Posts in Category: wildlife
Ebony Jewelwings
Ebony Jewelwings, Batson River rapids, Emmons Preserve, Kennebunkport ME
It is just about Ebony Jewelwings time of year again. After my encounter with the River Jewelwings a few weeks ago (here), I went back to the rapids on the Batson River on Saturday to check for early Ebonys, and there were indeed a number of males dancing over the rapids and pools. All Ebonys, no River…which is, I think, an interesting thing to note. And I found no females, either near the river in the forest, or in the meadows. Maybe next week. There is, of course, nothing like the iridescent blue/green of the Ebony Jewelwing’s body…sometimes bright blue and sometimes bright green, depending on the angle of the light.
The center image is from the Sony HX90V and the surrounding images are from the Nikon P900. All are processed in Lightroom and assembled in Coolage. Coolage is such a great program for this kind of panel!
Evening Willet
Willet, Back Creek marsh, Kennebunk Maine
On my after supper visit to the local beach, with the sun about an hour from setting, but already warm with the evening light, there were several Willets feeding in the marsh grasses and along the edge of the tidal flow of Back Creek near where it meets the Mousam River. Our New England Willets are warmer in tone than western Willets anyway, but the early evening light really brings up the warm, almost rust, color of plumage.
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 320 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.
Piping Plovers
Piping Plovers. Laudholm Farm Beach, Wells ME
As I mentioned yesterday, there are a few endangered Piping Plover nests on the south end of Crescent Surf Beach and the north end of Laudholm Farm Beach, on either side of the mouth of the Little River. All Piping Plover nests in Maine are protected by law, both Federal and State, as the bird is on the Endangered Species List. The nests in Kennebunk and Wells are carefully monitored…eggs counted, hatchlings counted, fledged birds counted. There has been, in past years, a full time Maine Audubon staffer on Crescent Surf Beach to watch over the chicks, and to try to keep the nests and chicks from being eaten by domestic dogs. The nest sites are protected by page-wire enclosures to keep gulls, cats, raccoons, foxes, etc from getting to the eggs and chicks. And still, the chicks that reach adulthood in Maine, or at least on our local beaches, can be counted, too often, on the fingers of both hands (one hand some years). The Piping Plover in Maine hangs by a thread.
These shots were all taken at 2000mm or more, and of birds away from the nests and the nest sites. I certainly do not want to add to the pressure on the Piping Plover. They are such perky little birds…full of scrap and sass…and they look like they should be able to take care of themselves. The problem is that the beaches where they nest are also the beaches most attractive to humans, and they nest, often, right on the sand above tide line, or just into the beach grass, where human traffic is always present. As I have mentioned before, domestic dogs and cats are a huge problem…the Plovers have no defense. The beaches where they nest are closed to dogs and well posted, but I am rarely on those beaches without seeing one or more dogs, often running loose while their people watch. All I can say is “what’s up with that!!??” What are they thinking? A few times I have confronted dog owners…but it is like talking to a wall. Anyway. Rant over. Back to enjoying the Piping Plover while we can.
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. Processed in Lightroom and assembled in Coolage.
Least Terns in Flight
Least Terns, Little River, Laudholm Farm Beach, Wells ME
Yesterday, prompted by a post on Maine Birds, I took a walk to the mouth of the Little River on Laudholm Farm Beach at the Wells National Estuarine Research Center. There is a protected colony of Least Terns there, on both sides of the river back a few hundred yards from the sea, as well as a few Piping Plover nests…Piping Plover is an “endangered” bird. I saw terns in good numbers and a few Plovers. I say protected colony because it is very visibly posted and “roped” off, more heavily on one side of the river than the other, and they have erected actual cages around the Piping Plover nests. Maine Audubon and the Fish and Wildlife Service have monitors on site for most of the breeding season, especially on the north side of the river where dogs often run free. Dogs are prohibited from the beach but that area backs up to summer homes. On the south side, it is Laudholm Farms behind the beach and access is through the Farm itself, which has a strict no dogs policy. Then there are cats, foxes, gulls, raccoons…even Blue Jays. It is a big deal every time a Piping Plover nest successfully fledges, and every chick that reaches maturity is a victory!
The Least Terns were actively feeding in the shallow ripple sections of the river where it crosses the sand of the beach…and. of course, I had to try to catch them in the air…in flight. It took me a while to get my hand and eye in…and I have not done a lot of Birds in Flight (BIF) with the new Nikon P900…so out of several hundred exposures I got maybe a dozen keepers. This panel of 4 shots is representative. Not easy. Quite frustrating. And lots of fun!
Nikon P900 at various focal lengths: from 650mm equivalent field of view to 1200mm. Generally ISO 100 at 1/640th. Cropped and processed in Lightroom. Assembled in Coolage.
Eastern Towhee 2
Male Eastern Towhee, Laudholm Farms, Wells ME
I mentioned in previous posts that we seem to have a lot of Eastern Towhee’s this year…the females are everywhere I go…but that I had not seen many males. In the past few days I have encountered two males, widely separated, so they are indeed here as well. This male was singing along the trail at the Wells National Estuarine Research Center at Laudholm Farm. Not easy light, but a decent image of this interesting bird.
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/30th @ ISO 800 @ f6.5. It is hard to imagine that any camera could manage this image! Processed in Lightroom.
