Posts in Category: action
Carolina Wren Twice
Carolina Wren. Cape May Point Lighthouse State Park, NJ
I heard several Carolina Wrens singing on the trails at Cape May Point Lighthouse State Park, but they remained tucked well back in brush and totally invisible. It was on my last morning there, in less than ideal light, when one finally popped out where I could see it…and get a few shots. This is a collage of two shots of the same wren, as it flitted actively around this perch. Carolina Wren only vary rarely makes it up as far as Maine, so I am always happy to see one on my travels. It is certainly one of the more robust wrens…with a song to match. 🙂
Nikon P610 at 1440mm equivalent field of view. 1/250th @ ISO 320 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom and assembled in Coolage.
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Ruby-crowned Kinglet. Cape May Point Lighthouse State Park, Cape May NJ
My last morning in Cape May for the Cape May Autumn Bird Festival was overcast and on the dull, chill side…but there were several cooperative birds, including this Ruby-crowned Kinglet…one of a small flock of Kinglets that was feeding along the trail behind the Hawk Watch Pond. I am always pleased to get a photo of this tiny, hyper-active bird, and especially pleased to get one with any of the ruby crown showing. 🙂
Nikon P610 at 1440mm equivalent field of view. 1/200th @ ISO 400 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.
Sharpy!
Sharp-shinned Hawk, Higbee Beach Wildlife Management Area, Cape May, New Jersey
I spent a few hours at Higbee Beach Wildlife Management Area in Cape May, New Jersey, on Saturday morning. Some good birds and some good photo ops. Probably the best were the two cooperative Sharp-shinned Hawks. One flew within a foot of my head as it chased sparrows through a hedge row and across the path where I was standing to photograph a female cardinal at close range. It perched in a tree above me…partially obscured by twigs, but close. An hour later, just as I was on my way back to the car, this Sharpy flew in from behind me and settled in much better view, if a bit further away. I pushed the Nikon P610 out to 2600mm equivalent using Perfect Image digital zoom for this close portrait. You can see that the Sharpy was totally aware that I was there. 🙂
Nikon P610 as above. 1/400th @ ISO 100 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom. Below is a full body view shot at 1440mm equivalent (full optical zoom) and cropped slightly for scale.
full body view.
Swamp Sparrow Beauty. Happy Sunday!
Swamp Sparrow. Higbee Beach, Cape May NJ
“If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light…” Jesus
This is a very early post as we have Sunday morning plans. We are New Jersey, Cape May, for the Fall Birding Festival, and on Sunday morning we are at Uncle Bill’s Pancake House on Beach Avenue when it opens at 6:30, and then do a lap at the Meadows before the show opens at 10. If you have done the autumn thing in Cape May, you know exactly what I mean. Pancakes and birds! That is already enough to make this a good Sunday…with at least two forms of worship. 🙂
But seriously, take a look at this sparrow. I nominate the Swamp Sparrow, despite its muddy name, as the most beautiful sparrow in North America. I love the rusty tones and the sharply contrasting pure grays, the black accents, and the highly patterned nature of this little creature. Those who lump all sparrows into “little brown jobs” are missing the subtle beauty of the family. I posted a panel of “how we normally see Swamp Sparrow” yesterday…4 shots buried deep in reeds and brush, with only bits of sparrow showing…but every once in a while even a skulker like the Swamp has to get up and sit up and be counted in the early morning sun, as it did here at Higbee Beach Wildlife Management Area yesterday early. Then you see the sparrow for what it is…and it is an eyeful…a generous eyeful!
Now, what Jesus said about the generous eye was not a conditional statement, though it is often taken that way. It is a declarative statement. It is not “if” your eye is generous, “then” your whole being “will be” filled with light. It is “if you eye is generous, your whole being is full of light.” In such a statement the two phrases do not depend on each other…each phrase is simply testimony to the truth of the other. Fact. Those who are full of light have generous eyes. Fact. Those who have generous eyes are full of light. I point this out on behalf of the sparrow. There are those who can see the beauty of the Swamp Sparrow…many such…and those are the folks who are full of light…those are the folks with generous eyes. You want to get to know them…in fact…if you are a person of generous eye, you already know them as such, pretty much instantly, on meeting. There are a lot of generous eyed birders! Which is why a birding festival is so much fun for me. They don’t all know they are filled with light…but even so they are…and it is such fun to watch them watching the birds they love. Even the Swamp Sparrows. Especially the Swamp Sparrows. Happy Sunday!
Yet another Yellow-rump!
