Posts in Category: action
Snow Egret fishing…
Snowy Egret fishing. Lower Mousam River marsh, Kennebunk Maine
There are often Egrets in the marsh pools along the lower Mousam River near my home in Kennebunk Maine. The river edge and marsh there is part of Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge. I caught this Snowy Egret in the act, doing a fishing dance more typical of it’s Reddish cousin. Ah well, success is all that matters…though I know fishermen who would say it is not about the catch at all. I have a feeling Egrets would not agree. 🙂
Sony RX10iii at 600mm equivalent field of view. Sports Mode. 1/800th @ ISO 100 @ f4. Processed in Lightroom and assembled in Coolage.
Three’for!
Black-eyed Susan with three insects. Emmon’s Preserve, Kennebunkport ME
I actually did not see the third bug in this Black-eyed Susan shot until I got it home and was processing it on the computer. The bee is obvious, as is the beetle. I am not certain what beetle it is, though it appears to be in the same family as Milkweed and Asparagus beetles. The spider is a Yellow Orb Weaver. Emmon’s Preserve, in Kennebunkport. The mosquitoes were so bad that my natural repellent was useless against them, and it was all I could do to stand still long enough to get a few shots here. I am very surprised there are not any mosquitoes in the image!
Sony RX10iii at 554mm equivalent field of view. 1/250th @ ISO 100 @ f4. Processed in Lightroom.
Goldbug?
Teneral dragonfly? Day Brook Pond, Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, W. Kennebunk Maine
This is a newly emerged dragonfly from Day Brook Pond on the Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area in West Kennebunk Maine. Though I have looked through my dragonfly book, it does not cover tenerals, so I am have little idea what it is. Hopefully someone will help me with the ID. I love the look of it, as though it were fashioned from gold. (If I had to guess, it would be a female Saffron Winged Meadowhawk…but that would be a wild guess. 🙂
Sony RX10iii at 600mm. 1/250th @ ISO 250 @ f4. Processed and cropped slightly in Lightroom.
Wood Lily, Blueberries, and Little Green Metallic Bees. Happy Sunday!
Wood Lily, Blueberries, Little Green Metallic Bees, Day Brook Pond, Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, W. Kennebunk Maine
“If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light!” Jesus
There are still lots of Wood Lilies in bloom out on the Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area. I have only explored the Day Brook Pond side this summer so far, but, despite earlier impressions, the Wood Lily bloom is at least as good as last year, and maybe better. (It is about a week late, which contributed to my earlier disappointment.) Yesterday, I found a bunch growing right in among the ripe blueberries and wanted to frame both the blue and the bright red/orange in the same shot, but as I focused I noticed the Green Metallic Bees at work gathering the abundant pollen of the flower. I have shots where I adjusted the camera’s program to get the blueberries in better focus for better color contrast, but for this shot I was after the motion of the bees, so I let the camera choose a high shutter speed. (Photography, like most things in life, is all about choices and balance.) I remember finding my first Green Metallic Bee among the flowers of our yard a few years ago, and being totally amazed that such a creature could exist. In this shot we have two species, one much smaller than the already small Green Metallic, but clearly in the same family.
This shot, to my eye, has captured a vivid slice of life…full of a rich variety of color, form, and texture, and alive with energy. But then, so often, that is what the generous eye sees in the world around us…life both abundant and bright with promise…with the energy of the spirit at work in the world. And there is a unity. The bees are not separate from the flowers. As they gather the pollen of one plant and carry it to another, they are an essential part of the Wood Lilies’ life…there would be no more Wood Lilies without their action. Even the way the Wood Lilies and Blueberries are growing together must serve both…it is always about choices and balance…fulfilling the spirit’s vision of abundant life. If you push back behind the surface of this second, or any second, you become aware of the pure radiant light of creation at the center…expanding, expressing itself in form and color and texture, in all that lives and all that is…expressing itself with intelligence (choice and balance) and with all embracing love. You become aware of God. And God’s light fills you, not from the outside in, but from the inside out, as you realize yourself as another expression of the creative love and light that is all in all. Choice and balance…unity. Generosity.
Happy Sunday! And may your eye be generous.
Red-eyed Tree Frog
Red-eyed Tree Frog, The Lodge at Pico Bonito Honduras
Before it slips totally into memory, we return to Honduras for this Red-eyed Tree Frog, found by Elmer Escoto, our guide, on the night hike at The Lodge at Pico Bonito. The Lodge has dammed a small stream just into the rainforest to form two small ponds where the frogs breed. The tree frogs are only active a night, so you have to go out with flashlights and listen for their calls and track them down among the leaves. They don’t seem to be bothered by the lights, or by the camera flash. Once found they will pose. The trick is to get someone to hold a flashlight on them so you can focus, then let the camera flash light the frog.
Sony RX10iii at 412mm equivalent field of view. 1/60th @ f4 @ ISO 2500. Processed in Lightroom.
