Summertime Nature at the Sourland Mountain Preserve.
Male American Goldfinch on a Thistle. Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 300 mm f/2.8 VR lens + TC-E III 20 teleconverter (ISO 250, 600 mm, f/5.6, 1/500 sec). I got almost an identical picture yesterday at the same location. The Goldfinch really like when the Thistle goes to seed.
Summertime Nature at the Sourland Mountain Preserve.
Monarch butterfly feasting on a thistle flower at the Sourland Mountain Preserve. Image taken with a Nikon D3s camera and 70-200 mm f/2.8 lens with a 2.0 TC-E teleconverter (ISO 200, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/400 sec).
This year, I have only seen three Monarch butterflies and only been able to get a picture of one. None of them were feeding. In the past they favored Thistle flowers and Joe Pye Weed flowers. I saw many Monarch butterflies on this day six years ago.
Summertime Nature at the Sourland Mountain Preserve.
Late Afternoon Walkabout at the Sourland Mountain Preserve. Six images of a Clearwing Hummingbird Moth working a Thistle flower. Images taken with a Nikon D4 camera and 80-400 mm VRII lens.
Click on the above image to access the individual images in the slideshow.
Clearwing Hummingbird Moth on a Thistle Bloom. Image taken with a Nikon D700 camera and 28-300 mm VR lens (ISO 200, 300 mm, f/5.6, 1/2000 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6, Nik Define, and Photoshop CS5.
Summertime Nature at the Sourland Mountain Preserve.
Black Swallowtail Butterfly Feeding on a Thistle Flower, and Small Bugs on a Queen Anne’s Lace Flower both at the Images taken with a Nikon D700 camera and 28-300 mm VR lens.