Photographs by Frank

30 June 2014

Coastal Maine Trip, Part V (Hog Island Merlins)

Filed under: Birds — Tags: — Frank @ 8:00 PM

Part IV is here.

One Afternoon in the Life of a Wildlife Photographer, or… Waiting for Merlin.

Based on A True Story  —  A Play in One Scene

Cast:

  • Hoary wildlife photographer… bearded and pony-tailed, dressed for the field and carrying camera with a large telephoto lens mounted on a tripod.
  • Male merlin
  • Female merlin
  • Small song bird, recently deceased (exact species is the male merlin’s choice)
  • Mosquito Ensemble (as many as the production budget will allow; there can not be too many)

 

The Scene:

A narrow clearing in the woods near the Audubon Camp on Hog Island in Maine. A trail enters the clearing at the near (downstage) end. At the far (upstage) end of the clearing is a tall snag that ends in an inverted “L”.

The weather is warm and humid. The skies are a flat gray.

 

The Action (There is no dialog):

Approximately 1:30 PM…

Photographer enters the near end of the clearing, sets up his camera/tripod and points it at the top of the snag. He fiddles with the camera and lens for a short time, applies a liberal coating of “bug stuff” to self and proceeds to stand quietly next to his camera.

For the next two-and-a-half hours…

Photographer occasionally looks through the viewfinder or checks a setting on the camera.

Photographer regularly swats at the cloud of mosquitoes that has assembled around him.

Once during this interval a merlin is heard to call briefly from stage right.

At 4:09 PM…

Female merlin enters stage right, lands on the snag and, during the next eight minutes, she spends time looking around in various direction and twice she calls.

At 4:17 PM…

Female merlin exits stage right.

At 4:25 PM…

Female merlin enters stage right and lands on snag.

At 4:27 PM…

Female merlin exits stage right.

At 4:41:49 PM…

Raucous merlin calls are heard from both stage left and stage right. Photographer comes to full attention and peers into camera.

At 4:41:59 PM…

Male merlin enters stage left carrying the small song bird and lands on the snag. (See the first photo below.)

Photographer makes a burst of photographs over the next five seconds.

At 4:42:00 PM…

Female merlin enters stage right, snatches the song bird from the male nearly knocking him form his perch and exits stage left. (See the second photo below.)

Merlin calls cease.

Male merlin regains his grasp on the perch and begins to preen. (See the third photo below.)

Photographer makes an additional four or five exposures over the next three minutes. (See the fourth photo below.)

At 4:45 PM…

Male merlin exits stage left.

At 4:46 PM…

Photographer packs up gear, shoulders tripod and jauntily exits down the trail whence he entered.

Curtain!

 

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Coastal Maine Trip, Part IV (Hog Island Olio)

Filed under: Other Insects,Wildlife — Tags: , , , , — Frank @ 8:00 PM

Part III  is here.

It rained prodigiously overnight but things were beginning to dry up by the time we arose on Thursday. After breakfast, I took a hike around the island with another one of the campers rather than participating in the sessions with the instructors. After lunch there was, again, free time to work on personal projects. I spent some more time staking out the merlins again in hopes of catching another prey transfer. No prey was transferred during my watch, but I did get to watch a very wet female merlin preen for about 10 minutes.

The evening program was a very entertaining celebration of 2014 International Guillemot Appreciation Day (iGAD). There were songs, skits, poems, and much glee all around all in honor of under-appreciated guillemot. Joan wrote a song (to the tune of “Those Were the Days”) in honor of the guillemont. She performed the song accompanied by the ukulele and, with the help of another camper, the concertina. A good time was had by all!

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Part V is here.

Coastal Maine Trip, Part III (Hog Island Birds)

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

Part II  is here.

