Posts in Category: wildlife
European Red Squirrel
We did not see a lot of wildlife other than birds during the ZEISS VICTORY SF Experience Event in Germany, Austria, and Hungary. Not surprising really, since it was a birding trip. We did see Roe Deer and Red Deer, Brown Hare, and this perky little Red Squirrel. The Squirrel appeared to want to join our group as we birded the grounds of Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna. It came directly down a path toward us, and to within a few feet, before veering off to one side. Cute.
Olympus OM-D E-M10 with 75-300mm zoom. 600mm equivalent. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet.
By the way…I could not get WordPress to work on my tablet in Europe due to slow Internet connections. I am back and the regularly scheduled programing will resume 🙂
Chestnut-sided Warbler
I told you my posts would be erratic these next few days. I an at the Amsterdam airport with 30 minutes of free wifi. Now or never. This is of course not a Dutch Bird. A Chestnut-sided Warbler from Magee Marsh and the Biggest Week in American Birding.
Olympus OM-D E-M10 with 75-300mm zoom. 1200mm equivalent (600 optical plus digital tel-extenter). Shutter preferred. 1 /640th @ ISO 2500 @ f6.7. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet.
Eastern Forktail. Happy Sunday!
I leave this afternoon for a week of travel in Germany, Austria, and maybe a day in Hungary, so these posts may be erratic over the next few days. It is hard to predict how much wifi I will have, and I can not afford a lot of data on my phone. We shall see. I hope to have abundant photo ops, but it is mainly a business and birding trip (or maybe I should say a “business of birding” trip).
This is an immature female Eastern Forktail. Eastern Forktails are among the earliest Odonata to fly in the spring, and they are certainly all the action around the ponds in Kennebunk right now. I am wondering if a few overwinter, or migrate in early in the spring from locations where they can overwinter, since I am seeing fully pruniose females along with the immatures and the males. I do not think they have been flying long enough here to have developed the degree of pruniosity that I am seeing. ?
Olympus OM-D E-M10 with 75-300mm zoom. 600mm equivalent. Shutter preferred. 1 /640th @ ISO 250 @ f6.7. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet.
And for the Sunday Thought. I gave at least a few moments extra thought to what image I wanted to leave you with as I start my European adventure. Something homey? Something particularly Maineish? And in the end, I am not sure why this image is appropriate. It just felt right. It speaks to me. I hope it speaks to you. And that is, at its best, what photography does. It communicates at a non-verbal level, without the need for words…for analysis…almost, one might say, without the need for reason. Vision to vision. My vision to your vision. Pure and simple. In that sense, is it, somehow, more of a spiritual communication? Of course, I am ignoring all the technical apperatus…camera…software…etc…and the considerable technique involved in producing the image. Certainly, on some level, the process of photography is as complex as reasoned argument, or certainly as complex as day to day discourse. Perhaps it is not that photography is a more spiritual medium…it is that, too often, we forget that any communication is spiritual. My spirit to your spirit. Pure and simple. Happy Sunday!
And do watch for whatever I am able to post from Europe.
Red-winged Blackbird
Red-winged Blackbirds are hard to photograph. You end up loosing detail in the black plumage, or in the red, or in both! And, of course, you do not want to do that, because the Red-winged Blackbird is one of the most beautiful of North American songbirds. Really. Take a close look.
Fortunately, they are also relatively cooperative. They will hop up on a cattail or branch right in front of you and sing lustily. This one, at Magee Marsh during the Biggest Week in American Birding, certainly posed nicely…and in good light to catch the subtlety of the plumage.
Olympus OM-D E-M10 with 75-300mm zoom. 600mm equivalent. Shutter preferred. 1 /640th @ ISO 2500 @ f6.7. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet.
Mourning Cloak
While at Emmons Preserve in Kennebunkport over the weekend hunting early dragonflies, I was visited by a Mourning Cloak butterfly. Litterally. It came down the path and flew around my head several times. I think it even settled on my hat for a second. But, of course, it was off through the trees before I could get a shot of it. On the way back to car, after shooting some HDR at the stream-side on the Batson River, I had my eye out for it, and, sure enough, it’s shadow crossed my line of sight just about where I had encountered it before. This time it did settle in full sun, and I was able to work my way close enough for some decent shots.
This individual is well worn already this spring, which leads me to think it is a butterfly that overwintered. Mourning Cloaks, according the the experts, hibernate in clusters in tree cavities and under loose bark, and live a full 11 to 12 months, so the bugs we see in the spring are last summer’s flight, just weakening from their long winter’s nap. It gives them the jump on true migrants in the north.
Olympus OM-D E-M10 with 75-300mm zoom. 600mm equivalent. Shutter preferred. 1 /640th @ ISO 640 @ f6.7. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet.
