Posts in Category: Kennebunk
Spangled Skimmer: Forth of July Dragonfly
Spangled Skimmer, Forever Wild Preserve, Kennebunk, Maine — I like dragonflies (you might have noticed). They are amazing creatures from a creative design and mechanics point of view, and often aesthetically amazing as well. This skimmer is nothing special to look at while perched, but in flight, those white spots on the wings make a dance like a child swinging a sparkler on the Forth of July. A thing of beauty. And fitting for the day. 🙂 This is not your usual id portrait shot, but I find the pose interesting and the details of face and the plant as well. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Six-spotted Tiger Beetle
Of all the insects in the world, I like the green, shiny ones the best! There, I have said it. It makes no sense, but I can not deny it. I like green shiny insects! I found these Six-spotted Tiger Beetles hunting on the rocks along the trail at the Forever Wild Preserve in Kennebunk, Maine, while I was out hunting for dragonflies myself. (We shared a hunter’s moment. 🙂 ) From an insect’s point of view, these are indeed tigers, with fearsome jaws. They prey on any other insect they can catch. I read on wiki that even their larva pop up out of the ground like jack-in-the-boxes to capture passing prey. Fierce indeed. And so pretty, so shiny, so green! Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. (Note that one of these has only 4 spots…but that is, again, according to wiki, not all that uncommon.)
Another immigrant: Essex Skipper
Essex Skipper (European Skipper), Forever Wild Preserve, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — I am apparently more of a chauvinist than I am aware of…whenever I look up a species that I have photographed and find that it is a non-native species, I am slightly disappointed. This is such a case. I photographed this little skipper on the trail at the Forever Wild Preserve, and had to look it up. It is, according to the Leps artificial intelligence engine, and subsequent research, the Essex Skipper. The Essex Skipper, sometimes called the European Skipper here, was accidentally introduced in Ontario, Canada in 1910, and is now the most common skipper in New England. I have to remind myself that I am a child of immigrants myself before I am ready to make room for the Essex Sipper in the American pantheon…but then I guess that is just human nature. All God’s creatures, great and small. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Fledgling Purple Finch
Purple Finch, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — I have featured this young male Purple Finch before in a more active pose, but he deserves a portrait shot. 🙂 Such a subtle beauty. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Chipper at the fountain
The water feature I put in for my backyard photo blind has been a mixed success. I would have to keep it running all the time I think, for the birds and other critters to get used to it and figure it out more than they have. The Chipmunks were actually the first to learn to use it, and this youngster is supremely confident now. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Froggy went a courting…
American Bull Frogs, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — The drainage pond at our local hospital health center is full of huge Bull Frogs, among the biggest I have ever seen, and certainly the biggest collection of big frogs that I have come across. Here we have both a male and a female. For some reason I see far fewer females than males…or perhaps it is just that I am noticing the difference more often. 🙂 I would not make a good Bull Frog. 🙁 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Beach Rose Pond
This little pond is right on Route 9 between Brown Street and the Kennebunk/Wells town line. The beauty of this view stopped me on my eBike as I rode by yesterday. Sony Rx10iv at 24mm equivalent. HDR mode. I used Program Shift to select a small aperture for increased depth of field and selective focus on the roses. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Proud and not purple yet…
Immature Purple Finch, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — This has to be one of this year’s fledglings. It shows just a hint of color in the plumage. By next spring it will be more pronounced, and by summer this will be a full purple male. Or that is my theory at least. He was really enjoying the buffet of aphids on the bittersweet vine. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Proud and Purple!
Purple Finch, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — This is most likely the first-year male that was just coming into its purple this spring. The other male we have coming to our feeders is even more intensely colored. He enjoyed a long drink from my stacked buckets water feature. I used the chair blind again. What a great invention. I sat it just into the edge of the shade of one of our big maples and had a very pleasant hour close to the birds. Then just packed it away into the shed. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Delta-spotted Spiketail
There is a poem that goes with this:
6/18
Stalking one of the (admittedly,
kind of ugly) drainage ponds
on the grounds of one of the
senior citizen condo complexes
(very upscale) between here
and Wells behind Route 1,
I was hit hard enough to stop
me in my tracks with one of
those “whoo, what is that!”
moments. You know them if
you are into any kind of nature
study...I get them still once in
a while, in birding, and I am
new enough to the whole dragon
and damselfly thing so they can
still happen on any outing. This
was a dark dragon, relatively
large, with bright yellow spots
and big jade green eyes, something
I certainly had never seen before.
“Whoo, what is that!”
Those moment are certainly
part of what keeps me birding
and a big part of what has me
hooked on dragons and damsels.
“Whoo, what is that?”
And then you have the fun of
finding out...digging out the
books and apps and coloring in
the background, fitting the critter
into the complex framework of
what we know about dragonflies
and damsels and life in general.
(This was a Delta-spotted Spiketail.)
That too is part of what keeps
me watching and photographing
nature. Always something new
to see and learn. How great is that?
Says it all. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.