Photographs by Frank

21 August 2011

Fox State Forest / Spoonwood Pond

Filed under: Amphibians,Odontates — Tags: , , , , — Frank @ 12:00 PM

Last Thursday we took a hike in Fox State Forest over in Hillsborough. Our goal was a black gum swamp which is a rare habitat. There was amazing little ode activity there, just a few meadowhawks. I’m not sure if it was the time (of day or year) or what!

When we got back to the parking area we decided that we still had a few miles left in us and we headed off to find the parking area nearest Mud Pond, a very scenic kettle pond despite its name. We had an adventure getting there (the parking area) in a embarrassingly roundabout way… the map was broken… well, out of date. anyway.. really!!!

The trail to Mud Pond passes through a meadow that had large numbers of odes and there were a number of very small toads along the trail in the woods.

Here are the photos:

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On Friday, we decided to exercise the upper body. We tossed the kayaks on the truck and headed for Nubanusit Lake in Hancock. Our goal was not actually Nubanusit (a large windy, motorboat-ridden) body of water, but Spoonwood Pond, a smaller (but still good-sized) body of water which is very short portage upstream.

The boat traffic on Nubanusit was actually not bad and there is a ten mph speed limit. We also saw out first bald eagle as we headed for the dam and portage. Spoonwood Pond is delightful, it is surrounded by conservation land and only one house way up on a hillside in Nelson is visible from the water. We saw a few other kayaks and one canoe (loaded with a father, young boy and camping gear) headed back from one of four Harris Center‘s campsites around the lake.

It was a windy day so odes were mainly found in sheltered areas along the shore, but they were fairly abundant. The photography was not so good… sitting in a wave-bounced, wind-blown kayak does not make photographing small critters a high yield proposition!

We also saw a second adult bald eagle, a juvenile bald eagle and an osprey. Alas, all were too far off to photograph.

The clouds were nice though as thunderstorms moved in during the latter part of the afternoon. The storms were mostly to the east so we were able to end our trip with only a few sprinkles.

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14 August 2011

Pitcher Mountain

Filed under: Amphibians,Odontates,Other Insects,Wildlife — Tags: , , , — Frank @ 8:00 AM

Friday was one of those quintessential summer days in New Hampshire… low humidity, temperature in the mid-70’s and sunny. Thus, we packed a lunch and headed to Pitcher Mountain in Stoddard. The plan was for Joan to pick blueberries and me to photograph.

Things worked out well. Joan got about three quarts and I got these:

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10 December 2010

Massachusetts Wildlife

Filed under: Amphibians,Audubon Sanctuaries,Birds,Carver's Pond,Odontates,Other Insects,Southeastern MA,The Yard,Wildlife — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , — Frank @ 9:13 PM

Back in September, I entered ten images in a photo contest sponsored by Massachusetts Wildlife magazine, a quarterly publication of Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife.

I had pretty much forgotten about the contest and my entry. However, I was pleasantly reminded about it when I recently received email informing me that four of my photos have been given awards!

According to the email from Peter Mirick,  the editor, there were “1,137 entries received from 183 individuals living in 149 cities and towns, some as far away as Florida and Arizona.”

No large cash prizes! Just a subscription to the magazine and a few extra copies of the  issue in which the images will be published.  However, it is nice to have ones work recognized this way.

Here are the four images that were selected:

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And here are the other entries:

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Thanks for “wandering by”.

28 August 2010

The End of August

Filed under: Amphibians,Other Insects,Wildlife — Tags: , , — Frank @ 8:00 AM

Well… here it is, the end of August and we are back home trying to get our heads wrapped around the idea of going back to work! (I know we won’t get much sympathy from those who did work all or most of the summer!)

I quipped to a number of people over the last few weeks that we we spent the summer practicing for retirement. Of course, I also had to say that we seemed to be getting pretty good at it and thus maybe we should try the real thing. Alas, the reality of finances won’t allow for that quite yet.

Peak time for odontates is the month of July… by the time the end of August rolls around the numbers of dragonflies and damselflies are way down from the peak. Also, having spent the past six or seven weeks actively photographing the critters adds a feeling that there is not much too see.

These factors, and having the weather a bit cooler, lead us to spend a few days taking some hikes around the area… we revisited places that we had not seen in some years and saw some new spots that were not lake-side habitat. We also found some new photographic subjects.

We spent time in the area between Gregg Lake and Willard Pond on two days and visited the McCabe Forest (a Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests reservation along the Contoocook River in Antrim.) I also spent an hour or so one afternoon in the fields at the Bass Farm found a couple of cooperative butterflies to photograph.

On the ledges atop Goodhue Hill, one sunny early afternoon, we watched dozens of darners (one family of large dragonflies) feasting on insects that we could not see. They were in constant flight… which explains why I have no photographs! (Note to Joan: I can get photos of dragonflies in flight… it will just require a bit of new equipment!!!)

Anyway, here are a half dozen photos from these hikes:

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24 August 2010

Dana’s Vist to Camp

Filed under: "Camp",Amphibians,Odontates — Tags: , , — Frank @ 7:47 AM

My friend (and fellow photographer) Dana Lipp came to camp for a day trip about a week ago.

As we usually do when we get together, we chat about many things, even photography on occasion. We also often find time to make some photographs.

This day we haunted, as is my habit, the lake shore near camp. The lake as been dropping all summer and so by mid-August there was a bit of dry(ish) land all along the shore. Thus Dana did not get the “full effect” but I am sure that he’ll agree he got the essential felling of the experience!

It was very interesting to see Dana’s photographic take on an area where I have spent an extensive amount of time; he saw subjects that I have overlooked for months and made some very nice photographs. Dana posts his photos on Flicker and so I will just link to his “Antrim Camp” set there.

And here are a few of the photos I took that day:

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3 June 2010

Memorial Day Weekend

Filed under: "Camp",Amphibians,Odontates — Tags: , — Frank @ 12:00 PM

For us, like many,  Memorial Day weekend means the beginning of summer. As is our habit, we headed north to “open up” camp for the season.

Opening up camp is not a big deal since there are no utilities involved… we evicted the mice who had taken up residence over the winter, picked up a few things, swept the place up and were ready to go! In addition to these chores on Saturday, we spent Sunday afternoon finishing up last years siding project. However, I was also able to find several good chunks of time for photography.

Although I never strayed more than 100 yards from camp, I was never lacking in subjects. Dragonflies were present in abundance, both numerically  and in the variety of species. I only saw two damselflies the entire weekend… too early in the season I guess.

One of the damselflies I saw was an ebony jewelwing which cruised by quickly along the lake shore. This was very odd as the jewelwings are most usually associated with the flowing water of small streams and rivers. I have never observed them on the lake before. It was probably a fluke but we’ll see as the summer progresses.

As is often the case, I noticed many other insects as I stalked dragonflies and a couple of photos of these are included in the set below.

There were a couple of permanent residents who were not happy with our arrival. We had noticed that the beaver house in the corner of the cove looked to be in pretty good shape and about dusk on Saturday we noticed two beavers out and about. One of them was clearly not pleased with our presence! He (or maybe she) cruised by the cabin a dozen time or more slapping its tail loudly on each pass. Of course, I wanted a photo of the action and ended up having Joan wave a bright yellow life jacket when the beaver was in a good spot photographically just to get a tail slap. The light was very low but here is an OK image of a beaver tail and big splash.

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The permanent residents of the amphibious kind were also present… we saw both a green frog and a couple of northern leopard frogs around the rocks on the beach.

At mid-afternoon on Monday we had two visitor of the avian persuasion… a loon and a great blue heron. The loon fished quite contentedly and quite nearby for sometime; probably kept in the cove by the boat activity out on the main part of the lake. The heron fished briefly on both sides of the cove before taking off again. The harsh mid-day light did not make for good photographs of either one.

Here are the weekend’s photographs…

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I’m still working on identifying most of the dragonflies… this is not one of my strong points!

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