Photographs by Frank

13 August 2016

Hummers!

Filed under: Birds,Monadnock Region,Summer,The Yard — Tags: — Frank @ 11:30 PM

I spent a good chunk of the middle of the day today watching and photographing the birds around our feeders.

The sky was overcast, the temperature and the humidity were both in the high seventies. All around the conditions were better for photography than for stacking firewood!

The hummingbirds were quite active. A mature male spent most of his time perched near the feeder. There were two juvenile birds who appeared seeming out of nowhere regularly. When the juveniles appeared they would be harassed by the male as they tried to feed. Once the juveniles had had enough (food or harassment, I am not sure) they would take off for the woods. The male would feed and then head back to his guard station. This behavior was repeated often at irregular intervals for couple of hours I watched them.

I was able to make some nice photos of the male hovering near the feeder but the juveniles were impossible, the males harassment made their movement too erratic.

[scrollGallery id=455 – autoscroll = false width = 600 height = 600 useCaptions = true]

Likewise, I was able to make photos of the male perching near the feeder but the juveniles rarely perched near the feeder and if they tried the male drove them off. I did manage a single frame of a perched juvenile.

[scrollGallery id=456 – autoscroll = false width = 600 height = 600 useCaptions = true]

 

22 June 2016

Olive-sided Flycatchers

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

Joan’s cousin Suzy arrived at her summer place to find an olive-sided flycatcher nest on the beams that support her deck.

I took the opportunity to make a few photos of the adults as they came and went from the nest.

I only spent ten minutes on this “stakeout” since the adults seemed to delay going to the nest even though I was twenty-five or thirty feet away from the nest and the adults.

[scrollGallery id=444 – autoscroll = false width = 600 height = 600 useCaptions = true]

 

12 June 2016

A Cool and Cloudy Afternoon

Filed under: Amphibians,Birds,Mammals,Summer,The Yard,Wildlife — Tags: , — Frank @ 1:58 PM

Yesterday was cool (it never reached 60 deg. F), cloudy and damp (there were sporadic showers in the morning)… in other words the odes were not flying. Thus, I turned my attention (and lens) to birds and I staked out the feeders for a few hours in the afternoon.

The damp weather brings out the red efts and yesterday was no exception. There were half a dozen in the small patch of lawn behind the house.  As usual there were chipmunks and squirrels scavenging what they could from the bird feeders.

The usual feeder birds were present, among them were a female rose-breasted grosbeak, a male goldfinch and a number of tufted titmice. None of which presented themselves well for photography.

Also present (and photographed) were what seem to be a pair of downy woodpeckers, a hairy woodpecker, at least one male ruby-throated hummingbird and a lone turkey.

The turkey has been a regular visitor to our yard for the past few weeks. I’m no expert, but I would hazard a guess that it is either a female that did not nest or a immature male looking for a territory.

[scrollGallery id=442 – autoscroll = false width = 600 height = 600 useCaptions = true]

 

16 May 2016

Mid-May Bird Report

Filed under: Birds,Monadnock Region,Spring — Tags: — Frank @ 4:00 PM

Spring birds continue to arrive.

Along with the year-round residents (chickadees, nuthatches, woodpeckers, etc.) and the early arrivals (goldfinches and purple finches), we have had rose-breasted grosbeaks at the feeders for roughly ten days. The males seemed to appear about four or five days before the females.

On Saturday (14 May) we observed our first hummingbird of the season (a male; we’ve seen no females yet).

We also saw a single Baltimore oriole on each day of the weekend. We’ve not had orioles around the house before. Hopefully the feeder I bought and hung out this morning will entice them to stay.

Other folks in the “neighborhood” (the closest about a mile and a half away) have said that they have had indigo buntings at their feeders. Alas, we have not seen any in our yard.