Cedar Waxwing
Cedar Waxwing, Quest Ponds, Kennebunk Maine
There is some kind of small Dancer Damselfly emerging right now at our local ponds. They come up from the water’s edge in a visible tide, two or three in sight at any moment, and going on for hours. And where they are emerging, there are Cedar Waxwings. The birds gather around the pond, generally a dozen or more, and swoop in after the dancers as they fly. I wrote a poem about it. For the poem’s sake I named the dancer, but I am not at all sure I am right.
There was a gang of Cedar Waxwings,
silent but deadly, at the little drainage
pond by the medical center parking
lot, picking off newly emerged Dusky
Dancer Damselflies on their maiden
flights…swooping, like the guided
missiles that they are, across the pond,
taking the Damsels on the wing…
It was awesome, totally awe inspiring,
to watch them. Such precision. Such
grace. (Of course I will admit maybe
not so much fun if you happen to be
an unsuspecting Dusky Dancer.)
Faceoff: Brown Violet-ear Hummingbirds
Brown Violet-ear Hummingbirds, Rio Santiago Resort, Hondruas
I have mentioned before that the Brown Violet-ear Hummingbirds were so dominent on this trip to Honduras (the Point and Shoot Nature Photographer adventure at the Lodge at Pico Bonito) that they suppressed the numbers of other species that we saw. They also got in each others’ way a lot 🙂 We saw a lot of confrontations between hummers competing for the same feeders and the same space. The Brown Violet-ear is not a flashy bird by hummingbird standards, but it makes up for it in attitude!
Sony RX10iii at 530mm equivalent field of view. 1/250th @ ISO 640 @ f4. Processed in Lightroom.
Brown Violet Ear Hummingbird
Brown Violet-ear Hummingbird, Rio Santiago Resort, Honduras
The dominant Hummingbird species on our visit to Rio Santiago Resort in the North Coastal mountains of Honduras, by a ratio of 25 to 1, was the Brown Violet-ear. Rio Santiago Resort is actually a small lodge with a few cabins that is justly renowned for the numbers of hummingbirds and the numbers of hummingbird species that work feeders, too many to count, that they maintain. There were certainly hundreds, maybe thousands, of BVEs working the feeders at the lodge. For that reason, we saw far fewer species at the feeders than we expected. Even the most aggressive species, like the Rufous-tailed Hummingbirds, were kept at bay by the sheer numbers of BVEs. This shot, which actually shows the “violet ears”, was taken in the deep shade of the thatched roof over the open air restaurant/bar at the lodge. The roof is lined with maybe 50 feeders, and there are always a hundred or more hummers buzzing overhead while you eat. It is hard to imagine the density of hummers. I was able to stand at at less than 3 feet from the wire supporting the feeders and frame as many BVEs as I wanted. It was dark under there, and this shot was taken at a very high ISO…but it is exactly the kind of shot the Sony JPEG engine does best with, even at such an elivated ISO. Lots of fine detail and a blank background. Sony’s noise reduction routines work very well here.
Sony RX10iii at 600mm equivalent field of view. 1/250th @ ISO 6400 @ f4. Processed in Lightroom.
Kinkajou!
Kinkajou. The Lodge at Pico Bonito, Honduras
We took a night hike at the Lodge at Pico Bonito, looking for Owls, reptiles, Red-eyed Tree Frogs, and whatever we might find. We heard the Vermiculated Screech Owl, and Mottled Owl, but could not see either of them. The Red-eyed Tree Frogs were great, and we found no snakes 🙂 What we did find was a Kinkajou, high in the canopy, taking as much interest in us as we were in him. Our guide, Elemer, first heard something moving high in the trees while we were looking at moths on the moth sheet near the edge of the forest on our way to the Tower and frog pond but could not see it. Then as we walked through the rainforest up to the tower in the dark, he must have heard it overhead (Elmer hears everything), and we got our lights on it. It had apparently heard us and come over to check us out. With the lights on it for focus, I popped up my flash and tried a few shots, which came out surprisingly well considering it was totally dark under the canopy. The eyes, of course, reflected back the flash. This is a collage of two shots…not two Kinkajous 🙂
The Kinkajou is a member of the same family as Raccoons and Cotis. It is not scarce within Central and South America, but is rarely seen as it is strictly nocturnal. There is evidently a trade in Kinkajous as pets (though why anyone would want a nocturnal animal as a pet is question I can’t answer) and for meat and leather (they evidently make wallets and saddles out of it). Honduras, in particular, strictly regulates any trade in Kinkajous.
Sony RX10iii at about 330mm equivalent field of view. Flash at ISO 3200. Processed in Lightroom (including red-eye removal).
Calico Pennant Posing
Calico Pennant, Day Brook Pond, Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, W. Kennebunk Maine
There are still lots of Calico Pennants emerging every day at Day Brook Pond on the Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, though they must disperse widely, since I only ever see a few adult males at the pond at any given time. This beautiful specimen landed right at my feet, on a stalk a foot tall, so I only had to bend over a bit for this shot. They really should have named this dragon the Valentines Pennant.
Sony RX10iii at 840mm equivalent field of view (600mm plus in-camera crop to 10mp). 1/640th @ ISO 100 @ f4. Processed in Lightroom.