Posts in Category: close up
Carolina Wren Twice
Carolina Wren. Cape May Point Lighthouse State Park, NJ
I heard several Carolina Wrens singing on the trails at Cape May Point Lighthouse State Park, but they remained tucked well back in brush and totally invisible. It was on my last morning there, in less than ideal light, when one finally popped out where I could see it…and get a few shots. This is a collage of two shots of the same wren, as it flitted actively around this perch. Carolina Wren only vary rarely makes it up as far as Maine, so I am always happy to see one on my travels. It is certainly one of the more robust wrens…with a song to match. 🙂
Nikon P610 at 1440mm equivalent field of view. 1/250th @ ISO 320 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom and assembled in Coolage.
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Ruby-crowned Kinglet. Cape May Point Lighthouse State Park, Cape May NJ
My last morning in Cape May for the Cape May Autumn Bird Festival was overcast and on the dull, chill side…but there were several cooperative birds, including this Ruby-crowned Kinglet…one of a small flock of Kinglets that was feeding along the trail behind the Hawk Watch Pond. I am always pleased to get a photo of this tiny, hyper-active bird, and especially pleased to get one with any of the ruby crown showing. 🙂
Nikon P610 at 1440mm equivalent field of view. 1/200th @ ISO 400 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.
Northern Grey Treefrog
Northern Grey Treefrog, Cape May Point, Cape May NJ
My friend Rich went out with the New Jersey Audubon Young Birders on Saturday morning of the Cape May Autumn Bird Festival (ZEISS, who we both work for, sponsors the Young Birders), and they found a Northern Grey Tree Frog in a tree on the back side of the trails behind the Hawk Watch platform and the Lighthouse. He pointed out the spot on Sunday morning when he and I walked the same trails. Monday I was back there for one last loop around the trails before heading for Philadelphia and my flight back to Maine, and just for fun, I checked the tree. What do you know? The frog was there, tucked deep into the V where a branch rose at a sharp angle from the main trunk. The Grey Treefrog is small by North American frog standards…this is an adult and is only a bit less than 2 inches long. I was amazed at how well camouflaged the tree frog is. It matched the grey mottled, lichen covered bark of the tree almost perfectly. If I had not known where to look, I would never have seen it. And I had to look twice at that 🙂
I suspected at least some degree of chameleon like ability (color cloaking), so I had to look up the Grey Tree Frog this morning, and indeed, the males, like this specimen, can change through a range of greys and greens to match the bark or foliage where they sit. It is not a quick change like the chameleon, but over a hour or so, the male Grey Treefrog can mimic its perch, provided it picked a perch within its color pallette, most convincingly. What do you know?
Nikon P610 macro at 105mm equivalent field of view. Since it was overcast with limited daylight, I used the flash for an exposure of 1/60th @ ISO 160 @ f5.3. Processed in Lightroom.
Swamp Sparrow Beauty. Happy Sunday!
Swamp Sparrow. Higbee Beach, Cape May NJ
“If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light…” Jesus
This is a very early post as we have Sunday morning plans. We are New Jersey, Cape May, for the Fall Birding Festival, and on Sunday morning we are at Uncle Bill’s Pancake House on Beach Avenue when it opens at 6:30, and then do a lap at the Meadows before the show opens at 10. If you have done the autumn thing in Cape May, you know exactly what I mean. Pancakes and birds! That is already enough to make this a good Sunday…with at least two forms of worship. 🙂
But seriously, take a look at this sparrow. I nominate the Swamp Sparrow, despite its muddy name, as the most beautiful sparrow in North America. I love the rusty tones and the sharply contrasting pure grays, the black accents, and the highly patterned nature of this little creature. Those who lump all sparrows into “little brown jobs” are missing the subtle beauty of the family. I posted a panel of “how we normally see Swamp Sparrow” yesterday…4 shots buried deep in reeds and brush, with only bits of sparrow showing…but every once in a while even a skulker like the Swamp has to get up and sit up and be counted in the early morning sun, as it did here at Higbee Beach Wildlife Management Area yesterday early. Then you see the sparrow for what it is…and it is an eyeful…a generous eyeful!
Now, what Jesus said about the generous eye was not a conditional statement, though it is often taken that way. It is a declarative statement. It is not “if” your eye is generous, “then” your whole being “will be” filled with light. It is “if you eye is generous, your whole being is full of light.” In such a statement the two phrases do not depend on each other…each phrase is simply testimony to the truth of the other. Fact. Those who are full of light have generous eyes. Fact. Those who have generous eyes are full of light. I point this out on behalf of the sparrow. There are those who can see the beauty of the Swamp Sparrow…many such…and those are the folks who are full of light…those are the folks with generous eyes. You want to get to know them…in fact…if you are a person of generous eye, you already know them as such, pretty much instantly, on meeting. There are a lot of generous eyed birders! Which is why a birding festival is so much fun for me. They don’t all know they are filled with light…but even so they are…and it is such fun to watch them watching the birds they love. Even the Swamp Sparrows. Especially the Swamp Sparrows. Happy Sunday!
