Posts in Category: Kennebunk Plains
Happy Sunday! Northern Blazing Star
Northern Blazing Star against Goldenrod, Kennebunk Plains, Kennebunk, Maine. — Both Northern Blazing Star and Goldenrod are in full bloom on the Kennebunk Plains right now…but they the stands rarely overlap. I had to look long and hard to find two plants close enough to put them in the same frame, but who could resist trying? The color contrast is just too wonderful. I offer it as a celebration of Sunday! Sony A5100 with 18-50mm zoom at 45mm equivalent. Auto.
Maine! Northern Blazing Star
Northern Blazing Star: Kennebunk Plains Nature Conservancy, York County, Maine, USA. — It is the season of Blazing Star on the Kennebunk Plains. The Plains are one of the few remaining sand-plains in the Northeast, and are managed for several rare and endangered species…the Northern Blazing Star chief among them. Blazing Star is a fire-dependent plant, and the Plains are burned on a regular rotation to keep the population healthy. This time of year the Blazing Star is host of a wide variety of insect and bird species as well, and it is right now that the the Plains are perhaps the most alive. This year’s crop is notable for its height…all the plants are very tall, taller then average by almost a foot, and they have blossoms all down the stalk. If the weather holds the last of those won’t bloom until the first week in September, making for an exceptionally long bloom. I have been tracking and photographing the Norther Blazing Star bloom on the Kennebunk Plains for over 20 years now. Every year is different. OM Systems OM-1 with ED 100-400mm zoom at various focal lengths for framing. Program mode with my custom birds modifications (yes they work for plant macros as well…not need to change mode.) Processed in Pixelmator Pro.
Maine! Calico Pennants
Calico Pennant: Kennebunk Plains Nature Conservancy, Kennebunk, Maine, USA, August 2023 — There were several Calico Pennant mating wheels at Day Brook Pond on the Kennebunk Plains this week. This one posed against a interesting backdrop. And this is the season when I always try for a shot of a Calico on a Northern Blazing Star bud. Northern Blazing Star is an endangered plant that, along with the Black Racer Snake and the Upland Sandpiper, the Plains are managed for. The flowers are too broad for them to perch on but the buds are likely perches, especially the shorter plants just back from the shore of the pond. OM Systems OM-1 with 100-400mm zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom bird modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro. ISO 200 @ f6.3 @ 1/640th.
Maine! — Halloween Pennant
Halloween Pennant: Forever For All Preserve, Kennebunk Land Trust, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — The newish Forever For All Preserve has turned out to be a very good spot for dragonflies and damselflies over the past few years, beginning in the overgrown meadow next to road and all the way down the hill to the stretch of meadow along the Mousam River. The Holloween Pennant’s coloring and the exceptionally wide wings, its relatively large size, and its habit of “posing” on the tip of an exposed stalk, all make it a stand-out dragonfly. OM Systems OM-1 with 100-400mm zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro. ISO 200 @ f6.3 @ 1/800th.
Maine! Little Green Metallic Bee visits Wood Lily
Green Metallic Bee on Wood Lily: Two of my favorites in one shot (well, two shots for variety). A tiny Green Metallic Bee visiting one of the few blooming Wood Lilies I have found so far this year…out on the Kennebunk Plains Nature Conservancy. It was only about 5 years ago that I saw my first Green Metallic Bee in our front yard, but I am on the lookout for them now, and see them often. You have to look close! And of course I look for the Wood Lilies every year in July. OM Systems OM-1 with 100-400mm zoom at 770mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom bird modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro. ISO 200 @ f6.3 @ 1/640th.
Maine! Wood Lilies
I am not sure what is happening with the Wood Lilies this year? I found only 2 plants in bloom where there are generally hundreds out on the Kennebunk Plains Nature Conservancy. I will check again this week but I am not hopeful…as the plants I found were in full bloom already. Wood Lilies are particularly hard to photograph as there is so much dimension to them, and every part is interesting and deserving of correct focus. This is an 8 deep focus stack, and again, hand held. (For those who do not know…when focus stacking the camera takes however many exposures you tell it to, varying the focus for each one, and then combines them in-camera so that every part of your subject looks in focus. It is particularly effective on close-ups. This produces a image that is much closer to what your eye sees…but it might look a bit strange in a photograph, as we expect to see the narrow plane of focus of the camera. 🙂 OM Systems OM-1 with 100-400mm zoom at 246mm equivalent. Program mode. Nominal ISO 200 @ f5.6 @ 1/640th.
Eastern Towhee
Eastern Towhee: Kennebunk Plains Preserve, Kennebunk, Maine, USA, June 2022 — Sorry, this will always be the Rufous-sided Towhee to me, counter-part to the Spotted Towhee of the west. It must have actually been the Eastern Towhee when I started birding, but I started in New Mexico, and my books were probably not the latest editions, so I learned it, on my first birding trips east, as Rufous-sided. By the time I actually moved east, it was fixed in my mind. I have to look it up when I see one, because I do remember that I know the wrong name. I just don’t immediately remember the right one. Strange brain. Anyway, there are, some years, quite a few Eastern Towhees out by the pond on the Kennebunk Plains Preserve…and this is a good year for them. Their songs echo along the whole long pond edge, so there are at least a couple of pairs, and I had both the male and female of this pair in view at the same time. Such a handsome bird! Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixomator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/1000th.
First of the season: Calico Pennant
Calico Pennant Dragonfly: Kennebunk Plains Preserve, Kennebunk, Maine, USA, June 2022 — Calico Pennants are not rare dragonflies in southern Maine. They are pretty common in fact, and they are with us pretty much all summer, but I am always happy to see the first emerging in early June…maybe a bit late this year. I found a few yesterday along the pond edge on the Kennebunk Plains. Their habit of perching on the very tip of vegetation, generally between 6 inches and a foot off the ground, where they swing in the wind like a flag, makes them excellent photographic subjects. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/640th.
Beaver!
Beaver: Day Brook Pond, Kennebunk Plains Nature Conservancy, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — While looking for early dragonflies and damsels at Day Brook Pond, I was delighted to see this Beaver beavering along across the pond, drawing a long wake. I am pretty sure Day Brook Pond has a man-made dam these days, but it was clearly originally a beaver pond and the beavers are still there and still active. You can see their work around the edges somewhere most springs. This one was in a rush to get up into the little inlet half way up the pond. He disappeared behind the near foliage just after I took this shot. Sony Rx10iv at 580mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed and enlarged in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 400 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Frosted Whiteface
Frosted Whiteface: Day Brook Pond, Kennebunk Plains Conservancy, Kennebunk, Maine, USA, June 2022 — Besides the Damsels from yesterday, a few early Dragons were out at Day Brook Pond. Lancet Clubtails of course, which seem to be the earliest Odo to emerge in Southern Maine (I saw my first the 3rd week in May), but they are now joined by both Chalk-fronted Corporals and Frosted Whitefaces (pictured here in both rear and front view). I even found a just emerged teneral Skimmer…probably a Slaty Skimmer but it was too early to tell for sure. The Frosted Whiteface is so tiny, it makes the Corporals look big! Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed (and enlarged) in Pixomator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/640th and 1/500th.