Monthly Archives: January 2017
Chickadee, ventral view
Black-capped Chickadee, Kennebunk Maine
Chickadees are acrobatic birds and I love watching them flit and hop and climb around the feeders on the back deck. They get into the most amazing poses. Occasionally I even try to catch them with the camera. More occcasionally I actually catch them. 🙂
Sony Rx10iii at 600mm equivalent field of view. 1/250th @ ISO 200 @ f4. Processed in Polarr on my iPad Pro.
Downy in the snow…
Downy Woodpecker, Kennebunk Maine
Heavy, wet, clingy snow through the day and night on Wednesday piled up on branches and the back deck feeding station to provide some unique photo-ops. The Downy Woodpecker was not much inconvenienced since it spends much of its time feeding on the bottom side of branches anyway. 🙂
Sony Rx10iii at 600mm equivalent field of view. 1/400th @ ISO 100 @ f4. Processed and cropped for scale in Polarr on my iPad Pro.
Nuthatch
White-breasted Nuthatch, Kennebunk Maine
Another shot from the back deck feeding station, this time from the rail of the deck. White-breasted Nuthatch. This is pretty much a “bird-in-the-hand” view. I especially like the feet for some reason. 🙂
Sony Rx10iii at 600mm equivalent field of view. 1/250th @ ISO 125 @ f4. Processed in Polarr on my iPad Pro.
Winter Finch…
American Goldfinch, Kennebunk Maine
I am having a lot of fun with the back deck feeding station this winter. There have even been a few days when the birds were active and the light was good for photography. This is one of the American Goldfinches that was flocking with the Bluebirds the other day. This is just about an ideal shot. Close in, with an interesting background, and great light for feather detail. No credit to me, other than the foresight to bold the apple branches to the deck around the feeders. 🙂
Sony Rx10iii at 600mm equivalent field of view. 1/320th @ ISO 100 @ f4. Processed in Polarr on my iPad Pro.
Bluebirds in the yard!
Eastern Bluebird on our back deck feeder station, Kennebunk Maine
We have lived here in Kennebunk, in this house, for over 20 years, and yesterday we had a new yard bird. That is always exciting. A small feeding flock that included at least 4 Eastern Bluebirds came to the back deck feeding station. Bluebirds are primarily insect eaters, so they don’t generally visit feeders (unless you have live mealworms out), but they were with a group of American Goldfinches, and Bluebirds have been known to supplement their diet with sunflower kernels (and fruits and berries). I suspect the Bluebirds were foraging on the fully opened and half eaten sunflower seeds the Goldfinches were dropping. A few did come up to deck level and perch on the railings and on the apple branches bolted to the deck for perches around the feeding station. I stepped out on the back deck with my camera and stood quietly until both Goldfinches and Bluebirds got comfortable enough with me there to perch 8 feet away. It was a cold, clear, winter day and the light was great. It does not get any better than that!
Sony Rx10iii at 600mm equivalent field of view. 1/250th @ ISO 160 @ f4. Processed in Polarr on my iPad Pro. I edged as far out on the deck as I dared but I was still shooting under a branch that came up and to the right over the Bluebird’s head. I removed it with TouchRetouch, also on my iPad Pro. If you want to explore the feather detail you can look at this image, and others of the Bluebirds and Goldfinches, on my WideEyedInWonder site. This link takes you to this image.
Eagle at Roger’s Pond
Bald Eagle, Roger’s Pond Park, Kennebunk Maine
Some of you know I have been checking the Mousam River at Roger’s Pond Park regularly over the past 2 months, in hopes of seeing the Eagles that hunt the river there most winters and can be seen well into summer. It is somehow more special to see the Eagles there, only a quarter mile off Main Street, in downtown Kennebunk. No luck so far this year, until yesterday! I always hope for an Eagle on a good perch, but this one was tucked back into the pine, high and on the far side of the river, and the only vantage with and unobstructed view of the face was from entirely too far away. Still, it is an Eagle!
Sony Rx10iii at 1200mm equivalent field of view (2x Clear Image Zoom). 1/400th @ f4 @ ISO 100. Processed in Polarr on my iPad Pro.
That tree… Happy Sunday!
Pine Plantation, Alwive Pond Reserve, W. Kennebunk Maine
“If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light.” Jesus
Sometimes it is hard to the that tree, and sometimes it is just too hard not to be.
To the generous eye it is all one. God is a the God of infinite variety. We treasure each tree in its difference, and treasure the difference in each tree.
Happy Sunday!
Pine Plantation, January thaw…
Pine plantation, Alwive Pond Preserve, W. Kennebunk Maine
There are few places stranger than
the pine plantation at Alwive Pond.
The trees all of a kind and all of an
age…my age…or a few years younger,
planted in the early 50s to fill in
for the fires of 47. And today, in
a January thaw, the trees stand stark
in the filtered light, unnaturally even,
holding high a fragile roof against
the winter sky. The hush is so profound
it is a presence, behind you, a cowled
multitude, breathing reverence in
perfect rhythm to your breath.
Sony Rx10iii in-camera HDR. 24mm equivalent field of view. Processed in Polarr on my iPad Pro for a somewhat high-key effect to bring out the geometry.
Nuthatch
White-breasted Nutchatch, Kennebunk Maine
It was dark and rainy yesterday, here in Kennebunk Maine, so of course, the birds were very active at the feeder. I was tempted out to the deck for a few photos, though the low light made focus difficult and pushed the ISO higher than I would have liked. This White-breasted Nuthatch performed nicely for me, (and there was a Red-breasted in the suet feeder as well, pic maybe tomorrow 🙂 This is not a bad shot for ISO 1600.
Sony Rx10iii at 600mm equivalent field of view. 1/100th @ f4. Processed and cropped slightly in Polarr on my iPad Pro.
Mid-winter thaw…
Pond along Rt 9 in Kennebunk Maine
It got up to 47 degrees yesterday, on January 11th, after night of rain. The combination had every creek in flood, ponds melting, and the tide, already a King tide, running abnormally high. They were practicing hockey here on the little pond by Rt 9 in Kennebunk only the day before. You can see the mounds of snow that marked the edge of the shoveled area in two different storms. I like the light and shadows here, and the reflections.
Sony Rx10iii in-camera HDR. Processed in Polarr on my iPad Pro. My own shadow removed from right center at the bottom with TouchRetouch.