Hermit Thrush
Hermit Thrush, Laudholm Farm, Wells ME
Sometimes it is nice to have multiple views of a bird. This Hermit Thrush, which we walked up on along the Maple Swamp boardwalk at Laudholm Farm (Wells National Estuarine Research Center), was fairly busy in the bush, and gave us front, back, and center views over the few seconds it took to take a series of photos. Then it was away, across the boardwalk and into deeper brush under the trees. This collage shows off all the recognition triggers for the species. The general Robin-like fat oval thrush shape and distinctive beak shape, the speckled upper breast, and the “tells” for this species…the rusty tail and wing tips and the fairly bold eye-ring. The mid-afternoon October light was great.
Nikon P610 at 1440mm equivalent field of view. 1/160th @ ISO 400 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom and assembled in Coolage.
Migration! (it happens)
Yellow-rumped Warbler, Day Brook Pond, Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, ME
I am soooo happy to have a superzoom camera back in my hands. I decided to buy a Nikon P610 as a back-up superzoom, and to tide me over while my P900 is in repair. Never again to I want to be in the position of canceling a major photo trip because my cameras are in the shop! And I certainly do not want to be anywhere photogenic and have my only camera break. Things happen.
Migration is happening right now in Maine. It seems late, but warblers, Blue Jays, and Cedar Waxwings are passing through in great numbers this week…along with assorted others. This specimen was along the shores of Day Brook Pond on the Kennebunk Wildlife Management Area…one of a small flock of warblers foraging in this pine.
Nikon P610 at 1440mm equivalent field of view. 1/400th @ ISO 100 @ f6.5. Processed and cropped slightly for scale in Lightroom.
Blue-green Cricket Hunter (?) Wasp
Blue-green Cricket Hunter Wasp? Laudholm Farms, Wells ME
I believe this amazing creature, only a little over a half inch long, might be a Blue-green Cricket Hunter Wasp. It could also be a Blue-green Mud Wasp. I have not been able to find any images via a Google search that have the white spot between the wings or the white section in the particularly long antenna. If it is not one of the species mentioned above, it is certainly a close relative. I found it while photographing Bittersweet at the Wells National Estuarine Research Center at Laudholm Farms a few days ago. This is a collage of three shots.
Sony Alpha NEX 5T with 16-50mm zoom @ 140mm equivalent field of view (2x Clear Image Zoom). Processed in Lightroom and assembled in Coolage.
Close in with a Saffron-winged Meadowhawk
Saffron-winged Meadowhawk. Fernald Brook Pond, Kennebunk ME
In the cooler weather of fall the Meadowhawks are spending more time in sitting in the sun during the day…soaking up heat. They are more approachable this time of year. This shot was taken at 48mm equivalent field of view from about 6 inches. And even then the bug did not fly. It was still there when I left. It is a Saffron-winged Meadowhawk, a species I had never seen in Maine (or anywhere else) until this summer…and this summer they are everywhere I go. It was, in fact, one of two dragonflies I photographed in a few days in the thumb of Michigan. Everywhere!
Sony HX90V. 1/320th @ ISO 80 @ f4.5. Processed and cropped slightly for scale in Lightroom.
The Texture of Fall
Maple Leaf. Kennebunk Maine
Full Fall has finally come to southern Maine. We are not yet at peak color, but it looks now like we might make it by Columbus Day…which would put us right back on schedule 🙂 Both of my Point and Shoots are malfunctioning at the moment (I actually canceled a trip to Panama, at least in part, because my workhorse cameras have gone lame…one is in the shop and the other will go in this week) so I am shooting with my Sony Alpha NEX 5t. I had forgotten what a nice camera it is. It certainly captures all the subtle texture and delicate color of this fallen leaf (if delicate is a work you can use to describe red).
This is an in-camera HDR at 63mm equivalent field of view using the 16-50mm zoom on the NEX. Nominal exposure was 1/80th @ ISO 320 @ f5.6. Processed in Lightroom.
Milkweed Time
Milkweed. Laudholm Farm, Wells ME
It is Milkweed season. As I mentioned yesterday, the Wells National Estuarine Research Center at Laudholm Farms in Wells Maine was one of the first facilities in our area to devote significant amounts of meadow to milkweed in an effort to ensure the survival of the Monarch Butterfly. On my last visit the Milkweed pods were getting ripe and popping…releasing seeds and the silky parachutes that carry them to new fields. This is a panel of 4 images which catches some of the wonder of that release. The wind was blowing and tugging the seeds and silk away from the plants.
Sony HX90V at various focal lengths for framing. Processed in Lightroom and assembled in Coolage.