Posts in Category: p&s 4 wildlife
Ebony Jewelwing in the sun
Ebony Jewelwing, Cascade Falls, Old Orchard Maine
Though there was not much water coming over Cascade Falls when I visited on Friday last, there were many Ebony Jewelwings over the stream below the falls. They seemed to like to perch in patches of sun on the rocks and broken branches in the stream. There is nothing so shinny as Ebony Jewelwing in the sun. It looks like it is forged in aluminum and anodized green. Even the wings have their metallic sheen.
Sony RX10iii at about 1100mm equivalent field of view. (Optical plus 2x Smart Digital Tel-converter). 1/250th @ f4 @ ISO 100. Processed in Lightroom.
Tufted Titmouse. Happy Sunday!
Tufted Titmouse, our back deck, Kennebunk Maine
“If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light!” Jesus
Yesterday, when I was in the kitchen beginning to think about supper, I slid back the screen on the back deck sliding-door to chase a squirrel away, and then, when the birds at the feeding station came back almost immediately (including our female Ruby-throated Hummingbird) I left the door open and went for my camera. The light was lovely, with filtered sun after a brief rainstorm on the feeding station and the apple branches we have bolted to the deck for perches around it, and the background of dark trees 25 feet behind the station already in shadow. There was a fairly constant flow of Chickadees and Titmice, and the hummingbird came in for a drink from the feeder several times and perched out on the apple branches. I had a very enjoyable 30 minutes standing and watching and taking pictures. Small active birds are always a challenge, photographically, and there was the added test of getting exposure on the sunlit birds right against the dark background. And of course, there were the birds themselves, going about their business only a dozen feet from me. Thoroughly enjoyable, and perhaps more so, since I was propped up in back door of my own home. When I bolted the apple branches to the deck, it was times like this that I was thinking of…hoping for.
This Tufted Titmouse came several times. The image has almost a “studio” feel to it, a portrait, as though I posed and lit the bird for best effect. The lighting and the background gives the bird unusual dimension…and that, along with the level of detail in the feathers and in the bark of the branch, makes it look uncommonly “real”…alive and present. And of course, it was images like this that I was thinking of when I bolted the apple branches to the deck. 🙂
Still, for all my forethought (or hope) and what little skill I can claim with the camera, it is the bird that makes the image. The bird, bold enough to perch on my apple branch, close, while I stood completely visible in the open door. The bird with its little spark of life, trusting that little spark of life to me in exchange for a sunflower seed or two.
I think it is bred into us, even stronger than our hunting instinct, this desire for the peaceable kingdom…for an Eden-like experience where we are surrounded by all that lives…by every living creature, neither threatened by, or a threat to it…at peace with life itself. I think it is part of our heritage as children of God…the overflow and outflow of the creative love, the caring heart, that made the whole of the natural world we are part of. Our kinship with all that lives is an expression of our kinship with God, who created all in love.
And yes, it was to celebrate that kinship that I built the feeding station on our deck…and the foresight expressed was one instance (still too rare) of my eye being generous, and the light within me reaching forward in time to encounters and images like this. Happy Sunday!
Eastern Amberwing Dragonfly
Eastern Amberwing, Quest Ponds, Kennebunk Maine
There is a poem.
I got out to one of my dragonfly ponds
today, for a photoprowl. Mid-80s and
clear, but with enough breeze to make
it tolerable…pleasant actually…and lots
of dragons and damsels doing their thing
around the pond. Eastern Amberwings,
my first this year, not much bigger than
a bee, but holding their own among
dragons 4 times their size…flying low
to the water like orange sparks, resting
on floating clumps, clots of algae, males
and females playing tag across the pond.
I kept hoping one would land close in
to shore for a photo, but they held well
out, busy with Amberwing concerns,
and I had to settle for distant shots…
so little they are, they hardly show
in the frame, and wouldn’t at all if they
were any other color. Amberwings.
And that says all you need to know.
One of my favorite Dragonflies and one of the smallest. A skimmer. The males like this one have bright orange wings…the females have clear wings with orange/brown spots…the same color as the body. Like all skimmers, they take no guff from anyone…including the much larger Green Darners and Black-saddlebags that frequent the same ponds in our area…not to mention the Twelve-spotted and Widow Skimmers. You rarely see them more than a few inches above the water, so they only really share airspace with the Azure Bluets with abound at this time of year.
Sony RX10iii at 600mm equivalent field of view. 1/320th @ ISO 100 @ f4. Cropped heavily for scale (about equivalent to 1200mm field of view) and processed in Lightroom.
One good tern deserves another :)
Common Tern, Mousam River, Kennebunk Maine
Another Common Tern in flight shot from my recent session at the mouth of the Mousam River here in Kennebunk Maine. This one was taken at the full 600mm equivalent of the Sony RX10iii, and then cropped for scale. Just keeping a tern in the frame at 600mm is a trick in itself. 🙂
As above. Exposure 1/1000th @ ISO 100 @ f4. Processed in Lightroom.
Teneral Dragon
Teneral Meadowhawk? Day Brook Pond, Kennebunk Wildlife Management Area, W. Kennbunk Maine
Sometimes a Dragonfly is just too freshly emerged to id…which, at least at my level of experience, is the case here. I think it is one of the Meadowhawks, but it was on its maiden flight and I just can’t be sure which one, or even that it is a meadowhawk. It was very patient with me as I worked my way closer and fiddled with the Program Shift for this macro. I hope it woke up and moved on before the hunting Cedar Waxwings found it. 🙂
Sony RX10iii at 1200mm equivalent field of view (2x Clear Image Zoom). Program shift for greater depth of field. f9 @ 1/60th @ ISO 100. I could not really stop down any more, as there was some wind, and the position was awkward to hold the camera steady. Processed in Lightroom.
