Monthly Archives: August 2020
Confusing Red Meadowhawks of Autumn
It is the season for small red Meadowhawks, or maybe it is just that the Autumn Meadowhawks are so abundant right now that they draw attention to the other, closely related, species. Meadowhawk identification is not for the faint hearted, but I will take a stab at it. I think I have here, top to bottom, Autumn, with its yellowish legs, White-faced, and Ruby. They were all taken at the same small pond that drains the parking lot at the Southern Maine Medical Center in Kennebunk, Maine. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Again with the Red-breasted Nuthatch
Red-breasted Nuthatch, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — I put my chair blind out the other day for an hour or so in the late afternoon. It was the day before the storm got to us and we had a lot of bird activity around the feeders. The Red-breasted Nuthatch had pretty much single-handedly emptied the sunflower feeder and flew off with the seeds. I suspect the bird was storing them somewhere…no eating them. Still a very attractive little bandit. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Even though the light was still good, it is deeply shaded under the trees, so ISO 2500 @ f4 @ 1/500. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos, with some extra masking for noise.
Common Banded Skipper (?)
Common Banded Skipper, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — I am not a butterfly expert, or a skipper expert at that…but I think this is the Common Banded Skipper. Not 3/4 of an inch long. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Day Lily
I bought this day lily for Carol’s birthday last year, and it was in bloom then, so I should not have been surprised that it is a late bloomer. I was. It seemed it was never going to bloom. Most of the other lilies in our yard are long past, but this one is finally producing wonderful blossoms over the past few weeks. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. HDR mode. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. And of course this is as much about composition as it is about the flower.
Red-breasted Nuthatch right way up?
Red-breasted Nuthatch, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — I started out to say this is a shot of the Red-breasted Nuthatch that visits our thistle feeder “right way up”…but I am not entirely certain that there is a “right way up” for nuthatches. They seem to spend as much time, or more, with their heads down, as they do with their heads up. So what is the right way for an nuthatch? Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Red-breasted Nuthatch, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — When I filled the feeders last, I put some thistle seed in the wire mesh feeder that has been empty all summer, and we immediately had this Red-breasted Nuthatch, which we have not seen is at least a month, come visiting many times a day. It apparently really likes thistle. It does not visit the feeders under the pines, as I have had thistle there all summer, but it likes the feeders on the deck. Go figure. It takes one seed at time, and you can see how small the seeds are, puts it on the end of a vertical branch, and bashes it open to get at the kernel inside. That is a lot of work for a very small kernel. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Not great light so already at ISO 2000 even at f4. 1/500th. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Great Egret (in a tree)
Great Egret: Kennebunk, Maine, USA — We have a few Great Egrets around all summer, in the tidal marshes along the lower Mousam River, and the other marshes along the coast, but this week we have many…along with high numbers of Snowy’s as well. I could see them from the bridge on Route 9, up-river in the marsh and in the trees, so I turned up the Bridle Path, which runs along the back side of the marshes, to see if I could get closer. Not ideal light, but about as close to a Great Egret as you are going to get in Maine. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Blue Dasher, with sparkles.
Sometimes it is the “other” stuff in a photo that makes it’s appeal. In this case a portrait of a Blue Dasher dragonfly on a reed at the pond at Southern Maine Medical Center here in Kennebunk is transformed by the sparkles on the water, and what the lens does to them. The circles are actually refraction patterns formed when the light, reflecting off the water behind the dragonfly, passes through the diaphragm of the lens (the little hole that controls how much light gets to the sensor). The pattern they make lifts this dragonfly portrait out of the ordinary. Or that is what I think anyway. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Blazing Star pollinators…
Northern Blazing Star, Kennebunk Barrons Nature Conservancy, Kennebunk, Maine — Though the Blazing Star crop this year is not what I expected after a controlled burn, there are clearly enough blossoms to attract a wide variety of pollinators. Many different insects are attracted to this endangered plant, which is good, as it gives the plant its best chance at survival within its highly restricted range. It’s a good deal for the insects as well. 🙂 Left to right and down, Cabbage White butterfly, Clouded Sulphur butterfly, Cuckoo Leaf-cutter Bee (sp?), Green Metallic Sweat Bee (sp?), Leonard’s (?) Skipper, and Monarch butterfly. I am sure if I had spent more time there I could have found others as well. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Why you have to photograph every Chickadee :)
Black-capped Chickadee, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — I wrote a poem the other day about how taking photos of Chickadees is “paying your photographic dues” so you are ready when a real rarity shows up at your feeders…but there is, as this photo demonstrates, more to it than that. You just never know when a Chickadee (or other common bird) is going to display an interesting behavior. I would not have gotten this shot if I had not already been focused on the bird when it happened. In fact I was in the middle of a burst of photos already that started with the bird nicely posed on the branch. This just happened. 🙂 And that is the way it works. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.