Monthly Archives: November 2021
Little River Marsh
This is looking across from the Little River Marsh overlook at Laudholm Farms toward the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge headquarters, on a late fall day. iPhone SE with Sirui 18mm ultra-wide lens. Apple Camera app with Smart HDR engaged. Processed in Apple Photos.
Crow in Autumn
American Crow: Kennebunk, Maine, USA — The crows are congregating for the winter already in southern Maine…but then they are kind of a congregating species anyway. You rarely see one crow. This was part of a small flock that works our section of Brown Street, and probably a wider area. I see them mostly when they come to visit around home, and they are often in the big empty lot just up the street. And, also very Crow-like, this one had something on its mind that it was determined to let the world know all about. It was not happy about something. Maybe it did not like me stopping under its tree for these photos. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. Assembled in FrameMagic. ISO 200 @ f4 @ 1/500th +.3 EV and ISO 320 @ f4 @ 1/500th, +1 EV. (Playing with the EV compensation to try to balance the back bird against the bright background.)
It is the Bittersweet time of year…
You know, changing the clocks, dark until well after coffee time, frost every night…and, in the fields and forest, the Bittersweet fruiting out. You have to suspect that anything that gaudy that grows so prolifically and saps the life out of native trees and overwhelms native bushes is invasive…and indeed, this is Asiatic Bittersweet, and pure bitter for our natural habits…nothing sweet about it. I photographed this plant climbing all over the fence lines at Laudholm Farms in Wells, Maine. iPhone SE with Sirui 10x macro lens. Apple Camera app with Smart HDR engaged. Processed in Apple Photos.
Blue Jay blue too
Blue Jay: Kennebunk, Maine, USA — If one set of poses of my cooperative Blue Jay from the other day is good…then a second set should be better? Maybe. As good as, more likely. 🙂 After all it is the same bird and the same feeding station. Handsome bird. Lovely background. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos and assembled in FrameMagic. ISO 800 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Blue Jay blue…
Blue Jay: Kennebunk, Maine, USA — Blue Jays are only occasional visitors to our yard, though they are certainly always in the neighborhood. I can not tell you how many times one has landed on our deck when I have not had my camera handy, and, always, they are gone as soon as I move to go get the camera. This one was no different, but he came back after I got the camera and actually posed for me in a couple of different spots on the deck…here on one of the perch branches we have bolted to the deck rail near the feeders. Blue Jays are Corvids…related to the Crows…and are highly intelligent birds, with lots of character. They can be bullies at the feeder and I suppose I would feel differently about them if they were in our yard all the time, but as occasional visitors I am always happy to see them. It helps, in these shots, to have the lovely background of fall color, already in the sun while our deck was still in shadow. Taken through the thermal glass of our deck door. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. ISO 640 for the first two, 800 for the last @ f4 @ 1/500th. +.3 EV to compensate for the backlight.
Understory Autumn
The leaves are all pretty much off the maples and birches, leaving the understory to carry on autumn alone. This is a mass of Barberry…Japanese Barberry, and unfortunately invasive and well established along the trails at Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve at Laudholm Farms. Or maybe not so unfortunately, as it turns out. Tom’s of Maine is currently studying the plant to see if they can make an old herbal recipe for throat care from it, as our ancestors did from the once native Common Barberry. We still have isolated clumps of Common Barberry, but after a concerted effort by the CCC to eradicate it as a “wheat rust” host, and the success of the Japanese Barberry invasion, there is not much left…certainly not enough to harvest for a throat spray. It is Barberry root that contains the active ingredient, so maybe Tom’s will solve the Barberry problem at Laudholm over the coming years. They have already funded the removal of thousands of plants and their replacement with Mountain Laurel and Red Cedar (depending on how wet the soil is). Maybe in 10 years this autumn understory color will be no more. We can hope. And untold thousands of throats will thank us (or Tom’s at any rate). iPhone SE with Sirui 18mm ultra-wide lens. Apple Camera app with Smart HDR engaged. Processed in Apple Photos.