Curiosity, thy name is Cedar Waxwing :)
Cedar Waxwing, Day Brook Pond, Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, W. Kennebunk Maine
Curiosity, thy name is Cedar Waxwing (to paraphrase (or misquote) Shakespeare), but honestly, I can think of few birds that look as continuously curious as the Cedar Waxwing. It might be the hairdo, or the angle of black mask, but Cedar Waxwings always seem intently interested in whatever has their attention. This one was hunting teneral dragon and damselflies along the shore of Day Brook Pond on the Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area near our home in Kennebunk Maine. Freshly emerged odonata seem to make up a good portion of a Cedar Waxwing’s diet, at least this time of year.
Though you have to enlarge the image to see it, this shot has an impressive amount of feather detail. The superfine feathers of Cedar Waxwings make a really good test of a camera’s resolution. Sony RX10iii at 600mm equivalent field of view. 1/250th @ ISO 125 @ f4. Processed and cropped slightly for scale and composition in Lightroom.
Common Tern :)
Common Tern, Mousam River mouth, Kennebunk Maine
The Common Terns are having a meeting
at the mouth of the Mousam River,
where it runs into the sea. Some fishy
thing must be running because they are
active in large numbers along the coast
and up the river a quarter mile. They rest
along the sandbar where Back Creek meets
the Mousam, and are a constantly evolving
gyration of birds along the far shore, diving on
that fishy thing, and then coming back to the
sand bar to show off their catch. Watching
them puts any airshow you ever saw to shame.
Nothing can match the grace and ease of those
who’s lives depend on their prowess in the air.
And I tried to catch just a bit of that with my camera 🙂 Sony RX10iii in my slightly customized Sports Mode. 1/1000th @ f6.3 @ ISO 100. About 470mm equivalent. Cropped and processed in Lightroom.
American Copper Butterfly
American Copper Butterfly, Day Brook Pond, Kennebunk Wildlife Management Area, W. Kennebunk Maine
The American Copper is fairly abundant in Southern Maine, but it is small enough so it is often overlooked. This one was hard to miss. It was at eye-level in a tall stand of Meadowsweet and other brush right next to the parking area at Day Brook Pond on the Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area. It was working the flowers in the company of a few Coral Hairstreaks, which provided a nice contrast, and also drew the eye. In could not get the Copper to pose with its wings fully open, so this 3/4s view will have to do.
Sony RX10iii at 600mm equivalent field of view. 1/1000th @ ISO 100 @ f5.6. Processed and cropped slightly in Lightroom.
Shadow Darner?
Shadow Darner? Smith’s Preserve, Kennebunkport Maine
Here at the height of a unusually hot summer in Southern Maine, we have fewer dragonflies than I remember from last year. I went to Emmon’s Preserve in Kennebunkport yesterday in hopes of finding Mosaic Darners patrolling the meadows, but there were none at all. Lots of mosquitoes…probably, in part at least, because there were no dragons. The Mosaic Darners are among my favorite dragons. They big and generally boldly marked, and there is a certain elegance to their wasp wasted look and elaborate male appendages.
When I found little to photograph (and the sun very hot) in the open meadows at Emmon’s, I decided to drive the mile or so to Smith’s Preserve, where the trails are shaded by the forest. Parking is limited at Smith’s, and sometimes completely taken up by SUVs with bike racks, as the trails are very popular with mountain bikers. (SUVs with bike racks…that is a sad comment on our times.) I did find a place to park (the last one). It was quiet at Smith’s as well, though there was more bird song, and it was considerably cooler, and I did spot this Mosaic Darner patrolling a section of the trail. It hung up on a small pine along the side, and I was able to work my way close enough for a photo. I am thinking this is a Shadow Darner, but I could be wrong.
The light was not ideal in the deep shade, so this image is taken at ISO 1250. (1/250th @ f4 @ 541mm equivalent, zoomed back a bit to fit the full bug in). During processing in Lightroom, I ran it through the NIK Define 2 filter to eliminate some of the noise.
Hummer on the deck
Ruby-throated Hummingbird, the yard, Kennebunk Maine
After I got back from Honduras early this month, I went out and bought a hummingbird feeder, as a kind of antidote to hummingbird withdrawal. We have a few Ruby-throated Hummingbirds coming now, but this the first one who is making him/herself at home. It is most likely an immature female. It allowed me to work my way to about 6 feet from it, and then only took off because it was ready to go. Not the best light as the sun was behind a cloud, but still… There is a poem.
We have, maybe, a “resident” hummingbird
coming to our feeder, and resting on the
apple branches we bolted to the deck for
perches round the feeding station. It might
be a young bird…it has that look about it,
and it let me within six feet today…buzzing
up into the trees overhead not because I was
there, but just because it was ready to go.
It was back again a dozen times in the next
few hours, always perching near the top of
the apple branch, spending sixty seconds
at a time at the feeder, sipping up the red
nectar. Of course I have photos, which I
will share tomorrow. I feel privileged to
play host to such a special creature…Ruby-
throated, though its chin is yet bare…still
I could get lost in the iridescent beauty of
of its green back, in the intricate detail
of its breast and wing feathers. Lost, I say,
or found in beauty. What a way to go!
Sony RX10iii at 600mm equivalent field of view. 1/250th @ f4 @ ISO 250. Processed and cropped slightly in Lightroom.