Wednesday morning after breakfast the entire group set out for the mainland for birding at the The Damariscotta River Association’s Salt Bay Farm property. As we arrived at the parking area we noted a juvenile bald eagle perched on a rock in the middle of the pond… too far away for good photographs.  There were large numbers of bobolinks nesting in the meadows that are managed for grassland nesting birds. There were also red-winged blackbirds, common yellowthroats and sparrows present.

We were back on Hog Island for lunch and spent the afternoon working on various projects individually and in small groups. I spent the afternoon staking out a tree where a pair of nesting merlins were know to make regular transfers of prey from the hunting male to the female who was tending the nest*. More on this later, in the last Hog Island post.

The evening program was given by camp director Scott Weidensaul. His wonderful presentation, on avian migration, was based on his book Living on the Wind.

The photos of the female osprey shown below are of the individual tending three youngsters in the nest at the Hog Island camp. There is a webcam on this nest which can be viewed by clicking here. Our room while we were on Hog Island was not more than a hundred feet from this nest.

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*When actively nesting, the female merlin broods the eggs (and  young nestlings) while the male hunts. The pair uses a regular perch high in the trees to transfer prey. The male alights on the perch with the prey then the female swoops in at full speed, snatches the prey from the male and, in a flash, heads back to the nest.  All of this is accompanied by raucous calling, by both the male and female, that begins when the female first spots the male, as much as maybe 30 seconds before he appears at the perch.

Part IV is here.

29 June 2014

Coastal Maine Trip, Part II (Hog Island Landscapes)

Filed under: Landscapes — Tags: — Frank @ 11:00 PM

Part I of this story is here.

After settling into our room on Hog Island, we wandered the grounds of the camp and began to make the acquaintance of some of our fellow campers. We discovered that the Arts & Birding group of adults would be sharing the camp with a delightful group of teenagers participating in the Bird Studies for Teens session. Dinner was served at 6 PM and was followed by an introductory session in the “Fish House”.

Both Monday and Tuesday, we set the alarm for 4:15 AM… in time to be ready to photograph the sunrise on some of the longest days of the year.  It was well worth the effort!

Early morning bird walks were also scheduled for both mornings, however, I decided to spend the time until a 7 AM breakfast roaming and photographing by myself instead of with a group.

After breakfast on Monday morning half of the adult group headed out on a boat ride into Muscongus Bay along with the teens. The teens were dropped off on Eastern Egg Island, home to Project Puffin. The adults had to be content to view the activity there from the boat. The adults did get to spend time ashore at Harbor Island before returning to Camp in the midafternoon. The remainder of the adult group, including Joan and I, spent the morning in small groups with the various instructors*. The remainder of the afternoon was spent working on various art projects.

After dinner, Kristin Mosher and Bill Wallauer, the photography instructors for the week, gave a great presentation on their work photographing the chimpanzees of Gombe National Park in association with Jane Goodall.

Tuesday morning after breakfast, the adult groups switched activities and Joan and I, among others, got our chance to see Eastern Egg Island and Harbor Island. The delightful evening presentation on Tuesday was by Steve Kress the founder of Project Puffin.

Rather than divide up the photographs I made while on Hog Island on a strict chronological basis, I have, instead, divided them up by genre.

Here are the landscapes:

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Part III is here.

Coastal Maine Trip, Part I (Acadia)

Filed under: Landscapes,wildflowers — Tags: , — Frank @ 10:00 PM

Last week (Friday to Friday), Joan and I took a trip up the Maine coast. We left the house on the morning of the 20th and pulled into our campsite at the Seawall Campground in Acadia National Park about 4 PM. We spent the late afternoon and early evening exploring the less traveled side of the park near the campground.  After dark, we had lobster rolls for dinner at Thurston’s Lobster Pound in Bernard, ME. Highly recommended!

