Posts in Category: yard
Why you have to photograph every Chickadee :)
Black-capped Chickadee, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — I wrote a poem the other day about how taking photos of Chickadees is “paying your photographic dues” so you are ready when a real rarity shows up at your feeders…but there is, as this photo demonstrates, more to it than that. You just never know when a Chickadee (or other common bird) is going to display an interesting behavior. I would not have gotten this shot if I had not already been focused on the bird when it happened. In fact I was in the middle of a burst of photos already that started with the bird nicely posed on the branch. This just happened. 🙂 And that is the way it works. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Ruffled feathers: Tufted Titmouse
Tufted Titmouse: Kennebunk, Maine, USA — It seems to be the season for ruffled feathers. Many of the birds coming to the feeders these days are looking kind of ratty. 🙂 This Tufted Titmouse is usually a sleek, well groomed looking bird, but not today! Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Downy Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker: Kennebunk, Maine, USA — Chickadees, Chipping Sparrows, and Downy Woodpeckers. The regulars at our feeders…they come many times a day, every day. The Chickadee and the Downies are even with us all year. This shot is from my backyard photo blind, near the hanging suet cage, and this is one of three Downies that live in our yard…mom, pop, and a fledgling from this year. I have photographed this bird many times…but, as with Chickadees and Chipping Sparrows, you can never have too many Downy Woodpecker shots. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Sub-adult Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — We have a pair of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds coming to our sugar water feeder many times a day, and have had all summer. I have seen them returning often to the pines over my feeding station by my back-yard photo blind, but if they are nesting there, the nest is too high for me to find it in the branches. There are at least two younger birds around now. This sub-adult male came and hovered right outside the window of my blind…eye to eye with me, and then at least toyed with the idea of bathing in my water bucket fountain, before perching very briefly for this shot…in the deep shade of course, but we take what we can get for hummingbirds here in Maine. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Black and White Warbler
Black and White Warbler: Kennebunk, Maine, USA — This might be the second Black and White Warbler we have had in our yard over the past 20 years, but, if so, it is ONLY the second. I was totally surprised to see it land among the feeders at my photo blind. It came by a few times while I watched, but getting a photo was difficult. It was a very active bird, and was working, very Black and White like, close in to the branches behind the foliage. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Golden-crowned Kinglet!
Golden-crowned Kinglet, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — I got the chair-blind out again yesterday afternoon and spent an hour and a half watching chickadees come and go…along with the more occasional Chipping Sparrows. I was ready to pack it in when we got a sudden flurry of activity that included, not one, but two new birds for our yard. First a Black-and-white Warbler, and then a Golden-crowned Kinglet! I have seen both birds in Maine, but the Golden-crowned only in Acadia. This is female Golden-crowned, and a very scruffy bird at that…either it had been bathing recently or it is in molt. Still, a Golden-crowned Kinglet in our yard! You will probably see the Black-and-white Warbler tomorrow…unless I get something really spectacular today 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. The chair blind, by the way, is the best thing ever! It is a double blind…with two seats…so I have lots of room, and it packs up in seconds so I don’t have to leave it out.
Goldfinch: Another bird at the feeder blind
American Goldfinch, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — The water feeder did not see much use during the spring but I had only just refilled it when this American Goldfinch came in for a drink. Perhaps it will be more popular here in late summer. I am impressed with the uniform color on this bird…when I closed the feeding station by the blind, in late June, the Goldfinches were still splotchy with new feathers coming in, though it was full breeding season. Now they are solid yellow. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Birds at the blind again
I resolved to fill the feeders under the pines this week, set up the water feature, and get the chair-blind out again and see what I could see. Of course the first birds active at the feeders were the Chickadees. They have not been coming to the porch feeders, which are out in full sun, as often as the summer wears on, but they were all over the feeders in shade. And you can never have too many chickadee photos…right? Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Day Lilies from the yard…
Over the years we have a had a lot of Day Lilies in our yard and this year’s blooms are especially nice. Let’s take a moment to celebrate them. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at about 500mm and 90mm equivalent. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Double flowered Day Lily
Almost all the native (or if not native, at least fully naturalized and gone wild) Day Lilies in our yard are “double flowered.” It is apparently a mutation that produces one flower inside another…similar to the “double roses” that are grown commercially. I don’t know if the Day Lilies were that way when planted, but they have been ever since we have lived here. Ours are also late blooming. The yard around us have lilies at least a week before we do every year. But that could just be our yard, and where it sits in relationship to the river and the road, and how much shade it gets. ?? Anyway, I wait patiently for our double Lilies every year, and enjoy them when they do bloom. Sony Rx10iv at 78mm equivalent, using Sony’s full time macro. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.