Posts in Category: river
Fasciated Tiger-Heron
Fasciated Tiger-Heron: Rio Sucio, Costa Rica — On our way from Selva Verde back to San Jose and eventually on to the Savegre Valley we always stop in the foothills of the Central Mountains where a bridge crosses the Rio Sucio to look for Sun Bittern, and generally find a Fasciated Tiger-Heron and some Kingfishers…but never, so far, a Sun Bittern. It is ideal water for both Bittern and the Fasciated Tiger-Heron…fast flowing and clean with lots of rocks and rapids. The Fasciated is just slightly smaller than the Bare-throated, and the extensive black barring on the feathers in the adult is distinctive. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixomator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 125 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Waders of the Sarapique
Cattle Egret, Green Ibis, Little Blue Heron, Green Heron: Sarapique River, Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica: The Bare-throated Tiger-Heron, posted yesterday, was not the only wader we saw from our boat on the Sarapique River out of Puerto Viejo…it was just the most Costa Rican. The Green Ibis, I suppose, is definitely Central American, but the Cattle Egret, Little Blue Heron, and Green Heron could have been seen almost anywhere in the US. Still happy to see them, of course…anywhere, any time 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixomator Photo and Apple Photos.
Bare-throated Tiger-Heron
Bare-throated Tiger-Heron, Sarapique River, Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica: The most common and widespread of the three Tiger-Herons of Costa Rica (and Central America)…we found this one along the Sarapique River while on our boat safari out of Puerto Viejo. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 800 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Music loving Mallards
Mallard ducks: Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge Headquarters, Wells, Maine, USA — the only thing special about this pair of Mallards from Branch Brook at Rachel Carson is that they were apparently music lovers…either that or they just came downstream to see what the awful racket was as I sat on the observation deck by the marsh playing my Native American Style flute. 🙂 (Of course it is almost impossible to make anything resembling a racket with a NAS flute…it is a naturally melodic instrument…which is why I play it.) They were still shy. Once I noticed them, cruising down under the bank, and stoped playing to take a few photos, they circled back upstream, and then when I started to play again, got up and flew away right in front of me toward the junction of Branch Brook with the Merriland River across the marsh. I wish I had had my camera up at that point…but at least I played them away on their journey. Sony Rx10iv at 580mm equivalent. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photo. ISO 1000 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Nature Phonography: Mousam at Roger’s Park
The Moment thin case makes mounting the Sirui lenses easy on my iPhone SE 2020, and though I am learning the limitations of the camera in my phone, it works very well with the 18mm equivalent wide angle lens for landscapes like this one. The built in camera app with its “smart HDR” produces (or perhaps “reproduces” is better) lovey scenery. While a few of the camera apps for iPhone have more sophisticated HDR programs, I am not yet convinced of the need for them. This is the Mousam River at Roger’s Park, a great place for fly-fishing. It is a rare day when there is not at least one fisherman in waders in the water. This day one of the fishermen was all kitted out in the latest LLBean or Orvis gear and being followed by a photographer with a full commercial rig. I suspect the Mousam is going to feature in this year’s catalog or on their website. iPhone SE 2020 with Sirui 18mm wide angle on a Moment Thin Case. The program chose ISO 20 @ f1.8 @ 1/1312th. (By the way, don’t be fooled that ISO 20. ISO20 is about equivalent to ISO 100 on my Sony Rx10iv with it’s much larger sensor, and probably close to ISO 400 on a full frame DSLR. ISO is always relative to sensor size.)
Nature Phonography: Mousam at Roger’s Park
The Moment thin case makes mounting the Sirui lenses easy on my iPhone SE 2020, and though I am learning the limitations of the camera in my phone, it works very well with the 18mm equivalent wide angle lens for landscapes like this one. The built in camera app with its “smart HDR” produces (or perhaps “reproduces” is better) lovey scenery. While a few of the camera apps for iPhone have more sophisticated HDR programs, I am not yet convinced of the need for them. This is the Mousam River at Roger’s Park, a great place for fly-fishing. It is a rare day when there is not at least one fisherman in waders in the water. This day one of the fishermen was all kitted out in the latest LLBean or Orvis gear and being followed by a photographer with a full commercial rig. I suspect the Mousam is going to feature in this year’s catalog or on their website. iPhone SE 2020 with Sirui 18mm wide angle on a Moment Thin Case. The program chose ISO 20 @ f1.8 @ 1/1312th. (By the way, don’t be fooled that ISO 20. ISO20 is about equivalent to ISO 100 on my Sony Rx10iv with it’s much larger sensor, and probably close to ISO 400 on a full frame DSLR. ISO is always relative to sensor size.)
Mallards on ice…
Mallards: Kennebunk River, York County, Maine, USA — It has been an atypically warm winter, and we have had very little ice in the rivers…here we are in mid-January, and we only had a significant amount of ice over the last few days. I generally find concentrations of ducks at edges of river ice and I have missed the mergansers, the occasional wood duck and the rafts of mallards. There was a group of over 100 mallards on the Kennebunk when I visited yesterday…the first large concentration I have seen this winter. Ducks on ice are always photogenic, even in the relatively dull light of a January day. I like the way this group is arranged within the frame…almost exactly were I would have placed them in a painting. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. ISO 500 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
I heard the ice bells on Christmas Day
So far we have not had ideal conditions for ice bells on the Mousam River here in town, but I did find these while out looking for Eagles the other day. 🙂 And they have a festive look for Christmas morning. A very Merry Christmas again to all. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. I used TouchRetouch to remove an obtrusive foreground branch. ISO 160 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Merganser
Common Merganser: Kennebunk, Maine, USA — As soon as there is ice on the Mousam River below the rapids we are likely to see Common Merganser (and, vary rarely, Hooded). This is my first of the season…a lone bird, pushing its way up against the current. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. You can just see the orange feet under the bird in the clear water. ISO 640 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Leaves in the stream
We were up in the 70s on Saturday…a real Indian Summer. I did a bit of research on the term “Indian Summer”…to see how much cultural baggage it might carry…but its origins are hazy at best, and it seems never to have had a negative connotation. It…a warm dry spell in October or November…is called different things in different cultures. It is “old woman’s summer” in German speaking countries, “poor man’s summer” in slavic countries, “gypsy summer” in the Balkans, “little summer” in South America (where it happens in May), and “little autumn of the geese” in Gaelic. Many people name it for one of the Saints whose Saint Day falls in late fall…though the particular Saint varies by region. At any rate, I don’t feel too guilty calling it Indian Summer. To celebrate I got my ebike out and took a ride. I was arrested by this scene as I crossed the bridge over the Merriland River in Wells on my way to Laudholm Farms. Sony Rx10iv at about 135mm equivalent. Program mode with auto HDR. Nominal exposure: ISO 640 @ f4 @ 1/320th. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.