Not a bird, but a late-summer highlight from one of my favorite #massachusetts birding spots. Cardinal flowers bloom with intense red colors, sometimes forming large groups in damp soil. Adjusted in #darktable to back off red channel overload.

This Cedar Waxwing has a distinctly orange wingtip, rather than the usual yellow. Apparently this results from eating the berries of an introduced honeysuckle species. #birdsOfMastodon

A Yellow-crowned Night Heron looks as if it could be a Dr. Seuss character. #birdsOfMastodon #darktable #NewEngland

An Eastern Kingbird heads out on a mission. I always enjoy finding that I've taken hard-to-time shots like this. #birdsOfMastodon #darktable

Imagine waking up to find oneself under close chickadee examination. #birdsOfMastodon #darktable

Enthusiastic Marsh Wren. #birdsOfMastodon #darktable

Brightly-colored Prothonotary Warblers are uncommon in #massachusetts and can attract many interested birders. #birdsOfMastodon #darktable

Brightly-colored Blackburnian Warblers are exciting sights to catch in spring migration. #birdsOfMastodon #NewEngland #darktable

Black-and-white warbler returns for season, appears to human eyes as if suspicious of viewer. #birdsOfMastodon #darktable #massachusetts

On misty mornings, a few subtle colors stand out amid monochromatic tones across the gray scale. Fine perch for a Northern Mockingbird. #birdsOfMastodon #darktable

A Ruby-crowned Kinglet offers a bit of color on a foggy spring morning. #birdsOfMastodon

An apparently pensive female Evening Grosbeak from a flock that's been present in Groton, #Massachusetts for much of this winter. #birdsOfMastodon #darktable

Beautiful. Reminds me of Machias Seal Island, a unique piece of territory formally disputed between Canada and US, off coast of Maine and New Brunswick. Prized destination for #birder visits, as it's a breeding colony for Murres, Razorbills, and Puffins, among others.

I liked that the Common Loon's beak was aligned so as to cast a shadow centered on its chest. Quite elegant, I thought. #birdsofmastodon

Not much of a #birding month in February for me with snow and cold, but I did get to photograph perhaps the most-photographed bird in #Massachusetts so far this year, the rare (6th-ever state record, per https://maavianrecords.com/chestnut-collared-longspur-in-fitchburg/) Chestnut-collared Longspur that's spent the last few months at the small airport in Fitchburg. Normally a bird of the North American Great Plains, I'll enter it here to #birdsofmastodon.

Harlequin Ducks are colorful sights on rocky #NewEngland coastlines in winter. #darktable #birdsOfMastodon

American Tree Sparrow shows off distinctive bicolored bill. #birdsofmastodon

Common Loon from a cold final day of 2025 with windy coastal #birding in #massachusetts. #birdsOfMastodon

Female Common Eiders have great color if you can catch them while #birding in winter, if the light cooperates.

Eastern Screech-Owl, sleepy and well camouflaged in the open. #birding