Birding in Maine» Wildlife and Nature Photography

Birding in Maine 5 Year Anniversary

John Briggs — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 20:36:40 +0000

Five years ago today, on July 3rd, 2006, my first blog entry was posted on the Birding in Maine web site. At the time, I had a point and shoot camera and little knowledge of where to bird in Maine. Blogging was new to me and I was not even sure that any one would visit. The first post received a total of 4 views and no comments through the first month of its existence.

Looking at my blog stats, I’ve made 560 posts over the last five years and received 4683 comments. That’s an average of 112 posts per year or ~10 per month. I’ve posted 3111 images during that time as well. From June 2007 through today, my c-panel shows that there have been 1,233,433 unique visitors and 2,749,668 page views from folks in 54 countries (stats prior to June 2007 have been lost due to changing hosts). 60% of my traffic comes from search engines with Google being number one, 11% coming from Twitter, and 6% from Facebook. These stats over the past 5 years of blogging has more than surpassed my wildest dreams.

Writing this blog has brought so many wonderful people into my life. I’ve met people through the blog with whom I’m so happy to be able to call my friends. For those that have visited and commented, thank you for taking the time to read about Sharon and I and our adventures in the wonderful world of birding and photography. I hope you’ve found it to be informative and entertaining. Birding in Maine would be a tree falling in a forest with no one to hear if not for you, my wonderful followers, friends and readers. Thank you for visiting and for your participation!

To close out this special day, I’m including some of my favorite photos from over the last 5 years. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

Some of the following photos are tall. Press your f11 key to open your browser window to its fullest extent. Then, simply click a thumbnail below for a full-sized view. ©2011 John Briggs Photography | All Rights Reserved

Happy birding!

World Bird Wednesday

Photo of the Day: Flaming Gorget

John Briggs — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 15:38:53 +0000

The right time, right place, right angle, right exposure and a lot of patience are all required to capture the full brilliance of a Hummingbird’s gorget. The gorget is the brilliantly colored area on the throat of a male Hummingbird and is a result of iridescence and not color pigments. *The throat feathers on a male Hummingbird contain very thin, film-like layers of platelets, set like tiles in a mosaic against a background that is dark. Light waves reflect and refract off the mosaic and creates the colors that you see [Bird Note]. Changes in the angles from which light strikes the gorget give the effect of different colors. When sunlight is not striking the gorget at the right angle the feathers will appear all black.

Bird Photography: Ruby-throated Hummingbird Gorget

These photos were difficult to capture because the light had to be just right, the angle at which I was situated had to be just right and, of course, the Hummingbird had to cooperate. Over a period of two days, and filling a 16gb CF card with photos of this bird, I was left with the following captures that shows the beautiful flaming gorget of the male Ruby-throated Hummingbird.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird Flaming Gorget

*Bob Sundstrom. (March 2010). Why a Gorget Glitters
Transcript-631. In Bird Note. Retrieved June 29, 2011, from
http://www.birdnote.org/birdnote-transcript.cfm?id=654.

Happy birding!

World Bird Wednesday

Video of the Day: Singing Gray Catbird

John Briggs — Fri, 13 May 2011 23:13:53 +0000

Gray Catbird Singing | Click for full-sized view

While working in the backyard this afternoon, I heard Gray Catbirds singing in the sumacs that are at the edge of the cove. I grabbed my camera and slowly worked my way down to where the choir was performing.

Taking cover behind a highbush blueberry, I captured several photos and video of this beautiful bird. The Gray Catbird’s most common call is a cat-like “meow”. It is a mimic, which means it copies the songs and calls of other birds.

The complicated syrinx (song box) of the Gray Catbird allows them to sing two notes simultaneously. The unusual structure of the syrinx allows them to make mewing sounds like that of a cat but also allows them to imitate other birds, tree frogs, and even mechanical sounds that they hear.

The male and female Catbird in this particular patch are keeping other Catbirds away. This leads me to believe that they will once again nest in the dense brush under the sumacs. Last year, our yard hosted two breeding pair who successfully raised young and brought them to our feeders.

Enjoy the following video of the Gray Catbird singing to its heart’s content.

Dimension: 560×480 | Video bit rate: 1000Kbps | length: 34 seconds
Playback: Click Play Button | Broadband Connection Recommended
Video: Gray Catbird Singing | ©2011 John Briggs Photography

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6-8AKEaTTs

Happy birding!

Photo of the Day: American Mink

John Briggs — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 19:43:24 +0000

American Mink – Neovison vison

The American Mink spends most of its time in the water hunting for food. It is a good swimmer and can dive as deep as 16 feet. When a Mink feels threatened, it will spray the intruder with a foul-smelling liquid, just as a Skunk does. Unlike the skunk, the mink can’t aim its spray. When the mink is comfortable and feels safe, it makes a purring sound like a cat. The mink is very territorial and males will fight other Minks that invade their territory. The Mink marks its territory with scent.

I found this Mink scurrying across the rocks along the shore of Ice Pond on Arrowsic Island. As I photographed this animal, it must have heard the shutter on my camera. The Mink stopped and peeked over the rock at me and I captured the following photo.

American Mink - Neovison vison

Happy birding!

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Wordless Wednesday: Moose

John Briggs — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 22:40:08 +0000

Moose - Magalloway Plantation, Maine | Click thumbnail for larger view

Get Wordless over at Wordless Wednesday.

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