Photographs by Frank

13 July 2015

Saturday Birds

Filed under: Birds,Monadnock Region,Summer — Tags: — Frank @ 6:00 PM

Warning… photo geek talk ahead!!!

Saturday (11 July) afternoon I set out to experiment with adding extension tubes to Big Bertha (my 600 mm f/4 lens). Extension tubes which are mounted between the camera and the lens, shorten the minimum distance at which one can focus a lens… this, of course, means the subject can be larger in the frame. However, there one never gets something for nothing. The “downside” is that one loses the ability to focus on distant objects when using an extension tube.

I added a 20 mm extension tube to Big Bertha and set up to photograph the humming birds near the feeder. Big Bertha’s minimum focus distance is about 18 feet. With the extension tube, I could focus on the humming bird perch which was about 14 feet from the the camera. I did not do any formal testing so I do not know what the actual minimum focus distance with the extension tube is but from the bit of “playing around” I did I got the impression that it might be between 12 and 13 feet. The suet feeders were about 24 feet from the camera and I could still focus on them with the extension tube mounted.

All of the photos shown below were made with the extension tube mounted.

The humming bird photos shown here (at a relatively small size on the web) may not look very different from those I made back in June (see this post). However the older photos are more heavily cropped (they are about one-third of the full frame) than the current photos (about one-half of the full frame). This difference is not critical for posting small files on the blog but it important when one wants to make prints.

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6 July 2015

Rose-breasted Grosbeaks et al.

Filed under: Birds,Monadnock Region,Summer,The Yard,Wildlife — Tags: — Frank @ 12:00 PM

After an activity-filled Independence Day, I finally settled down with the camera near the feeders at about 5 PM and spent the couple of hours watching (and photographing) the birds.

I was especially hoping to photograph the rose-breasted grosbeaks that we have observed coming to the feeder for the past few days; I was not disappointed. At one point I observed two males in the area at the same time. I only saw females one at a time so I am unsure if there are two pairs or not.

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Eastern Kingbird Nest Update

Filed under: Birds,Monadnock Region,Summer,Wildlife — Tags: — Frank @ 12:00 PM

I spent a couple of hours yesterday (5 July) observing (and photographing) the eastern kingbird nest on Gregg Lake. The nestlings have made great progress since my last visit a week previous. See the first photo below… that is one of the nestlings, looking very adult-like both in color and size.

I saw no signs of fledgling… the juveniles spent most of their time with mouths agape waiting to be fed. The adults obliged them; bringing in a steady supply of insects, mainly dragonflies from what I could see.

In addition to the kingbirds, there was a small flock (maybe six individuals) of cedar waxwings in the vicinity. One a couple of occasions, waxwings perched in the trees along the road within three or four feet of where I had set up my camera.

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The three frame feeding sequence took less than four seconds.

 

Little Bluets at Camp

Filed under: "Camp",Monadnock Region,Odontates,Summer,Wildlife — Tags: — Frank @ 11:00 AM

Late on Friday (3 July) afternoon Joan and I headed for our camp on Gregg Lake. I spent about ninety minutes (beginning about 4 PM) photographing odes along the lake shore.

Although I observed a small number of dragonflies in flight over the lake, I only saw two species of damselflies along the shore. The most common damselfly was the male Little Bluet. I saw at least a dozen individuals in about a 100 feet of shore, all perched within a foot of the water; the large majority with in six inches. Additionally, I observed a single pair of variable dancers ovipositing.

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Campbell Pond Odes

Filed under: Monadnock Region,Odontates,Summer,wildflowers,Wildlife — Tags: , , — Frank @ 11:00 AM

Last Thursday (2 July) afternoon I spent a couple of hours looking for odes at Campbell Pond. I arrived at about 3 PM. This pond was once the public water supply for the Town of Antrim. It is now set aside as conservation land and has a completely undeveloped shore line. This was my first “odeing” trip to the pond.

There is no vehicular access to the pond but it is a short walk along a well maintained woods road into the pond. I saw my first ode, a calico pennant, maybe twenty five feet down the road. I continued to see small numbers (one or two individuals) of a variety of species all along the road.

When I got to the stream flowing out of the pond things changed. There were dozens of ebony jewelwings of both sexes around the stream where it flows over the road.

Out over the pond proper there were many odes, probably calico pennants, flying and (I think) ovipositing.  There were also smaller numbers of chalk-fronted corporals present.

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1 July 2015

Feeding Fledglings

Filed under: Birds,Monadnock Region,Summer,Wildlife — Tags: , — Frank @ 7:00 PM

This morning dawned rainy. The rain varied from a light drizzle to hard downpours most of the morning. About 11, during a brief lull, I decided to brave the elements and set up my camera near the feeders and under my semi-waterproof blind. My patience was tested during one heavy burst of rain, but I was eventually rewarded.

