Monthly Archives: June 2020
American Emerald
American Emerald dragonfly, Kennebunk Plains Nature Conservancy, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — I am pretty sure this is an American Emerald. If so, it would be a first for me. I saw a Racket-tailed Emerald over the water very near where I took this photo a week before…Racket-tail is an early Dragonfly in Maine, and has an obvious “racket” at the end of the abdomen…but this one looks more like an American. Of course there are a couple of striped Emeralds it could be here in Maine, but, like I say, it is most likely an American. I still have a lot to learn about dragonflies. 🙂 I do enjoy photographing them though. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Bee in the Lupine
The masses of Lupine flowers in the the field where they grow out toward Emmon’s Preserve in Kennebunkport attract all kinds of insects, including this giant bumble bee. I could not begin to say which of the 16 species of bumble bee we have in Maine this is…except that is not the orange-belted. 🙂 Notice, from the pollen collected on the back legs, how red the pollen of the Lupine must be. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Four-spotted Skimmer
Four-spotted Skimmer, SMHC Ponds, Kennebunk, Maine. — Our Four-spotted Skimmers are among the early summer dragonflies in Southern Maine…and there were many of them at the drainage ponds at Southern Maine Health Care campus in Kennebunk. Like all dragonflies, I find the intricate patterns fascinating. And of course all skimmers are wonderful for photography because they sit still just long enough to focus, and often land close enough. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Lupines for Sunday
On Friday afternoon I rode my eBike out to Emmon’s Preserve to check for early dragonflies in the meadows, but mainly to check on the Lupine bloom in a field out that way. In the week between visits we have had some nice early summer weather, and indeed, the Lupines have responded. I took my landscape camera with me…the Sony a6500 with the 16mm lens (24mm equivalent) and the Ultrawide converter, which results in an 18mm equivalent view. I invested in this combination because I always enjoy the perspective of the ultrawide lens. I don’t carry it enough on my photoprowls around home. The sun was behind the clouds, where it had been all morning, when I got to the Lupine field, but I waited it out, and got a few shots at the end of the visit with the sun on the flowers. I offer this shot as celebration of Sunday! Sony a6500 as above with 18mm equivalent. HDR mode. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
A tale of two moths
Eight-spotted Forester and White-striped Black Moths, Emmon’s Preserve, Kennebunkport, Maine, USA. I went out to Emmon’s Preserve yesterday on my eBike, to see about early dragonflies, but mostly to see if the field of Lupine up the road from there was in full bloom yet. I found these two moths in one corner of the meadow above the Land Trust buildings. Two little back moths. There were quite a few of the White-striped Blacks, but I only saw the one Forester. I had to look them both up, as they were new to me. They are distinctive enough so that it was an easy search on the internet. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
An abundance of Lady Slippers
You will want to view this as large as your device allows. 🙂 There is a poem:
6/5
I met a man out on one of my rambles
today who told me that if I just went
on out past the pond (where I seldom
go), and looked along on the left there,
down into the woods, I would find a
big patch of Lady Slipper Orchids.
“Has to be a hundred of them,” he said.
I took it as your typical Maine exaggeration,
but as I had nothing more pressing to
accomplish than checking on the
progress of early dragon and damselflies
around the pond, I thought, “why not”
and headed out there. It was further out
than I thought, but when I found the place
it was unmistakable. Not a hundred…
more like five hundred, Lady Slippers,
maybe even a thousand (and that is no
Maine exaggeration), though they were hard
to count among the trees and scattered
over a long thin rectangle of open woods,
maybe three hundred by a hundred feet,
as the slope slopes off down to the
brook among the big trees. I have never
seen anything to match it, Lady Slipper
wise. Some of the clumps were a dozen
blossoms or more, and some of the plants
were eighteen inches tall…big healthy
looking flowers, rich rose pink, delicately
veined, even in the half light of a cloudy
day under the canopy of tall maples, pines
and oaks. I took a lot of photos, of clumps
and individual blossoms, and of patches
were I could find a line of sight, but it was
impossible to capture even a little bit
of the impression of so may Lady Slippers,
so tall, so pink, all in such a small piece
of woods. Only on the way back did I
think of video. I could have maybe caught
it better with some pans and zooms over
a few moments as I moved about. Ah well.
The light was not great anyway. Gives me
a reason to go back out there the next
sunny day if we have one soon. I feel a bit
ashamed now of wining about not being
able to get into Rachel Carson for my Lady
Slipper fix…who knew the creator had such
a splendor of Lady Slippers up that sleeve?
And I will be forever grateful to the unknown
man who took the time to tell me to keep
walking and keep looking left and down.
And I did go back for the video, which came out okay, though I am not sure it catches any more of the impression of all those Lady Slippers. 🙂
Sony Rx10iv at 24mm equivalent (video at about 80mm equivalent).
I am generally more specific with the location of my photos (and poems), but I have gone back and edited out all location info in this post and the poem. Not far from this patch there used to be patch growing the shade of a large pine on the edge of the pond, an unusual place to find them growing. This year, sometime in the past week, someone dug out every one of those plants, and left the empty holes. Lady Slippers are listed as a plant of “special concern” in Maine, grow very slowly and should not be dug up for transplant. In addition, they live in a symbiotic relationship with a fungus in a very particular type of soil, so chances of successful transplanting are very slim. Please. Leave them be!
How does this thing work? Brown-headed Cowbird
Brown-headed Cowbird (female), Kennebunk, Maine, USA — I am having a lot of fun watching the birds try to figure out how to get a drink from the pump and bucket water feature I have near my backyard photo blind. This Brown-headed Cowbird spent about 10 minutes at it before she managed to get a drink. Now that she has it down, she will be back. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Thirsty bird: Eastern Bluebird
Eastern Bluebird, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — As the weather gets warmer the water features of my backyard photo blind feeding station become every more popular. I have a hanging water feeder, a hanging bird bath, and a recirculating waterfall pump and bucket thing. The birds (and chipmunks) are just figuring out the waterfall, but they have been using the birdbath all along, and individual Goldfinches, Chickadees, and one female Bluebird have figured out how to use the hanging water feeder. The male Bluebird, however, continues to prefer the hanging bird bath. My line of sight to the bird bath is getting more limited as the leaves come in. I may have to move it soon, as I will not be trimming back the vegetation. These shots of the Bluebird getting a drink of typical of what I see these days. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Make a wing…
Eastern Bluebird, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — While watching the fledgling Eastern Bluebird the other day, it did some practice wing stretching and I managed to catch the wing at full extension. Not great light, but still impressive. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Lupine season coming on…
Lupine. Kennebunkport, Maine. There is a poem that goes with this.
6/1
The lupines caught me by surprise
out Emmon’s way, late as the season
has seemed, and us with still a day
to go in May. The field at the fork
in the road there, where Goose Rocks
meets Guinea, where some years
the lupines make a purple pool under
the old maples and well out into the
hay, was coming into full flower already.
These last few days of 80 degree
weather have really rushed us on
toward June…only a few weeks ago
we saw our first rhodora and now
flag iris and geraniums are blooming
in the ditches and lupine in the fields.
There at the corner, they have moved
the old hay rake out next to the road
right among the lupines. It is is always
there in that field, and this year they
must have figured they would save
the trespass of all the photographers
who waded out and trampled hay
getting to it among the flowers further
out. Nothing like a field of lupines
(unless you see them among a white
birch grove as I did once in Acadia),
and I look forward every year to
catching them in bloom, there, out
Emmon’s way, in early June. If you
are going to caught by surprise, may
it always be something like lupines.
Sony Rx10iv at 24mm equivalent. HDR mode. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.