I have mentioned the pair of Eastern Bluebirds that are visiting our yard daily. Not quite the bluebird on my shoulder experience but close…bluebird on my feeder. This is the female, perched on the feeder pole at the corner of the deck about 8 feet from the sliding door. I got the door open far enough to hold the camera out through the gap for an unobstructed view. 

Sony Rx10iii at 600mm equivalent. Program mode. 1/320th @ f4 @ ISO 100. -.7 EV. Processed in Polarr. 

 
I have photographed this tree before…it is one of my favorite trees. This is a vertical panorama shot to get the whole tree in. It just seems to have such strength! The tree that holds up the sky!

Sony Rx10iii in Panorama mode. Processed in Polarr. 

If you read yesterdays Day Poem, you know that Carol and Kelia called me from the beach to say there were 3 deer in the marsh behind the dunes. Just on the chance they would be there, I drove down. They were. A doe and two fawns still in their spotted coats. They were out in the marsh beside the main bed of the stream, at high tide, when most of the marsh is flooded. It looked like the doe wanted to cross, but could no persuade the fawns that it was safe, so they retreated toward firmer ground. The distance was at least 150 yards, so not ideal even at 600mm, but I am pleased with the cropped shots. 

Sony Rx10iii at 600mm equivalent. Program mode. 1/1000th @ f4 @ ISO 100. Processed in Polarr and assembled in FrameMagic. 

I posted a shot of an Eastern Towhee digging in a just dried vernal pool the other day, and mentioned that a Chipmunk was following it around the pool looking in the holes it made for acorns…well seasoned by their time underwater. The Chipmunk was so intent on its task that it paid no attention to me. It was just over 6 feet from me here…6 feet in line of sight…so maybe 3 feet from my foot. Such a treasure! It got that acorn tucked in its cheek pouch and scampered off to store it with its hard. 

Sony Rx10iii at 600mm equivalent. Program mode. 1/250th @ ISO 1000 @ f4. Processed in Polarr and assembled in FrameMagic. 

You will need to look carefully or you might think this is just a shot of standing cattail reeds. Can you see the subject of interest. There is a White-tailed Deer standing in the reeds. A tricky focus problem…but Sony’s Direct Manual Focus handled it. 

There is a poem that goes with this image too. I will add it at the end.

Sony Rx10iii at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with Direct Manual Focus. 1/500th @ f4 @ ISO 100. Processed in Polarr. 

The poem:

As I stood on the Marsh View 
deck at Laudholm Farms, 
listening to a Marsh Wren sing 
and looking for the source, 
I saw movement through the 
cattail reeds, maybe 30 yards 
out. Something big and mammal 
like. It took me a long moment 
of looking before my eyes, 
before my brain, could sort the 
shapes and assemble them, 
puzzle like, through the reeds. 
Yes two big ears, and a long 
nose, and a body almost completely 
screened, but there. A White Tailed 
Deer. She stood and looked at me, 
probably more certain of what 
I was than I was of her. I raised the 
camera and focused manually to 
see if I could capture the magic 
of the moment…and then, greedy,
shifted just to my left to try for 
a better line of sight, and she was 
off, bounding high, white flag 
following, splashing through the 
water and the reeds toward the 
safety of the wooded shore.

I wrote a poem about this encounter at Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve at Laudholm Farms in Wells Maine. 

I took a walk in the woods and fields
at Laudholm Farms today. Sunday.
Our last sunny day for most of a week,
or so the weather says. It seemed the
the whole world was celebrating. Great
clouds (courtesy of the coming storms)
over a luminous landscape…spring going
strong toward summer. In a newly
dry vernal pool a Towhee dug deep
in the damp leaves with impossible 
flicks of feet…cachunk…and leaves flying,
chchunk and a small crater opening under,
pure percussion all out of proportion to the
size of the bird…a Chipmunk followed
picking up the acorns uncovered, and
a Titmouse came in after, looking
for what the Towhee passed up: the 
not a beatle, not a cricket, too small
a grub, denizens of the leaf litter (since
the Towhee ate all those). I thought it
very clever of the Chipmunk and the
Titmouse to let the Towhee do the work.
But honestly, the Towhee looked like he 
was enjoying making the mess…and I suppose 
that is adequate compensation, on a sunny
Sunday, when all the world is celebrating.

Sony Rx10iii at 600mm. Program mode. Processed in Polarr. 

I went out for a short walk on the Kennebunk Bridle Path yesterday, just to see what I could see. I was almost back to the car when I heard the sweek of Chipmunk close at hand. I turned to search the nearby trees and brush and almost missed this specimen, peeking out at me from a crack between trunks not 10 feet away. He waited to see what I would do while I got my camera up and took a few pics. Then he was away, round the back-side of the tree, and though I looked, I never saw him again.

Sony Rx10iii at 600mm equivalent. Program mode. 1/250th @ f4 @ ISO 400. Processed in Polarr. 

Day Brook Pond is home to at least 2 (and probably many more) Northern Water Snakes. When I visited the other day, I saw one swimming along the shore where I often see them, and found this one sunning in fallen birch that still has branches above the water. This is the second time I have caught a snake in this tree. I suspect, from the bulge in the body, that this snake is also digesting. There are lots of big fat Bull Frog tadpoles in the pond right now. Very likely one less. 

Sony Rx10iii at 600mm equivalent. Program mode. 1/640th @ f4 @ ISO 100. Processed in Polarr.

We had an unexpected visitor on our back deck yesterday. This newly fledged Down Woodpecker sort of crash landed on the deck rail and rested there for at least 10 minutes. It was not bothered by our presence at all. Both my wife and I went out, and I had time to get my camera and take a few portraits. The whole time we were there, one of its parents called loudly in alarm from the trees. I was wondering how it got up to the deck, or if it was injured, when it finally finished its rest and flipped up into the air the way woodpeckers do, in a flash, and flew off up and over the house to the trees in the front yard. Such a treat!

Sony Rx10iii at 600mm equivalent. Program mode. 1/250th @ f4 @ ISO 320. Processed in Polarr. 

I had to look it up this morning to be sure, but Red Columbine is native to Maine. I found this patch in the sunny opening in front of the viewing platform along the Timber Point Trail at the Goose Rocks division of Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge on a visit there last week. Such an exotic looking flower for Maine 🙂

Sony Rx10iii at 91mm equivalent field of view. Program mode with Program shift for greater depth of field. f9 @ 1/250th @ ISO 100. Processed in Polarr.