Monthly Archives: April 2016
Kestrel
American Kestrel, on the road to the beach, Kennebunk Maine
The light was going fast, with a storm coming on, and my “big gun” is in the shop, so I did not have the reach I am used to, but who can pass up a hunting American Kestrel. This is one of a pair that have been hunting, according to a fellow photographer who has been watching them, this field for a week. Maybe they will nest somewhere in the big Maples along the road, or in the forest bordering the field.
Nikon P610 at 1440mm equivalent field of view. 1/800th @ ISO 100 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom and cropped slightly for scale.
Caught Looking: Nuthatch
White-breasted Nuthatch, Kennebunk Bridle Path, Kennebunk ME
This is another shot from my encounter with the nesting White Breasted Nuthatches. This is the female trying to keep track of the male as he foraged around her.
Nikon P900 at 4000mm equivalent field of view (2000mm optical plus 2x Perfect Image zoom). 1/500th @ ISO 125 @ f6.5. It does not seem possible that you can handhold 4000mm equivalent magnification…but, obviously, you can 🙂
Turtles on a log!
Painted Turtles, Day Brook Pond, Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, W. Kennebunk ME
It has been in the 50s the past few days, and sunny, which has brought the Painted Turtles at Day Brook Pond on the Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area out in force. I saw a dozen or more, of all sizes, sunning themselves on the half-submerged White Birch trunks along the edge of the pond, and I am sure I did not see them all. They seemed to like to pile up on each other. I am not sure why. Maybe that gave the smaller turtles a better view.
Nikon P900 at 1400mm equivalent field of view. 1/250th @ ISO 140 @ f6.3. Processed in Lightroom.
Nuthatch courtship. Happy Sunday!
White-breasted Nuthatch, Kennebunk Bridle Trail, Kennebunk ME
“If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light!” Jesus
I had walked a long ways on the Kennebunk Bridle Path yesterday without seeing anything of note. In fact I had turned around and was headed back to the car when a pair of White-breasted Nuthatches flew across and landed in trees off to my right. Camera up! I could only see one of them and he was off deeper into the woods toward the river before I got any good shots, but I stood and waited, and, sure enough, he circled back, foraging 20 to 40 feet up in the trees. That is when I noticed the second Nuthatch sticking out of a hole in a tree trunk 40 feet in. I got lots of good shots of both the foraging male, as he worked his way around the nest hole, and the female with various portions of her body out of the hole looking to see what the male was up to. After maybe 10 minutes the male worked his way down to the nest hole with a bug in his mouth, and there was a little dance all around the hole as he, apparently, teased her with the bug before transferring it to her. This is the best shot from that sequence. I watched them for 20 minutes more, and got some excellent shots of both, but the little courtship dance was the best of the action. They were totally oblivious to my presence on the trail (one of the advantages of a 2000mm equivalent lens), but still, I felt like I should move on and leave them in even more peace to get on with nest building and courtship.
How can anyone not feed privileged, blessed indeed, to get to see something like the courtship of Nuthatches? Just that little intimate moment out of their lives. I would like to believe that there is not a soul so deadened that it can not be moved by such an encounter. But I have seen the damage the world does to human beings…to children most of all…damage that produces such a shell of indifference; such a self-centered, in-grown view; such an active malice toward life and the living…that even the courtship of Nuthatches, should they look up long enough to see it, is as likely to generate anger or mischief as it is to engender love. That is the opposite of the generous eye. That is the stingy eye, that shelters darkness inside. That is so sad. It has to break the heart of a loving God. Which is why God spent the love of God in Jesus…so that the hardened heart, the stingy eye, might be renewed…the deadened soul reborn.
And those who do feel a sense of wonder and privilege in seeing the Nuthatches courting, but who feel as yet no need of God? I can only say…you are just a step away from the Kingdom of God…perhaps even citizens of that Kingdom unknowing. There is no disguising the generous eye…there is no hiding the light within.
Happy Sunday!
