A trio of late season, young Ruby-throated Hummingbirds at the feeder on a cloudy Thursday evening.
A short video and photo from the Sony RX10 V this morning. Both shot on a tripod from approximately 8′ away.
Friday was the day for the Eastern Bluebirds to fly the coop. I watched 3 make their 1st short flight with a 4th still in the nestbox a few hours later.
5 or 6 minutes of Hummingbirds doing what they do around the feeders, chasing, defending, bluffing, all slowed down 5X
Sunday morning found the young Red-tailed Hawk having breakfast in the back yard. Several minutes from grass level to keep the not so interesting parts out of the frame.
The young Red-tailed Hawk had a visit from one of the parents this morning, it dropped off a Rabbit for breakfast. Apparently this younsters hanging around for another day.
A young of the year Red-tailed Hawk has taken a shine to the Pine Trees in the yard. It’s not making the nesting Bluebirds very happy!
Loud begging had me up and looking for the source, I was surprised to find it just outside the back door!
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20 minutes later in the driveway the same young Hawk taking a bath.
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12 minutes of 5X slo-mo Ruby-throated Hummingbird antics at the feeder in a light rain.
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A young Red-tailed Hawk with a very full crop from dining on a Squirrel it’s parent delivered sat in the Pines in the yard all afternoon screaming to be fed. Perhaps the loudest or most persistent of the siblings gets the most food and a better chance at survival?
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A few male and female Ruby-throated Hummingbirds at the feeder. I added a small microphone to pick up their wing sounds as they hovered.
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A pair of young Red-tailed Hawks stopped by for a while with one of them seen in this short video as it sat on the edge of a feeder platform screaming for it’s parents to bring it food.
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A few male and female Ruby-throated Hummingbird grabbing a quick snack in a light rain. All shot at 120fps and slowed 5X
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A Blue Jay filling it’s crop at 120fps and slowed 5X. It can certainly stuff a load of seeds in there!
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A female and male Ruby-throated Hummingbird grabbing a quick snack as a thunderstorm moves in. The male gets caught in a downpour using his wings to deflect the rain.
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A Ruby-throated Hummingbird nest along the coast in Rockport. Mrs. Hummingbird departs only to return to feed the youngsters. It won’t be long before they’re sitting up over the edge of the nest testing their wings.
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A couple of Ruby-throated Humingbirds at the feeder.
The audio is Hummingbirds wings as they visit the feeders with a microphone attached.
Shot at 240fps – 5 X slower
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Gray Catbirds love a good bath. I see several each day through the summer splashing away in this little bird bath.
Shot at 240fps – 5 X slower
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A timely text from Margo & Steve sent me off to the MA Audubon Eastern Point Sanctuary parking lot for a Loggerhead Shrike found & posted to Essex Birds by Nadine Wright & Courtney.
Recordings from Essex, MA – May 02, 2026
Eastern Screech Owls (10 & 11 minutes)- Great Horned Owls, adults with begging youngsters (20 minutes) and 2 mystery calls, possible Peacock? There were several Wild Turkeys calling in the area as well.
Trying the new gain map feature using Greg Benz Web Sharp Pro. This is an HDR & SDR image and will display either the High Dynamic Range image or the Standard Dynamic Range image depending on what you have for a monitor. Works best in Google Chrome
The 1st week of March brought more snow but ended with warmer temps slowly melting the several feet of snow on the ground.
A few photos from this afternoon, the last day of February (YEAH!!). The Bluebirds appear to be house hunting with this
pair in and out of the box several times today.
I’ve photographed a number of Cooper’s Hawks over the years and thought I’d pull together a bit of info on eye color and age.
With the details coming from Brian Wheeler’s Raptors of Eastern North America and Cornell’s Birds Of The World.
I was a bit surprised to see an adult female Cooper’s Hawk on the turkey feeder this noon and even more so when she stayed as I opened the kitchen window for a few shots. According to Brian Wheeler’s Raptors of Eastern North America it takes 4 to 7 years for their eyes to obtain this deep red color.
A text from my good friends Steve & Margo late afternoon on Valentines Day had me hot footing it to Salisbury Beach State Reservation for a look at a very cooperative Nothern Saw-whet Owl that was roosting along the entry road. A very nice bonus on the other side of the road, a Northern Harrier perched on a snag before heading off to roost for the night.
Temps in the single digits over night making for a chilly morning with a couple of raptors.