[scrollGallery id=436 – autoscroll = false width = 600 height = 600 useCaptions = true]

 

20 April 2016

Spring Birds

Filed under: Birds,Spring,The Yard,Wildlife — Tags: — Frank @ 12:00 PM

Monday (18 Apr) afternoon was warm and sunny. I spent a few hours watching (and photographing) the backyard birds.

In addition to the year-rounders (nuthatches, chickadees, titmice and woodpeckers) a number of returning migrants have appeared. There were good numbers of American goldfinches, sometimes as many as a dozen or so at one time. I am always amazed at the brilliance of the yellow coloring of the males at this time of year. Smaller numbers of purple finches were also present.

Small flocks of juncos (eight or ten) came and went all afternoon. I am unable to get a sense of what stimulates the entire flock to make an exodus. When they leave en mass they seem to startle everyone else (including me!) and often cause all of the finches to flee as well.

Lastly, I saw two singletons… a red-breasted nuthatch (which I did not photograph) and a chipping sparrow.

[scrollGallery id=430 – autoscroll = false width = 600 height = 600 useCaptions = true]

 

30 March 2016

Spring Break Road Trip, Part 3

Filed under: Birds,National Wildlife Refuges,Odontates,Spring,Wildlife — Frank @ 4:00 PM

On the 2oth, we pointed the car north and headed for Georgia, specifically the Stephen Foster State Park within the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge.

Arriving in the late afternoon, we were treated to hordes of dragonflies in and around the campground. We had seen small numbers of odes here-and-there in Florida, but they were out in full force in Georgia.

The next morning, we took the boat tour out into the swamp offered by the park. They have kayaks for rent, which we would have done except that Joan’s shoulder was bothering her enough that she was taking regular doses of ibuprofen. Thus, we decided on the boat tour.

We spent the rest of the day out on the boardwalk entertained by all of the widllife.

Okefenokee NWR —

[scrollGallery id=425 – autoscroll = false width = 600 height = 600 useCaptions = true]

Okefenokee Odes —

[scrollGallery id=426 – autoscroll = false width = 600 height = 600 useCaptions = true]

We continued north on the 22nd, headed to Assateague National Seashore in Maryland, and camping enroute for a night in North Carolina. We spent the afternoon of the 23rd at the Virginia section of the National Seashore before heading to the campground in the Maryland section.

We spent the late afternoon/early evening of the 23rd as well as most of the day on the 24th exploring the various parts of Assateague before heading toward Lewes, Delaware where we were expected for dinner at our friend Sally’s house.

Assateague National Seashore —

[scrollGallery id=427 – autoscroll = false width = 600 height = 600 useCaptions = true]

Sally and her boyfriend David showed us around the Lewes area, including stops at Cape Henlopen State Park and Prime Hook NWR.

Lewes, DE area —

[scrollGallery id=428 – autoscroll = false width = 600 height = 600 useCaptions = true]

Sunday (the 27th) morning we headed home, arriving about 8 PM; just as it was getting dark.

We were glad to have made the trip and glad to be home!

Photo note: I made roughly 2500 photographs during the trip. I processed about ten percent of them and have presented 111 photos (approximately five percent) in the three blog posts. The large majority of the photographs were made with “Big Bertha” (i.e. my 600 mm lens); my 300 mm lens was used for a small minority. I think that I broke out a shorter lens only once… I guess that I was not “thinking” landscapes this trip!

 

Spring Break Road Trip, Part 2

Filed under: Birds,Spring,Wildlife — Frank @ 2:00 PM

On the 18th, we moved to a campsite on Pine Island. It is amazing how different two adjacent islands can be.

We spent both afternoons we were spent on Pine Island at Galt Nature Preserve (a tract preserved by Lee County). This small and out of the way preserve was very productive and definitely worth the visit.

Galt Nature Preserve —

[scrollGallery id=424 – autoscroll = false width = 600 height = 600 useCaptions = true]

On the 19th, we spent most of the day at Audubon’s Corkscrew Sanctuary on the western edge of the Everglades in the Naples area.