Chipper Chipper
Chipmunk, Timber Point, Rachel Carson NWR, Goose Rocks Maine
This little Chipmunk inspired yesterday’s Day Poem, and my wife reminded me that, while it might have been the first forest dwelling Chipmunk we have seen this season, our back deck Chipper who comes for the scattered seeds under the feeders, has already put in an appearance. Does not count! He is almost a tame Chipmunk, or more like something in our own private backyard zoo. 🙂 This fellow on the other hand, as you can clearly see, has not been caging sunflower seeds this spring. He is still winter lean. But that is in the poem.
Walking out on Timber Point
and across the bar at low tide
to Timber Island today, we
encountered our first chipmunk
of the season…up from his
winter nap, looking lean, but
healthy, eager as ever for
whatever he could find in
the leaf litter to sustain him.
He stood a second, on hind
legs, against a slanting stick,
his tail curled up behind,
the very picture of anticipation…
hope personified…if you will
let me get away with saying
that of a chipmunk, ready
for warmer days and the coming
round of sprouts, shoots, buds,
blossoms…but ready too, if
nothing better is on offer,
to dine on a half rotten acorn
hidden in dim back beyond
of the abundant fall gone by.
Surely he can not remember,
and each acorn he finds
must come as total surprise,
manna from heaven, a gift
outright, amazing grace, if
he only knew…but then you
already let me get away
with calling him a person.
Nikon P900 at 1440mm equivalent field of view (I was too close for full zoom). 1/400th @ ISO 400 @ f6.3. Processed in Lightroom.
Swamp Sparrow. FOY!
Swamp Sparrow. Wells National Estuarine Research Center at Laudholm Farms, Maine
Sunny and in the upper 40s, low 50s yesterday in Southern Maine, so I took a long photoprowl to the Wells National Estuarine Research Center at Laudholm Farms in Wells. Out by the Marsh Overlook I found this Swamp Sparrow, first of this year, foraging in the native phragmities by the platform. It cooperatively posed for me on this bent reed. I love the intensity of the rust red, and the boldness of the pattern on the Swamp Sparrow. It is as close to NOT being a LBJ (little brown job) as any sparrow gets. 🙂
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 100 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.
Palm Warbler: FOY
Palm Warbler, Day Brook Pond, Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, W. Kennebunk ME
I already posed one pic of this FOY (first of year) Palm Warbler with yesteday’s Day Poem…it was a real treat to find it along the shore of Day Brook Pond on the Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management area. Such a lot of attitude for such a small bird 🙂
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 320 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom and assembled in Coolage.
Late light of April
Mouth of the Mousam River, Kennebunk ME
It is amazing how fast the length of the day is progressing now that the clocks have been set ahead. We went out last night after supper to catch the last of the sun on the beach near our home at the mouth of the Mousam River. This is a sweep panorama showing Great Head and the river mouth, but mostly it is about the spreading cloud tree above…and the light.
Sweep panorama. Sony HX90V. Processed for HDR effect in Lightroom. This is as close to the natural look of the scene as I can make it.
Mallard!
Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve, Bucks County, PA
There were a few birds active at Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve when we visited last week. We watched a pair of Mallards on the river for 20 minutes as they worked their way down the far bank.
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 400 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom. Getting detail in the finest features of a Mallard’s back is a test of the limits of any camera!
Maple Flower time again!
Maple Flower, the back yard, Kennebunk Maine
We are having a strange spring…but then I am beginning to believe that strange is the normal for southern Maine. No two springs in the two decades I have lived here have been remotely the same. This year the Maple Flowers are at lest 2 weeks early…but when, on the strength of that, I checked for Trout Lily in the forest, it was barely sprouting leaves above the leaf litter. Last year I photographed both Maple flowers and Trout Lily on the same day around the first of May. Go figure.
The lowest Maple Flowers in our back yard are just far enough above my head so I need a strong telephoto to reach them, and yet too close for my Nikon P900’s minimum focus of 16.5 feet…so I got out the P610 for this shot (and many others 🙂 This is at about 2000mm equivalent field of view, using the P610’s full 1440mm optical and bit of Perfect Image digital zoom. 1/250th @ ISO 100 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.