Posts in Category: wildlife
Hairy Autumn
Hairy Woodpecker, The Yard, Kennebunk ME
I am on my way to Cape May New Jersey today for the Cape May Autumn Bird Festival, so this is an early post. I tend to avoid feeder shots, but sometimes I just can not resist. This Hairy Woodpecker posed on the feeder pole against the afternoon light on the Maple leaves just once too often, and I had to do it. 🙂
Nikon P610 at 1440mm equivalent field of view. 1/200th @ ISO 400 @ f6.5. Processed in Topaz Denoise and Lightroom.
Hermit Thrush
Hermit Thrush, Laudholm Farm, Wells ME
Sometimes it is nice to have multiple views of a bird. This Hermit Thrush, which we walked up on along the Maple Swamp boardwalk at Laudholm Farm (Wells National Estuarine Research Center), was fairly busy in the bush, and gave us front, back, and center views over the few seconds it took to take a series of photos. Then it was away, across the boardwalk and into deeper brush under the trees. This collage shows off all the recognition triggers for the species. The general Robin-like fat oval thrush shape and distinctive beak shape, the speckled upper breast, and the “tells” for this species…the rusty tail and wing tips and the fairly bold eye-ring. The mid-afternoon October light was great.
Nikon P610 at 1440mm equivalent field of view. 1/160th @ ISO 400 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom and assembled in Coolage.
Full Stretch!
Great Blue Heron, Back Creek Marsh, Kennebunk ME
I went to Rachel Carson NWR headquarters yesterday afternoon, after the rains passed, but while there was still drama in the sky. It was lovely. The fall foliage is just about at peak, and the colors as patches of sun crossed the forest and marsh, were warm and inviting. On the way back I stopped at our local semi-private beach, and Back Creek Marsh which is behind the dunes. When I parked, there were two Great Blue Herons hunting the marsh…one on either side of the access road…one backlit and one full-lit by the low afternoon sun. I took a bunch of pictures and then a young friend walked up and we got talking. When I turned, by chance, to Heron on the sunny side of the road, it had worked its way much closer and I shot off another series of exposures. I had the camera to my eye when the Heron decided to raise its wings…and then to strike this pose. I am not sure what it was doing. It would be impossible to strike from this position, and the wings are not shading the water for better vision through the surface, as they would be if this were a Reddish Egret umbrella fishing for instance. The Heron held the pose for several seconds and then relaxed. Who knows?
Nikon P610 at 1440mm equivalent field of view. 1/400th @ ISO 100 @ f6.5. Processed and cropped slightly for composition in Lightroom.
Young and restless…
Immature Cedar Waxwing. Wells National Estuarine Research Center at Laudholm Farms, Wells ME
I mentioned yesterday that migration is happening right now in Southern Maine. Among the birds moving yesterday when I visited the Wells National Estuarine Research Center at Laudholm Farms in Wells Maine was a flock of immature Cedar Waxwings…no adults…only this year’s juveniles. They were all around me at one point…buried in the bushes and sitting out on higher branches of the trees. This specimen was showing off his new crest…I am not sure why. It gives him a young-and-restless look, which, translated to behavior, pretty much defined the flock. First migration, and none of them sure of what they were doing or where they were going…just responding to the irresistible urge to be moving…a restless urge to head south.
Nikon P610 at 1325mm equivalent. 1/250th @ ISO 100 @ f6.3. Processed in Lightroom. Not an easy shot with the bird tucked back so deeply in the bush. I am always amazed when the Nikon P series pulls something like this off. 🙂
Migration! (it happens)
Yellow-rumped Warbler, Day Brook Pond, Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, ME
I am soooo happy to have a superzoom camera back in my hands. I decided to buy a Nikon P610 as a back-up superzoom, and to tide me over while my P900 is in repair. Never again to I want to be in the position of canceling a major photo trip because my cameras are in the shop! And I certainly do not want to be anywhere photogenic and have my only camera break. Things happen.
Migration is happening right now in Maine. It seems late, but warblers, Blue Jays, and Cedar Waxwings are passing through in great numbers this week…along with assorted others. This specimen was along the shores of Day Brook Pond on the Kennebunk Wildlife Management Area…one of a small flock of warblers foraging in this pine.
Nikon P610 at 1440mm equivalent field of view. 1/400th @ ISO 100 @ f6.5. Processed and cropped slightly for scale in Lightroom.
Close in with a Saffron-winged Meadowhawk
Saffron-winged Meadowhawk. Fernald Brook Pond, Kennebunk ME
In the cooler weather of fall the Meadowhawks are spending more time in sitting in the sun during the day…soaking up heat. They are more approachable this time of year. This shot was taken at 48mm equivalent field of view from about 6 inches. And even then the bug did not fly. It was still there when I left. It is a Saffron-winged Meadowhawk, a species I had never seen in Maine (or anywhere else) until this summer…and this summer they are everywhere I go. It was, in fact, one of two dragonflies I photographed in a few days in the thumb of Michigan. Everywhere!
Sony HX90V. 1/320th @ ISO 80 @ f4.5. Processed and cropped slightly for scale in Lightroom.
Tailed Blue
Tailed Blue, Grange Insurance Audubon Center, Columbus OH
I mentioned yesterday that I had a good bug day, with several species of both butterflies and dragonflies. This is, I believe, an Eastern Tailed Blue. It is a tiny butterfly, only about 3/4 of an inch from wingtip to wingtip. There were two, doing their rapid Blue spieling dance over a grassy path. I just about gave up on getting a pic, when both of them settled out and sat long enough for a few shots.
Nikon P900 at 600mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 100 @ f5. Processed and cropped for scale in Lightroom.
Green Darner up close
Green Darner Dragonfly, Grange Insurance Audubon Center, Columbus OH
By the time I got out for a walk at the American Birding Expo at Grange Insurance Audubon Center in Columbus Ohio things were quiet on the bird front…but there certainly were a lot of bugs. I saw at least 7 species of butterflies, and four species of dragons. This Green Darner, the largest Dragonfly in North America, was perching along the grassy wetlands trail below the Center. Due to the focus limitations of the Nikon P900, I had to back up quite a ways to get this shot…taken full frame using the Perfect Image Zoom function at a 3600mm equivalent field of view. Handheld!
It certainly shows off the amazingly intricate structure of the dragonfly.
Nikon P900 at 3600mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 250 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.
Columbus Egret panel
Great Egret, Grange Insurance Audubon Center, Columbus OH
More from the cooperative Great Egret at the Grange Insurance Audubon Center in Columbus Ohio. I am working the first Great American Birding Expo so I did not get out to take any photos yesterday. Still, these Egret shots from the day before at too good not to share. Nikon P900 at various focal equivalents from about 1000mm to 4000mm. Processed in Lightroom and assembled in Coolage.
Columbus Egret gets lunch
Great Egret, Grange Insurance Audubon Center, Columbus OH
I am at the Grange Insurance Audubon Center in Columbus Ohio for the first American Birding Expo. Optics vendors and tour companies from around the world have gathered here to show off to what we hope is a large and eager crowd of birders. The event is modeled on the British Birding Fair which attracts 20,000 people a year to the midlands of England. This year the American event will not be nearly that large, but it should grow.
There are several wetlands and ponds on the Audubon property, and I discovered the Great Egret actively feeding in one of them. Nice catch.
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 140 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.