Monthly Archives: July 2015
Wren Song!
House Wren, Laudholm Farm, Wells ME
There is a nesting box near the junction of two trails at Laudholm Farm, still within sight of the farm buildings, where House Wrens have nested for years. This year is no different, and the resident Wren was out singing on the roof-top when I passed on my late afternoon photoprowl. The light was difficult but I got off a few shot anyway, before seeking a better angle… good thing, since the wren was off into the tree-line across the trail before I got my angle.
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/320th @ ISO 400 @ f6.5. Processed and cropped slightly for composition in Lightroom.
Cedar Waxwing Bookends
Cedar Waxwings. Day Brook Pond, Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, ME
There is always something happening at Day Brook Pond on the Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area in West Kennebunk. I was on the Plains to check the progress of the Northern Blazing Star bloom, which is coming on nicely, and, of course, I had to take a turn around the pond. There is a little grove of pines and birches near the east end that always has birds feeding. These Cedar Waxwings were eating berries. I like the pose here, with the birds in opposition… and, of course, the light… late afternoon light slanting through the grove.
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/200th @ ISO 400 @ f6.5. Processed and cropped slightly for composition in Lightroom.
Are you done yet…
Chipmunk, Wells National Estuarine Research Center at Laudholm Farm, Wells ME
My late afternoon photoprowl at Laudholm Farm a few days ago was particularly productive. Just down the trail from the Common Yellowthroat with the bugs from yesterday’s post, I heard a chip close by and looked up into the branches of a small tree to find this Chipmunk posing. He was patient with my photography, giving me different sides, and letting me work around for angles for several minutes. He was inside the close focus on the Nikon P900 (16.5 feet) so I could not use full zoom. I even switched cameras for this shot, which uses the Sony HX90V’s Clear Image digital zoom for 1440mm equivalent field of view and a nice close-up. By this time the Chipmunk seemed to be wondering if I was done yet. 🙂 I moved on.
Camera as above. 1/250th @ ISO 160 @ f6.4. Processed in Lightroom.
Uncommon Yellowthroat
Common Yellowthroat, Wells National Estuarine Research Center at Laudholm Farm, Wells ME
Oh, Common Yellowthroats are common enough this year. They are another bird that seems to have benefited from the late spring…if numbers are any indication. They are everywhere I go and in good numbers. On a late afternoon photoprowl on the trails at Laudholm Farm yesterday, I saw at least a dozen. Birds were uncommonly active for a late afternoon, perhaps because it had been rainy and gloomy until the sun broke out at about 3PM. This Yellowthroat had taken a grasshopper/beetleish thing, and was, perhaps, in retrospect, waiting until I passed on to take it to its nest. It hopped around in the branches of a tree overhanging the trail for several minutes as I photographed it. In fact I left it still hopping there when I moved on. I did not see the prey in its beak until I got the images up on the monitor at home.
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 360 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.
First Day Lilies
Day Lily, The Yard, Kennebunk ME
It is one of the mysteries of our life here on Brown Street in Kennebunk is that our Day Lilies bloom a good two weeks after Day Lilies both up and down the street from us. We might live in a tidal trough…just slightly depressed enough so that the tide blows and draws the breath of our cold sea, two miles downriver, right through our yard. And it might be the shade of our big maples and oaks, that make our yard, our whole neighborhood, look like unbroken forest from the air (easily verified with Google Earth). And it might be when they were planted, or the particular variety, or something in our soil, or…
Whatever it is, I have to wait patiently to photograph my own lilies weeks after they have appeared even 10 houses away. Sigh. 🙂
But when they do bloom, one whole side of the yard are double blooms. Instead of a single, simple, swirl of petals around the anthers, there are two…the outer fairly normal, and the inner smaller and more ornate. Again…who knows why? Close in like this, it looks almost like an abstract of itself.
Sony HX90V macro at about 35mm equivalent field of view. 1/160th @ ISO 80 @ f4. Processed in Lightroom.
Early Northern Blazing Star. Happy Sunday!
Northern Blazing Star with Skipper, Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, ME
I have never seen the Kennebunk Plains so thick with Northern Blazing Star. The budded plants are everywhere, in thick stands this year. By the first week in August, the second at the latest, the Plains are going to be purple with Blazing Star. Right now, there are only a few plants here and there in bloom, but the promise is there, and barring any unnatural disaster, it is going to be a very good year for Blazing Star. Of course, the Kennebunk Plains are managed, at least in part, for Blazing Star, which is endangered in much of its historical range, and only has the one major foothold left in Maine. Blazing Star is fire dependent, and patterned and scheduled burns on the Plains keep the population healthy.
And, when the Blazing Star is in bloom, it draws its compliment of insects. Bees of several species, lots of Skippers (like the one captured above, which might be the Least Skipper), Hairstreaks (mostly Coral), Swallowtail and Monarch butterflies, and lots of orb weaver spiders. The Halloween Pennant dragonfly hunts among the the other bugs. And the insects draw the birds: Clay-collared and Grasshopper Sparrow, Upland Sandpiper, (all at the limits of their range on the Plains), as well as Savannah and Song Sparrows. The Blazing Star is the base plant, or the most visible member, for a whole community of life…and because it is so beautiful, and so visible, protecting it has protected the whole community. This is good!
I feel privileged to live so close to the remnant population of Blazing Star…to track it year to year in my informal visits to the Plains, and to share it with you in my photos. Being on the Plains when the Northern Blazing Star is in bloom is, for me, a spiritual experience…a instance of natural, spontaneous, worship. Though the Plains buzz with life in August, and hundreds of people come to pick blueberries, for me there is always a hush…a reverence in the presence of the stands of this rare and beautiful plant. It is awesome in the literal sense of the word. I feel the awe, and can only give praise and thanks. Happy Sunday!
Song on a post
Song Sparrow, Kennebunk Bridle Path, Kennebunk ME
Song Sparrows are common in the marsh behind the barrier dunes and along the Mousam River. Though it is also ideal Salt-marsh Sparrow habitat, and though the marsh is protected in part because of that, I have yet to see a Salt-marsh there. Lots of Songs though. This one is perched on one of the old pilings that line the raised path where it crosses marsh. The marsh was diked and hayed for generations. They are working on restoring it to its native tidal state now. That will likely increase the likelihood that Salt-marsh Sparrow will be seen there in future generations, and perhaps diminish the number of Song Sparrows. My children might be able to see the results. 🙂
Nikon P900 at 3200mm equivalent field of view (full optical plus some Perfect Image digital zoom). 1/320th @ ISO 400 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.
Jeweled Wood Lily
Wood Lily, Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, Maine.
I was on the Kennebunk Plains early enough, a few days ago, to find the Wood Lilies still jeweled with dew. Wood Lilies, at least on the Plains, come in two basic colors. This is the oranger of the two. The other is still orange, but edging over toward red. It is not a matter of age, though both get lighter as the bloom ages…it seems to be a genuine difference in the plants. We are seeing the last of the Wood Lilies this week. You can tell from the bare anthers that this one has opened several days now.
Sony HX90V at 44mm equivalent field of view. 1/640th @ ISO 80 @ f4.5. Processed and cropped for composition in Lightroom.
Bobolink in flowers…
Bobolink in Knapweed. Kennebunkport ME
While photographing this meadow full of Knapweed, I observed several male Bobolinks competing for territory. I had, through an oversight, only my little Sony HX90V with me, and it only has 720mm equivalent field of view…only! That really shows how spoiled we are in the Point and Shoot Superzoom world. I used some Clear Image Zoom (Sony’s enhances digital zoom) to stretch out to 1440mm for this shot of the Bobolink with prey among the flowers.
Camera as above. 1/250th @ ISO 125 @ f6.4. Processed in Lightroom.
Halloween Pennant
Halloween Pennant, Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, Maine
On my photoprowl to the Kennebunk Plains late yesterday afternoon, I was surprised to find a few Northern Blazing Star in bloom. This is going to be a year with a lot of Blazing Star, and I am expecting a bold display, but not for several more weeks…well into August. Still I was happy to see them in bloom, as often I am traveling when the Blazing Star is a its peak. Maybe early this year 🙂
I also found at least two, probably teneral, Halloween Pennants among the Blazing Star. Again, this is a Dragonfly that I have seen on the Plains when the Blazing Star is in bloom, in August. These might be early, and they were almost certainly newly emerged, as the wings were quite light in color. The one on the right is on a Blazing Star bud, far from open.
Sony HX90V at 720-1000mm equivalent field of view. Processed in Lightroom and assembled in Coolage.