Posts in Category: animals
Migration! (it happens)
Yellow-rumped Warbler, Day Brook Pond, Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, ME
I am soooo happy to have a superzoom camera back in my hands. I decided to buy a Nikon P610 as a back-up superzoom, and to tide me over while my P900 is in repair. Never again to I want to be in the position of canceling a major photo trip because my cameras are in the shop! And I certainly do not want to be anywhere photogenic and have my only camera break. Things happen.
Migration is happening right now in Maine. It seems late, but warblers, Blue Jays, and Cedar Waxwings are passing through in great numbers this week…along with assorted others. This specimen was along the shores of Day Brook Pond on the Kennebunk Wildlife Management Area…one of a small flock of warblers foraging in this pine.
Nikon P610 at 1440mm equivalent field of view. 1/400th @ ISO 100 @ f6.5. Processed and cropped slightly for scale in Lightroom.
Blue-green Cricket Hunter (?) Wasp
Blue-green Cricket Hunter Wasp? Laudholm Farms, Wells ME
I believe this amazing creature, only a little over a half inch long, might be a Blue-green Cricket Hunter Wasp. It could also be a Blue-green Mud Wasp. I have not been able to find any images via a Google search that have the white spot between the wings or the white section in the particularly long antenna. If it is not one of the species mentioned above, it is certainly a close relative. I found it while photographing Bittersweet at the Wells National Estuarine Research Center at Laudholm Farms a few days ago. This is a collage of three shots.
Sony Alpha NEX 5T with 16-50mm zoom @ 140mm equivalent field of view (2x Clear Image Zoom). Processed in Lightroom and assembled in Coolage.
Close in with a Saffron-winged Meadowhawk
Saffron-winged Meadowhawk. Fernald Brook Pond, Kennebunk ME
In the cooler weather of fall the Meadowhawks are spending more time in sitting in the sun during the day…soaking up heat. They are more approachable this time of year. This shot was taken at 48mm equivalent field of view from about 6 inches. And even then the bug did not fly. It was still there when I left. It is a Saffron-winged Meadowhawk, a species I had never seen in Maine (or anywhere else) until this summer…and this summer they are everywhere I go. It was, in fact, one of two dragonflies I photographed in a few days in the thumb of Michigan. Everywhere!
Sony HX90V. 1/320th @ ISO 80 @ f4.5. Processed and cropped slightly for scale in Lightroom.
Tailed Blue
Tailed Blue, Grange Insurance Audubon Center, Columbus OH
I mentioned yesterday that I had a good bug day, with several species of both butterflies and dragonflies. This is, I believe, an Eastern Tailed Blue. It is a tiny butterfly, only about 3/4 of an inch from wingtip to wingtip. There were two, doing their rapid Blue spieling dance over a grassy path. I just about gave up on getting a pic, when both of them settled out and sat long enough for a few shots.
Nikon P900 at 600mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 100 @ f5. Processed and cropped for scale in Lightroom.
Green Darner up close
Green Darner Dragonfly, Grange Insurance Audubon Center, Columbus OH
By the time I got out for a walk at the American Birding Expo at Grange Insurance Audubon Center in Columbus Ohio things were quiet on the bird front…but there certainly were a lot of bugs. I saw at least 7 species of butterflies, and four species of dragons. This Green Darner, the largest Dragonfly in North America, was perching along the grassy wetlands trail below the Center. Due to the focus limitations of the Nikon P900, I had to back up quite a ways to get this shot…taken full frame using the Perfect Image Zoom function at a 3600mm equivalent field of view. Handheld!
It certainly shows off the amazingly intricate structure of the dragonfly.
Nikon P900 at 3600mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 250 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.
Columbus Egret panel
Great Egret, Grange Insurance Audubon Center, Columbus OH
More from the cooperative Great Egret at the Grange Insurance Audubon Center in Columbus Ohio. I am working the first Great American Birding Expo so I did not get out to take any photos yesterday. Still, these Egret shots from the day before at too good not to share. Nikon P900 at various focal equivalents from about 1000mm to 4000mm. Processed in Lightroom and assembled in Coolage.
Columbus Egret gets lunch
Great Egret, Grange Insurance Audubon Center, Columbus OH
I am at the Grange Insurance Audubon Center in Columbus Ohio for the first American Birding Expo. Optics vendors and tour companies from around the world have gathered here to show off to what we hope is a large and eager crowd of birders. The event is modeled on the British Birding Fair which attracts 20,000 people a year to the midlands of England. This year the American event will not be nearly that large, but it should grow.
There are several wetlands and ponds on the Audubon property, and I discovered the Great Egret actively feeding in one of them. Nice catch.
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 140 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.
Monarch in Asters
Monarch, East Point, Biddeford Pool, Maine
East Point in Biddeford Pool Maine forms one boundary where the Saco River (or perhaps more exactly, Saco Bay) meets the open Atlantic. It is directly across a narrow channel from Wood Island and Wood Island Light. Perhaps because it sticks out into the ocean a ways and has some interesting vegetation, it is always a good spot to find butterflies, and Monarchs in the fall in particular. This seems to be a particularly large specimen, caught foraging among the New England Asters growing along the edge and in the under-story of a large stand of wild rose and other plants. From the overall brightness of the bug I am tempted to say it is freshly emerged, but in this close view you can see some wear on the wings…which might make it a migrant from further north.
Sony HX90V at 1440mm equivalent field of view (using 2x Clear Image Zoom). 1/250th @ ISO 320 @ f6.4. Processed in Lightroom.
Autumn Geese
Canada Geese, Day Brook Pond, Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, Maine
We are only just now getting the first of the colors of fall. It is a good two weeks late. We should be at peak in northern Maine and only 3 weeks from peak here in Southern Maine. There is just enough color along the edge of Day Brook Pond to set these Canada Geese, part of a flock of about 50 birds that had settled out on the pond, floating in color. I worked my way down to the pond edge through the pines and birches to an opening that gave me clear shots, and worked this patch of color as the Geese shuffled back and forth at the end of the pond.
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 180 @ f6.5. Processed and cropped slightly for composition in Lightroom.
Monarch on the edge of fall
Monarch Butterfly. Wells National Estuarine Research Center at Laudholm Farms, Wells ME
Laudholm Farms was one of the first places in the area to devote significant amounts of their meadow land to milkweed, and, consequently, it is one of the easiest places to see Monarch butterflies. This year has not been a great year for Monarchs, if you go by the number I have see at Laudholm and elsewhere around my patch, but I did find this large specimen working the Goldenrod in the meadows below and left of the farm buildings. It seems late to me…this image was captured just a few days before the equinox…but perhaps it is a migrant from further north fueling up for the flight south.
Sony HX90V at 720mm equivalent field of view. 1/400th @ ISO 80 @ f6.4. Processed and cropped for scale and composition in Lightroom.