Pileated Surprise!
Pileated Woodpecker: Roger’s Pond Park, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — I have determined to walk 2-3 miles a day between now and my photo trip to Costa Rica the end of the month…hoping to rebuild the stamina I lost due to my broken wrist over the summer. I will need it during my two weeks in the rainforests and mountains of Costa Rica. Yesterday I walked to Roger’s Pond, hoping to find the flock of Cedar Waxwings in the ornamental cherry trees, or perhaps the flock of Bluebirds that is assembling and has been seen various places around Kennebunk in the past week. I did not see either. I did get to see this Pileated Woodpecker! A nice bright male in all his glory. I heard him calling as he flew in and landed right overhead…high overhead, but still. I got off a series of shots as he climbed higher up the trunk, and then he paused to call right at the top, against the sky, and I just held the shutter button down and hoped for the best. These are the best I got. I would have like him closer, but, with today’s post-processing tools, you can stretch your lens and shrink the distance by using artificial intelligence or machine learning routines to enlarge the image, then crop for the equivalent of, in this case, maybe a 2400mm lens field of view. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent optical zoom. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. +.3 EV to balance the sky. Processed in Polarr, Pixelmator Pro Photo, and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4.5 @ 1/1000th. Assembled in FrameMagic.
Autumn Meadowhawk, living up to its name…
Autumn Meadowhawk dragonfly: Kennebunk and Wells, Maine, USA — The Autumn Meadowhawk is the only dragonfly flying this first week in November here in southern Maine, but there are still fair numbers to be seen, almost anywhere where there is water nearby. The top one was along the Kennebunk Bridle Path where it crosses a more or less fresh water marsh beside the Mousam River. There are always dragonflies there and it is one of my favorite places to look for them. The bottom one was taken in the deep woods at Laudholm Farms, with only a little stream nearby, not a place I would particularly look for any kind of dragonfly. And not only are they still flying, I had a mating pair land on my chest (I was wearing a bight yellow hoodie for hunting season safety and perhaps the color attracted them). Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos and assembled in FrameMagic. ISO 100 @ f4.5 and f4 @ 1/1000th and 1/500th.
Pretty Garter Snake
Garter Snake, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — I am always happy to see a snake on one of my hikes. I have a friend who literally always sees a snake wherever he is…but that is him, and I am me. I rarely see one. And, at least in Maine, if I do see one it is almost certainly a Garter Snake…the most common snake in Maine, and probably in the USA. Still, always delighted! This was a particularly large and pretty Garter. It must have been three feet long, and corresponding robust, and so brightly patterned that I suspect it has recently shed its skin. Or maybe it was just well polished from sliding through the undergrowth still wet from rains overnight. When it came to a ditch full of water about 5 feet across, flooded from said rains, it just skimmed over the surface. It did sink a bit as it cruised up the bank looking for a place it could slither out, but it kept its head high and dry. I was happy just to get a few photos. Sony Rx10iv. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. 1) at 184mm equivalent @ ISO 1000 @ f4 @ 1/400th, and 2) at 554mm equivalent @ ISO 2500 @ f4 @ 1/500th. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. Assembled in FrameMagic.
Flood
We had a lot of rain with this last storm. The neighbor’s yard had a small pond in it, which I have not seen in at least 10 years, the pond along Route 9 south of Brown Street was over its banks, which I have never seen before, and, as you see from the photo, the Branch Brook Marsh right on the Wells Town line was completely under water…and though I don’t have a photo of the other side of the road, it was completely flooded as well, as far as you could see out toward the sea. That is a lot of water. In this shot, which is a short sweep panorama with the iPhone SE and the Sirui 18mm ultra-wide lens, if you did not know better you would think you were looking at a lake. The water is only inches, a foot at most, deep over the matted grasses of the marsh. Apple Camera app with Smart HDR engaged. Processed in Apple Photos.