Black-throated Blue (female)
This warbler gave me absolute fits in identifying it. Not a Tennessee, but close. Not a Warbling Vireo, but close. I totally gave up on it for a while there. I did not dare post it under any name! Then this morning I decided to flip through Ken Kaufman’s ”Field Guide to the Nature of New England, just on the off chance that I had overlooked something common enough to be in his selection of common New England Warblers, and it jumped right out at me. I had not been looking at female birds! This is the female Black-throated Blue Warbler, photographed at Magee Marsh in Ohio during the Biggest Week in American Birding. And a nifty bird it is. Subtle pattern and color, but elegant and beautiful. Totally worthy of a full plate in any field guide!
Olympus OM-D E-M10 with 75-300mm zoom. 600mm equivalent. Shutter preferred. 1 /640th @ ISO 2000 @ f7.1. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet. Assembled in Pixlr Express.
Springtime Darner
The is nothing quite like the excitement of your first Odonata sighting of the spring! Dragonfly on the wing!
Okay. I get it. Not everyone shares my enthusiasm for dragonflies and damselflies, but still, you must have some empathy with a seasonal first…the first Robin in the yard…the first crocus…Lilacs blooming…the first bike ride of the spring…opening day at the golf club? Something must tickle your seasonal nose like the first sneeze of hay fever season! For me, these past few years, it has been the awakening of the Odonates. I haunt the ponds and pools where I have seen them past summers, hoping against hope, that the water is finally warm enought, that the hours of sunlight long enough, so that some brave nymph will crawl out of the water and transform into a full flying dragon or damsel. Yesterday, a visit to the warm, sunlit meadows along the Boston River at Emmons Preserve in rural Kennebunkport had its rewards. I saw three dragons on the wing…got decent photos of two…and both of those were new bugs for me! It does not get much better than that!
This is the Springtime Darner (appropriately named 🙂 . I had some difficulty identifying it as it looks like a Mosaic Darner…but is in a totally different part of the book. It is also a tendril…a freshly emerged bug…so it’s blue abdominal spots are not as blue as they will be tomorrow. (Visually, they were bluer than in the photo.)
These are also among my first dragonfly shots with my new wildlife rig…the Olympus OM-D E-M10 with 75-300mm zoom. That is 600mm equivalent that I can push to 1200mm using the Digital Tel-converter in the camera, as I did here. I am used to the much longer zoom on the Canon SX50HS, which started at 1200mm optical, with digital extension to 1800 and 2400mm equivalents. Still, I am hoping the increased image quality of the larger sensor in the Olympus Micro-four-thirds camera will more than make up for the extra effort of getting closer (when I can get closer). I am certainly happy with this shot.
1/640th @ ISO 640 @ f7.1. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet.
American Redstart in the Sun
I mentioned a few days ago that I do not have many Warbler pics from this year’s Biggest Week in American Birding that are well lighted. Sunshine was at a premium while we were in Ohio…with lots of rain and dull grey days. Still, at Magee Marsh you work with what you have, and what you have is abundant warblers. This American Redstart is from one of the rare afternoons when the sun broke through. Of course, direct sun poses it’s own challenges with such a starkly colored bird. It is easy to lose detail in both the black and the orange. This shot is just about perfectly balanced…no thanks to me. The camera’s exposure system did it all. I just pressed the shutter and applied minimal post processing in Snapseed. Still, I am happy to take credit for the image!
Olympus OM-D E-M10 with 75-300mm zoom. 600mm equivalent. Shutter preferred. 1 /640th @ ISO 4000 @ f7.1. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet.
Uncommon Yellowthroat
As I might have said before, I think they should outlaw the use of the word “common” in the common names of birds. It invariably does the bird that wears it an injustice. Take the Common Yellowthroat. Who looks at a Common Yellowthroat? I mean they are so common. It would clearly be a more interesting bird, and more worthy of our notice every time we see it, if it were only the “Masked Yellowthroat”, or the “Bandito Yellowthroat” or even the “Black-faced Yellowthroat.” Because it is definitely worth a look every time we see one. Such a striking little bird, caught here skulking below the boardwalk at Magee Marsh in Ohio during the recent Biggest Week in American Birding.
Olympus OM-D E-M10 with 75-300mm zoom. 600mm equivalent. Shutter preferred. 1 /640th @ ISO 1600 @ f7.1. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet.
The Magee Marsh “In Your Face” Award
Each year at Magee Marsh during the Biggest Week in American Birding, some Warbler wins the “In Your Face” award for the most and the best close encounters. Last year it was the Chestnut-sided, hands down. The year before it was the Black-throated Green. This year it was a close run event between the Prothonatory and the Magnolia, with the Magnolia, in my experience and opinion, winning by a feather…and a breast feature at that. (Some birders may differ.) I will even admit that for me it might just be a trick of the light. I caught the Magnolia in full sun a few times, and never did manage a really well lit image of the Prothonatory.
Olympus OM-D E-M10 with 75-300mm zoom. 600mm equivalent. Shutter preferred. 1 /640th @ ISO 500 @ f6.7. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet.