Loren Merrill Photography

06/10/2026

Bald eagle carrying partially consumed alewife to a less crowded location. These eagles are quite capable of catching their own fish, but they're always on the lookout for the easiest way to get a meal, even if that's stealing from another eagle.
Knox Co., Maine. May, 2026.

06/09/2026

Leap-frogging puffins! It's hard to hurdle a moving target, but that top puffin had good momentum.
Knox Co., Maine. May 23, 2026.

06/05/2026

A very handsome common murre (relative of the puffins and guillemots) floating in the offshore waters of Knox Co., Maine. May 23, 2026.

06/03/2026

Shall we dance? Two snowy egrets get into a heated, but elegant, argument over who gets to fish where.
Cumberland Co. Maine. May 13, 2026.

06/02/2026

Any entomologists out there that can ID what this male black-and-white warbler grabbed and is about to gobble down?
York Co., Maine. May 11, 2026.

06/01/2026

Was thrilled to see some of the Atlantic puffins still collecting nesting materials (mostly rockweed and floating debris) on my trip out to one of their breeding colonies.
Knox CO., Maine. May 23, 2026.

05/31/2026

Red sky at morning...
This sunrise is from last Sunday, and it did indeed portend foul weather.
Hog Island, Muscongus Bay, Maine. May 24, 2026.

05/30/2026

Atlantic puffin tiptoeing across the water as it builds up enough speed to get airborne. Photo taken during my Puffins and Seals Photography Cruise to Eastern Egg Rock last Saturday.

Eastern Egg Rock, Maine. May 23, 2026.

05/30/2026

https://northernwoodlands.org/outside_story/article/bobolink-grassland-birds
My latest The Outside Story is up on the Northern Woodlands website. Bobolinks (or BOBOs as I prefer) are back in the Northeast and in the thick of their breeding activities.

If you live near a large meadow, hayfield, or grassland, you may have recently noticed some bubbly robotic noises emanating from those areas. It…

05/22/2026

Got a real treat yesterday evening when I happened upon this bobcat. It looks to me like maybe a yearling (the face still has some hints of kitten to it, but I'm no expert in aging cats), and if so, it's probably out exploring new territory. It ventured out from the woods onto this dirt road (even though it knew I was there) and spent a few moments assessing me before trotting across the road and vanishing into the understory. Only my second bobcat sighting in Maine, and my first time getting some images.
Coastal Lincoln Co. Maine. May 21, 2026.