Monthly Archives: August 2021
All business bee with Blazing Star!
I seem to be photographing a lot of bees this month, both around home, and during our visit to New Mexico. Maybe August is the month of the bee? There are certainly a lot of bees in the Blazing Star boom on the Kennebunk Plains. Mostly Bumble Bees like this one…which is, I am thinking, the Common Eastern Bumble Bee (though there are several others it might be). This shot catches the business end of the bee…ready to prob deeply into the Blazing Star for pollen, and you can see by the pollen sacks on the legs that this bee has already been busy. Bumble Bees to occasionally sting (mostly when trapped or squashed), and I certainly would not want to be on the receiving end of that stinger. This is a shot from the Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Cropped and processed as usual in Polarr and then opened in Pixelmator Pro for enlargement using the Machine Learning Maximum Resolution tool, and recropped to fill the frame, for what amounts to a super-telephoto macro. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/640th.
Sandia Crest Red-breasted Nuthatch
Red-breasted Nuthatch: Sandia Crest, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA — There were hundreds of Red-breasted Nuthatches along the Sandia Crest Nature Trial when we visited last week. New Mexico Nuthatches seem to be quite large by Maine standards. They seem to be pretty much the same size as our White-breasted Nuthatches. In Maine the RBNH is noticeably smaller, by a full size, maybe a size and a half, than the WBNH. The same perky little bird though…always busy. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and given the Machine Learning Maximum Resolution treatment in Pixelmator Pro, then cropped back to fill the fame more, and finished in Apple Photos. I am guessing the net result is a frame of view approximately equivalent to a 2000mm lens on a full frame camera. This is my new method for overcoming the limitations of a 600mm equivalent lens for small birds at a distance. 🙂 ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Bee and Nodding Ragwort
This is another wildflower from Sandia Crest high above Albuquerque, New Mexico…and one that totally had me stumped. It is a pretty unique flower, with the bright yellow petals (or bracts) pulled in tightly around the true flowers in the center, in fairly large clusters, hanging like bells below the stems…but one that I had definitely not seen before. I actually identified it using Google Lens, which returned the name, Nodding Ragwort, as well as hundreds of other images. The bee is a added bonus, and you can see front he pollen on the legs that though the flowers look strange, they are very productive pollen factories. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/640th.
Sandia Crest Flowers
I still have lots of photos from our week in New Mexico…so many wildflowers! This is a small selection from Sandia Crest east of Albuquerque, New Mexico. The Sandia Crest Highway takes you up to over 10,000 feet and the trail takes you out along the edge of a cliff and then back through the woods behind. We have here, as far as I can tell, one of the Wild Onions (perhaps Nodding, but at this elevation it looks considerably different than the Nodding I saw lower down), Columbine, Bluebells, and Paint Brush. I selected these photos for the contrast in color and for the isolation against the background (provided by the 600mm macro on the Sony Rx10iv). For macro I use program and my standard custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. Assembled in FrameMagic. These are all at f4. Paint Brush is at ISO 500 and 1/500th, Bluebells and Onion at ISO 100 and 1/1000th, Columbine at ISO 100 and 1/640th.
Blazing Star Display
Northern Blazing Star, Kennebunk Plains, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — This one of the denser stands of Northern Blazing Star on the Kennebunk Plains this year. Blazing Star is a fire dependent plant of glacial sand plains and is very restricted by just how little of that habitat remains undeveloped, both in Maine and all across the northern states to the Rocky Mountains. We are blessed that the Kennebunk Plains were kept open, first for wild blueberry production, and then as a Nature Conservancy Preserve, and that it is managed, in part, for fire dependent species like the Blazing Star. Stands like this one are getting harder and harder to find. Having it, basically, in my backyard (a short trike ride away) is very special. I used moderate telephoto, 107mm equivalent, on Nikon B700 to compass the image slight to show the stand to best effect. Program mode. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4.5 @ 1/1000th.
Goldenrod and Blazing Star
Goldenrod and Northern Blazing Star: Kennebunk Plains Preserve, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — Now that the heat wave has broken and the air quality is rising here in Southern Maine, I was able to get out to the Kennebunk Plains on my trike to see how this year’s crop of Northern Blazing Star is coming on. As I suspect from early blooms, it is a good year for Blazing Star. From Rt. 99 as you drive by, large sections of the Plains look purple with the flowers standing above the grasses. If you walk out any of the roads (all roads on the Plains are now closed to vehicle traffic, except the short section that gives access to the parking on the south side of Rt. 99) you will find that the stands are mostly not as dense as they look form Rt. 99. They never are, but they are impressive enough as it is. Goldenrod is also in full bloom, and the combination, where they grow together, provides a very striking contrast in color and form. Frame the pair from a low angle against the August sky and you have an image worth remembering 🙂 Nikon B700 at 71mm equivalent with macro engaged. ISO 100 @ f4.5 @ 1/1000th. -.3 EV exposure compensation. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Cassin’s Finch
Cassin’s Finch: Capulin Snowplay Area, Sandia Crest Highway, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA — As near as I can figure this is a juvenile male Cassin’s Finch. From the right angle you could see just a blush of reddish on the chest. There was another bird with it that was probably the adult female. Both sat above the water drip at the Snowplay area for most of the time we sat there…going on an hour. We left primarily because I came to the suspect we were keeping them from their drink (and partially because our two non-birders had exhausted the entertainment factor of the old road through the picnic area). Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. ISO 160 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Santa Fe Lizards
New Mexico Whiptail 
New Mexico Whiptail 
Chihuahuan Spotted Whiptail 
Desert Grassland Whiptail 
Little Striped Whiptail 
Plateau Fence Lizard
In the six days we spent in and around Santa Fe, New Mexico, we encountered several different lizard species. The trouble is that all but one were whiptails, and I do not know enough about whiptails in general, and New Mexico whiptails in particular, to reliably distinguish them where the species overlap as they do in Santa Fe. Also there are several possible Fence Lizards in New Mexico. I have captioned the images with my best attempt at an ID based on the resources I could find on the web and in apps. Anyone who really knows their Southwestern Lizards can feel free to correct me. 🙂 To complicate matters, the New Mexico Whiptail is a fertile, female only, hybrid between the Little Striped Whiptail and the Desert Grassland Whiptail, both of which also occur in Santa Fe. So. All photos with the Sony Rx10iv at or near 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Green-tailed Towhee
Green-tailed Towhee: Capulin Snowplay Area, Sandia Crest Highway, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA — My daughter Sal who lives in Albuquerque took us up Sandia Crest Highway to get away from the high temperatures and wildfire smoke settled over the city and to find some birds to photograph. We stopped at the Capulin Snowplay Area and walked down to the springs where there is water drip that attracts all kinds of birds depending on the time of day. This Green-tailed Towhee came and took several baths in the unaccustomed heat. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Flame Skimmer
Flame Skimmer: Leonora Curtin Wetland Preserve, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA — The morning of my daughter’s wedding celebration in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Carol and I went out to explore the local cienega (marsh or wetland in Spanish) just south of town. It is one of the very few natural ponds and wetlands in the high desert of northern New Mexico, and is owned and managed by the Santa Fe Botanical Gardens. Three short trails and some boardwalks provide access to birds, flowers, and dragonflies in season. We saw very few birds, probably because we were not there at dawn, but there were a good number of dragonflies and damselflies, and lots of interesting (though mostly invasive) flowers. This is the Flame Skimmer…a largish dragonfly, and certainly a highlight of any trip to the Southwest. There were two active around the little observation platform built out over the pond. It took me the better part of a half hour to catch one sitting close enough for a good photograph. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent from about 6 feet. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/640.