Posts in Category: Laudholm Farm
Turkeys are so strange!
Wild Turkey, Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve at Laudholm Farms, Wells, Maine, USA — At the risk of offending turkey lovers everywhere I am going to come right out and say it: Turkeys are so strange! This is one of a small rafter of jake turkeys (“rafter” is one of two collective nouns for Wild Turkeys, the other being “gang”, and a “jake” is young “Tom”…or male turkey. If it was a female it would not have the chest beard, and, if young, would be called a “jenny”…if an adult, a “hen”. I say again, Turkeys are so strange, or maybe it is just that they bring out the strangeness in us). I saw this rafter of jakes along the entrance road at Laudholm and they were not really all that bothered when I got off my bike to take some pictures. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Turkeys at the bath…
Dust bath that is. Turkeys like their dust baths. This flock of hens and poults, near Laudholm Farms in Wells, Maine, had found a sandy spot at the edge of a corn patch and were having a grand old time covering their feathers in dust to fight feather mites. Even the poults were enjoying it. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Tom in repose
When I went out for my ebike ride yesterday, I came across the Laudholm flock of Wild Turkeys grazing on the lawns and in the corn patch on Laudholm Farm Road. Of course I had to stop for a few photos. The Laudholm flock is used to being looked at, as they are often along the road there, so they pretty much just left me to do my camera thing while they very slowly moved off. This is, I think, a Tom, by the beard and the intensity of the color on the head…as well as the sheen to the feathers. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Wild Rose with Snout Beatles
The wild roses are in bloom at Laudholm Farms (Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve) just down the road from us…well, actually, they are in bloom all though southern Maine right now…but I photographed this one at Laudholm Farms. It has some pesky visitors, known to gardeners (and everyone else) as the Red-snout Beatles. They are not welcome in most people’s gardens, as they damage the plants, but I guess, out here in nature, they are to be expected where the flowers are in bloom. Sony Rx10iv at 512mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Little Green Metallic Bee on Owl Clover
The Green Metallic Bee clan is among my favorite set of insects. They are mostly tiny. If you know Owl Clover you know that the blossoms are themselves quite small, so you can get a sense of just how small the bee is. I am always delighted to find one. I only found my first one a few years ago, quite by chance, right in our front yard working the flowers. I never “expect” to see them, and certainly did not expect one when I bent down to photograph the Owl Clover. I did a brief search, by the way, on why Owl Clover is called Owl Clover. The consensus seems to be that no one knows. ? Some say the flower heads might look like little owls with the individual blossoms making “owl ears”…but no one seems to be particularly convinced by that solution…and I certainly am not. It shall remain a mystery. Of course there is no doubt about why the Green Metallic Bee is called the Green Metallic Bee. 🙂 Like the Owl Clover, there are many species of Green Metallic Bee…not all of them tiny. I won’t even attempt to hazard a guess as to which one this is, though I am pretty sure it is the only species I have ever seen here in Southern Maine. Sony Rx10iv at about 90mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Grass Pink Orchids
Grass Pink Orchids come in many different shades and there is even a rare White Grass Pink Orchid, which is its own species. The last flower in this series might be one…but it could be just a unusually pale Grass Pink. It certainly stood out among all the pinker Grass Pinks in the tiny remnant bog at Laudholm Farms (Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve), in Wells, Maine. The boardwalk through the bog is my go-to place for at least two bog orchids…the Grass Pink and the Rose Pogonia …though it was apparently too dry this spring for the Pagonias. Sony Rx10iv at various focal lengths from 600mm to about 80mm using Sony’s full time macro. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications (which I also use for macro). Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Hey Bobolink!
Bobolink, Laudholm Farms (Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve), Wells, Maine, USA — It is that time of year again. The Bobolinks at Laudholm Farms are nesting, and males are defending territory. This male has an established territory right next to one of the trails and the folks at Laudholm have staked it off. He finds the stakes make great perched for his territorial display. I find that they make great spots for him to pose for his photo. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Melting
Deep in the forest, the vernal pools are slow to melt. This one has been working on it for weeks, and there is still a ways to go. There is not much water underneath the ice so most of the melt has to happen at the surface. It does make for some interesting abstract images though. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 90mm equivalent. HDR mode. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. Wells Reserve at Laudholm Farms, Wells, Maine.
Praying Chipmunk
There is not much moving in Maine’s forests during March other than chipmunks. I did see my first Red Squirrel two days ago, but not nearly close enough for a photo. This chipper appears to be praying at a mossy alter in the March sun, at the Wells Reserve at Laudholm Farms, in Wells, Maine. And well it might be, and well we should join it in prayer in these days of spreading Covid-19. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Skunk Cabbage Season
It is the season when, deep in the Maple swamps of Southern Maine, the Skunk Cabbage, in all their twisted shapes and outrageous colors, emerge from the leaf litter. This is when Skunk Cabbage is at its most beautiful. This is the flower of the plant. The big green leaves will only appear later. The wikipedia article on Skunk Cabbage is full of all kinds of interesting information. Skunk Cabbage grows downward, with its stem under ground, and only the flower and leaves sticking up at the top of the stem each year. Even stranger, the Skunk Cabbage produces its own heat, 27 to 63 degrees above the ambient temperature, so that the flower can bloom in still frozen ground…in fact it can melt the ice around it. It is mildly poisonous to humans (its heat is generated by cyanide)…you would have to eat more than a little of the fresh leaves to kill you, but your mouth will burn and your throat close with even a few bites…though with the proper preparation it has been used both as food and medicine.
To me, the Skunk Cabbage is one of the first and most welcome sings of spring in southern Maine.
Wells Reserve at Laudholm Farms, Wells, Maine. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. HDR mode. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos…assembled in FrameMagic.