Keith Carver • Photography: Recently Added Galleries and Collections

The Nature of Birds - a Lathrop photo exhibit

krcarver@charter.net (Keith Carver • Photography) — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 20:18:26 GMT

This collection of photos is being exhibited at the Lathrop Community Center, Easthampton, Massachusetts during the month of December 2008. These are framed images, mostly birds of western Massachusetts, midcoast Maine, and central New Mexico. The purpose of the exhibit is give viewers an up-close glimpse into the lives of a wide variety of birds, their distinctive characteristics, flight patterns, feeding habits, plumage, etc. These framed photos are mostly 8x10, 11x14 and 16x20, and all will be for sale. Higher-resolution unmatted images of many of these birds may be viewed in the galleries of this website, and prints ordered directly. For further information about the photo exhibit, contact Keith Carver at krcarver@charter.net.

fall foliage 2008 Western Mass.

krcarver@charter.net (Keith Carver • Photography) — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 23:11:31 GMT

bird spirits

krcarver@charter.net (Keith Carver • Photography) — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 21:08:13 GMT

Birds and groups of birds have spirits. Not the same as human spirits, of course. But when I photograph birds, I see a certain characteristic (e.g. the stance of an American bittern), a determination (to get food, for example), a collective energy of the flock (especially in flight), a species personality (e.g. an osprey hovering over prey before diving), etc. This out-of-the-box gallery explores these characteristics. All of these images begin with a photo, and are then processed in Photoshop using various filters. These aren't for everyone, and if you like your bird photos to look as natural as possible, this isn't your gallery. But sometimes it's interesting to deliberately modify these images to bring out the aura of a bird or group of birds - their speed, energy, and emotional impact.

red-billed tropicbird at Matinicus Rock 2008

krcarver@charter.net (Keith Carver • Photography) — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 13:31:00 GMT

For the past three summers a red-billed tropicbird has been spotted at Matinicus Rock, in the Gulf of Maine and far north of its standard range. These photos were taken on July 12, 2008 from the Puffin V, a Maine Audubon Society boat. The trip to Matinicus Rock was led by Eric Hynes.

Marsh birds

krcarver@charter.net (Keith Carver • Photography) — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 10:30:00 GMT

Marsh birds such as rails and bitterns are often reclusive and hard to photograph. An American bittern, very secretive, was seen several times in the summer of 2007 on Damariscotta Lake. I was able to get photos of the upper part of this bird before he flushed. And another bittern appeared - briefly - at Weskeag Marsh in August 2008. A Virginia rail at Weskeag Marsh was quite bold and made an appearance for a photo in 2007, appeared again in July 2008.

shorebirds 2008

krcarver@charter.net (Keith Carver • Photography) — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 10:16:00 GMT

This is a collection of shorebirds seen in the July - September 2008 at Weskeag Marsh, Maine. By August and September, almost all the shorebirds at Weskeag are juveniles, fattening up before their southbound flight to winter grounds in the Caribbean or South America.

slide show: Loons and other birds of midcoast Maine ... mostly

krcarver@charter.net (Keith Carver • Photography) — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 10:55:00 GMT

I presented this slide show on Sept. 18, 2008 to the Maine Audubon Society, Midcoast Chapter, in Camden. The talk is divided into four groups of slides: Loons and other birds of Damariscotta Lake; birds of coastal salt marshes, especially Weskeag Marsh in South Thomaston; pelagic birds at Matinicus Rock in the Gulf of Maine; and sandhill cranes of the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Reserve near Socorro, New Mexico.

To run the slide show, first click on Slideshow in the upper right corner. You can control the show using the control strip at the bottom of the screen. This will appear when you move your cursor to the bottom of the screen. To set the background color (black to gray to white), select from the choices at the right-hand side. At the bottom, you can pause, stop, select individual images from the row of thumbnails or set the speed of the show.

sharp-tailed sparrows at Weskeag

krcarver@charter.net (Keith Carver • Photography) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 22:05:00 GMT

Nelson's and Saltmarsh are two closely-related species of sharp-tailed sparrow, and both are found in mid-summer at Weskeag Marsh, Maine. Both are about 5" long, have distinctive sharply pointed tail feathers, and can be difficult to distinguish from markings alone. The Saltmarsh variety has an intensely orange malar, and whereas the Nelson's also has an orange malar, it is less intense. The Saltmarsh has a more rounded head than the Nelson's.

My thanks to birder Don Reimer for ID-ing both species.

Puffins and Razorbills at Matinicus Rock 2008

krcarver@charter.net (Keith Carver • Photography) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 15:55:00 GMT

These Atlantic puffins and razorbills were photographed on July 12, 2008 at Matinicus Rock. This is the southern-most location along the Atlantic coast for razorbills, where there are several hundred nesting birds.

