Monthly Archives: June 2022
Beaver!
Beaver: Day Brook Pond, Kennebunk Plains Nature Conservancy, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — While looking for early dragonflies and damsels at Day Brook Pond, I was delighted to see this Beaver beavering along across the pond, drawing a long wake. I am pretty sure Day Brook Pond has a man-made dam these days, but it was clearly originally a beaver pond and the beavers are still there and still active. You can see their work around the edges somewhere most springs. This one was in a rush to get up into the little inlet half way up the pond. He disappeared behind the near foliage just after I took this shot. Sony Rx10iv at 580mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed and enlarged in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 400 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Cardinal!
Northern Cardinal: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, June 2022 — Our neighborhood Cardinal came to visit the other morning, before the sun was really up, but he stayed on the deck rail long enough for me to run to get the camera. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 6400 @ f4 @ 1/400th. (So, not much light at all to work with.)
Frosted Whiteface
Frosted Whiteface: Day Brook Pond, Kennebunk Plains Conservancy, Kennebunk, Maine, USA, June 2022 — Besides the Damsels from yesterday, a few early Dragons were out at Day Brook Pond. Lancet Clubtails of course, which seem to be the earliest Odo to emerge in Southern Maine (I saw my first the 3rd week in May), but they are now joined by both Chalk-fronted Corporals and Frosted Whitefaces (pictured here in both rear and front view). I even found a just emerged teneral Skimmer…probably a Slaty Skimmer but it was too early to tell for sure. The Frosted Whiteface is so tiny, it makes the Corporals look big! Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed (and enlarged) in Pixomator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/640th and 1/500th.
Pond Damselflies of early June
Pond Damselflies at Day Brook Pond on the Kennebunk Plains in early June. Day Brook Pond is one of two ponds on Nature Conservancy and Maine Wildlife Management areas at the Kennebunk Plains (often referred to locally as the “blueberry plains”. It is a remnant sand plain habitat, home to several endangered plant species, one endangered reptile, and a few bird species at the limits of their range in New England. The pond itself is one of the cleanest and healthiest in southern Maine, and home to a wide variety of Odonata…many of which are just emerging now. What we have here is probably a Hagin’s Bluet, followed by two Northern Bluets, two Eastern Forktails, and two pairs of mating Aurora Damsels. All with the Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed (and enlarged) in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos.
Wild Iris
Wild Iris (Blue Flag Iris): Kennebunkport, Maine, USA, June 2022 — It is wild Iris season in southern Maine. I see them first in the ditches along roads, and then they spread out across wet fields in the creases where water collects. You can see the royal blue patches breaking the green from way across the fields. Close up they are beautifully ornate, with that touch of yellow on the petals setting off the deep, almost purple, blue. I found these at the edge of huge wet field which is cut for hay later in the season, in one of the drainage ditches, near Emmon’s Preserve in Kennebunkport. Sony Rx10iv at 65mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f5 @ 1/1000th. Minus .3 EV exposure compensation.
Palm Warbler
Palm Warbler: Magee Marsh area, Oak Harbor, Ohio, USA, May 2022 — This photo was actually taken on the Estuary Trail beyond the boardwalk at Magee, while I was out there the first morning the Kirtland’s Warbler was spotted…and, surprisingly, it is the only Palm Warbler I saw in my week of the Biggest Week in American Birding. I did not see the Kirtlands that morning, but I did see one along the boardwalk later that day. 🙂 I was happy with this Palm, and a bunch of the more common warblers as I worked both sides of the forest stand on the point where Crane Creek meets Lake Erie. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 500 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Eastern Whippoorwill
Eastern Whippoorwill: Magee Marsh Boardwalk, Oak Harbor, Ohio. USA, May 2022 — While in Ohio for the Biggest Week in American Birding, I lead two workshops called “Point and Shoot for Warblers” along the east end of the boardwalk at Magee. Of course we are looking for warblers…it is May at Magee…but we will look at other birds if they beg for attention 🙂 This Whippoorwill was perched for the day about 6 feet from the base of the boardwalk and slightly below the level of our feet…well hidden among the leaves and branches of one of the thicker sections of the wet forest. Hard to see. I don’t know who saw it first…that is how it mostly is at Magee in May on the boardwalk…you come up on a group of birders all looking at something in the forest and just ask (or are often told before you can ask) and just about every person who passes that spot gets to see. And a Whippoorwill will sit in the same spot all day unless someone pokes it with a stick (parish the thought!). It required a bit of jockeying to get an angle with anything like a clear shot, but there you have it. Whippoorwill! Sony Rx10iv at 561 and 600mm. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 500 and 320 @ f4 @ 1/500th. Plus .3EV.
Chestnut-sided Warbler with lunch
Chestnut-sided Warbler: Magee Marsh Boardwalk, Oak Harbor, Ohio, USA, May 2022 — I mentioned in a previous post that the magic of Magee Marsh is as much about bugs as it is birds…it is the combination of location, right up against a large water barrier, and the abundance of insect life in the wet forest, that cause the pile-up of migrating and resident warbler species along the boardwalk. And the reason the warblers are so easy to observe and photograph is a combination of access (the boardwalk itself) and the fact that the warblers are feeding at eye-level, and so busy feeding that they pay little attention to the people gathered to see them. My best guess would not be much use as to what kind of insect this is…so I am not going to try…but it is large enough to give the Chestnut-sided Warbler pause before swallowing. Happy bird. Happy birders. Happy bird photographers. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 320 @ f4 @ 1/500th. Plus .7EV exposure compensation.
White-eyed Vireo
White-eyed Vireo: Magee Marsh Boardwalk, Oak Harbor, Ohio, USA, May 2022 — Warbling Vireos were as numerous as any of the warblers at Magee Marsh this year during the Biggest Week in American Birding, but there were at least a few White-eyed Vireos and the Philadelphia Vireos began to come through late in the week. This is, in fact, the only White-eyed Vireo I saw, but it posed very nicely for its photo. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/800th. + .7EV exposure compensation.
Nashville Warbler
Nashville Warbler: Magee Marsh Boardwalk, Oak Harbor, Ohio, USA, May 2022 — I try not to be one of those “shoot first and ask questions later” types of bird photographers, but I have to admit that I only “found” these photos of a nice Nashville Warbler when going through my photos for processing the week after my visit to Ohio and the Biggest Week in American Birding. I do not remember taking them, and I certainly did not identify this bird as a Nashville Warbler at the time. I would have been more excited…as it would have been a new species for the trip and the year. Still, here is the evidence that I did see one. This was a favorite tree for Warblers the whole week I was there, and I photographed several different species there, so maybe I thought I was photographing something else. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 and f5 @ 1/1000th. + .7 EV exposure compensation.