Monthly Archives: May 2015
Black Swallowtail! Happy Sunday.
Black Swallowtail on Honeysuckle, Timber Point Trail, Rachel Carson NWR, Biddeford ME
Yesterday I made my first pilgrimage of the year to the Timber Point / Timber Island section of Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge just south of Bidderford Pool. You might remember that I highlighted this is a new addition to the Wildlife Refuge in a few posts last fall. They only made a decision on how to use the property in the early winter, after the predictable period of study, recommendations, public comment, (the expected bit of controversy), etc. The property includes an large building, formerly a guest lodge, and the NWR system does not have the funds to renovate it for use. They have decided to bring only the exterior up to code, and post “interpretative personnel” there for an expanded range of activities and programs during the season…the minimalist approach. We will see how that goes. The property consists of the tip of a rocky peninsula leading out to low-tide-only crossing to Timber Island. Both the headland and the island are rocky outcrops, with lots of big boulders. On the mainland much of this is covered by a mature oak forest, with some open fields and old ornamental trees right along the water. On the inland side of the trail/access road there is an extensive fresh water marsh. Timber Island was pretty much clear cut, and is now home to a dense thicket of pine and bramble, with some fresh water marsh. All in all, a prime piece of habitat for birds and mammals and bugs, and a great addition to the NWR system!
It is not very big and you can explore the accessible parts on the point in a couple of hours. If you time your visit for low tide, you can cross to Timber Island and do a loop around the rocky shore and the edge of the pine forest. That will add at least an hour to your visit. It is not the most exiting place in the world, but I have only been there 4 times now, and on each visit I have had at least one significant sighting…and it is a great place to get out and walk. The highlight of yesterday’s visit might have been this male Black Swallowtail butterfly, caught sipping from the Honeysuckle that lines the trail in open areas most of the way down the point. The Black Swallowtail is a common butterfly over much of North America, but certainly a beautiful bug. This panel shows off both top and bottom views of the wing patterns. The Black Swallowtail is a partial mimic of the Spicebush Swallowtail…a poisonous cousin…the female on both upper and lower surfaces…the male only on the under-wings. This mimicry, apparently, provides the much more common Black with a measure of protection from predators.
As with the puddling Tiger Swallowtails I posted last Monday, this was a particularly fresh male, probably only emerged a few days to a week ago. It showed little wear on the wings and both “tails” were intact. I rarely see them in this kind of pristine condition. 🙂
Nikon P900 at 800mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 125 @ f5.6. Processed and cropped in Lightroom. Assembled in Coolage.
Many of us (humans) have a fascination with butterflies. The beauty and delicacy of the wings…the slow dancing flight…make them the angels of the bug world…so much so that most people do not really think of them as insects, and if they do, they don’t think of them the same way they think of other insects. Butterfly collecting is not what it once was…due partially to ecological awareness…and perhaps more to the advent of the digital camera and lenses long enough to photograph butterflies in the field and field guides to “butterflies through binoculars”…but a “butterfly house” is still a major attraction for any zoo or park. Many of the birders I know now will now confess to being butterfliers too. We love our butterflies. One of the new features of Timber Point this year, in fact, is several large plantings of “Monarch” habitat along the trail, with signs for protection. The Monarch, you might know, is a long distant migrant butterfly that is in serious decline due to habitat (host plant) loss. There is not much there yet, on Timber Point, but I assume they are Milkweed plantings, since Milkweed is the host plant of the Monarch. They have even brought in a portable pump to make sure the Milkweed gets a good start this year.
And of course, conservation and restoration is the most sincere expression of love. Love that does not “take care” of what it loves is not love at all. We respond to the love of the creator not because we are created, but because we are cared for…and we experience, once aware, that care in every moment of our lives. And of course, the creator cares for the butterflies too. We are uniquely privileged, when we take an hand in conservation and restoration, to share that care. What a gift! Happy Sunday.
Cedar Waxwing Showoff
Cedar Waxwing, Day Brook Pond, W. Kennebunk ME
I took a photoprowl out to the Kennebunk Plains and Day Brook Pond yesterday. There were hundreds of dragonflies, many of them newly emerged and on maiden flights, with Itheir wings still soft and full of light. Dancers (damselflies) of some sort were also emerging in high numbers, and where dancers emerge you are bound to find Cedar Waxwings picking them out of the grass and air. I watched a flock of 6 or 7 Cedar Waxwings hunting and feeding all around me. One flew by within arms reach, on its way to a dancer in the grass, and several posed as close as I have ever seen a Cedar Waxwing. This bird was photographed at 2000mm equivalent, and you can see a great deal of feather detail. That is pretty good, considering that the Cedar Waxwing has some of the most delicate plumage of any bird…more like hair than feathers. In this shot, I really like the eye with its clear reflection. I can’t quite see myself in it, but close. 🙂
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ f6.5 @ ISO 320. Processed in Topaz Dejpeg and Lightroom.
