Posts in Category: wildlife
Cardinal in Winter Sun
Northern Cardinal, Roger’s Pond, Kennebunk Maine
Despite its name, in the US, the Northern Cardinal is really a southern bird. It only reached New England in the late 1950s and was not abundant in Maine until the 70s. Now, of course, you see them every where, right up into southern Canada. This specimen was foraging in the forest edge and under the bushes at Roger’s Pond in Kennebunk Maine one winter morning between snow storms. The January light, with the sun still low in the sky, brings up the color of the Cardinal. The bird was very actively feeding, so getting a sharp, still, shot was difficult.
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 250 @ f6.5. Processed and cropped slightly for scale in Lightroom.
Odd Couple. Blue Bird and Goldfinch
Blue Bird and American Goldfinch, Roger’s Pond, Kennebunk Maine
Another from my birdy morning at Roger’s Pond. Though they were just a bit too far apart to focus on both, this Eastern Blue Bird and winter American Goldfinch were certainly sitting close together. You do not often see this…especially with two different species, especially not with song birds. Winter makes for strange bed-fellows…or at least companions. 🙂
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 160 @ f6.5. Processed and cropped slightly for composition in Lightroom.
Robin in Red Berries
American Robin, Roger’s Pond, Kennebunk Maine.
The other day I had a very birdy day at Roger’s Pond while looking for Eagles. This fruiting tree near the picnic shelter is a favorite with Robins all winter. I have seen Blue Birds, Goldfinches, and Cardinals in it too. This handsome Robin sat still while I approached to closest focus distance on the Nikon P900 (16.5 feet). I like the way it is nested among the berries.
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 180 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.
Blue Bird in Red Berries
Eastern Bluebird, Roger’s Pond, Kennebunk Maine
After several days of spitting snow clouds and cold rain, we had a cold, sunny day yesterday. I suited up and went out in the morning, to Roger’s Pond, to see if I could catch an Eagle. No such thing. However, as I walked around the pond looking for consolation prizes, I spotted some small birds flitting through the trees up by the picnic shelter. Blue birds. Actually Blue Birds! As it turned out, a small flock of Eastern Blue Birds were working their way through the park and up-stream. I eventually tracked them to this bush, at the very edge of the park, where this specimen sat for his portrait. The blue is never bluer than when contrasted with red. Not my closest shot…I cropped it a bit for scale, but certainly one of my most attractive. I like the pose too. 🙂
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 110 @ f6.5. Processed and cropped slightly in Lightroom.
Did I say “consolation prize”? This shot, even if I had found and Eagle, would still have taken the blue ribbon for the day! 🙂
Gull in Glory! Happy Sunday!I
Herring Gull, Mousam River at Roger’s Pond, Kennebunk Maine
“If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light!” Jesus
I will admit to having a prejudice when it comes to Herring Gulls. Their behavior makes them hard to love. They are bullies: aggressive egg and chick eating, catch stealing, beach hogging, bullies. And yet I have to remind myself that their “bulliness” is in my eye as much, maybe more than, in their nature. They are what they are. They do what they do to survive, as any creature must. In order to see their beauty, I have to be unusually generous of eye. I have to withhold judgement, especially judgement by my own, very human, standards. And, really, withholding is not enough. To be truly generous I need to bypass judgement at its root…to see them, not with my human eye, but with the eye of the spirit…the creative eye of the creator who creates with love.
This image, taken along the Mousam River in Kennebunk, helps. The gull was standing on a snow covered rock in mid-stream, while the rushing rapids behind him threw sparkling droplets into the air. It is certainly the bird in all its glory, and I am just generous enough to see the beauty.
May the Good God grant us all, somewhere in our lives, such a rock to stand on…that even the least generous might sometimes see our beauty. Happy Sunday!
Mockingbird among winter berries
Northern Mockingbird, Laudholm Farms, Wells Maine
On my last photoprowl down to Laudholm Farms (Wells National Estuarine Research Center at), there was not much bird live in evidence. I was there mostly for the snowy fields and woods, but I was happy to see the few Blue Jays when they made an appearance. Then there was this mocker. Unlike the Blue Jays, the Mockingbird sat long enough and close enough for a portrait. It seemed to be soaking up the last of the late afternoon warmth from the sun, ensconced among the red berries of the winter day.
