Early in May I encountered this North American porcupine in my woods. Porcupines are herbivores, and especially like the bark of hemlock, maple, and fruit trees. I always love seeing or hearing them around my house.
Image of the month – May 2025
Image of the month – April 2025
I photographed this female Northern Cardinal perched in a sunbeam earlier this month. Cardinals are year-round residents in Maine and they are one of the few species of birds where both males and females sing. Pairs share song phrases.
Image of the month – March 2025
Although Dark-eyed Juncos are year round residents of Maine, I only see them in my yard outside of their breeding season. This one was part of a large flock, hunting for seeds in the snow.
Image of the month – February 2025
Earlier this month, I watched a flock of Wild Turkeys forage for food near the woods where the snow was shallow. Here are two of them. Wild Turkeys occur in every U.S. state except Alaska.
Image of the month – January 2025
I’ve been experimenting more with pinhole photography, so here’s an abstract landscape that’s totally different from my normal wildlife work.
Image of the month – December 2024
Here is a White-throated Sparrow from back in the fall. White-throated Sparrows can be either tan morph or white morph, and this is a tan-morph individual. Color morph does not indicate the bird’s sex, but individuals almost always mate with a bird of the other color morph. So, a male tan morph will made with a female white morph, and a female tan morph will mate with a male white morph.
Images of the month – November 2024
Even though it’s November, here are some images from the summer. In the first one, an amber snail sits on flowering grass. The silky looking filaments topped with pink or yellow are stamens.
Here, two meadow plant bugs (genus Leptopterna), wave their antennae at each other while perched on another flowering blade of grass. Meadow plant bugs feed on developing grass seed.
Image of the month – October 2024
I always enjoy thinking about how a photograph can show not just a cool animal, but how it can also convey part of a story. Eastern Bluebirds stay in Maine year round. If you have a bluebird house and leave it up in the winter, you may see a stream of bluebirds leaving the house on chilly mornings after they’ve all packed inside to stay warm at night. Here’s a bluebird in my oak tree after an ice storm – puffed up and sitting in the sun for warmth.
Image of the month – September 2024
SwampSparrows (Melospiza georgiana) are one of 33 species of birds I’ve seen in my pokeberry bushes. Swamp Sparrows are medium distance migrants, never leaving North America. They have longer legs than other sparrows, and will sometimes wade in shallow water when foraging.
Images of the month – August 2024
Back in July I had a couple different doe and fawn pairs visiting my yard. Here are photos of two cute interactions. The fawns pictured are quite young, but they’ll stay with their mothers for at least their first year of life. White-tailed deer fawns lose their spots when they are 3 to 4 months old, and start growing their winter coats.
