{"id":2516,"date":"2014-06-30T20:00:23","date_gmt":"2014-07-01T00:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gorga.org\/blog\/?p=2516"},"modified":"2014-07-04T08:14:39","modified_gmt":"2014-07-04T12:14:39","slug":"coastal-maine-trip-part-v-hog-island-merlins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gorga.org\/blog\/?p=2516","title":{"rendered":"Coastal Maine Trip, Part V (Hog Island Merlins)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Part IV is here.<\/a><\/p>\n

One Afternoon in the Life of a Wildlife Photographer, or… Waiting for Merlin.<\/h3>\n

Based on<\/del> A True Story \u00a0— \u00a0A Play in One Scene<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n

Cast:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Hoary wildlife photographer… bearded and pony-tailed, dressed for the\u00a0field and carrying camera with a large telephoto lens mounted on a tripod.<\/li>\n
  • Male merlin<\/li>\n
  • Female merlin<\/li>\n
  • Small song bird, recently deceased (exact species is the male merlin’s choice)<\/li>\n
  • Mosquito Ensemble (as many as the production budget will allow; there can not be too many)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

     <\/p>\n

    The Scene:<\/p>\n

    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”.<\/p>\n

    The weather is warm and humid. The skies are a flat gray.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

     <\/p>\n

    The Action (There is no dialog):<\/p>\n

    Approximately 1:30 PM…<\/p>\n

    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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    For the next two-and-a-half hours…<\/p>\n

    Photographer occasionally looks through the viewfinder or checks a setting on the camera.<\/p>\n

    Photographer regularly swats at the cloud of mosquitoes that has assembled around him.<\/p>\n

    Once during this interval a merlin is heard to call briefly from stage right.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    At 4:09 PM…<\/p>\n

    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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    At 4:17 PM…<\/p>\n

    Female merlin exits stage right.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    At 4:25 PM…<\/p>\n

    Female merlin enters stage right and lands on snag.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    At 4:27 PM…<\/p>\n

    Female merlin exits stage right.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    At 4:41:49 PM…<\/p>\n

    Raucous merlin calls are heard from both stage left and stage right. Photographer comes to full attention and peers into camera.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    At 4:41:59 PM…<\/p>\n

    Male merlin enters stage left carrying the small song bird and lands on the snag. (See the first photo below.)<\/p>\n

    Photographer makes a burst of photographs over the next five seconds.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    At 4:42:00 PM…<\/p>\n

    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.)<\/p>\n

    Merlin calls cease.<\/p>\n

    Male merlin regains his grasp on the perch\u00a0and begins to preen. (See the third photo below.)<\/p>\n

    Photographer makes an additional four or five exposures over the next three minutes. (See the fourth photo below.)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    At 4:45 PM…<\/p>\n

    Male merlin exits stage left.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    At 4:46 PM…<\/p>\n

    Photographer packs up gear, shoulders tripod and jauntily exits down the trail whence he entered.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    Curtain!<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    [scrollGallery id=282 autoscroll = false width = 600 height = 600 useCaptions = true]<\/p>\n

    \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Part IV is here. One Afternoon in the Life of a Wildlife Photographer, or… Waiting for Merlin. Based on A True Story \u00a0— \u00a0A Play in One Scene Cast: Hoary wildlife photographer… bearded and pony-tailed, dressed for the\u00a0field and carrying camera with a large telephoto lens mounted on a tripod. Male merlin Female merlin Small […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[154],"class_list":["post-2516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birds","tag-birds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gorga.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/gorga.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/gorga.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gorga.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gorga.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2516"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/gorga.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2516\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2550,"href":"http:\/\/gorga.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2516\/revisions\/2550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gorga.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gorga.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gorga.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}