Posts in Category: action
Odd Couple. Blue Bird and Goldfinch
Blue Bird and American Goldfinch, Roger’s Pond, Kennebunk Maine
Another from my birdy morning at Roger’s Pond. Though they were just a bit too far apart to focus on both, this Eastern Blue Bird and winter American Goldfinch were certainly sitting close together. You do not often see this…especially with two different species, especially not with song birds. Winter makes for strange bed-fellows…or at least companions. 🙂
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 160 @ f6.5. Processed and cropped slightly for composition in Lightroom.
Robin in Red Berries
American Robin, Roger’s Pond, Kennebunk Maine.
The other day I had a very birdy day at Roger’s Pond while looking for Eagles. This fruiting tree near the picnic shelter is a favorite with Robins all winter. I have seen Blue Birds, Goldfinches, and Cardinals in it too. This handsome Robin sat still while I approached to closest focus distance on the Nikon P900 (16.5 feet). I like the way it is nested among the berries.
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 180 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.
Blue Bird in Red Berries
Eastern Bluebird, Roger’s Pond, Kennebunk Maine
After several days of spitting snow clouds and cold rain, we had a cold, sunny day yesterday. I suited up and went out in the morning, to Roger’s Pond, to see if I could catch an Eagle. No such thing. However, as I walked around the pond looking for consolation prizes, I spotted some small birds flitting through the trees up by the picnic shelter. Blue birds. Actually Blue Birds! As it turned out, a small flock of Eastern Blue Birds were working their way through the park and up-stream. I eventually tracked them to this bush, at the very edge of the park, where this specimen sat for his portrait. The blue is never bluer than when contrasted with red. Not my closest shot…I cropped it a bit for scale, but certainly one of my most attractive. I like the pose too. 🙂
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 110 @ f6.5. Processed and cropped slightly in Lightroom.
Did I say “consolation prize”? This shot, even if I had found and Eagle, would still have taken the blue ribbon for the day! 🙂
Flyfishing in the snow…
Mousam River at Roger’s Pond, Kennebunk Maine
When I got to Roger’s Pond, in search of the elusive Kennebunk Eagles (elusive at least this year so far), this fisherman was just getting out of his car, and beginning to suit up. From the look of his gear, I suspect it was all brand new…Christmas presents even…and from the look of him when he got into the water, I suspect he is freshly outfitted for a new hobby. Then too, the river was unusually high with a flood tide…as high as I have ever seen it at Roger’s Pond which is generally a third of a mile above the tidal effect…and I have serious doubts as to the mood of the fish on this particular morning. And then, of course, it was snowing. Not that a little thing like snow stops the flyfishers on the Mousam.
Sony HX90V in Superior Auto. 62mm equivalent field of view. 1/80th @ ISO 80 @ f4.5. Processed in Lightroom.
Mockingbird among winter berries
Northern Mockingbird, Laudholm Farms, Wells Maine
On my last photoprowl down to Laudholm Farms (Wells National Estuarine Research Center at), there was not much bird live in evidence. I was there mostly for the snowy fields and woods, but I was happy to see the few Blue Jays when they made an appearance. Then there was this mocker. Unlike the Blue Jays, the Mockingbird sat long enough and close enough for a portrait. It seemed to be soaking up the last of the late afternoon warmth from the sun, ensconced among the red berries of the winter day.
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 220 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.
First bird of 2016: Pileated Woodpecker
Pileated Woodpecker, Roger’s Pond, Kennebunk Maine
On the first day of 2016 I went to look for the Kennebunk eagles at Roger’s Pond. No show. But while I was there I saw a largish bird fly low and into a dead tree just where the creek joins the river, at the turn of the loop around the pond. A while later I heard a knock. Knock! Pileated Woodpecker! This is only my third photo op in Maine, and I have not seen them much more often than that either. They are around…even around my house…and I hear them occasionally, but a good sighting is rare. Rare enough to make this an auspicious first bird for 2016!
This image is not what you might think at first glance. I used Coolage to assemble two images of the same bird, at different points as it circled the trunk, into a single image. Since Coolage blends edges and the trunk is an ideal object for a blend, it certainly looks like two Pileateds. It is not, trust me. I just wanted to give you two views of the bird. 🙂 And it does make a striking image. Or that is what I think.
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/250th @ ISO 400 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom and assembled in Coolage.
Red in his element… Happy New Year!
Red Squirrel, Wells National Estuarine Research Center at Laudholm Farms, Wells Maine
When it got up to 40 degrees early yesterday afternoon, I thought, “now or never.” You could almost watch the snow cover disappearing under the December sun. I needed to get out further than I had been, and find some snowy fields and forest while it lasted (oh, we will get more, but every boy must play in the first snow of the year 🙂 I decided on Laudholm Farms (Wells National Estuarine Research Center). When snow is on the ground you have to think about where parking will be plowed. Laudholm is always safe, and Rachel Carson NWR headquarters, but I wanted the open fields of Laudholm…and of course Laudholm has forest and marsh too.
