Posts in Category: p&s 4 wildlife
Palm Warbler: FOY
Palm Warbler, Day Brook Pond, Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, W. Kennebunk ME
I already posed one pic of this FOY (first of year) Palm Warbler with yesteday’s Day Poem…it was a real treat to find it along the shore of Day Brook Pond on the Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management area. Such a lot of attitude for such a small bird 🙂
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 320 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom and assembled in Coolage.
Mallard!
Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve, Bucks County, PA
There were a few birds active at Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve when we visited last week. We watched a pair of Mallards on the river for 20 minutes as they worked their way down the far bank.
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 400 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom. Getting detail in the finest features of a Mallard’s back is a test of the limits of any camera!
Agitation!
Red Squirrel, Alewive Pone Woods, Kennebunk ME
This is another shot of the Red Squirrel from my encounter last week in Alewive Woods. You can see how unhappy he is to have me visit by the blurring of his agitated tail. Sure sign!
Nikon P900 at 1100mm equivalent field of view. 1/50th @ ISO 800 @ f5.6. Processed in Lightroom.
House Finch Singing
House Finch, Timber Point, Rachel Carson NWR, Goose Rocks Maine
The song of the House Finch is not strong…it kinds of wisps along…but it is has a good deal of melody. Pleasant, if not striking. This specimen sang for 10 minutes while I watched. It was well buried back in the back branches of a road-side tree at the Timber Point section of the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge across the Little River from Goose Rocks Maine, and the head of Goosefair Bay.
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 140 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom. Cropped slightly to eliminate distracting out of focus branches at the base.
Song Sparrow in the deep reeds.
Song Sparrow, Timber Point, Rachel Carson NWR, Goose Rocks Maine
As I mentioned last week, there were quite a few Song Sparrows along the Timber Point trail at the new section of the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge across from Goose Rocks in Southern Maine. This one was buried well back in the cattail reeds, and was busy with its grooming. That made for a variety of poses, which I have assembled here in Coolage.
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ~ISO 140 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom and assembled in Coolage.
Goldfinch in the Snow. Happy Sunday!
American Goldfinch, back deck feeding station. Kennebunk Maine
“If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light!” Jesus
We are having a minor spring snow event today and tomorrow. No significant accumulation (well maybe an inch by tomorrow night), and nothing compared to what they got from this storm further west…but still enough to remind us that we don’t put our snow boots and winter coats away until May 1st here in Maine. My wife had to find her mittens to get to church this morning. This American Goldfinch was one of several birds hanging close to the feeders in the snow. I expect we will get lots of traffic on the back deck today and tomorrow as birds try to find enough sustenance to keep warm in the unseasonable weather.
Jesus reminds us that God takes care of the Goldfinch, no matter what the weather does, and that we should take that as evidence that God will care for us…that we should not be anxious for how we will stay alive, but, the implication is, devote ourselves to living in a way that demonstrates our faith in God, our thankfulness for the blessings of God, and a generosity of spirit that embraces our fellows and all that lives.
The Goldfinch in the snow reminds me of God’s blessings in my life…but it also challenges me to take a look at how well I live…how well I embody faith, thanksgiving, and generosity. The answer today is the same as it always is, and always will be…not well enough…or at least not as will as I think I ought to. The hardest lesson of all to learn, far harder than trusting God for our daily bread and shelter, is trusting God for our goodness. If God takes care that I stay alive…surely God will also take care that I live well…with faith, thanksgiving and generosity. Being anxious about how good I am is just as misguided as being anxious about what I will eat or what I will wear.
God is good. Only God is good. We live by faith in God or we do not live at all. When I look at this Goldfinch in the snow, I do not see a trace of anxiety…no fear…no worry…just the impulse to get on with it…to get on with life…no matter what the weather does. Yes, you say, easy for the Goldfinch…that is just the way it is made. But isn’t that what Jesus was saying? That is the way we are made. We only have to let ourselves live that way. By faith. All else follows.
Happy Sunday!
Sassy Red
Red Squirrel, Alewive Woods Preserve, Kennebunk Land Trust. Kennebunk ME
I told the story of this Red Squirrel, which I encountered on my hike into Alewive Pond on Thursday, in today’s Year Poem (which I will append here for your viewing pleasure :).
The photo is with the Nikon P900 at 1100mm equivalent field of view. 1/60th @ ISO 800 @ f5.6. Processed in Lightroom.
And the poem.
The red squirrel paralleled me
100 years along the trail,
always three threes ahead,
but with one eye solid on me.
Eventually he found a perch
on a branch, oh, twice my height,
just where the trail turns,
to sit safe and sass me as only
a Red Squirrel can sass…tail
arched high, little paws, tiny
claws clenched, every ounce
of his ten, behind the eye
that glared, that dared me
to do my worst!
Little did he know I had
my camera ready to
record his heroic posturing,
or that his antics would
be exposed on the internet
for all the world to see.
So there, Mr. Red Squirrel,
we humans can sass too.
Song Sparrow in Spring
Song Sparrow, Timber Point, Rachel Carson NWR, Goose Rocks, Maine
As I mentioned yesterday, the Song Sparrows are back all along the coast here in Southern Maine. They are often our earliest summer singer to arrive. This bird is out at the tip of Timber Point, a relatively new property of the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge located between Goose Rocks and Biddeford Pool, just where the Little River flows into Goosefair Bay. It sat up and sang for me nicely.
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 125 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.
First Phoebe of Spring
Eastern Phoebe, Kennebunk Bridle Trail, Kennebunk ME
The first Eastern Phoebes have returned to the marsh and trees around the Bridle Trail near the mouth of the Mousam River where it crosses Route 9 here in Kennebunk. Along with the Song Sparrows (also present for at least a week) they are our earliest returning songbirds every year. I don’t count the Robins, since they are really here year-round, or any of our other backyard feeder birds, which I can see any month of the year. The Song Sparrows and Phoebes will nest along the Bridle Trail, and I will be seeing them all summer. I love the background of this shot…the bokeh as they call it. The wind was gusting to 30 mph yesterday and the winter grasses of the marsh were being tossed…they were just far enough behind the bird to create this warm wash of color. You can see the effects of the warm light reflected up from the marsh grasses on the body of the bird as well. There is often a light yellow wash on the lower breast of the Phoebe, but you rarely see it this yellow.
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 220 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.
Breeding Brandt’s
Brandt’s Cormorant in breeding plumage and posture, La Jolla Cliffs, California
This morning we pop back to San Diego and the San Diego Birding Festival to pick up this breeding plumage and posture Brandt’s Cormorant from the cliffs at Scripps Park in La Jolla California. We watched two birds trying to build nests on the same small ledge for 20 minutes or so…repeatedly stealing the meager nesting materials from each other, and spending more time defending than gathering. Eventually one flew off, undoubtedly in search of more nesting materials, and the remaining bird promptly stole all of the absent birds stuff. There is a joke in there, about California maybe, but I will restrain myself.
The birds were close enough to the cliff top so that I only needed 800mm of equivalent reach for this close-up. Nikon P900. 1/320th @ ISO 400 @ f5.6. Processed in Lightroom.