During the roughly ninety minutes I observed our suet feeders this morning, they were visited by white-breasted nuthatches, downy woodpeckers, hairy woodpeckers and red-bellied wood peckers.

There were no signs of last weeks hairy woodpecker juveniles… or, maybe I can not tell them apart from the adults at this point. However, I did observe both adult nuthatches and red-bellied woodpeckers feeding juveniles.

I am unable to tell fledgling nuthatches from the adults by their physical traits.. Behaviorally, it is very easy to tell them apart… the juveniles sit by with their mouths wide open waiting for food to be stuffed in!

As for the red-bellied woodpecker, I suspected that their might be a juvenile nearby as the adult made a number of short trips to the feeder, always leaving with a full mouth. On one of his trips outgoing trips, I was able to follow the adult to a branch fairly high in a nearby tree where the juvenile was waiting.

The total elapsed time for the three frame sequence… less than one second.

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Experimental video below! I have taken the three still photos shown above and combined them into a very short video. Sorry about the jitter! I was not planning a video when I made the photos and thus did not lock down the tripod… not that I would have had time!

 

28 June 2015

Eastern Kingbirds Redux

Filed under: Birds,Monadnock Region,Summer,Wildlife — Tags: — Frank @ 12:30 PM

Yesterday (27 Jun) morning I headed down to the eastern kingbird nest at the lake. The skies were mostly overcast; good light for photographing black and white birds. The light on the nest would also be coming from a good direction. I was hoping to catch a “feeding sequence”… the events that happen within the couple of seconds after an adult arrives at the nest. In the two hours I observed the nest, I watched between ten and twenty visits by the adults.

The first photo in this sequence was made about two minutes before the others. The remaining four frames were made within a total of two seconds.

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In the intervals between adult kingbirds arriving at the nest, I chatted with numerous passersby and photographed whatever perched nearby. In addition to the kingbirds, I was able to photograph cedar waxwings (there are a lot of still green blueberries along the lake road) and grackles. I also heard many red-winged blackbirds in the marsh to the north of the road but none approached close enough to photograph.

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27 June 2015

Ode Stroll

Filed under: Monadnock Region,Odontates,Summer,Wildlife — Tags: , — Frank @ 6:30 PM

On Wednesday afternoon, I had about an hour to kill before heading off to a Conservation Committee meeting. I filled the time by “hunting” odes in the yard.

The numbers of chalk-fronted corporals and hudsonian whitefaces are way down. Presumably most have headed off to the water to mate and oviposit. The most common dragonfly present were yellow (immature male or female) calico pennants. There were about a dozen individuals present.

The most common damselfly (by far) were immature male sedge sprites. Initially, I observed two or three sedge sprites very low (within six inches of the ground) in one of Joan’s flowerbeds. I knelt down and photographed them.

As I arose to move on, I was amazed to notice that I had flushed dozens of these creatures, which I had completely missed, from their hiding places. This scenario was repeated three or four more times even though I now knew to look more carefully. I have no clue how dozens of (admittedly small) insects could repeatedly escape my notice!

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Meet the Downy Family

Filed under: Birds,Monadnock Region,Summer,The Yard,Wildlife — Tags: , — Frank @ 6:15 PM

Yesterday (Friday, 26 June) afternoon , just before 2:30, a male  red-bellied woodpecker made a brief appearance at the feeder* and left with a large chunk of suet in his bill. I suspect that he was carrying the choice tidbit off to a nest, but have no proof of that; he headed into the woods at great speed.

After the red-bellied departed, I noticed a male downy woodpecker hanging around fairly high in a nearby spruce tree. I thought it odd that he did not approach the now unoccupied feeder. I watched him move about in the spruce tree for some minutes and then, suddenly, he headed for the feeder.

When I turned my gaze (and lens) to the feeder, I was extremely surprised to find three woodpeckers on the trunk… the adult male I had been watching and two juveniles (a male and a female). The female left within a minute, but I watched the adult male feed the juvenile male for another three or four minutes before the adult took off. The juvenile spent a short interval tentatively feeding itself before it, too headed for the woods..

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* I use custom-made, photogenic suet feeders. These consist of a chunk of tree on a stand to hold it vertically. I drill holes in the “back-side” of the trunk and keep the holes stocked with suet and/or dried meal worms.  There… my secret is out!!!

 

Eastern Kingbirds

Filed under: Birds,Monadnock Region,Summer,Wildlife — Tags: — Frank @ 6:00 PM

Thursday (25 June) afternoon, I discovered an Eastern Kingbird nest on a small island in Gregg Lake. It is within easy sight of the road but a bit far for photography.*

I watched the adults come and go for almost two hours. They brought in a constant supply of insects (often dragonflies) which went down the gullet of one of the three chicks the instant (and I mean instant!) the adult alit on the nest. Twice, I observed an adult leave the nest with a fecal sac.

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* All of these photos are cropped significantly. Also, I present them here a bit larger than my normal blog size so that the nest is more visible.

 

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