A rather chilly end to the 1st week in February found the sap running and a happy Yellow-bellied Sapsucker lapping it up!
Home for lunch with a few great early February birds!
A few from home, Newbury & Salisbury Beach State Reservation earlier in the week.
A a few more from the yard mid very chilly January. A pair of Savannah Sparrows frequent the feeders after each snow storm.
A couple of recent images from the yard mid very chilly January
An adult female Cooper’s Hawk visited the yard today deciding to rest on the fence after her morning meal.
A few birds in the yard, Sunspots at 800mm with a solar filter, fall’s final fling with the Mikweed and my 1st Screech Owl of the late fall.
A bit of video, the Hummingbirds shot at 60fps, processed at 29.97 fps and the
Sparrow shot at 120 fps, processed at 29.97 fps for a slower look at these two birds.
The 5th of August and the young Hummingbirds are staking out their territories in the yard. I’ll be sorry to see them leave in just over a month from now.
The last week of July and the 1st few days of August found some fun birds visiting the yard.
The 1st young Hummingbird of the season caught hell from an adult female as it attempted to rest on the clothesline after foraging at the Cardinal Flowers in the yard.
A bit of time at the Jodrey Fish Pier in Gloucester earlier this week found a few hundred Gulls attempting to grab a meal from the workers putting the day’s catch on ice.
A mid July sunny Sunday found the pair of Bluebirds nesting in the yard busily ferrying food to the just over a week old young in the nestbox.
A late June sunny Sunday with Bee Balm in bloom created perfect conditions for a few Ruby-throated Hummingbird images.
Eastern Bluebirds are nesting in the yard! This would be their 2nd brood with the male trying to push the youngster from the 1st brood off.
A few birds from around the yard this Sunday morning.
An hour or so at the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge this morning found quite a few shorebirds using the main salt pan.
A bit of time on Rowley Bridge Road in Topsfield turned up a couple of nice birds.
A trip to Cape Cod with Steve Grinley & Margo Goetschkes turned up some splendid photo ops.
A few photos from around Essex County late May 2025
Track 1: Yet another recording from Essex, this from early March recorded with a Wildlife Acoustics SM4 recorder. American Woodcock peenting and displaying which is a favorite sound of mine heralding springs arrival here in eastern Massachusetts.
Track 2: Another recording from Essex, this one recorded on the morning of March 06, 2024. A pair of Cooper’s Hawks saying good morning with the Great Horned Owls calling in the background while a Raven flies over calling.
Track 3, 4, 5: 3 recordings from February 2024 of a pair of Great Horned Owls establishing their nesting territory. The pair had Coyotes as singing partners in the 1st recording and morning bird song in the next two as they ended their day while the birds started theirs.
Track 1: 3:48
Track 2: 2:24
Track 3: 2:11
Track 4: 3:49
Track 5: 10:21
A comparison of HDR images blended using Lightroom along with a set of images created using the flambient blending method using Lightroom and Photoshop
A bit of fun at high tide, mid December in Essex, MA. Shot behind Farnham’s excellent seafood restaurant along Rte. 133 with a 10.6′ high tide.
A 21 image composite. More info here.
A few shots with the Canon 24mm tilt-shift lens on a Sony A7IV
An hour’s worth of Hummingbirds coming and going at the feeders here in Essex. More than a hundred clips recorded during May & June 2022.
Red-shouldered Hawks nested across the street from the house this summer and have perched near the house calling occasionally. This was recorded on September 3, 2022 with 3 Red-shouldered Hawks (at least one is a hatch year) calling in and near the yard. Cooper’s Hawk, Carolina Wren, Ruby-throated Hummingbirds and many others chime in through the 13 minute recording.
From Photo Shoots In Boston
I’ve made a few trips into Boston with my good friend and fellow Posse Member Gary Smith out of Maine, something we need to do a bit more often.
To Recording Owls In The Backyard
I’ve been recording overnight on the deck in the backyard for over a year and a half now. I used to think Owls were infrequent visitors to the neighborhood but boy was I wrong!
Or Adventures in Arizona
I’ve made several birding trips to Arizona through the years and recommend southern Arizona to anyone looking for more Hummingbirds than you can shake a stick at.
The 1st five recordings below are from some of my favorite locations in eastern Massachusetts, the last recording was made in Escalante, Utah while hiking into the falls in Lower Calf Creek Canyon.