Saturday, July 16, 2016

The Magically Appearing Blueberry

And we're back from Maine!  We've actually arrived back in Worthington Monday afternoon, but I've barely had to to look at my nature photographs from my twenty-seventh trip to the Pine Tree State.

The sun breaks the horizon at 5:00 a.m., so I set an alarm to get up early.  While walking down to the dock, I'm prepared for landscape photography.  I typically head out in the canoe to capture the sunrise before switching to the long lens for bird photography around the edges of the bog.  But on this morning, my second there, I believe, two cedar waxwings caught me by surprise.  These photos were taken in rapid succession at 5:09 a.m. in very, very, low light.  I knew the bird on the left was a young-of-year begging for food, but it wasn't until I examined my photographs this evening that I understood what had transpired on that so very early morning.

Uh, Mom, aren't you going to feed me breakfast?

Hmmm... Let me see what I can find.

Yep, I've got something for you.  Just hold on.  Quit flapping your wings!  Be patient.

Oh yes, is that a blueberry Mom!?!    Yes, fledgling, yes it is.  Now just let me get this into the right position.



Mom!  That looks delicious!  I Can't wait!

There we go, are you ready? Put your wings down!

It's coming!

There you go!  How's that?  And I'm evening sending over a little string of  bird saliva!

Oh Mom, that was delicious.  Can I have another?

Let me check....

Hmmm....

Nope, I got nothing.  It's been dry around here this year, and there aren't many blueberries!

Like she said- it has been dry this summer in Maine.  In fact, the driest I've ever seen it since I've been coming here regularly since 2005.  All in all, we had a blast, catching lots of great critters at Little Pond and photographing many more.

-Tom


3 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Thanks Lisa- it was a really great moment, we live in a wonderful world with technology that is readily affordable to be able to capture natural history moments like this.

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  2. Love the bird story of the magically appearing blueberry. You should do it as a children's book. I'm down in Brown County so I see a lot of the same birds. Love to look for them on my walks.

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