Posts in Category: Maine
One good tern deserves another :)
Common Tern, Mousam River, Kennebunk Maine
Another Common Tern in flight shot from my recent session at the mouth of the Mousam River here in Kennebunk Maine. This one was taken at the full 600mm equivalent of the Sony RX10iii, and then cropped for scale. Just keeping a tern in the frame at 600mm is a trick in itself. 🙂
As above. Exposure 1/1000th @ ISO 100 @ f4. Processed in Lightroom.
Teneral Dragon
Teneral Meadowhawk? Day Brook Pond, Kennebunk Wildlife Management Area, W. Kennbunk Maine
Sometimes a Dragonfly is just too freshly emerged to id…which, at least at my level of experience, is the case here. I think it is one of the Meadowhawks, but it was on its maiden flight and I just can’t be sure which one, or even that it is a meadowhawk. It was very patient with me as I worked my way closer and fiddled with the Program Shift for this macro. I hope it woke up and moved on before the hunting Cedar Waxwings found it. 🙂
Sony RX10iii at 1200mm equivalent field of view (2x Clear Image Zoom). Program shift for greater depth of field. f9 @ 1/60th @ ISO 100. I could not really stop down any more, as there was some wind, and the position was awkward to hold the camera steady. Processed in Lightroom.
Curiosity, thy name is Cedar Waxwing :)
Cedar Waxwing, Day Brook Pond, Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, W. Kennebunk Maine
Curiosity, thy name is Cedar Waxwing (to paraphrase (or misquote) Shakespeare), but honestly, I can think of few birds that look as continuously curious as the Cedar Waxwing. It might be the hairdo, or the angle of black mask, but Cedar Waxwings always seem intently interested in whatever has their attention. This one was hunting teneral dragon and damselflies along the shore of Day Brook Pond on the Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area near our home in Kennebunk Maine. Freshly emerged odonata seem to make up a good portion of a Cedar Waxwing’s diet, at least this time of year.
Though you have to enlarge the image to see it, this shot has an impressive amount of feather detail. The superfine feathers of Cedar Waxwings make a really good test of a camera’s resolution. Sony RX10iii at 600mm equivalent field of view. 1/250th @ ISO 125 @ f4. Processed and cropped slightly for scale and composition in Lightroom.
Northern Blazing Star
Northern Blazing Star, Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, W. Kennebunk Maine.
It is an amazing show when the Northern Blazing Star are in full bloom on the Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area…as they will be in a few weeks…but this early, when there are only a few plants in bloom, I generally take better, closer, looks at this beautiful flower. And, of course, not so much a flower as a cluster of tiny flowers making up a thistle like head. In this shot you can appreciate the beauty of the individual flowers.
Sony RX10iii at 600mm equivalent field of view. 1/640th @ ISO 100 @ f4. Processed and cropped slightly for composition in Lightroom.
Bee Fly on Blazing Star. Happy Sunday!
Bee Fly on Northern Blazing Star, Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, W. Kennebunk Maine
“If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light!” Jesus
I am rapidly approaching 69 years old (next month) so I am always surprised and delighted to discover something in the world right at my doorstep that I have never seen before. Seen is a tricky word. I suspect that I have seen Bee Flies before now…but I certainly never looked at them. I did not know they existed. If fact, when I bent down to take a photo of this very early Northern Blazing Star, in flower on the Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area yesterday, I though I was looking at a bee. It is furry like a bee. It has superficially bee-like wings. It was behaving like a bee…but I knew it was no bee I had ever seen before. I had certainly never seen a bee that color or with that long a proboscis. A little googling (small hairy bee with long proboscis) brought up the Bee Fly family. Ah…not a bee at all. A bee mimic. And a bee parasite. (The female lays her eggs at the mouth of the hive of ground nesting bees, and the fly larva attack the larva of the bees.) There are many species of Bee Flys in North America (over 4500 world-wide)…all I can say for certain is that this is NOT the most common of them: the Greater or Large Bee Fly, which is sometimes called the Dark Edged Bee Fly because the wings are dark edged and patterned like those of a hummingbird moth.
I was also surprised, by the way, at the number of Northern Blazing Star plants in bloom already on the Plains. While it is far from the show I expect in two weeks (the normal timing of the bloom), our unusually hot July must have forced many plants into bloom early. The Blazing Star on the Kennebunk Plains is, as far as I am concerned, one of the highlights of the natural seasons here in southern Maine. It is endangered in most of North America, and the Kennebunk Plains is one of the few places it still grows in abundance. The Plains can be purple with it in mid-August.
So that was two surprises for yesterday…and one “the surprise of a lifetime” in that it was my first real look at Bee Fly.
And of course that is the thing about the generous eye…always open and ready to be surprised. Another translation of what Jesus said about eyes, from The Message Bible, is “‘If you live wide–eyed in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light.” 69 years on the planet, and I can still be surprised by the living nature around me…by God’s loving invention…I am still discovering new wonders. And each new wonder only confirms and strengthens my belief. This is good. And it is my hope for you, whatever your age, this Sunday!
