISO 100 @ f5. Processed in Lightroom.