Short-billed dowitchers

krcarver@charter.net (Keith Carver • Photography) — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 23:43:00 GMT

Except for the last image, these photos were taken July 11, 2008 at the Weskeag salt marsh in South Thomaston, Maine. There were about 60 short-billed dowitchers in this group, all busily feeding in the mud-flats using their bills in an up-and-down sewing-machine mode. The next-to-last image is of sb dowitchers in flight at Weskeag on July 11, and the last image is of another(?) group of dowitchers in flight the next day, about twenty miles east over the Gulf of Maine.

Arctic terns at Matinicus Rock 2008

krcarver@charter.net (Keith Carver • Photography) — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 18:08:00 GMT

At Matinicus Rock, Maine, arctic terns greatly outnumber common terns. These photos were taken on July 12, 2008 from the Puffin V, a Maine Audubon Society boat out of the Hog Island camp. These photos show the tern hovering and scanning for fish before plunging into the water for retrieval.

The champion of circumpolar nesters, the arctic tern breeds in Alaska, northern Canada, and the northeast coat - then makes the 11,000 mile journey to winter in Antarctic waters!

Weinrich yard birds

krcarver@charter.net (Keith Carver • Photography) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 23:01:00 GMT

These birds were attracted to the seed and suet feeders at John Weinrich's woodland home near Damariscotta Lake. These were photographed in late June, 2008. The birds on a natural perch were on their way to or from one of the feeders. My thanks to John for graciously sharing his birds with me!

Common loons 2008

krcarver@charter.net (Keith Carver • Photography) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 00:19:00 GMT

These common loons were photographed on Damariscotta Lake, Maine in June 2008. This is the first time in several years that our "local" loon family has had two chicks, the normal brood. There was only one chick last year and the year before. It's fascinating to watch the loons protect and feed their young.

Wilson's phalarope

krcarver@charter.net (Keith Carver • Photography) — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 16:44:00 GMT

These photos of a male Wilson's phalarope were taken in early July at Weskeag Marsh, near Thomaston, Maine. Unlike almost all other bird species, the female Wilson's is more colorful than the male. But the male also has beautiful feathers and an elegant slender shape and posture. At a length of about 9", the Wilson's is the largest of North American phalaropes, but still smaller than other area shorebirds such as willets, greater yellowlegs or killdeer. The Wilson's is never found at sea but often in saltmarshes, mudflats or shallow pools.

Black birds

krcarver@charter.net (Keith Carver • Photography) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 10:39:00 GMT

This is a collection of birds that are primarily black, e.g. grackles, starlings, ravens, blackbirds, crows, etc. Because many of these are so common, we sometimes overlook the beauty that can be seen at high magnification.

Perching birds

krcarver@charter.net (Keith Carver • Photography) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 19:29:00 GMT

These birds are mostly small (about the size of a robin or smaller), and mostly perch. They include flycatchers, seed-eaters, sparrows, warblers, thrushes, thrashers, and a wide variety of field birds. These photos were taken 2007-2008 in midcoast Maine and western Massachusetts.

Eagles and hawks

krcarver@charter.net (Keith Carver • Photography) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 19:22:00 GMT

The first two eagle photos were taken in Hadley, Massachusetts near the Connecticut River, in May 2008. The remaining eagle photos were taken on Damariscotta Lake, Maine in the summer of 2007. The other hawk photos were also taken in midcoast Maine unless otherwise noted.

bird silhouettes

krcarver@charter.net (Keith Carver • Photography) — Sun, 25 May 2008 18:59:00 GMT

B&W silhouettes of birds against a sky background reveal interesting details in shape, form, primary wing feathers and flight patterns. Here are some silhouettes of raptors, sandhill cranes, snow geese and a tree swallow.

warblers and vireos

krcarver@charter.net (Keith Carver • Photography) — Thu, 22 May 2008 17:25:00 GMT

Spring migration of warblers and vireos into New England takes place in April and May. These are the avian American Idols, singing a cacophony of songs usually from the highest part of the tree canopy. Although it's sometimes hard on a birder's craning neck, spotting and identifying these beautiful songsters make it all worthwhile. Because the birds are tiny, love the tops of the trees, and almost never stop to rest, they are a challenging photographic subject. I'm usually not fast enough with my camera and lens to capture the shots I really want, but here are some picks from warblers and vireos seen during Spring 2008. Many of these were seen at Quabbin Park, in western Massachusetts.

Great blue heron rookery

krcarver@charter.net (Keith Carver • Photography) — Wed, 21 May 2008 19:17:00 GMT

The great blue heron is nearly four feet tall, the largest heron in North America. It is common and found across the U.S. , southern Canada and in Mexico. These photos were taken on April 3, 2008 at a great blue heron rookery near Easthampton, Massachusetts. There are 19 nests in a line of dead oak trees with most nests being actively used this spring as a site of courtship, mating and parental care.