Posts in Category: Maine
Groundnut
Groundnut or Potato Bean (Apios americana): Emmon’s Preserve, Kennebunkport, Maine, USA — This is a new plant for me, at 74 years of age, so either I have not gotten out enough (not true), or there are still things for me to discover even at my age. It is not a particularly rare plant either…just one that I have not come across. It is a vine and produces, as you might guess from the common names (and “Indian Potato” is another, if less culturally sensitive, common name for Apios americana) both edible beans and a large edible tuber. It is native to North American, and historically it was a stable of Indigenous American diets from New England to Florida and west to the Rockies. It is currently cultivated and an important food source in certain regions of Japan, and its medicinal and nutritional benefits have been extensively researched and promoted there. There is an comprehensive and well referenced wikipedia article on the plant if you want more info…but suffice it to say that it is generally recognized to very good for you, better than a potato in many unique curative ways 🙂 It is not cultivated outside Japan largely because it takes two years for the tuber to develop…which means you can get two crops of potatoes for every one crop of groundnuts. The flowers are quite striking…one theory is that it was introduced to Japan as an ornamental. The plants I saw at Emmon’s Preserve appear to be growing wild, on either side of a busy trail at the edge of a big meadow. I have walked that trail hundreds of times, but only saw the plants last week, probably because they were in flower. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. ISO 800 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Wood Nympth on Blazing Star
Wood Nympth on Northern Blazing Star, Kennebunk Plains Preserve, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — By far the most numerous butterfly on the Kennebunk Plains during August and Northern Blazing Star season is the Wood Nympth…but then the Wood Nympth is probably the most numerous butterfly in southern Maine all summer. They come out early in spring and are present well into fall, and always in good numbers. This year, as in most creatures in southern Maine, seems to be bumper year. There were hundreds of them in the Blazing Star. They are not the most attractive of butterflies, but it appears to be working for them. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
All business bee with Blazing Star!
I seem to be photographing a lot of bees this month, both around home, and during our visit to New Mexico. Maybe August is the month of the bee? There are certainly a lot of bees in the Blazing Star boom on the Kennebunk Plains. Mostly Bumble Bees like this one…which is, I am thinking, the Common Eastern Bumble Bee (though there are several others it might be). This shot catches the business end of the bee…ready to prob deeply into the Blazing Star for pollen, and you can see by the pollen sacks on the legs that this bee has already been busy. Bumble Bees to occasionally sting (mostly when trapped or squashed), and I certainly would not want to be on the receiving end of that stinger. This is a shot from the Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Cropped and processed as usual in Polarr and then opened in Pixelmator Pro for enlargement using the Machine Learning Maximum Resolution tool, and recropped to fill the frame, for what amounts to a super-telephoto macro. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/640th.
Blazing Star Display
Northern Blazing Star, Kennebunk Plains, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — This one of the denser stands of Northern Blazing Star on the Kennebunk Plains this year. Blazing Star is a fire dependent plant of glacial sand plains and is very restricted by just how little of that habitat remains undeveloped, both in Maine and all across the northern states to the Rocky Mountains. We are blessed that the Kennebunk Plains were kept open, first for wild blueberry production, and then as a Nature Conservancy Preserve, and that it is managed, in part, for fire dependent species like the Blazing Star. Stands like this one are getting harder and harder to find. Having it, basically, in my backyard (a short trike ride away) is very special. I used moderate telephoto, 107mm equivalent, on Nikon B700 to compass the image slight to show the stand to best effect. Program mode. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4.5 @ 1/1000th.
Goldenrod and Blazing Star
Goldenrod and Northern Blazing Star: Kennebunk Plains Preserve, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — Now that the heat wave has broken and the air quality is rising here in Southern Maine, I was able to get out to the Kennebunk Plains on my trike to see how this year’s crop of Northern Blazing Star is coming on. As I suspect from early blooms, it is a good year for Blazing Star. From Rt. 99 as you drive by, large sections of the Plains look purple with the flowers standing above the grasses. If you walk out any of the roads (all roads on the Plains are now closed to vehicle traffic, except the short section that gives access to the parking on the south side of Rt. 99) you will find that the stands are mostly not as dense as they look form Rt. 99. They never are, but they are impressive enough as it is. Goldenrod is also in full bloom, and the combination, where they grow together, provides a very striking contrast in color and form. Frame the pair from a low angle against the August sky and you have an image worth remembering 🙂 Nikon B700 at 71mm equivalent with macro engaged. ISO 100 @ f4.5 @ 1/1000th. -.3 EV exposure compensation. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Clouded Sulphur in Blazing Star
Clouded Sulphur: Kennebunk Plains Preserve, Maine, USA — Monarchs are not the only butterflies to be happy to see the Northern Blazing Star in bloom. While there were not as many Clouded Sulphurs as Monarchs, there were still good numbers, and the numbers will increase as the full bloom comes on. Nikon B700 at 1440mm equivalent. Program mode. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Juvenile Northern Mockingbird
Northern Mockingbird: Kennebunk Plains Preserve, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — This juvenile Northern Mockingbird had me going for a few moments. In the excitement of first seeing it and getting off a set of record shots while it was still partially obscured by foliage, I tried to make it into all kinds of other species…with that (abnormally?) long tail and speckled breast…but then it hopped up onto a more exposed branch and I had to settle for a young Mockingbird…especially as I have seen the adults in the area all summer. It was hyperactive and gave me all sorts of poses in the few moments before it moved on. Nikon B700 at 1440mm equivalent. Program mode. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
More Monarchs in Blazing Star
Monarch Butterfly: Kennebunk Plains Preserve, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — More of the Monarchs among the early Northern Blazing Star on the Kennebunk Plains. A study in color contrasts. Nikon B700 at 1440mm equivalent. Program mode. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Monarch among the Blazing Star
Monarch Butterfly on Northern Blazing Star: Kennebunk Plains Preserve, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — The first early blooms of Northern Blazing Star are just opening right now. It looks like a very good year for Blazing Star on the Kennebunk Plains as there dense stands of plants about to bloom over wide areas of the plains. Already the insects are gathering. I saw more Monarchs than I have seen in several years yesterday, even in my short hike through one section, as well as a couple of Cloudy Sulphurs and Wood Nymphs, hundreds of Bumble Bees and wasps, and some very large and very loud hornet like things. The Monarchs, in particular, are beautiful feeding on the Blazing Star. For those who don’t know, Blazing Star is a threatened and protected species across most of its historical range, and here in Maine. The Kennebunk Plains are managed, in part, for Blazing Star. I leave on Monday for a week in New Mexico and I hope the full bloom is still going on when I return. Blazing Star and the insects it attracts in August always make for one of my favorites times of year on the Plains. Nikon B700 at 610mm equivalent. Program mode. Spot focus. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Turkey in the hay (field)
Wild Turkey: Near Emmon’s Preserve, Kennebunkport, Maine, USA — I detailed this experience in yesterday’s Day Poem, but essentially I stoped on my eTadpole recumbent trike to look at a dragonfly in a ditch and there were two turkeys sheltering in the tall grass and flowers on the far side. This one poked its head up to see what I was up to and I managed a few shots (once I got my camera untangled from the bag where rides between my legs on the trike). There were not completely open lines-of-sight as the hay was just about as tall as the turkey, but it is at least an evocative shot. It was a very hot day for southern Maine and the Turkeys were struggling with the heat. Nikon B700 at 1400mm equivalent. Program mode. -/3 EV. Spot focus. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.