[scrollGallery id=429 – autoscroll = false width = 600 height = 600 useCaptions = true]

More to come…

 

Spring Break Road Trip, Part 1

Filed under: Birds,Odontates,Spring,Wildlife — Frank @ 1:30 PM

Joan and I just returned from a “spring break” road trip. We left the day after town meeting (i.e. Friday, 11 March) and arrived home on Sunday evening having driven 2840 miles all told.

After spending a couple of days in the Washington, DC area (visiting Katrina, my sister Cyndi and my parents) we hie-tailed it south and arrived on Sanibel Island (in southwest Florida) in time for an evening swim on 15 March.

On the morning of the 16th we headed into Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge and spent the day driving the wildlife loop. Late afternoon found us driving to the north end of Captiva Island. While Joan went for a swim, I photographed the peeps foraging on the beach and one half of a nesting pair of osprey that was perched in a palm tree near the nest.

Ding Darling, Day 1 —

[scrollGallery id=421 – autoscroll = false width = 600 height = 600 useCaptions = true]

Captiva Beach —

(Peeps to be identified, but in the interest of timely posting, I’ve put this off.)

[scrollGallery id=422 – autoscroll = false width = 600 height = 600 useCaptions = true]

On the 17th, we drove the wildlife loop in the refuge a second time and then walked a section of the Indigo Trail.

Ding Darling, Day 2 —

[scrollGallery id=423 – autoscroll = false width = 600 height = 600 useCaptions = true]

More to come…

9 March 2016

Spring Training

Filed under: Birds,Monadnock Region,The Yard — Tags: — Frank @ 10:15 PM

Just like baseball players, the skills of small bird photographers get rusty over the winter. Thus for the past two days, in anticipation of spring bird action,  I headed about twenty feet out the back door for a bit of spring training.

Even though it was 70 degrees F this afternoon, the tufted titmice and the chickadees still seem to be in their winter mixed-flock mode. At times, there were seven birds at the feeder (with nine feeding ports). Also present were white-breasted nuthatches  and downy woodpeckers. A single red-bellied woodpecker made a brief appearance as well. There were also blue jays and crows present nearby but, as is usual,  neither species showed much interest in the feeders*.

All of these species spend the winter in our neighborhood and there was no sign of any spring birds these past two days. We did, however, catch a glimpse of a purple finch at the seed feeder a few days ago. I also heard the call of a pheobe this afternoon on a number of occasions.

Spring can not be too far away.

[scrollGallery id=420 – autoscroll = false width = 600 height = 600 useCaptions = true]

* In the depths of winter we will get an occasional blue jay on the suet, but not when the ground is bare.

 

24 October 2015

Sachuest Point & Second Beach

Filed under: Autumn,Birds,Wildlife — Tags: — Frank @ 11:30 AM

Last Wednesday evening I judged the nature competition at the Hockomock Digital Photographers club. I left the house early that morning and headed for the Sachuest National Wildlife Refuge in Middletown, Rhode Island.

I was hoping (but not expecting, since it is early in the season) to photograph diving ducks (including Harlequins) that winter in the waters off Sachuest Point. There were surprisingly few ducks. I saw a single female Common Eider and a single American Black Duck; that was it. The ledges off the east side of the point held a couple of dozen double-crested cormorants. And, of course,  gulls, mostly herring gulls, were ever present.

On land, the most common bird, by far, were migrating yellow-rump warblers; there were dozens of them. Two different types of sparrows (also migrants?) were also common along the edges of the walking paths.

I had seen groups of small birds at the surf’s edge on Second Beach on my way out to the point. They were still there when I stopped after spending a few hours at the NWR. I spent more than an hour photographing sandpipers as they foraged at the waters edge.

These birds are a never-ending source of entertainment as they scurry about trying to avoid the waves, dogs and people while pausing intermittently to forage for a morsel of food.

[scrollGallery id=413 – autoscroll = false width = 600 height = 600 useCaptions = true]

 

« Newer Posts — Older Posts »

Powered by WordPress