Posts in Category: action
Winter Finch
House Finch, Roger’s Pond, Kennebunk Maine.
I misread the thermometer getting ready to go out yesterday and was considerably underdressed for the 17 degree temperatures at Roger’s Pond on the Mousam River in Kennebunk Maine. But there was a flock of feeding birds there, visiting the ornamental berry tree, and they kept me out until I was way too cold. House Finches and Goldfinches, Eastern Bluebirds (all around but not in the berry tree), Cedar Waxwings, Blue Jays, and both Hairy and Downy Woodpeckers. It was quite a show, and I got enough good pics to make freezing bearable 🙂
This House Finch has clearly been eating too many of those red berries already…it is rare to see one so intensely colored, especially in winter. Of course the winter light helps. I have closer shots, but I like the berries in this shot almost as much as the bird.
Sony RX10iii at 600mm equivalent field of view. Program Mode. 1/640th @ ISO 100 @ f4. Cropped for scale and composition and processed in Snapseed on my Android tablet.
Ice bells on willow wands…
ice bell, Mousam River at Roger’s Pond, Kennebunk, Maine
For those who were mystified by my reference to “ice bells on willow wands” last week, here is an ice bell on a willow wand. When willows grow close enough to the stream-bed so that they dip their branches or tender shoots in the water, and when it gets cold enough (it was 3 degrees when I took this photo), and when the willow is placed just so, so that the current can keep dipping it under. and when it is just stiff enough to keep popping back up…well, then ice bells form at and just above the surface of the water. We are deep in the polar vortex at the moment. It was 10 below last night…just the weather for ice bells to form on the Mousam River. Unfortunately the water is still high from the rain we had last week, and the willows where I go to photograph ice bells have been cut back away from the water (to accommodate the fly-fishers), so the crop so far this year has been meager. I was blessed to find this one. I will check again today, and I might even look for a more likely spot (though access to the river is limited here.)
Sony RX10iii at 600mm equivalent field of view. 1/250th @ f4 @ ISO 400. Cropped and processed in Polarr on my Surface Pro 3.
Hairy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker, back deck feeding station, Kennebunk Maine
Yet another shot from my mixed feeding flock experience on the back deck last week. The Hairy Woodpecker is a size bigger than the more common (in our yard) Downy, with a correspondingly heavier beak. This specimen was on the rail of deck, looking up longingly at the suet feeder. 🙂
Sony RX10iii at 600mm equivalent field of view. Program Mode. 1/250th @ ISO 100 @ f4. Processed in Polarr on my Android tablet. There was a large green feeder pole running up through the image just to the right of the end of the bird’s beak, decorated with worn strips of Duck Tape no less…which I was able to remove entirely using Handy Photo. It worked so well that I really did not have to tell you that…but there you go…full disclosure. 🙂
Titmouse. Happy Sunday!
Tufted Titmouse, back deck feeding station, Kennebunk Maine
“If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light!” Jesus
Yet another shot from my productive moments with the mixed feeding flock at the back deck feeding station the other day. The Tufted Titmouse is the Eastern and New England variety of the Titmouse clan, and a common bird at our feeders all year long. Titmice are perky birds at the worst of times…alert, apparently cheerful, and active. The crest helps with the impression, but there is no disguising the attitude. This bird, small as it is, appears ready to take on whatever comes…confident and hopeful at the same time.
Jesus, as he is recorded in the Bible, only rarely used wildlife in his teachings. But he did use birds…as an example of the attitude toward life we, as children of God, should adopt. And it is exactly the Titmouse brand of confidence and hope, cheerful expectation, that Jesus taught his deciples to value. We should, he said, take a lesson from the birds, who do not worry, but have a cheerful expectation that God will take care of them. He is not teaching, so much, about birds, or about us, but about God. God takes care of the birds. Surely God will take care of God’s sons and daughters…of the children made in God’s image. That is something we can believe, absolutely. It can, and should be, the ground for confidence and hope to take us through our days without anxiety or worry.
Easily said, and so hard to do! So, today, when you find yourself challenged by all that does not seem to be going well…or dwelling on the potential for disaster this year, and every year, displays…turn your inner, and most generous eye, on the Titmouse. Remember this image, and this attitude. I sincerely hope it will ease your way, and make the day more enjoyable. Happy Sunday!
Chickadee, dee, dee…
Chickadee, back deck feeding station, Kennebunk Maine
This is another shot from my productive session with the feeding station on our back deck the other day. The Chickadees, of course, are totally fearless, and will land on the station while I am actually out on the deck. This is only slightly less than full frame at 600mm equivalent field of view. I especially like the bright eye on this bird, and the natural feather detail.
Sony RX10iii. Program Mode. 1/160th @ ISO 100 @ f4. Processed in Snapseed on my Android tablet. Distracting branch in upper right corner removed in Handy Photo.
Downy Woodpecker in winter…
Downy Woodpecker, back deck feeding station, Kennebunk Maine
Yesterday’s Day Poem was about a mixed feeding flock that came to the back deck feeding station at noon.
