Posts in Category: Wood Lily
Last of the Wood Lilies
Wood Lilies: Day Brook Pond, Kennebunk Plains Preserve, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — I was surprised to find a few Wood Lilies still in bloom, right along the edge of the forest at the end of Day Brook Pond where it is pretty much always in the shade. They were tall too! Nikon B700 macro focus mode at 120mm equivalent. Shutter program at 1/640th.
More Wood Lilies
Wood Lily: Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — A few more Wood Lilies before the season is over. Again, from the Kennebunk Plains. I did not find any deep red ones yet this year, but this gives a little bit of a sense of the variations on the theme. Nikon B700 at various focal lengths to fill the frame. 3 Macro and one telephoto macro. Shutter program with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Wood Lily time again
Wood Lily, Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — I went out to the Kennebunk Plains planning to hike into Cold Brook Pond on the back side of the plains were the land falls away to the Mousam River. Cold Brook Pond is old earth dam, long ago broken, and now maintained only by a family of beavers, so the level varies year to year depending on how active the beavers have been. It can be a good spot for dragonflies that I do not normally see at Day Brook pond on the other side of the plains. Not yesterday. Evidently our cold/wet snap has suppressed the dragonfly flight for the moment, at both ponds. There were, however Wood Lilies on the plain. I was surprised. This is at least a week early for the Wood Lily bloom, and, in fact, it looks like I almost missed it. Many of the flowers were gone by their best and some were dropping petals…but that could have to do with three days of cold rain as well. And perhaps what I am seeing is a “forced” bloom brought on by the 4 days mid-90s weather we had just before the cold snap. ?? Maybe the full boom is still to come in the next weeks. At any rate, I am always delighted to rediscover the Wood Lilys. I know of only a few reliable spots for them, and the Kennebunk Plains has the largest and most accessible concentration. They come in every shade of orange…from pale to almost red…and the amount of yellow at the center also varies. The boom is brief but big and bright! Nikon B700 at about 200mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Before the season passes….
I won’t say “one last Wood Lily” because you just never know, but I want to post at least this one, before the season passes. Many of the lilies are very tall this year, probably to do with the timing and amount of rail we have had, the number of sunny days, etc. This pair, photographed on the Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area here in Southern Maine, was close to 3 feet above ground level. Sony Rx10iv at 367mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Wood Lily…I warned you :)
I did warn you that I was not done with Wood Lilies. This cluster was growing on the Maguire Road section of the Kennebunk Plains, here in Southern Maine. Note the tiny Green Metallic Bee between the bottom two flowers, on its way to its next pollen stop. I came in close for a more conventional close-up. Sony Rx10iv at 106mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Wood Lily (again)
One Wood Lily leads to another 🙂 Such lovely flowers. I wait for them to bloom every year. They are not with us many weeks and then they are gone for another year. Kennebunk Plains Nature Conservancy, Kennebunk, Maine. Sony Rx10iv at about 420mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Wood Lily!
I rode my ebike out to the Kennebunk Plains yesterday looking for dragonflies, and was surprised to find the the Wood Lilies in full bloom. This feels early for Wood Lily. I think of them in full bloom in mid to late July…but there they were. Much of the area where they grow was included in the prescribed burn of last September, and it looks like we will not have lilies this year in those areas, but along the edge in the deeper brush that did not burn, they are tall already. The light was lovely yesterday afternoon and showed the lilies to best advantage. Sony Rx10iv at 480mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Coral Hairstreak and Wood Lily revisited
I posted another in this sequence of images the other day. I was delighted to watch this Coral Hairstreak working a Wood Lily on the Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area here in Southern Maine. As this panel shows, and I tried to describe in the previous post, the butterfly worked its way across the flower and then back again as I watched. Sony RX10iv at 600mm optical equivalent, plus enough Clear Image Zoom to fill the frame. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and assembled in Framemagic.
Wood Lilies already!
With a backlog of bog orchids and other wildflowers from Laudholm Farms this week, I was certainly not thinking about Wood Lilies when I took an ebike photoprowl out to the back side of the Kennebunk Plains yesterday. I was thinking of skies and landscapes, but as soon as I turned down the fire road that goes to the back of Day Brook Pond, I found the Plain covered with one of the most impressive displays of Wood Lilies that I have seen. I have never photographed Wood Lilies on that side of the pond…I always find them on either side of Rt. 99 where it crosses the Plains on the other side, so maybe this is a typical display for the area off Maguire Road, and I have just missed it all these years. Lots of lilies and lots of tall lilies, and many clumps of lilies. Checking last year’s photos of Wood Lilies, my first shots are from July 16th, on the other side of the pond, so the timing is right…I was just not expecting to see them yet. Nice surprise. So now I have a lot of Wood Lily images on top of my Grass Pink and Rose Pagonia orchid images from earlier in the week. Such abundance…but that is July in Maine for you! If you are into wildflowers, at least.
On this image of a double blossom, you will see, if you look closely, that there is a tiny Green Metallic Bee in flight above the lower flower. The Green Metallic Bees were all over the Wood Lilies, and I have to suspect that they are a major pollinator, at least out on the Kennebunk Plains.
Sony RX10iv at 326mm equivalent. Macro mode (in Scene Modes). Processed in Polarr.
Wood Lilies again
Wood Lilies, Day Brook Pond, Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, Maine
I hope you don’t mind another Wood Lily shot. The season is short and I have to get my shots in while they bloom 🙂 This cluster of three, at Day Brook Pond on the Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, with the petals still wet from overnight rains, shows off the lily at its best.
Sony RX10iii at 135mm equivalent field of view. Some program shift for depth of field. f6.3 @ 1/320th @ ISO 100. Processed in Lightroom.