Posts in Category: Maine
Three in a row.
Three Cedar Waxwings at Roger’s Pond Park in Kennebunk Maine, USA, on a cold February morning. They are slightly puffed against the weather. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Eastern Bluebird
Though the birds were mostly on the other side of the river at Roger’s Pond Park the other day, this winter plumaged female Eastern Bluebird settled on a branch right in front of me and posed long enough for a few shots. It won’t be long now before the blues begin to pop out more on this bird, though it will never be as bright as the male. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. Kennebunk, Maine, USA.
Mixed flock at Roger’s Pond
I went to Roger’s Pond Park in near my home in Kennebunk, Maine, USA again yesterday morning early to look for the semi-resident pair of Bald Eagles. They were not at home. There were, however, a good sampling of smaller birds feeding in a stand of berries across the river from the park. The birds were mostly pretty far for anything but record shots, and were mostly buried in the berry tangle, but still. We have here clockwise from the upper left: American Robin and Cedar Waxwing, Belted Kingfisher (not, of course, feeding in the berries but in the trees right behind the berry stand), Northern Cardinal, Catbird (very early for Maine), Eastern Bluebird, and a poor shot what looks to me to be a Hermit Thrush…all but impossibly early in southern Maine in February. In addition to these there were also several ducks on the river, including Mallard, Common Merganser, and Golden-eye. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos, and assembled in FrameMagic.
Bald Eagle at Roger’s Pond
I am always excited to see the Bald Eagles return to the Roger’s Pond Park on the Mousam River in winter. They are, of course, around all year, but they are most easily seen during the colder months when they tend to hunt the slack water below the rapids at the Park. Their favorite perch is just beyond the comfortable range of my 600mm lens, so I am often using Clear Image Zoom on the Sony Rx10iv to fill more of the frame with the bird. Sony Rx10iv at 1200mm equivalent (2x Clear Image Zoom). Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. Bald Eagles, by the way, are among the most challenging birds when it comes to exposure. You want good detail in the dark feathers, but you do not want to overexpose the head and loose all detail in the white features. Very often you have adjust both shadows and highlights in post processing. All part of the fun!
Cedar Waxwings among the frozen cherries (Bonus pic for today)
Suitable for framing! (or to make a 1000 piece puzzle 🙂 Three Cedar Waxwings among the frozen berries of an ornamental Cherry tree at Roger’s Pond Park in Kennebunk, Maine. Sony Rx10iv at 365mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Cedar Waxwing
Cedar Waxwing, Kennebunk, Maine, USA. A whole flock of Cedar Waxwings was working the ornamental Cherry Tree at Roger’s Pond Park in Kennebunk when I visited, looking for Eagles, just after noon yesterday. Though others found Eagles (I have seen the photos on Facebook) I did not…but the Waxwings were hard to miss. They were in and out of the cherry tree, very busy with the frozen fruit. I was able to work my way pretty close, and though they flew off to the the big Maples over the river, they quickly returned to their feast. Beautiful birds in a beautiful setting. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr. There is a poem.
A flock of twenty-seven Cedar
Waxwings work the frozen
berries of the ornamental
cherry tree at Roger’s Pond Park
just after noon today. Freezing
rain over night left each berry
encased in a shell of ice…
but the birds are avid, sometimes
fifteen in the tree at once,
picking the berries out of the
shells and popping them whole.
Perhaps, like Eiswein grapes,
the freeze concentrates the
sugars and makes the sour cherries
easier on Cedar Waxwing pallets…
or somehow more nutritious…
or maybe they are just on to
something we humans know
nothing about. I am almost tempted
to try a frozen cherry myself,
(though I know they are only
ornamental) to see what the
Cedar Waxwing fuss is all about.
Leps in the Blazing Star
I mentioned how impressed I was with the numbers of insects using the endangered Northern Blazing Star boom on the Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area here in southern Maine this week. Here are 4 leps (to add to the White-lined Sphinx Moth posted earlier). Painted Lady, Common Wood-nymph, Monarch, and what I think is a Wandering Gem moth. Something very Gem like anyway. The moth was tiny…it just covered the tip of my finger. Sony RX10iv at 600 and 1200mm equivalent (1200 at 2X Clear Image Zoom). Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and assembled in Framemagic.
White-lined Sphinx Moth
My friend Stef and I took a loop out through the Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area yesterday to take in, among other things, the last of the Northern Blazing Star bloom. Blazing Star is endangered in Maine and the Plains are one of its last strongholds. I was reminded just how important a resource it is. Besides flocks of busy Goldfinches and Pine Warblers, the Blazing Star along Day Brook Pond was full of insects…butterflies and moths and bees and flies. When I first saw this White-lined Sphinx Moth I took it for one of the Clearwings. I have seen both Snowberry and Hummingbird Clearwings working the Blazing Star in the past. A closer look showed that despite similar size and behavior, this was a different moth. No transparent wings. I had to look it up when I got home. The White-lined Sphinx, like many Hawk moths, is mostly nocturnal, and mostly seen early and late, during dawn and dusk, so I can be forgiven for assuming it was a Clearwing. If I remember correctly, my only other sighting was years ago by artificial light on our back deck, feeding on the potted plants we keep there, when I, like many others, called it a Hummingbird Moth because of its size and behavior. (That name actually belongs to the Clearwing.) The White-lined Sphinx Moth occupies a huge range, all of North America and parts of Central America, and there are apparently known populations in Europe, Asia, and Africa. This one was very cooperative, working the same patch of Blazing Star for 15 minutes or more, and coming in close enough for lots of photos, before zooming off in search of a new patch of flowers. Sony RX10iv at 1200mm equivalent (2x Clear Image Zoom). Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr.
Cedar Waxwing
We interrupt this parade of Peruvian birds to bring you an update from closer to home. I rode my ebike out to the Kennebunk Plains yesterday to check on this year’s bloom of Northern Blazing Star and found a small flock of Cedar Waxwings hunting dragonflies over Day Brook Pond. Cedar Waxwings tend to pose nicely and these were no exception. Sony RX10iv at 1200mm equivalent (600mm optical plus 2X Clear Image Zoom). Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr. The Blazing Star was indeed in full bloom. More on that in another post.
Coral Hairstreak and Wood Lily revisited
I posted another in this sequence of images the other day. I was delighted to watch this Coral Hairstreak working a Wood Lily on the Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area here in Southern Maine. As this panel shows, and I tried to describe in the previous post, the butterfly worked its way across the flower and then back again as I watched. Sony RX10iv at 600mm optical equivalent, plus enough Clear Image Zoom to fill the frame. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and assembled in Framemagic.