Late afternoon light, a White-breasted Nuthatch, and a rock from the beach. A surprisingly apt combination. 🙂 I am pretty sure the Nuthatch is a newly fledged bird. 

Sony Rx10iii at 600mm equivalent. Program mode. 1/250th @ f4 @ ISO 100. Processed in Polarr. 

Tufted Titmouse at our feeding station. I think it had actually dropped a mealworm, but I could not resist the title. 

Sony Rx10iii at 600mm equivalent. Program mode at -.3EV. 1/250th @ f4 @ ISO 100. Processed in Polarr and TouchRetouch (to remove a branch at the left hand side of the image, and maintain composition). 

Though I was looking for Jewelwings along the Bascom River at Emmon’s Preserve, it turned out to be a skimmer kind of day, at least at the little pond between the meadows. I am probably still a week early for the Jewelwings. I saw two, maybe three, but they were so active that I could not get any pics. The Skimmers, 12 Spotted, Slaty, and Spangled, on the other hand, were more than cooperative, as skimmers generally are. I have layed the three dragons in over a background image of the pond itself. 

Sony Rx10iii at 600mm equivalent (pond at 24mm). Program mode. -.7EV. Processed in Polarr and assembled in FrameMagic. 

The mushrooms are coming! This is one of the Amanita species…I have not been able to determine which. It is, at any rate, poisonous or suspected of being poisonous (it certainly does not look edible, which is, I assume, why it is only suspected of being poisonous…as many of its fellow Amanita are). It is a beautiful little mushroom though. I think.

Sony Rx10iii at 600mm equivalent. Program mode. 1/250th @ f4 @ ISO 100. Processed in Polarr. 

When I went to pick-up the loan of my wife’s brother-in-law’s old truck for a dump run I could not miss the jungle of Black-eyed Susans and Wild Daisys growing on his leach-field. It was quite a sight, and, having my camera with me, I hopped out for a pic or two. 🙂

Sony Rx10iii at 190mm equivalent. In-camera HDR. Nominal exposure: 1/1000th @ f5 @ ISO 100. Processed in Polarr.

This is an Amber-winged Spreadwing, a common damselfly in Southern Maine. My first of the year. Perhaps too fresh to show the fading on the wing-tips. 

Sony Rx10iii at 600mm equivalent. Program mode. -.7 EV. Processed in Polarr.

I have seen quite a few Wild Turkey’s this year, including several clutches of poults. There is still a heavy acorn mast on the ground, and the and the clutches are large. These are just a few of the more than two dozen poults in a combined nursery under the care of at least 3 hens at Emmon’s Preserve in Kennebunkport the other day.  Later, deeper in the woods, I got to see the poults in flight as they fled up and into the high branches of pines when I came suddenly up on them. Who knew they could fly like a grouse! 

Sony Rx10iii at 600mm equivalent. Program mode. Processed in Polarr. This is a shot out the car window with the car still running, as the nursery made its way off into the forest. 

As I went orchid hunting the other day, just as I entered the forest between the meadow and the bog at Laudholm Farms (Wells, Maine), something white on the leaves of a trail-side bush caught my eye. I walked past it, but then it registered that it might have been a spider, and I turned around to see if it was. And it was. A lovely white Goldenrod Crab Spider had a perch in one of the leaves overlooking the trial…waiting for prey to come by. I was not prey, of course, so it ignored me as I captured it for posterity (and you my friends!). I know some of you do not like spiders, but I think this is a real beauty in a creepy kind of way. 🙂

And a happy 4th of July to all of you. 

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

As I mention over the past few days, there are two bog orchids in our local remnant bog at Laudholm Farms (Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve). I featured the Pink Pogonia yesterday. Today we have the Grass Pink…relatively unique among orchids in that it appears to built upside down…in actuality as the orchid flower develops, the stem twists 180 degrees so the flower is displayed upside down…but it is otherwise the same structure as any other orchid. There are far fewer Grass Pink plants at Laudholm than Pink Pogonias. I certainly hope they spread, as in my opinion it is one of the most beautiful of Maine wildflowers. 

Sony RX10III at 55mm and 600mm equivalent fields of view. Program mode. 1/1000th @ f4 and 1/500th @ f5.6 @ ISO 100. Processed in Polarr and assembled in FrameMagic. 

I mentioned that I went looking for our local bog orchids the other day at the little remnant bog at Laudholm Farms (Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve). We have two: Grass Pink Orchid and Rose Pogonia. A botanist said that Rose Pogonia is the most perfect pink in nature…and he might well be right. The flower has inspired a Robert Frost poem (https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/rose-pogonias/), and it certainly inspires me every late June and early July. It has other common names: Snake’s Mouth Orchid, and Adder’s Tongue, but I prefer Rose Pogonia…as more fitting with the delicate beauty of the flower. There are maybe 30 or 35 plants along the 50 yards of boardwalk through the tiny bog…I think a few more this year than last, so maybe the flower is spreading. That would be a good thing as far as I am concered. 

I have my own Rose Pogonia poem from a few years ago,  before I discovered them growing reliably in the Laudholm Farm Bog, revised for today’s Day Poem.

I have never seen
the Rose Pogonia grow
in any place a man
would want to mow.

Mossy bog or fen,
where both worship
and photography
are wet business
about the knees and feet
as you bow

to breath and frame,
to fill your SD card
(and your spirit)
with the essence of what is still wild,
of no use, and of such great value
the stars would weep
if you picked one.

Therefore the picture,
and this poem,
that your spirit might also know
that still, the Rose Pogonias grow
in a forgotten corner of a little bog
just down the road from home.

Sony Rx10iii in Program mode. -.7 EV. Processed in Polarr and assembled in FrameMagic.