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.
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.
Jagged ambush bugs, like this one, sit motionless until a fly, bee, butterfly, moth, or other bug gets close enough for the ambush bug to grab with its muscular front legs. In North America, multiple species of jagged ambush bug can be found from northern Mexico to southern Canada. This individual is lying in wait on some fleabane, a plant the same family as asters and daisies.
Here’s a male Yellow Warbler from back in May. Yellow Warblers breed across Maine and are some of the earliest warblers to migrate north in the spring, and earliest to head south again in the late summer/early fall.
I always love seeing new species, of course, but I also love seeing a common animal do something that I’ve never witnessed before. Early in May I got to watch this gray squirrel eat oak flowers which was a new sight for me.
A Dark-eyed Junco sits on a snowy and icy white pine tree. I took this photo after the ice storm in early April.
This bobcat was my most unexpected wildlife encounter of the month. It explored my property, marked a few shrubs, pounced when it heard rodents rustling around in the long grass, and eventually wandered on. As always, my photographs show wild animals. I use a long lens and crop for composition.
I’m also sharing this photo, because it shows how excellent the bobcat’s camouflage can be.
For something a little different, here’s a seascape taken on a cloudy day with a pinhole camera.
A male Ruby-throated Hummingbird rests in southern Texas on his way north for the breeding season. This photo was taken a few years ago in April.
This is one of my favorite photos of 2023. Some species of ants guard planthoppers (and their eggs). In return, the ants get to eat the sweet honeydew excreted by the planthoppers as they feed. Here is a planthopper, her eggs, and their ant guard, all on some goldenrod.