I got my fields and entered the forest going the wrong way on the boardwalk through the wet maple swamp. I heard a skittering off to my left and looked up to see this Red Squirrel in a pile of limbs from a downed tree. I have posted a few shots of the Red Squirrel that has been visiting our deck and feeders over the past few weeks…but here was Red in his element…snowy forest…tangle of limbs…scampering free. It looks to me as though he had dug up a tightly rolled fern with a core of snow. ?? He was, over the next few moments, intent of pulling it apart for some nutrient inside. A Red Squirrel on the deck under the feeders is cute (if you can ignore their destructive side), but a Red Squirrel where it belongs, deep in the forest, doing its thing…that is beautiful.
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 400 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.
And may you, this coming year…find rolled up ferns full of nutrient on even the snowiest days…and my you be as beautiful and as vital as a Red Squirrel in his element each and every day. Okay, so if you have to, you can be cute a few days too! Happy New Year!
Kennebunk Eagle in the Snow
Bald Eagle, Roger’s Pond, Kennebunk ME
There are at least 2 Bald Eagles on the lower Mousam River this winter, ranging both north and south of Kennebunk. Once the river freezes they like to sit right at Roger’s Pond (picnic area and fishing access) where the rapids below the dam along Route One keep the river open. They fish the edge of the ice. With the unseasonably warm weather, there is no ice at all in the river, but I have heard from the dog walkers at Roger’s Pond that the Eagles are there off an on. I just have not managed to be there at the right time. Until yesterday! We had intermittent light flurries all day yesterday and it was snowing when I got to the pond. I almost missed the Eagle. I was most of the way around the pond before I saw it, half buried in one of the tall pines on the far side of the river. I had to walk back upstream further than I would have liked to find an open line of sight for some photos. Not the best light, and the camera focused on the snowflakes a few times, but here it is: Kennebunk Eagle in the Snow.
Nikon P900 at 2800mm equivalent field of view (with some Perfect Image digital zoom). 1/500th @ ISO 400 @ f6.5. Processed and cropped slightly for composition in Lightroom.
Wet and Red
Red Squirrel, The Yard, Kennebunk ME
The Red Squirrel was back yesterday. He always seems to come on rainy, or at least overcast, days. He did figure out how to climb on to the feeder…not a good development as far as I am concerned. I could not grudge him the few seeds anyway, at least not yesterday, in the rain, when he looked so sad and miserable…ears flattened and beads of water in his fur. He may have been having some issues at other feeders too, since he was a lot less bold yesterday. He scampered off right quick when I opened the deck door. Or maybe he just knew that I feel differently about squirrels right on the feeder, than I do about squirrels on the deck. 🙂
Nikon P610 at 1440mm equivalent field of view. (Again, I had to run for the P610, as the squirrel was too close for the P900.) 1/100th @ ISO 400 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.
Mocking December. Happy Sunday!
Mockingbird, Wells National Estuarine Research Center at Laudholm Farms, Wells Maine
“If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light!” Jesus
The warm December in Maine (and the whole east coast) continues…setting all kinds of temperature records. If all the rain we are getting was falling as snow, we would already have huge snow-plow piles in every drive…but as it is, the fields are still bare, and the forests are still skeletal. Worse yet, the birches are already red at the tips.
I spent a few hours at the Wells National Estuarine Research Center at Laudholm Farms yesterday, walking the trails to see what I could find. Not much was moving. In that, and nothing else, it was a typical December day. I did come on this lonely Northern Mockingbird and a few Blue Jays, and of course there were gulls on the dunes on the back side of the beach (the front side too, I am sure, but I did not get that far).
We were talking about all this, the unseasonable warmth etc., at dinner, and one of my daughters said, “yes, our earth is certainly deteriorating.” I replied, “Our earth is certainly changing…there is lots of evidence of that…but there is no evidence that it is deteriorating.” I am not one of those “climate change deniers” but I am also not convinced we fully understand what we are observing. Of course I do see that part of what is going on is very likely tied to our dependence on fossil fuels and our sheer numbers on the planet…but the earth is a living thing…incredibly complex…and with its own immune system and sources of healing. I think we know way too little to say that the earth is deteriorating…that it is sick. Changing, yes. Sick, maybe. Able to heal itself, undoubtedly. And we, of course, will be part of that healing. If we are part of problem, we are also part of the immune system. Hopefully the intelligent part…the creative part…the problem solving part. The part that embodies the creative love that created the earth and the universe, and that sustains it now.
And, of course, all the long range forecasts predict another abnormally cold and snowy winter for Maine this year. A month from now, things at Laudholm Farms might look totally different.
The generous eye sees hope, because hope is in the light that fills us. Like the Mockingbird on an unseasonably warm December day, we may be confused by the weather, but that dose not mean we are not storing up songs for the spring.