On Saturday, we spent most of the day driving the Park’s loop road stopping at many of the sights there are to see. In the late afternoon, we ended up at the Pinnacle Trail  parking lot watching the not-quite-fledged Peregrine Falcon chicks through the spotting scope (i.e. way too far away for photographs). The only other person at the parking lot when we arrived was a die-hard birder named Steve, from Port Washington, NY of all places! (I grew up in “Port”.) Even stranger… Steve had just finished a week volunteering at the Audubon Camp in Maine on Hog Island in Bremen. Our next stop after Acadia was to be Hog Island for the Arts & Birding session!!! Talk about “small world”! Eventually we made it back to Thurston’s for lobster rolls again… they were that good!

Sunday morning we packed up the camper and headed southish/westish… towards Bremen and Hog Island. We arrived mid-afternoon, right in time to get the second boat from the mainland to the island.

Stay tuned… there is more to follow.*

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* I have divided the weeks photos into five galleries. Thus, I expect that this will mean five posts; some may be light on the text!

19 June 2014

Nesting Loon

Filed under: Birds,Monadnock Region,Spring — Tags: — Frank @ 9:00 AM

Yesterday, I had some errands to run in Peterborough. I decided to take the camera along and stop by the nesting loons I visited last week. When I arrived, another photographer (Don from Hudson, NH) just packing up. Word is getting out!

There are no young yet, but both adults were present. The adult not sitting on the nest was only nearby briefly, but two or three times during the couple of hours I watched, I heard it call from out on the water. The adult on the nest did not return the call.

Photographically, the conditions were tough. It was partly cloudly but the clouds were moving fast. The light changed minute-by-minute and ranged from harsh full sun to nice diffuse light; only the latter makes for good photos of black and white birds. It was only worthwhile to trip the shutter when the sun was behind a cloud.

Spending time watching a nesting bird is quite interesting. It is clearly a high stress job. The adult on the nest is hyper-aware… always listening and watching. At one point during this visit the adult arose briefly to shift position  on the nest.  A couple of times small groups of swimmers walked nearby; each time the adult scrunched down on the nest it what was clearly an attempt to hide.

You will note that in most of these photos the loon has its mouth open. This was true  for the large majority of the time I observed it.  One might think that they are calling or singing by looking at still photo. This is not the case, this animal did not make a sound during the time I observed it. Rather, the “panting” behavior is a thermoregulation strategy. Birds do not sweat but, by opening their mouths, they can evaporate saliva which helps them to shed heat. I have also observed this behavior in great blue herons on a hot summers day.

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Connecticut River Odes… sort of!

Filed under: Odontates,Spring — Tags: , — Frank @ 8:00 AM

Tuesday, Joan and her PCV colleagues decided to head back to Hinsdale for a re-survey… don’t ask! The weather was looking much better (sunny with a high around 80 deg. F) for odes than the last trip. I decided to tag along again.

I spent most of the day on the causeway at the Hinsdale setback, having a grand time photographing the odes. All but the last three photos were made there.

Early in the outward bound trip, I passed a pair of adult Canada Geese with a single gosling wandering down the roughly twelve foot wide causeway. Eventually they headed for the water with enough warning that I was able to remove the extension tube from the ode rig and make a couple of photos of them in nice morning light.

As I was finding and photographing odes, it slowly began to dawn on me that I was seeing things I was mostly familiar with and no “big river” species. The reason was also slow in coming, but it did eventually arrive… the portion of the river I was exploring is just up stream from the Vernon Dam. Thus, it is much more lake-like than riverine!

After mulling the situation over while eating my sandwich in a small patch of shade, I decided to head south. I had a vague memory that there was a boat launch on the river in Northfield, MA just south of the NH border. My memory served me well and I spent some time at the Pauchuag Brook boat launch. There is a nice stretch of  muddy river bank to walk here. I saw only two odes a large clubtail and a damselfly (the penultimate and third from last photos). The dragonfly sat still only long enough for me to get a single frame. The area has potential and I intend to return there at some point.