Yellow-rumped Warbler against Black-gum leaves. Cape May Point, NJ
As I have mentioned, there is a super-abundance of Yellow-rumped Warblers in Cape May New Jersey these past few days. I get so I don’t even raise the camera for a Yellow-rump unless it is perched in a irresistible setting. Here the fall warbler is set off against the turning leaves of a Black-gum tree. That is special enough for yet another Yellow-rump portrait. 🙂
Nikon P610 at 1440mm equivalent. 1/160th @ ISO 400 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.
Cape May Warbler (not!)
Yellow-rumped Warbler. Lighthouse State Park, Cape May, New Jersey
If you know your birds, you know that this is NOT a Cape May Warbler. It is a Yellow-rumped Warbler, but I am in Cape May, New Jersey for the Cape May Autumn Bird Festival (formerly Cape May Autumn Weekend) and, as in most years, 70 out of every 100 migrant warblers you see here at the end of October are Yellow-rumped. Yesterday it was more like 99 out of 100, or, to be more precise, 499 out of the 500 or so warblers I saw. (The hold out was a female Common Yellow-throat.) You could easily be forgiving for assuming that the Yellow-rumped Warbler should be called the Cape May Warbler…at least for this weekend. 🙂
I like the lighting on this shot…subtly backlit. If you can view it large enough you will see every pin-feather on the bird’s breast. Nikon P610 at 1440mm equivalent field of view from about 8 feet. 1/400th @ ISO 100 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.
Hairy Autumn
Hairy Woodpecker, The Yard, Kennebunk ME
I am on my way to Cape May New Jersey today for the Cape May Autumn Bird Festival, so this is an early post. I tend to avoid feeder shots, but sometimes I just can not resist. This Hairy Woodpecker posed on the feeder pole against the afternoon light on the Maple leaves just once too often, and I had to do it. 🙂
Nikon P610 at 1440mm equivalent field of view. 1/200th @ ISO 400 @ f6.5. Processed in Topaz Denoise and Lightroom.
Hermit Thrush
Hermit Thrush, Laudholm Farm, Wells ME
Sometimes it is nice to have multiple views of a bird. This Hermit Thrush, which we walked up on along the Maple Swamp boardwalk at Laudholm Farm (Wells National Estuarine Research Center), was fairly busy in the bush, and gave us front, back, and center views over the few seconds it took to take a series of photos. Then it was away, across the boardwalk and into deeper brush under the trees. This collage shows off all the recognition triggers for the species. The general Robin-like fat oval thrush shape and distinctive beak shape, the speckled upper breast, and the “tells” for this species…the rusty tail and wing tips and the fairly bold eye-ring. The mid-afternoon October light was great.
Nikon P610 at 1440mm equivalent field of view. 1/160th @ ISO 400 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom and assembled in Coolage.
Full Stretch!
Great Blue Heron, Back Creek Marsh, Kennebunk ME
I went to Rachel Carson NWR headquarters yesterday afternoon, after the rains passed, but while there was still drama in the sky. It was lovely. The fall foliage is just about at peak, and the colors as patches of sun crossed the forest and marsh, were warm and inviting. On the way back I stopped at our local semi-private beach, and Back Creek Marsh which is behind the dunes. When I parked, there were two Great Blue Herons hunting the marsh…one on either side of the access road…one backlit and one full-lit by the low afternoon sun. I took a bunch of pictures and then a young friend walked up and we got talking. When I turned, by chance, to Heron on the sunny side of the road, it had worked its way much closer and I shot off another series of exposures. I had the camera to my eye when the Heron decided to raise its wings…and then to strike this pose. I am not sure what it was doing. It would be impossible to strike from this position, and the wings are not shading the water for better vision through the surface, as they would be if this were a Reddish Egret umbrella fishing for instance. The Heron held the pose for several seconds and then relaxed. Who knows?
Nikon P610 at 1440mm equivalent field of view. 1/400th @ ISO 100 @ f6.5. Processed and cropped slightly for composition in Lightroom.
Young and restless…
Immature Cedar Waxwing. Wells National Estuarine Research Center at Laudholm Farms, Wells ME
I mentioned yesterday that migration is happening right now in Southern Maine. Among the birds moving yesterday when I visited the Wells National Estuarine Research Center at Laudholm Farms in Wells Maine was a flock of immature Cedar Waxwings…no adults…only this year’s juveniles. They were all around me at one point…buried in the bushes and sitting out on higher branches of the trees. This specimen was showing off his new crest…I am not sure why. It gives him a young-and-restless look, which, translated to behavior, pretty much defined the flock. First migration, and none of them sure of what they were doing or where they were going…just responding to the irresistible urge to be moving…a restless urge to head south.
Nikon P610 at 1325mm equivalent. 1/250th @ ISO 100 @ f6.3. Processed in Lightroom. Not an easy shot with the bird tucked back so deeply in the bush. I am always amazed when the Nikon P series pulls something like this off. 🙂