This post is dedicated to my friend Rich, who loves Cedar Waxwings!
Angel Wings (Fringed Polygala)
Fringed Polygala, Wells National Estuarine Research Center at Laudholm Farm, Wells ME
We are having a very odd spring. There were no Angle Wings (Fringed Polygala) along the trail at Rachel Carson NWR Headquarters, where they are generally common…and yet, the very next day, the woods at Laudholm Farm were full of them. The two spots are separated by less than a mile as the crow flies. I can think of no good reason to explain why they would be in bloom one place and not the other…but that is nature…ever mysterious 🙂
Nikon P900 in Close Up Mode at 95mm equivalent field of view. 1/400th @ f4 @ ISO 100. Processed in Lightroom. Cropped for scale.
Catbird Seat
Grey Catbird, Well National Estuarine Research Center at Laudholm Farm, Wells ME
A Grey Catbird on a mossy stump at Laudholm Farms the other day. Back light on the forest floor made for difficult shooting, but the image catches something about the Catbird, and the forest, that I like.
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/125th @ ISO 720 @ f6.5. Processed in Topaz Dejpeg and Lightroom.
1st Dragons of the season: 4 Spotted Skimmer
4 Spotted Skimmer, Quest Ponds, Kennebunk ME
The 4 Spotted Skimmer is not the most beautiful of dragonflies…in fact it is not beautiful at all to those who are not fascinated with Odonata, and even then it would probably not make anyone’s list of favorite bugs. It’s main claim to fame is that it is one of the first large dragons to fly around our northern ponds and marshes. I was actually very surprised yesterday, on my first intentional Odonata outing of the season, to find how many dragonflies were already flying. I have been traveling a lot this spring, which has limited my access to the ponds and pools, and I assumed the very late spring we are having would have retarded the emergence. There were hundreds of Dot-tailed Whitefaces (without a doubt our most abundant and longest season dragon), a good number of Green Darners (probably migrating back as adults from further south…but already in mating wheels here in Southern Maine), at least one Chalk-fronted Corporal (another early bug), and something that was probably a Painted Skimmer too far and too fast to id for sure. There might have been at least one other large darner way out over the pond, maybe Canada, but it was too far to see. Not bad, and that was only the 3 inland ponds I patrol. Today I will get down to the fresh water pools along the river near the ocean, and check the beach for Green Darners and Black-Saddlebags coming ashore off the water. 🙂
Nikon P900 at 2800mm equivalent field of view. 1/250th @ f6.5 @ ISO 400. Processed in Topaz Denoise and Lightroom.
Mud Puddling Swallowtails
Tiger Swallowtail Butterflies, West Kennebunk ME, Puddling.
Our extended family had a Memorial Day cookout at my sister-in-law’s home across town from us yesterday. When we drove in, I immediately saw some butterfly action on her freshly seeded front lawn. It was hard to miss. Three bright, fresh Tiger Swallowtails were mud puddling on an otherwise undistinguished spot of soil. As you see from the photo it was moist but not wet. Given puddling behavior of butterflies in general, it is safe to say these, and several others I saw on the spot over 15 minutes, were all males. And again, given the situation at my in-laws, it is safe to say that their cat had chosen this exact spot to urinate sometime earlier that day. Male butterflies are attracted to the soil salts in damp earth. They drink the fluids and force them rapidly though their bodies extracting minerals which they then, at least in some cases, excrete during mating with the female and present as a gift. The processes seems to increase an individual male’s reproductive success, and the minerals may help in sperm production. The male’s gift might be his way of saying “Look how salty my sperm is! Good stuff here!” No one knows for sure. Urine, of course, is particularly high in sodium and ammonia, both of which are prized by male butterflies. And since the puddling area was so restricted here, and I doubt anyone else in the household was out on the front lawn that morning releaving his or her self, I do suspect the cat 🙂
That is probably more than you really wanted to know about these beautiful butterflies. They were all about as fresh and bright as I have ever seen. I suspect they were no more than a few days old. Even-so, at least one had a large section of that bright hindwing, including the tail on that side, missing, probably due to an encounter with a bird…though I can not rule out the cat on that front either.
Nikon P900 at 550mm equivalent field of view. 1/250th @ f5 @ ISO 100. Processed in Lightroom.
Blue Jay Rampant
Blue Jay, Laudholm Farms, Wells ME
It is odd that until this year, I have had little success photographing Blue Jays. I see them, but I have not been able to get them in the frame. This year I have photographed them in Maine and Ohio, getting close-ups and satisfying images in both states! I posted one from Ohio as the pic of the day a few days ago, and here we have a specimen from Laudholm Farm just down the road from my home in southern Maine. I think there might me an unusual number of Jays this year for one thing…or the late migration north has bunched them up more than usual. I am certainly seeing more of them.