I was just getting back to the car when Joan phoned saying that she was done. The folks she was with were planning to head south (east?) on route 119, so we agreed to meet at the park along the Ashuelot River in “down town” Hinsdale.  While waiting for the group to arrive I, of course, explored the river. Being just below the dam, the river is fast moving here. I observed and photographed a single ebony jewelwing in the maybe ten minutes before Joan arrived.

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I need to finish identifying some of these critters, but have decided, in the interest of having a timely blog post, to put off this onerous chore!

18 June 2014

One Quarter Mile – Seven Species

Filed under: Monadnock Region,Odontates,Spring,The "New" Yard & Environs — Tags: , — Frank @ 12:05 PM

It is about a quarter mile between our house and Gregg Lake. There is an old logging road that begins across from the end of our driveway and heads directly for the lake.  On Monday, I spend a few hours wandering this road photographing odes.

I was able to photograph seven species in this short distance. (There are eight photos because I got both sexes of the Aurora Damsel.)

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16 June 2014

Food & Sex

Filed under: Mammals,Monadnock Region,Odontates,Other Insects,Spring — Tags: , , , — Frank @ 10:00 AM

How is that for an attention-getting post title!

It might be attention-getting, but it is a good description of the ode activity in our yard yesterday.  There were dozens of whitefaces, at altitudes ranging from one to twelve feet constantly on the move and feeding.  There were also smaller numbers of other species both hunting and mating.

In addition to the odes there were also decent numbers of butterflies around… small orange butterflies down low in the vegetation, many swallowtails nectaring (especially on the blackberries) and a single black butterfly on the edge of the road looking for salt. (The last two butterfly photos as of the same individual.)

There were often groups of three or four swallowtails doing their in flight dances… is this mating behavior or is it about territory? More stuff to learn!

Through it all, the chipmunks living in our stone walls would chatter at me. I guess that they want the yard to themselves.

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13 June 2014

Birds & Plants In the Rain

Filed under: Birds,Spring,wildflowers,Wildlife — Tags: , — Frank @ 1:00 PM

Yesterday, Joan had some PCV* business to attend to over in Hinsdale, NH. I planned to tag along and use the time to hunt for “big river” odes on the Connecticut River.

The day dawned cool and gray… not ideal weather for odeing. I decided to make the trip anyway, figuring that there would always be birds to photograph.

We arrived in Hinsdale in a light rain and the temperature was in the mid-50s. Joan met up with her fellow PCVs and, as they headed off to search for rare plants, I headed off  to the Hinsdale Setbacks, along the river, to photograph.

Completely ignoring the “ode rig” (that I had optimistically brought along), I mounted Big Bertha on the tripod and headed out the causeway towards the power line towers in the rain and fog… great weather for photography!

It rained with varying intensity for the roughly three and a half hours I was out. As one would expect, given the weather, I saw no dragonflies or damselflies.

As for birds, there was an osprey on its nest atop one of the powerline towers… way too high for a photograph.

I also spooked a great blue heron from the edge of the main channel of the river as I walked by… I was too slow for a photograph.

Groups of tree swallows appeared during intervals when the  rain let up a bit. They disappeared into the thickets of shrubs whenever the rain picked up. I hoped to photograph them on their way in or out of the vegetation but they do not seem to pause on the surface of the thicket… ever!

Also present in and around the thickets were small groups of song sparrows. They spent most of their time either in the thickets or feeding on the ground. Some of them were kind enough to pause on various perches, as they traveled between protection and food, long enough for me to photograph them.

I was also able to photograph some of  many red-winged black birds that were present in and near the cattail beds.

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While waiting for birds to appear in the proper places, I noticed the photographic possibilities present in wet vegetation. Thus, I was able to fill the intervals between birds by photographing said vegetation.

A long telephoto lens is not the usual tool for this type of photography but it does allow one to nicely isolate subjects against the background. Besides, it was the only lens I was carrying!

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* Plant Conservation Volunteer, a group organized by the New England Wildflower Society.

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