Posts in Category: Kennebunk Plains
Business end of Slaty Skimmer
Slaty Skimmer: Day Brook Pond, Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — It was unusually hot yesterday for southern Maine, and there were lots of the common dragonflies out and active at Day Brook Pond. Slaty Skimmers now outnumber Spangled, but both are still there in good numbers. Perhaps because of the heat, the Slatys were perching a lot…and this one landed too close for a telephoto shot. I decided to see how close it would let me get and switched to macro focus on my Nikon B700, flipped out the LCD so I could see, and leaned in. This was taken at 97mm equivalent, at the outer limit of the macro focus, from about 4 inches. Not an identification shot, but interesting all the same. 🙂 Program mode and processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Just for fun! Spangled Skimmer. Happy Father’s Day!
Spangled Skimmer: Day Brook Pond, Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — I have mentioned that the Spangled Skimmer is one of my favorite dragonflies. This is not a good identification photo. I have lots of those. But this is among my favorite photos of a favorite dragonfly. The “Hay, what’s up?” pose, the angle of the light, and the interesting background just combine to make me smile. And a smile is good on a Sunday, Father’s Day. I hope all you fathers are smiling…and all you children of fathers as well. Nikon B700 at 1440mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Slaty Skimmer
Slaty Skimmer: Day Brook Pond, Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — Evidently they Spangled Skimmers fly before the Saltys…as we have had Spangled for at least a week at the pond, before I saw my first Slaty yesterday. Now that the Saltys are flying, they will dominate the pond for months, outnumbered only by the smaller Calico Skimmers. Nikon B700 at 1440mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Spangled Skimmer
Spangled Skimmer: Day Brook Pond, Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, Maine, USA — The Spangled Skimmer is one of my favorite dragonflies to see in flight. The white stigma near the wing-tips reflect the sun and draw intricate spirograph patterns around the moving dragon. (Do they still make spirographs? I had hours of fun with mine as a child.) And, like most skimmers, they perch nicely for photos. This one landed closer than the 1440mm zoom on the Nikon B700 will focus so I had to back to to about 1000mm for this shot. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Calico Pennant
Calico Pennant: Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — I find that I have to remind myself that, after the first dozen or so, I do not have to photograph every Calico Pennant I see…not even every male or every female Calico Pennant. There is such a thing as enough all ready with the Calico Pennants. Out at Day Brook Pond, a particularly health little “improved” beaver pone on the Kennebunk Plains, they are certainly abundant every year at this time, and will be present in smaller numbers all summer and into early fall…though I think they might be at their biggest and most robust right now. It seems to me that the later in the season, the smaller and less intense the Calico Pennants, but that may be a trick of my imagination. What we have here are one female and two male Calicos. One male is in classic Pennant pose, and the other is sun posting (obelisking) on what was our second day over 90 degrees in June so far. Nikon B700 at 1440mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Drasteria moth
Drasteria moth (probably Shadowy Arches): Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, Maine, USA — I found this little moth fluttering close to the ground along the foot trail at Day Brook Pond on the Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area the other day. Some research this morning gets me as far as one of the Drasteria moths, possibly a Shadowy Arches, but I don’t know my moths well enough, or their ranges, to eliminate any of the other Drasterias. I think the Graphic Moth might be more common in Maine, but this one seems to have too much orange. 🙂 If anyone knows better, please leave a comment. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent from about 4 feet. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/640th.
Bluets
Boreal or Northern ?? Bluets: Day Brook Pond, Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, Maine, USA — There were a lot of Bluets at Day Brook Pond on the Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area this week. I can’t say that I examined every one, but they all seemed to be Boreal/Northern by the largish eyespots and general pattern of the abdomen. I am not honestly sure how to distinguish Boreal and Northern from any distance and I am open to correction even there. 🙂 Many were already paired up adn ready to drop eggs. Nikon B700 at 1440mm equivalent. It is nice to have a camera in hand again with that kind of reach again so I am not always cropping the center out of my Sony Rx10iv 600mm shots. 🙂 Program mode with auto everything. -.3EV Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Chalk-fronted Corporal
Chalk-fronted Corporal: Day Brook Pond, Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — The Chalk-fronted Corporal is among the first dragonflies to take wing in any number in Southern Maine. Day Brook Pond had its share yesterday already. Nikon B700 at 1100-1440mm equivalent. Program mode. -.3EV. The white pruinosity (the chalk-like coating on the throax) really sets off the hydraulics at the base of the wing. All those tiny pumps allow the dragonfly to move and shape each wing, and each segment of wing, independently…giving them an amazing agility in flight.
Dust bathing Vesper Sparrow
Vesper Sparrow: Kennebunk Plains, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — This bird was a ways away…captured at 1440mm equivalent with the Nikon B700. It was also very busy, taking a dust bath in the middle of the foot trail out along the woods beyond Day Brook Pond. I would have had trouble identifying it if 1) Vesper Sparrows were not among the most common sparrows on the Plains, and 2) if that distinctive little patch of chestnut feathers on the shoulder was not showing so nicely. Even Google Lens was able to id the bird…if I needed any confirmation. Again, Nikon B700 at 1440mm equivalent. Program mode. ISO 100 @ f6.5 @ 1/640th. -.3 EV Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Pine Warbler singing
Pine Warbler: Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, West Kennebunk, Maine, USA — Last year we had a Pine Warbler coming to the suet by my backyard photo blind for several weeks. I even have shots of it singing in the branches of the pines over the feeders. This year, at least so far, I have only had a glimpse of one on the suit on our deck. Maybe I have just missed other visits, or maybe our bird has not returned yet. I found this one in full song, responding to another singing warbler further off, on the Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, along the shore of Day Brook Pond. Both shots have an out of focus branch across the face of the bird, but that is the way it goes when shooting birds in their natural setting. I am always amazed at just how much obstruction you can focus out with a camera…and at the camera’s ability to auto focus through such obstructions. The Pine Warbler’s long high trill is a treat to hear and this bird was not holding back. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent (cropped for greater image scale). Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. I used the selective luminance tool in Polarr to bring up the shadows in this somewhat back-lighted bird. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/500th.