Monthly Archives: August 2020

Ruffled feathers: Tufted Titmouse

Tufted Titmouse: Kennebunk, Maine, USA — It seems to be the season for ruffled feathers. Many of the birds coming to the feeders these days are looking kind of ratty. 🙂 This Tufted Titmouse is usually a sleek, well groomed looking bird, but not today! Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.

Handsome Heron

Great Blue Heron: Wells, Maine, USA — I would not call a Great Blue Heron beautiful…though I recognize its beauty. I think “handsome” is a better word. This handsome Heron was hunting frogs around a drainage pond on the Senior Condos complex behind US1 just over the Wells line. I got off my bike to look for dragonflies and might have missed the heron if it had not moved. I was certainly not looking for it and it was way down the other end of the pond. It was not bothered by me there, and allowed me to walk down quite close to it, in relative terms. I might have been able to get closer, but I did not want to flush it. There are a lot of frogs in that pond, and I wished the heron all the success it deserved. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. This is a portrait exposure, so pretty much full frame. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.

Downy Woodpecker

Downy Woodpecker: Kennebunk, Maine, USA — Chickadees, Chipping Sparrows, and Downy Woodpeckers. The regulars at our feeders…they come many times a day, every day. The Chickadee and the Downies are even with us all year. This shot is from my backyard photo blind, near the hanging suet cage, and this is one of three Downies that live in our yard…mom, pop, and a fledgling from this year. I have photographed this bird many times…but, as with Chickadees and Chipping Sparrows, you can never have too many Downy Woodpecker shots. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.

Sub-adult Ruby-throated Hummingbird

Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — We have a pair of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds coming to our sugar water feeder many times a day, and have had all summer. I have seen them returning often to the pines over my feeding station by my back-yard photo blind, but if they are nesting there, the nest is too high for me to find it in the branches. There are at least two younger birds around now. This sub-adult male came and hovered right outside the window of my blind…eye to eye with me, and then at least toyed with the idea of bathing in my water bucket fountain, before perching very briefly for this shot…in the deep shade of course, but we take what we can get for hummingbirds here in Maine. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.

Black and White Warbler

Black and White Warbler: Kennebunk, Maine, USA — This might be the second Black and White Warbler we have had in our yard over the past 20 years, but, if so, it is ONLY the second. I was totally surprised to see it land among the feeders at my photo blind. It came by a few times while I watched, but getting a photo was difficult. It was a very active bird, and was working, very Black and White like, close in to the branches behind the foliage. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.

Golden-crowned Kinglet!

Golden-crowned Kinglet, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — I got the chair-blind out again yesterday afternoon and spent an hour and a half watching chickadees come and go…along with the more occasional Chipping Sparrows. I was ready to pack it in when we got a sudden flurry of activity that included, not one, but two new birds for our yard. First a Black-and-white Warbler, and then a Golden-crowned Kinglet! I have seen both birds in Maine, but the Golden-crowned only in Acadia. This is female Golden-crowned, and a very scruffy bird at that…either it had been bathing recently or it is in molt. Still, a Golden-crowned Kinglet in our yard! You will probably see the Black-and-white Warbler tomorrow…unless I get something really spectacular today 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. The chair blind, by the way, is the best thing ever! It is a double blind…with two seats…so I have lots of room, and it packs up in seconds so I don’t have to leave it out.

Goldfinch: Another bird at the feeder blind

American Goldfinch, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — The water feeder did not see much use during the spring but I had only just refilled it when this American Goldfinch came in for a drink. Perhaps it will be more popular here in late summer. I am impressed with the uniform color on this bird…when I closed the feeding station by the blind, in late June, the Goldfinches were still splotchy with new feathers coming in, though it was full breeding season. Now they are solid yellow. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.

Great Spangled Fritillary

Great Spangled Fritillary, Emmon’s Preserve, Kennebunkport, Maine — Here is a creature to inspire dreams…in this photo it looks like a fantastically winged horse…actually the Great Spangled Fritillary (great name!) is one of the larger butterflies in New England and always a treat to see. There don’t seem to be as many this year, even at Emmon’s Preserve where they are generally common in August. There also does not seem to be as much Joe Pie Weed…which seems to be a favored feeding plant for the Fritillaries. I found this plant and butterfly in the ditch along the hay field just as you emerge from the woods at Emmon’s. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.

Birds at the blind again

I resolved to fill the feeders under the pines this week, set up the water feature, and get the chair-blind out again and see what I could see. Of course the first birds active at the feeders were the Chickadees. They have not been coming to the porch feeders, which are out in full sun, as often as the summer wears on, but they were all over the feeders in shade. And you can never have too many chickadee photos…right? Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.

Jewelweed

It is Jewelweed season in Southern Maine. I found these growing along the Eastern Trail in Arundel yesterday, but there is generally a bunch of them in the ditch along Brown Street, just down from my house. I have not looked the past few days. Jewelweed is called “touch-me-not”…not because it is toxic to the skin, but because it has exploding seed-pods…in fact it is used in a soothing salve for skin irritations, including poison ivy. It is a member of the Impatience’s family, as you might guess from the shape of the flower. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm (tel-macro). Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.