Photographs by Frank

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.

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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.

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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 —

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Okefenokee Odes —

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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 —

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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 —

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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 —

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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.

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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 —

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Captiva Beach —

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

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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 —

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More to come…

2 June 2015

Rainy Day Birds

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

Over the past few days, we have been getting some much needed rain. I’m not complaining but I’d much prefer a 65 degree (F) rain than the 45 degree rain we’re getting!

Yesterday afternoon, we noticed a male hummingbird spending a lot of time perched near the feeder. Presumably he was defending his territory from an intruder.

His more-or-less constant presence was enough to get me to set up the blind and camera in the 45 degree rain and spend an hour photographing the birds. I was amazingly warm and dry in the blind and a number of other birds appeared in the hour I was sequestered therein.

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24 May 2015

Ruby-throats & Red-bellies

Filed under: Birds,Monadnock Region,Spring — Tags: — Frank @ 11:30 PM

Today dawned warm and sunny. After breakfast this morning, I set up the camera on the deck, “just in case” and went about my around the house chores.

A few minutes before ten, I heard the call of a red-bellied woodpecker announcing its arrival in the vicinity of the feeders. I, of course, headed for the camera. While I was watching the red-belly, I noticed the hummingbird out of the corner of my eye.

The first two photographs (below) were made within twenty seconds of each other.

Just before eight this evening I put the camera away and started the grill to cook supper. Not more than five minutes later, I heard the red-belly call again. I was able to get the camera back out and make few more photos before he flew off again.

The lighting in the two sets of photos is about as different as it can be. Bright, harsh sun in the morning and very low, soft light in the evening about a half hour before sunset*.

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* For the photo geeks, the exposure in the morning was ISO 200, f/5.6 and 1/750 sec. The evening exposure was ISO 800, f/4 and 1/60 sec. If I’ve done the math right this is about a seven stop difference.

I had to work a bit harder to clean up the noise in the ISO 800 exposures but the six or seven year old D300 still does a pretty good job… me thinks!

 

20 May 2015

Ode Opener – 2015 Version

Filed under: Monadnock Region,Odontates,Spring — Tags: — Frank @ 5:00 PM

The ode season is off to its usual slow start in the Monadnock region.

Ten days ago (on Sunday, 10 May) I noticed a single yellow (i.e. an immature male or female) Hudsonian Whiteface. The next day, I saw another single individual.

By the end of the week, there were dozens of individuals sunning themselves on the driveway and the road and a few of the males were beginning to turn red. Small numbers of female Chalk-fronted Corporals had also appeared.

This past weekend (15 – 16 May) , I observed a couple of Hudsonian Whiteface mating wheels on the wing. Thus, the season progresses.

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This morning (Wed., 20 May) dawned chilly (temperature in the 50’s) and breezy. I had thoughts of heading down to the lake to look for emerging odes, but decided against it based on the weather.

Mid-morning, Joan had some business to attend to down at the public beach. When she arrived there she called me to say that there was an eclosing nymph on the beach shed.

I arrived at the beach shortly thereafter and we discovered a number (all of the same species, probably a skimmer or an emerald; but don’t quote me!) of shed exuvia on the tree trunks as well as a couple of nymphs still scaling their chosen tree.

Shows you how much I know!

When she got back to the house, Joan headed down to the garden. A short time later, I was summoned down to the garden because she had discovered a dragonfly,  probably an immature male American Emerald, perched on the ground.

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19 May 2015

Big Bertha Returns

Filed under: Birds,Monadnock Region,Spring,The "New" Yard & Environs — Tags: — Frank @ 11:00 PM

Last evening I took a drive and picked up Big Bertha* from the repairman. Don’t ask how she ended up in the shop… I’m trying to forget!

This afternoon, just to make sure that all is working properly, I set up by the feeders and gave Bertha a thorough workout. All is looking good, as you can see in the photos below.

The male red-winged blackbird made an appearance again… just to observe. Very strange… the feeders are set up at the edge of the woods (i.e. it is not typical red-winged blackbird habitat) and we are at least a quarter mile from the nearest marsh where these birds usually hangout.

The other interesting visitor was a great crested flycatcher. I do not think that I have ever seen one before.

At least the feeders are in the right habitat for this species… mature deciduous forest, according to Sibley. This individual just perched for a minute or two near the feeders before it flew off.

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* My 600 mm f/4 lens.

 

An Afternoon’s Birds and a Seed Thief Chipmunk, Too.

Filed under: Birds,Monadnock Region,Spring,Wildlife — Frank @ 9:30 PM

Yesterday morning, I set about to re-engineer the support for the main bird feeder in hopes of keeping the chipmunks at bay.

After lunch, I sat down with my camera to watch the birds and to see the results of my efforts regarding the chipmunks.  I am happy to report great success… only one chipmunk on the feeder in a day and a half and none since I made a minor adjustment early this morning.

As for the birds, the most common birds at the seed these days are finches. Gold finches are the most common but we’ve had good numbers of purple finches as well. Downy woodpeckers are the most common suet eaters present but an occasional nuthatch and a red-bellied woodpecker also appear.

One oddity that has appeared at the feeders over the past few days is a male red-winged blackbird. It just seems to perch and watch for a while before flying off. I have never seen it take either seed or suet.

The turkey is also an oddity in that I was actually able to get a good photograph. Turkeys are very common in our neck of the woods. (I am usually awakened at about 5:30 these mornings by their calls.) However, they are usually very skittish and thus difficult to photograph.

This male appeared by the greenhouse about six last evening and stuck around long enough for me to get a few nice photographs.

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