Though it can be an obnoxious bird around feeders, and is know for raiding other birds’ nests for eggs, it is certainly, on aesthetic grounds alone, one of the more striking birds of North America. The boldly barred blue and black and white wing and tail patterns, and the subtle purpley-blues of the back…along with the patterned face, big beak and eye…make it a stand out bird. Catch it in good light and with a contrasting background, as here, and it makes a memorable image. Or that’s what I think 🙂
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/200th @ f6.5 @ ISO 400. Processed and cropped for composition in Lightroom.
Jack-in-the-pulpit in the wild! Happy Sunday.
Jack-in-the-pulpit, Laudholm Farms, Wells ME
My photographer friend Robert, who lives in Australia, liked yesterday’s picture of a Pink Lady Slipper, because it was a chance to see a plant he only sees “caged” (his word) growing in its natural habitat. Until yesterday, though it is native to Maine, I had only ever seen the Jack-in-the-pulpit, so to speak, in “captivity”…at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens in Booth Bay Maine, and at Wild Gardens of Acadia at Sieur de Mont Springs in Acadia National Park. You can imagine my surprise, and delight, when I looked down off the edge of the boardwalk yesterday at the Wells National Estuarine Research Center at Laudholm Farm in Wells Maine and caught sight of the unmistakable hood of a Jack-in-the-pulpit. It was almost completely buried in its own foliage, and in the foliage of other plants growing with it. Further investigation showed 4 Jack-in-the-pulpit plants (also called bog onion, brown dragon, Indian turnip, American wake robin, or wild turnip) in a cluster within a foot of the boardwalk. I kept my eye peeled, and found another cluster of five plants, similarly placed, before I came to the end of the long boardwalk. The second cluster, two of which are shown above, were younger, with the leaves not completely unfolded and the hood stripped inside and out and lower on the jack. The first cluster were mature plants, fully flowered with the hood completely green on the outside and drying at little at the tip.
Jack-in-the-pulpit
According to the wiki article, the Jack is actually covered in tiny, both male and female, flowers. The male flowers on any one plant dominate early and then die, leaving more female flowers, so the plant is not self pollinating. I also read that it takes 3 years for the plant to mature enough to flower for the first time, so these Jacks have been growing beside the boardwalk for at least that long. There is more in the wiki, and as you might suspect from some of the alternate names, the tuber of the plant is edible…and has been used in traditional herbal medicine.
Finding a something new to me in nature always delights me. To know that I have walked by these plants for at least 3 years, and to have finely “chanced” on them, is simply wonderful…so wonderful that I totally reject the notion that there was any “chance” involved. I could so easily have walked by them again this year. To have found them is a gift outright, an undeserved and unearned gift, the very definition of a blessing. And “wonderful” too in the literal sense of the word…filling me with wonder…with that sense of awe at the beauty of nature and the love of the creator. That they are there is wonderful…to have found them, to have been lead to glance down just at the right second, is awesome! And then to be rewarded with a second cluster…such love!
And now I get to share them with you! How awesome is that? Happy Sunday!
All photos Nikon P900 in Close Up Mode. 80-100mm equivalent field of view. Processed in Lightroom and the panel assembled in Coolage.
Pink Lady Slipper Orchid
Pink Lady Slipper Orchid, Rachel Carson NWR Headquarters Trail
Yesterday I posted a panel of May wildflowers from Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge that included a cluster of Pink Lady Slipper Orchids. It was afternoon when I found them, and by then the sun was off the little glade where they grow. I went back yesterday morning to see if I could catch them in the sun. It takes a warm morning sun to bring out the richness in the pink flesh of the bulb…or late afternoon if you can find a patch with the right light.
Nikon P900 in Close Up Mode at 80mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ f3.5 @ ISO 100. Processed and cropped slightly for composition in Lightroom.
May Wildflower Smorgasbord
Rachel Carson NWR Headquarters Trail
I took a turn around the trail at the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge headquarters yesterday afternoon, looking mainly for spring wildflowers. We have a later-than-normal spring this year in Maine, and flowers that are normally blooming the first week in May are just now coming into flower. Here we have, top left clockwise around the outside, Wood Violet, Star Flower, Geranium, Two-bead Lily, Painted Trillium, and Pink Lady Slipper. The inset is Spring Beauty, with Wood Violet in the background.
Nikon P900 in Close Up Mode. Mostly at about 100mm equivalent field of view. Auto exposures. Processed in Lightroom and assembled in Coolage. Coolage makes this kind of panel relatively easy to assemble.