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 220 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.
Buddhist Red
Red Squirrel, The Yard, Kennebunk Maine
The Red Squirrel that lives in our backyard, and visits our deck frequently these days, is clearly a Buddhist monk. He has the pose and the posture down pat. He does not carry a begging bowl so he is evidently a cloistered monk (I think that might be a mixed metaphor, but I am not sure 🙂 A member of a monkestary? Clearly a sage presence.
Nikon P610 at 1440mm equivalent field of view. 1/250th @ ISO 140 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom. A feeder pole cropped out on the right.
First bird of 2016: Pileated Woodpecker
Pileated Woodpecker, Roger’s Pond, Kennebunk Maine
On the first day of 2016 I went to look for the Kennebunk eagles at Roger’s Pond. No show. But while I was there I saw a largish bird fly low and into a dead tree just where the creek joins the river, at the turn of the loop around the pond. A while later I heard a knock. Knock! Pileated Woodpecker! This is only my third photo op in Maine, and I have not seen them much more often than that either. They are around…even around my house…and I hear them occasionally, but a good sighting is rare. Rare enough to make this an auspicious first bird for 2016!
This image is not what you might think at first glance. I used Coolage to assemble two images of the same bird, at different points as it circled the trunk, into a single image. Since Coolage blends edges and the trunk is an ideal object for a blend, it certainly looks like two Pileateds. It is not, trust me. I just wanted to give you two views of the bird. 🙂 And it does make a striking image. Or that is what I think.
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/250th @ ISO 400 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom and assembled in Coolage.
Red in his element… Happy New Year!
Red Squirrel, Wells National Estuarine Research Center at Laudholm Farms, Wells Maine
When it got up to 40 degrees early yesterday afternoon, I thought, “now or never.” You could almost watch the snow cover disappearing under the December sun. I needed to get out further than I had been, and find some snowy fields and forest while it lasted (oh, we will get more, but every boy must play in the first snow of the year 🙂 I decided on Laudholm Farms (Wells National Estuarine Research Center). When snow is on the ground you have to think about where parking will be plowed. Laudholm is always safe, and Rachel Carson NWR headquarters, but I wanted the open fields of Laudholm…and of course Laudholm has forest and marsh too.
I got my fields and entered the forest going the wrong way on the boardwalk through the wet maple swamp. I heard a skittering off to my left and looked up to see this Red Squirrel in a pile of limbs from a downed tree. I have posted a few shots of the Red Squirrel that has been visiting our deck and feeders over the past few weeks…but here was Red in his element…snowy forest…tangle of limbs…scampering free. It looks to me as though he had dug up a tightly rolled fern with a core of snow. ?? He was, over the next few moments, intent of pulling it apart for some nutrient inside. A Red Squirrel on the deck under the feeders is cute (if you can ignore their destructive side), but a Red Squirrel where it belongs, deep in the forest, doing its thing…that is beautiful.
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 400 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.
And may you, this coming year…find rolled up ferns full of nutrient on even the snowiest days…and my you be as beautiful and as vital as a Red Squirrel in his element each and every day. Okay, so if you have to, you can be cute a few days too! Happy New Year!
Kennebunk Eagle in the Snow
Bald Eagle, Roger’s Pond, Kennebunk ME
There are at least 2 Bald Eagles on the lower Mousam River this winter, ranging both north and south of Kennebunk. Once the river freezes they like to sit right at Roger’s Pond (picnic area and fishing access) where the rapids below the dam along Route One keep the river open. They fish the edge of the ice. With the unseasonably warm weather, there is no ice at all in the river, but I have heard from the dog walkers at Roger’s Pond that the Eagles are there off an on. I just have not managed to be there at the right time. Until yesterday! We had intermittent light flurries all day yesterday and it was snowing when I got to the pond. I almost missed the Eagle. I was most of the way around the pond before I saw it, half buried in one of the tall pines on the far side of the river. I had to walk back upstream further than I would have liked to find an open line of sight for some photos. Not the best light, and the camera focused on the snowflakes a few times, but here it is: Kennebunk Eagle in the Snow.
Nikon P900 at 2800mm equivalent field of view (with some Perfect Image digital zoom). 1/500th @ ISO 400 @ f6.5. Processed and cropped slightly for composition in Lightroom.