Eastern Bluebird: Kennebunk, Maine, USA — Yes, another Bluebird shot! And another shot that is ripe for anthropomorphic emotional projection. The bokeh certainly helps 🙂 I will let you be the projectors. What does this shot say to you? Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. ISO 320 @ f4 @ 1/500th.

Eastern Bluebird: Kennebunk, Maine, USA — it is probably wrong to think of any animal as having “personality”…but I don’t know what the animal equivalent might be. Bluebirds, in particular, seem to express a wide range of emotions, or at least, to strike poses which make it easy for us to project our emotions on to them. Which is, perhaps, part of the reason we like to have them around. This bluebird has its eye on something, and that is for sure. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr. ISO 320 @ f4 @ 1/500th.

White-breasted Nuthatch: Kennebunk, Maine, USA — This is one of at least two (I have seen two at the same time) White-breasted Nuthatches that frequent our feeders on a daily basis. During the spring and summer they would take a single seed and fly off to the trees to dispatch it…but the past few weeks they have begun to dig the kernel out right on the deck…wedging the seed in a crack in the deck rail and having at it. Someone’s comment on a previous post made think of the difference between our two “fearless” feeders…both the chickadees and the nuthatches will happily feed while I am on the deck, often landing within arms reach (you will have seen photos of chickadees trained feed from folk’s hands). The chickadees interact with humans. I am not sure the nuthatches even know we are here. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. ISO 200 @ f4 @ 1/500th.

Red-breasted Nuthatch: Kennebunk, Maine, USA — I enjoy all the nuthatches that come to our feeding stations. The White-breasted are there many times a day, all day, but, while they may come at least once everyday, I only see the Red-breasted once a week or so…sometimes not at all for many weeks. If I spend more time in the kitchen overlooking the feeders, or in my photo blind when it is set up, I would probably see them more, but as it is, every sighting is a real treat! This one popped up on the deck when I was taking photos of bluebirds the other day. It was there for maybe a moment, and then I did not see it again, but I got a few photos as it flitted through. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. ISO 500 @ f4 @ 1/500th.

Eastern Bluebird: Kennebunk, Maine, USA — Once again one of our bluebirds on a favored perch at our back deck feeding station. I had to replace our nice mealworm feeder with an ugly “squirrel proof” multi-seed feeder this week as two of our neighborhood squirrels had figured out how to access the mealworms in the bowl feeder. Not easy, but I always say, “where there is a way there is a squirrel.” Still, it is a feeder the bluebirds used all summer out at my backyard photo blind, so they are used to it. It is difficult to find a hopper feeder that will reliably feed mealworms, and I found this one by chance…ordered it when no other squirrel proof feeders were available this spring for regular seed, and only discovered it worked with mealworms after I got it. The bluebirds have no problem with it, and so far no squirrels have gotten the better of the baffle. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. ISO 640 @ f4 @ 1/500th. Plus .3 EV exposure compensation.

American Goldfinch, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — This Goldfinch posed against strong backlight, straining at the limits of comfort for a digital sensor, but it makes, I think, an interesting portrait. The bird was only about 7 feet from me, and some extra post processing brought up all the detail the excellent ZEISS lens on the Sony can provide. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. ISO 125 @ f4 @ 1/500th.

American Goldfinch: Kennebunk, Maine, USA — I still have thistle seed out for the Goldfinches, which have not been regular at our feeders since early August. A bunch came through last week, on their way south, but we have one that is hanging around. Not so gold, but a still a pretty little bird. It is, of course, just as interested in the sunflower seed feeder I moved up onto the deck feeding station from out under the trees, so maybe that is really what is keeping it. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. Got to love that bokeh. ISO 400 @ f4 @ 1/500th.

Tufted Titmouse: Kennebunk, Maine, USA — Another shot from a cold misty December morning, with very little light. Shooting at ISO 3200. In addition to my normal low light noise reduction, I also used a brush to remove residual noise in the “open” areas of the image, leaving it in the bird itself and the feeder, where detail masks the noise, and removing it would soften the detail. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. ISO 3200 @ f4 @ 1/500th.

Eastern Bluebird: Kennebunk, Maine, USA — Good light is the digital camera’s best friend. Today’s sensors are light hungry…they respond best to higher light levels. But, the truth is, you don’t always get good light, and good light for photography is sometimes not the best for showing the subtle colors and rich details of the birds around us. This shot was taken yesterday in the misty rain on our back deck, and it does an admirable job of capturing the look of a bluebird on a rainy day, even though the sensor was staining at ISO 2000. That is not all that high by full-frame standards, maybe, but is getting right on up there for an compact sensor camera like my Sony Rx10iv. Still, with just a bit of extra noise reduction in Polarr, it makes an effective shot. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr using my “low light” preset, which includes noise-reduction, and finished up in Apple Photos. ISO 2000 @ f4 @ 1/500th.