Tag: bird lives

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Image of the month – June 2025

Here are some Rock Pigeons, captured on film with my pinhole camera. Pinhole cameras capture a wide view, providing a completely different feel than what I normally get with my telephoto lens. For this photo my camera was on the ground, so the pigeons appear almost as large as the building, which is quite far away from the pigeons.

It is important to note that these pigeons hang out in a parking lot where humans often feed them. This worked to my advantage for the photo – when I crouched down on the ground the pigeons came running over. I did not feed them. This photo is also evidence of how much human behavior can condition wildlife in ways that ultimately can kill the animals. I’ve seen humans feed these pigeons out of their car windows many times, and I’ve seen several dead pigeons in this parking lot – run over by cars because the pigeons approached in hopes of a meal.

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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.

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Image of the month – May

A Great Egret sleeps standing up at the top of a tree. The egret is standing over its nest. There is a slight breeze so its long plumes are visibly blowing in the breeze, and some of the feathers on its back are also blown up. Great egrets are large white birds with yellow bills.

Another spring photo for May. Here a Great Egret sleeps while standing over its nest and nestlings. A slight breeze ruffles the egret’s feathers, making its aigrettes, or plumes, easily visible. Great Egrets build stick nests in breeding colonies. A single stick from this individual’s nest is just visible poking out from the leaves in the lower left-hand corner.

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Image of the month – April

A Common Grackle sits in some pussy willows. The grackle is looking up and a few falling snowflakes are visible in the scene. There is also sunlight coming from somewhere, because the grackle's iridescent bold blue head and purple and bronze body are clearly visible.

Since this first post is taking place in April, here is a photograph full of signs of early spring in southern Maine: a Common Grackle and some pussy willows in a light snow. The willows were full of grackles calling and displaying to each other and this male has his head pointed up because he is about to call.

As with many birds, the winter ranges of Common Grackles are shifting along with climate change. Though they are generally short-distance migrants, a few individuals can now be found in Maine year-round, though the bulk of their population moves at least a little further south for the winter. Common Grackles are some of the earliest birds to return in spring in large numbers to Maine.