Common Tern :)
Common Tern, Mousam River mouth, Kennebunk Maine
The Common Terns are having a meeting
at the mouth of the Mousam River,
where it runs into the sea. Some fishy
thing must be running because they are
active in large numbers along the coast
and up the river a quarter mile. They rest
along the sandbar where Back Creek meets
the Mousam, and are a constantly evolving
gyration of birds along the far shore, diving on
that fishy thing, and then coming back to the
sand bar to show off their catch. Watching
them puts any airshow you ever saw to shame.
Nothing can match the grace and ease of those
who’s lives depend on their prowess in the air.
And I tried to catch just a bit of that with my camera 🙂 Sony RX10iii in my slightly customized Sports Mode. 1/1000th @ f6.3 @ ISO 100. About 470mm equivalent. Cropped and processed in Lightroom.
Abstract of sun, shadow, tree bark…
Shadows on a tree trunk. Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge, Wells Maine
The green filtered light of shadows on a tree trunk at Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge Headquarters paints an abstract design. It is all about texture and light. Sometimes it is enough to just put a frame around it. 🙂
Sony RX10iii at 192mm equivalent field of view. In-camera HDR. Nominal exposure: ISO 1000 @ 1/200th @ f4. Processed in Lightroom.
American Copper Butterfly
American Copper Butterfly, Day Brook Pond, Kennebunk Wildlife Management Area, W. Kennebunk Maine
The American Copper is fairly abundant in Southern Maine, but it is small enough so it is often overlooked. This one was hard to miss. It was at eye-level in a tall stand of Meadowsweet and other brush right next to the parking area at Day Brook Pond on the Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area. It was working the flowers in the company of a few Coral Hairstreaks, which provided a nice contrast, and also drew the eye. In could not get the Copper to pose with its wings fully open, so this 3/4s view will have to do.
Sony RX10iii at 600mm equivalent field of view. 1/1000th @ ISO 100 @ f5.6. Processed and cropped slightly in Lightroom.
Shadow Darner?
Shadow Darner? Smith’s Preserve, Kennebunkport Maine
Here at the height of a unusually hot summer in Southern Maine, we have fewer dragonflies than I remember from last year. I went to Emmon’s Preserve in Kennebunkport yesterday in hopes of finding Mosaic Darners patrolling the meadows, but there were none at all. Lots of mosquitoes…probably, in part at least, because there were no dragons. The Mosaic Darners are among my favorite dragons. They big and generally boldly marked, and there is a certain elegance to their wasp wasted look and elaborate male appendages.
When I found little to photograph (and the sun very hot) in the open meadows at Emmon’s, I decided to drive the mile or so to Smith’s Preserve, where the trails are shaded by the forest. Parking is limited at Smith’s, and sometimes completely taken up by SUVs with bike racks, as the trails are very popular with mountain bikers. (SUVs with bike racks…that is a sad comment on our times.) I did find a place to park (the last one). It was quiet at Smith’s as well, though there was more bird song, and it was considerably cooler, and I did spot this Mosaic Darner patrolling a section of the trail. It hung up on a small pine along the side, and I was able to work my way close enough for a photo. I am thinking this is a Shadow Darner, but I could be wrong.
The light was not ideal in the deep shade, so this image is taken at ISO 1250. (1/250th @ f4 @ 541mm equivalent, zoomed back a bit to fit the full bug in). During processing in Lightroom, I ran it through the NIK Define 2 filter to eliminate some of the noise.
Hummer on the deck
Ruby-throated Hummingbird, the yard, Kennebunk Maine
After I got back from Honduras early this month, I went out and bought a hummingbird feeder, as a kind of antidote to hummingbird withdrawal. We have a few Ruby-throated Hummingbirds coming now, but this the first one who is making him/herself at home. It is most likely an immature female. It allowed me to work my way to about 6 feet from it, and then only took off because it was ready to go. Not the best light as the sun was behind a cloud, but still… There is a poem.
We have, maybe, a “resident” hummingbird
coming to our feeder, and resting on the
apple branches we bolted to the deck for
perches round the feeding station. It might
be a young bird…it has that look about it,
and it let me within six feet today…buzzing
up into the trees overhead not because I was
there, but just because it was ready to go.
It was back again a dozen times in the next
few hours, always perching near the top of
the apple branch, spending sixty seconds
at a time at the feeder, sipping up the red
nectar. Of course I have photos, which I
will share tomorrow. I feel privileged to
play host to such a special creature…Ruby-
throated, though its chin is yet bare…still
I could get lost in the iridescent beauty of
of its green back, in the intricate detail
of its breast and wing feathers. Lost, I say,
or found in beauty. What a way to go!
Sony RX10iii at 600mm equivalent field of view. 1/250th @ f4 @ ISO 250. Processed and cropped slightly in Lightroom.