Monthly Archives: August 2017

Bee in Blazing Star (again)

Bee, Blazing Star, Kennebunk Plains WMA, W. Kennebunk Maine

Here is it the last day of August and the Northern Blazing Star is still in full bloom on the Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area in West Kennebunk Maine. If memory serves, it was pretty much past by now other years. There were not as many butterflies working the blooms yesterday, but still lots of bees. Big furry bees. I am not sure what the photobombing insect is on the left…I never got a good look at it though it dove through the fame serveral times. It seemed to be harassing the bee…I have no idea why. 

Sony Rx10iii at 600mm equivalent. Program mode, -.7EV. 1/500th @ ISO 100 @ f4. Processed in Polarr.

Sculpted by…

Weathered wood…Laudholm Farms, Wells Maine

I have mentioned the outdoor sculpture exhibit at Laudholm Farms in Wells Maine. Many impressive and imaginative works line the trails and dot the meadows this summer. To walk there is to have your eye opened to sculpture. And once it is open, if you are like me, you will discover a lot of unlabeled sculptures along the trail…all apparently by the same artist, and all in weathered wood. I quite like them. πŸ™‚

Sony Rx10iii at 24mm equivalent. In-camera HDR. Nominal exposure: 1/200th @ ISO 100 @ f2.4. Processed in Polarr. 

Where the red fern grows…

Red Fern, Laudholm Farms, Wells Maine

We have had a few cool nights here at the end of August, and a few of the ferns are showing the effects. It makes for an interesting contrast. 

Sony Rx10iii at 227mm equivalent. In-camera HDR. Nominal exposure 1/250th @ ISO 500 @ f4. Processed in Polarr. 

Eastern Phoebe

Eastern Phoebe, Laudholm Farms, Wells Maine

The birds are liking the sculpture exhibit at Laudholm Farms in Wells Maine. Earlier this summer I photographed a Bluebird using a sculpture as a perch for hunting insects in the grasses of the meadow. On my last visit, this Eastern Phoebe was hunting form this iron rod sculpture of a deer. I saw it take at least 4 insects in the few moments I was photographing it. The sculpture, well out in the mown grasses beside the trail, made an ideal hunting perch. πŸ™‚

Sony Rx10iii at 600mm equivalent. Program mode. 1/250th @ ISO 125 @ f4. Processed in Polarr. 

Sassy!

Red Squirrel, Laudholm Farms, Wells Maine

I was hoping for a Red Squirrel yesterday. I always hope for a Red Squirrle when walking the boardwalk through the forest at Laudholm Farms (Wells National Estuarine Reserach Reserve). I see one maybe 1 in 10 walks, but it is enough to keep me hopeful. Always in the past they have been down on the boardwalk eating seeds and nuts that gather there…but yesterday this one surprised me in dead tree along the trail…ideally posed against the background of green leaves…and sitting on an attractive lichen covered branch. I felt truly blessed. 

Red Squirrels are among the sassyist of creatures…full of attitude, and this one was no exception. He or she was busy with some grooming and was not about to surrender his or her branch just because a human was near. 

Sony Rx10iii at 600mm equivalent. Program mode. ISO 500 @ f4 @ 1/250th. Processed in Polarr. 

Painted Lady on Blazing Star

Painted Lady, Blazing Star, Kennebunk Plains WMA, Maine

I never realized just how much of an insect magnet Northern Blazing Star is. The stands of Blazing Star on the Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area are full of Monarch and Painted Lady Butterflies, bees, beatles, etc.  This Painted Lady would not open her wings for me…but even the backside is beautiful. 

Sony Rx10iii at 600mm equivalent. Program mode. 1/1000th @ f5.6 @ ISO 100. Processed in Polarr. 

Crab Spider in Blazing Star

Crab Spider in Blazing Star, Kennebunk Plains WMA, Maine

When I went out to the Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area seeking Northern Blazing Star and dragonflies the other day, I found this Crab Spider hiding in the Blazing Star head. I watched it as it turned light green over the next few moments, but by then it was deeper in the plant and out of camera range.

Sony Rx10iii at 600mm equivalent. Program mode. 1/1000th @ ISO 100 @ f4.5. Processed in Polarr. 

Martha’s Pennant

Martha’s Pennant, Day Brook Pond, Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, Maine

I think this might be my very first Martha’s Pennant. I spotted it on reed stump well offshore at Day Brook Pond on the Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area here in Southern Maine, yesterday. At first I thought it was a Black Saddlebags, but it was way too small…just slightly smaller than the Calico Pennants also working the pond edge. And, of course, it was sitting all wrong…clearly a pennant. Martha’s Pennant. πŸ™‚ I am not sure what it was doing in the second shot. 

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

Garter Snake in the Garden

Garter Snake, The Yard, Kennebunk Maine

Carol called me out to see the snake she had found while getting some lettuce from the garden. A handsome, and quite large, Garter Snake. It wanted to hide in the leaf litter along the edge of the garden, but patience allowed me to catch it leaving the litter over a few bricks. The top frame gives you a sense of the size of the critter, and the bottom is, of course, the portrait shot. πŸ™‚

Sony Rx10iii at 600mm (bottom) and 135mm (top). Program mode with Program Shift for greater depth of field (f7.1). Processed in Polarr and assembled in FrameMagic. 

Royal Weaver Finch :)

House Sparrow, Rutland Water Bird Center, Rutland Water UK

No…or course not…it is the common (or once common) House Sparrow, from the feeders at Rutland Water Bird Center in midlands of the UK. They are in a serious decline in the UK, and at least some birders would not be unhappy to see them in a similar decline in the US, where, as an introduced species, they compete with native sparrows for nesting and foraging areas. There is no decline in the US though. Whenever I see a House Sparrow in Europe, whether in England or on the Continent, I think it really should have a more dressy name. They are far brighter, much more boldly colored, altogether more attractive, than in the US. Royal Weaver Finch in England, and, of course, Imperial Weaver Finch on the Continent. Don’t you think? πŸ™‚

Sony Rx10iii at 600mm equivalent. Program mode. 1/250th @ ISO 800 @ f4. Processed in Polarr.