Chipping Sparrow Chicks
Chipping Sparrow chicks, Kennebunk ME
We had had a nest of Chipping Sparrows in our Honeysuckle bush in the front yard, right at eye-level but buried deep in foliage, right next to the driveway where there is a lot of foot traffic (my wife teaches piano and her students and their families are coming and going all day long, every day). I had little hope for a successful fledging…but they made it. At least four chicks moved off the nest yesterday. For a while it was just an adult on eggs peeping up over the edge of the neatly woven nest, and then you could see a few dark grey heads with bright yellow gapes if you stood on your tiptoes, and then they took on more of a sparrow look, and now they are gone…probably sheltering on a branch somewhere near and still being tended by the adults. This shot, though it might look invasive, was taken from outside the bush with about a 170mm equivalent telephoto. I was careful when checking the nest, not to get close enough to alert predators, and I only checked the nest about once a week…and I certainly did not move branches for a better view. The Chipping Sparrow buried the nest deep in the bush for a reason. Considering the placement of the bush, I was really happy to see them succeed. 🙂
Nikon P900 at 170mm equivalent field of view. 1/80th @ ISO 100 @ f4.5. Processed in Lightroom.
Cedar Waxwing Glory
Cedar Waxwing, Kennebunk Bridle Path, Kennebunk ME
As I have mentioned in past posts, we seem to have a lot of Cedar Waxwings (along with Eastern Towhees and Brown Thrashers) this year, compared at least to recent years. Twice now I have come across extended families of Cedar Waxwings (tribes? of CWWs) actively feeding. Most recently I encountered them in the trees along the water meadow on the Kennebunk Bridle Path. They were again, all around me…moving between trees on both sides of the path, landing as close to me as 10 feet. This shot was only just over half the reach on my 2000mm equivalent zoom…but that is why a zoom is so handy to carry. As you see the bird was buried in foliage, backlighted, and there was a dark cloud passing overhead so the light was very subdued…and still the camera pulled out a shot I could process to a satisfying image. I love the combination of subtle shading on the body, and the contrasting bright red and yellow “waxlike” highlights.
Nikon P900 at 1100mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 220 @ f5.6. Processed in Topaz Dejpeg and Lightroom.
Brown Thrasher
Brown Thrasher, Laudholm Farms, Wells ME
Brown Thrashers are another bird (in addition to Cedar Waxwings and Eastern Towhees) that seem to be present in Southern Maine in larger numbers this summer than in any summer past. I don’t know why that would be…but I certainly have seen more of them over the past few weeks than I ever have in Maine. This fine specimen was singing loudly from the top of a bush by the parking at the Wells Estuarine Research Center at Laudholm Farm on my way back from my walk there the other day. The warm light of the late afternoon really lights up that eye!
There seems to be some question as to where the name “thrasher” came from for this group of birds. It might be a derivative to thresher which was Old English and became Thrush. On the other hand, anyone who has ever seen a thrasher feeding on the ground, knows they do thrash about just a bit 🙂
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/640th @ ISO 100 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.
Northern Water Snake
Northern Water Snake, Day Brook Pond, Kennebunk Wildlife Management Area, ME
I am not quite sure how I saw this snake, about 10 feet out over the water in a tangle of branches from a fallen tree, but I was looking for Dragonflies when it caught my eye. I had to look twice…no…three times…before I convinced myself it was actually a snake wrapped around the branch, hanging on with its tail. A little research yesterday afternoon showed it to be a Northern Water Snake, relatively common in Maine and through out the northern states, but it is certainly the first one I have seen in a tree, and, other than the endangered Erie Water Snake, the only water snake I have seen beyond a nose and a ripple in the water. The Northern Water Snake is highly variable in color and pattern…this one is about as brightly patterned as they come. It did not move, except to fold its head back on itself and close its eyes, in the hour I was at the pond, so I have lots of pictures of it…including a super-high resolution 8 image panel assembled in Photomerge showing the whole snake in all its glory (if you could view it on a very big monitor). For this shot, which is more conventional, I have pasted in a close up of the head for your viewing pleasure 🙂
Nikon P900 at 400mm and 2000mm equivalent fields of view. Main image: 1/320th @ ISO 100 @ f5. Assembled in Photoshop and processed in Lightroom.
Red Squirrel Story
Red Squirrel, Wells National Estuarine Research Center at Laudholm Farm, Wells ME
I took a late afternoon walk at Laudholm Farm (Wells National Estuarine Research Center) yesterday…down across the mini-bog, through the low-lying forest to the road to the beach, and around the boardwalk to the open fields and back to the farm buildings and the car. Just before I started the boardwalk section, I put my camera away in its bag so I could have both hands free to get a drink from the water bottle I carry in my vest, so, as I started down the boardwalk, I did not have my camera out an ready. “Now that’s not right” I thought, “what if I see something?” So I stopped to dig the camera out and get it turned on. I was still fumbling with it when I looked up and saw a Red Squirrel sitting on the boardwalk eating some kind of berry, not 20 feet in front of me. “Ah! There you go!” I thought. “Thanks for the reminder!”
The Squirrel, as it turned out, would probably have waited for me to get the camera out anyway. I got of a series of shots at 20 feet, zooming in and out for framing, and then took a step closer. Squirrel on the run! But it only ran another 20 feet down the boardwalk before it found another of those apparently irresistible berries, and stopped to eat it. More pics before I took a step closer. This continued for several hundred feet down the boardwalk, with the Squirrel searching the edge of the boardwalk for berries, until I finally told the Squirrel that I had played with him long enough and he would have to let me by so I could continue my walk. He hopped into the forest when I made it clear that I was not going to respect his 20 foot boundary any more. 🙂
I have lots of shots in forest shadow and a few in patches of sun…but this one with the dappled light…warm light due to the lateness of the day…is my favorite. It brings out the red in Red Squirrel very nicely.
Nikon P900 at 1400mm equivalent field of view. 1/125 @ ISO 400 @ f6.3. Processed in Lightroom.
And the moral of the story, of course, is “always have your camera ready!”