House Finch: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, November 2025 — Not my favorite Finch…and they never look very happy…perhaps because the ones we see in New England are so far from their actual home in the desert Southwest, and even after many generation of expansion, they are always just slightly homesick…or maybe slightly chilly in our filtered sun…especially on a cloudy, rainy November day. Sony a7CR. Tamron 150-500 at 500mm. Program with bird and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.

Eastern Bluebird: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, November 2025 — Blue in the rain. The subdued light really brings out the depth of the colors. Sony a6700. Sigma 16-450. Program with birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.

Downy Woodpecker: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, November 2025 — Yesterday we featured a Hairy Woodpecker doing gymnastics on the mealworm feeder. Here is its smaller cousin the Downy, posing on the perch next to the feeder. Such a lot of character! Sony a7CR. Tamron 150-500 at 500mm. Program with birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.

Hairy Woodpecker: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, November 2025 — I am still trying to get a bit of practice with the new-to-me Tamron 150-500 every day. Less than a month before I am supposed to be in Ecuador. I need support with it…either a tripod or a monopod, and yesterday’s session on the back deck was with the monopod…testing both a ball head and my bean-bag head innovation. I want to have all this stuff worked out before I actually need to use it on what migth be once-in-a-lifetime birds and wildlife. 🙂 This Hairy Woodpecker (certainly not once-in-a-lifetime, but interesting nonetheless) made a rare visit to the mealworm feeder, only about 12 feet from me where I was standing inside the kitchen with the deck door open. These are essentially full frame shots…in the rain, so not with the best light. Sony a7CR. Tamron 150-500 at 500mm equivalent. Processed in Photomator.

Bittersweet. Laudholm Farms (Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve at Laudholm Farms), Wells, Maine, November 2025 — Bittersweet is native to China, Korea, and Japan and is considered invasive in Maine and the eastern US. We have bittersweet vines in the back yard that have to predate our house…they are close to 8 inches in diameter at ground level and the flowering and fruiting parts are 40 feet up in a tall pine tree. These vines were along the trail at Laudholm, and though fruiting season is really past, there were still a few berries clinging in their yellow shells. They have their beauty, even though I know they are not friendly to our native plants. Sony a6700. Sigma 16-300 at 70mm. Aperture f10 for depth of field (my macro modifications). Processed in Lightroom for iPad (which I am giving another try).

European Beech Tree, Laudholm Farms, Wells, Maine, November 2025 — The big old beech in the yard at Laudholm Farms was probably planted soon after the land was first cleared for farming in the early days of settlement in Wells. It is a magnificent tree even in fall when the leaves have turned, and the sunlight leaks in right to the many branching trunk. Sony a6700. Sigma 16-300 at 24mm equivalent. Auto. Processed in Photomator.

Eastern Bluebird: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, November 2025 — Another shot of our resident male bluebird on the back deck. Sony a6700. Sigma 16-300 at 450mm equivalent. Program with bird and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator. The fall highlights in the background pretty much make the shot!

One has to wonder what this young silver birch is thinking? Why would it attempt to grow in the moss on a rock on a stone sitting on the surface of the forest floor? Why would it wrap its roots abound the rock in such an intimate and perhaps despite embrace? How did this moment come to be? Of course you will say the birch cannot be thinking anything, but it certainly has me thinking (and I might disagree at that…being a great respecter of the thought that goes into any kind of existence). Sony a6700. Sigma 16-300 at 78mm equivalent. Aperture preferred at f10. Processed in Photomator.

Late milkweed. I drove a friend to an eye appointment yesterday, and since I am running low on photos for these posts, I took my camera and wandered off into the edge of the forest to look for photos while I waited for him. There was a drainage area at the edge of the parking lot where some cattails and milkweed have taken root, and there were a few milkweed pods still hanging on to some of their fluff. It was heavily overcast but the gentle light might have helped bring out the detail here. Sony a6700. Sigma 16-300 at 75 and 102mm equivalents. Aperture program at f10. (My macro settings.) Processed in Photomator.

Downy Woodpecker: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, November 2025 — This Downy Woodpecker paused on the rail of the deck on its way to the suet feeder. It appears to be gauging the energy needed to jump up where the food is. Aspiring to suet. Sony a7CR. Tamron 50-400 at 400mm. Program with bird and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.