The Red-bellied Woodpecker at the back
deck feeder sent me scurrying for my
camera. We don’t see them often, though
they are obviously around. Of course
it was just flying off when I got back,
but still, it was the harbinger of a large
mixed feeding flock, and I stood, propped
up in the open back door, and shot birds
for 15 minutes as they came and went.Hairy and Downy Woodpeckers, Chick-
adees and Titmice, a Nuthatch, and several
Jays (who would not come close while I
stood there). Even a lone and lonely Junco,
apparently desperate for feathered company.I stood until I heard the furnace kick in,
and noticed my ears were getting cold.By then it was mostly Chickadees and
Titmice anyway…and I never did see
that Red-bellied Woodpecker again.
This is one of the Downy Woodpeckers and one of the resulting images 🙂 It is this kind of image that I was hoping for when I built and rebuilt the feeding station.
Sony RX10iii at 600mm equivalent field of view. Program Mode. 1/250th @ ISO 125 @ f4. Processed in Snapseed on my Android tablet.
Heron in the winter…
Great Blue Heron, Mousam River at Roger’s Pond, Kennebunk, Maine
The other day, with our first snow on the ground, I went to Roger’s Pond, a little park on the Mousam River, to look for ice bells on the willow wands at the water’s edge. The Willows evidently had a hard summer, as there were not nearly as many as I remembered, and the water was probably still too warm. No ice bells. There was, however, this lone Great Blue Heron sitting on a snow covered rock in mid-stream in the early December light. A tricky exposure to say the least…attempting to get good feather detail without blowing out the white snow. I dialed the Exposure Compensation down to -1 EV and hoped for the best. I already had DRO (Dynamic Range Optimization) set to maximum. With a bit of highlight recovery in Snapseed, it is about as good as I could have hoped for.
Sony RX10iii at 600mm equivalent field of view. Program Mode adjusted as above. 1/640th @ ISO 100 @ f4. Processed in Snapseed on my Android tablet. Cropped for scale.
Tarantula!
Tarantula. Slot Canyon. Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument, Cochiti New Mexico
We did not see much wildlife at Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument near Cochiti New Mexico when we visited last month…a Townsend’s Solitaire, a Jackrabbit, and, as we walked up Slot Canyon, this lovely Tarantula. Now I know there is a slight risk in positing this image, as some of my followers surely will react negatively, but the Tarantula is, as I see it, a lovely bug. As spiders go, it is furry and friendly looking. It is, of course, also very large. This one was maybe 5 inches leg-tip to leg-tip. One of the (many) things I love about my wife Carol is that it did not send her clawing her way up the side of the canyon. We both watched it scuttled along the Canyon floor working its way around us on its way down. Tarantulas live solitary lives, mostly out of sight, but they do come out in search of mates in season. This one may have been on that errand. And though they are big, they rarely bite (they have to be really provoked to bite a human) and the bite is more irritating than harmful. People (not people I know personally, but people nonetheless) keep them as pets. I was happy to see this one, free and on about its Tarantula business, in Slot Canyon.
Sony RX10iii at 600mm equivalent field of view. Program Mode. 1/1000th @ ISO 100 @ f4. Processed in PhotoShop Express on my Android tablet.
Just a duck or two…Ducks Away!
Pintail and Mallard Ducks (mostly), Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, Socorro New Mexico
The first days at the Festival of the Cranes at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in Socorro New Mexico, the fields behind Coyote Deck were still dry. On Thursday they began to pump water in, and by Saturday there were at least 5000 ducks, mostly Mallards and Pintails, gathered to feed on the floating seeds and shoots. They flood those fields to bring Ducks and Cranes and Geese within easy viewing of Willow and Coyote Decks on the Festival weekend every year. Bosque del Apache is intensively managed all year for the wildlife, but during the Festival of the Cranes, yearly, for close to 30 years, they also manage for the people who come to view the wildlife. And, just as I always hope for a Snow Geese rising shot at Bosque, I have come to appreciate the “Ducks Away” experience off Coyote Deck. I watched the field flood daily and stopped along the road when I finally saw the congregation of ducks, and waited. Most years the ducks just continue to feed while I am watching, but they rise often enough to give me hope…like once in past 6 years 🙂 This year, as I stood there hopping from one foot to the other to keep warm, a Refuge truck came down the dike road on the inside of the tour loop and, as it passed, the ducks startled and took to the air. I had an intense few moments there until they settled again.
Sony RX10iii at 580mm equivalent field of view. Action and Flight mode (my own saved program). 1/1000th @ f4.5 @ ISO 100. Processed in Snapseed on my Android tablet.
Sandhill Cranes practice makes perfect
Sandhill Cranes, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, Socorro New Mexico
Sandhill Cranes mate for life, and only mate in late winter/early spring on their mating grounds far north of Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in Socorro New Mexico (where this sequence was taken), but young Cranes and even adult pairs “practice” mating behavior year round. They don’t mate…they just practice. Or maybe “play” is a better word. This pair is either practicing or playing, and in season and on territory this would result in a mating. Hopefully these are young Cranes and they will get better at it with practice. If they continue to play around they will get the hang of it by spring. We can hope. (They can hope.)
Sony RX10iii at 454mm equivalent field of view. My memory BIF and action Program Mode. 1/1000th @ f6.3 @ ISO 100. Processed in Snapseed on my Android tablet and assembled in Pic Stitch.