Monthly Archives: March 2020
Chipper Poem
There is a poem with this, today’s Day Poem.
3/11
The chipmunks were out in force at
Laudholm Farms this unexpectedly
warm March day. The temperature
hovered just below 70, and the sky
was clear and blue. I watched a
chipper scamper in the woods, and
then, becoming aware of me. freeze
at the foot of an adolescent maple…
too big to be called a sapling, but
still small enough to be in its dancing
days in the shade of its elders. Up
or around, I had to wonder, thinking
of the chipmunk, and then, taking
a step closer for a photo, the chipper
dived under (not a direction I had
considered) into a unseen hole where
what will be a buttress root in a hundred
years jutted out from the base of the
tree. I walked on, not wanting in any
way to diminish the chipmunk’s en-
joyment of the rare, fine March day,
especially as it was clearly evident
he had no intention of spoiling mine.
Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Silver Birch
A bit of Silver Birch bark detail from Laudholm Farms in the crisp light of a clear early March afternoon. I like the way the texture of bark contrasts with the lovely bokeh of late winter, early spring forest. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Feisty Chipmunk…
On our first really warm day of spring…hovering just under 70 degrees…this chipmunk at Laudholm Farms in Wells, Maine, was pretty full of himself, feisty even. He was not sure he was going to give me the right-of-way on the boardwalk through the lower woods along the Rachel Carson NWR border…though he did finally take the leap off the edge and into a pile of brush. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos and assembled in Framemagic.
Variations on a theme Cedar Waxwings
What will I do with my
hundreds of photos of
Cedar Waxwings from
the past few weeks…
I see it as an installation…
a bare room, wide pine
board floor, white walls,
neutral gray ceiling, subtle
track lighting, and hundreds
of Cedar Waxwing shots
hung in rows upon the walls,
in all the poses they get
into, the improbable
acrobatics of plucking
berries, dozens of berry
in the beak, the classic
meditative portrait with-
out one fine feather out
of place…groomed by
the wind of their own
passing, no two shots
the same, but so
similar…they might be
all one bird. “Variations”
I would call it,
“Variations on a theme
of Cedar Waxwings.”
Here are two ways of envisioning my Variations on Cedar Waxwings. A Gallery where you can page through them, and a video slideshow.
Cedar Waxwings once again…
Again with the Cedar Waxwings. Though the birds in general have become more active in the past week, Cedar Waxwings are still the primary photo subjects in Kennebunk right now. This is from a few days ago, and from the largest flock I have seen in one yard yet…over 40 birds. I like the way the two birds interact within the frame here. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. Kennebunk, Maine, USA
Chipper in the March sunshine
A Chipmunk on the boardwalk through the Maple Swamp at Laudholm Farms (Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve), in Wells, Maine. The chippers are just beginning to be seen out most days here in Southern Maine. This one held this pose for at least a full minute as I took photos. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Ruddy Turnstones
We return to Florida and the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival in Titusville. On my last day there, my daughter Sally and I did a loop around Black Point Wildlife Drive and then the short loop of Gator Creek, where we found a small flock of Rudy Turnstones, which we pulled over to watch in two different spots as they moved along the waterfront. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. Assembled in FrameMagic. Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, Titusville, Florida, USA.
Picking berries on the wing: Cedar Waxwing
I seems to me most days (and it might beginning to seen to you), that if there were not Cedar Waxwings in February and March in Kennebunk, there would be nothing to photograph. Neither of us would be far from wrong. At the very least, the large flock of Cedar Waxwings currently working their way through the ornamental berries of the village are the most interesting photographic subjects…and much easier to find than the Eagles that show up occasionally at Roger’s Pond Park. This sequence shows a Cedar Waxwing picking berries on the wing. The bird never did land, which is uncommon, in my experience, for a Waxwing. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications (which includes 3.5 frames per second continuous shooting). Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos, and assembled in FrameMagic.
Cedar Waxwings in the fame
On my walk yesterday I came upon a flock of at least 40 Cedar Waxwings. I have been seeing flocks of 15 to 20 around town, but yesterday’s congregation was the largest I have seen…I think the largest I have ever seen. The yard where I found them had a number of plants with winter berries, but that is true of most yards in Kennebunk. This is an interesting shot in that it is what I would call an “accidental” focus stack. I took a burst of this pair of Waxwings. They were just far enough apart (the bottom bird is a good 6 to 8 inches in front of the top bird) that they were not in focus at the same time, so I switched the focus point back and forth between them. Two of the shots were framed closely enough so that, during processing I immediately saw the possibility of combining the two into one shot with both birds in focus. After my standard processing in Polarr I applied a little careful manipulation of the two images in Pixomatic, and here you have it. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. 2 images focus stacked in Pixomatic.
Ice wonder
Crossing the bridge over the Mousam River here in Kennebunk yesterday on my walk, I looked downriver for Eagles, as I generally do, only to spot this amazing ice formation on a branch extending out over the rapids below the dam. The tallest columns here are close to 3 feet long. I will admit that I do not understand the physics of how something like this forms…and my imagination is simply humbled in presence of wonder. There are rough stone steps from Rotary Park by the bridge down to the river’s edge, and I went down to explore more of the ice formations at close range, but this shot is my initial view from the bridge. (I will share at least a few more ice sculptures in the coming days.) Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. HDR mode. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.