Photographs by Frank

15 November 2013

Backyard Birds

Filed under: Birds,Monadnock Region,November — Tags: — Frank @ 10:00 PM

Earlier in the week, I put out the bird feeder (both seeds and suet) in hopes of attracting photographic subjects.  I need to take it in every night to avoid attracting bears… I have only forgotten once so far!

It took a few days for the birds to find the feeder but by this morning things were hopping! Thus, after I finished a few chores, I headed out to get some practice with my new photographic tool*.

In addition to the four species (junco, chickadee, gold finch, and white-throated sparrow) I photographed, there were two other species  (nuthatches and a downy woodpecker) that I did not get good photos of.

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*All of these photos were taken with my new-to-me Nikkor 600 mm f/4 lens. Joan says “toy” but I am sticking with “tool”!

6 November 2013

Early November Olio

Filed under: Birds,Monadnock Region,November,Odontates,Uncategorized,Wildlife — Tags: , — Frank @ 9:00 PM

I was surprised to see male Autumn Meadowhawks around the yard on the weekend (2 and 3 November) since we had some cold nights (temperature in the low twenties Fahrenheit) last week. I only saw one or two individuals at a time but they were still flying strong.

On Sunday (3 Nov) Joan was raking leaves when she disturbed a very cold and torpid red-backed salamander nestled among the leaves. As I moved him from the spot where we found him, he became a bit more active. I grabbed the camera which was rigged for odes and made a couple of exposures. I then headed back into the house for the macro lens… all for naught, as he was gone from the rock where I had placed him by the time I got back. I searched the area in vain for some minutes but he was not to be found.

Tuesday evening (no…  make that late afternoon, as sunset is about 4;30 these days), I headed down to the lake in hopes of a nice sunset to photograph. I was rewarded with less than five minutes of nice pink colored clouds but this was enough to make a nice photograph.

Today (Wednesday, 6 Nov) I headed up Pack Monadnock for some more raptor watching. I arrived just before noon and stayed until about 3:30. We saw a number of raptors including two golden eagles, but none were close enough to photograph. (Henry’s full report is here).  I did, however, make a few photographs of smaller birds which alit briefly nearby.

There is another week and a half of  the raptor watch season remaining, so hopefully I still have time to get a “portfolio quality” photo… if not, there is always next year!

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28 October 2013

The Weekend’s Work

Filed under: Autumn,Birds,Monadnock Region — Tags: , , , — Frank @ 4:00 PM

I spent Saturday afternoon at the Pack Monadnock Raptor Observatory again. It was a slow day, only six birds total, but one of those six was a rough-legged hawk. I missed seeing by a few minutes. This was only the second time ever that a rough-legged had been observed at Pack Monadnock.

The other highlight for the day was a golden eagle (the fourth of the season) which I did get to see at a distance.

Lastly, another merlin alit in the same tree as the one I photographed one on Friday.  I was again able to get a decent (although highly cropped) photo.

On Sunday, Joan, Sally (Joan’s childhood friend who was visiting from Lewes, Delaware) and I took a “stroll” through our neighborhood. We hit all of the high points: the lake shore, Brimstone Corner, cellar holes, the beech tree with bear claw marks, and all of the nearby beaver-made wetlands. We covered about 4.5 miles in roughly 4.5 hours and a good time was had by all.

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25 October 2013

Pack Monadnock Hawk Watch

Filed under: Autumn,Birds,Monadnock Region — Tags: — Frank @ 10:26 AM

I spent yesterday afternoon (arriving just after noon and staying until 4 PM) at the NH Audubon migratory raptor observatory on Pack Monadnock in Peterborough.  It was a slow day… seven raptors observed when I got there and fourteen for the day. The official report can be found here.

The day was blustery and cool (mid-40s) but with good layers including a windproof  outer layer it was not bad at all.

Even with the weather, there was a good crowd gathered… six individuals including Henry, the official counter, were there when I arrived.

As with most of my visits, the birds were generally too far away for photography. I keep hoping for one of those days when the birds appear at eye-level a hundred feet or less away but it hasn’t happened this year… yet! The season still has a couple of weeks to go, so there is still hope!

I did manage to grab photos (both are heavily cropped; about a quarter of the frame is shown) of a red-tailed hawk in flight and a merlin that perched briefly on a dead tree.

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6 October 2013

Pack Monadnock

Filed under: Autumn,Birds,Monadnock Region — Tags: , — Frank @ 7:00 PM

Yesterday morning Joan, Suzy (Joan’s cousin) and I headed up to the top of Pack Monadnock to watch for migrating raptors. Each year, during September and October, NH Audubon maintains an observatory there to count migrating raptors.

We spent roughly three hours there along with Henry (the NH Audubon staff member) and a small group of other raptor watchers. Dozens of other folks (hikers and sightseers) also passed though.

All told, we saw 30-40 raptors but none close enough for good photographs. I had the 50-500 mm lens mounted on the tripod and at time amused myself photographing other birds and the foliage.

At one point a flock of more than a dozen cedar waxwings alit in the mountain ash trees just down slope from our position and began to chow down in the abundant berries.  I took more than a dozen photos hoping to catch more than one bird with berry in beak, all to no avail. In every frame I caught only a single bird in action!

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2 September 2013

A Loon and (Intimate) Landscapes

Filed under: Birds,Summer — Tags: , — Frank @ 1:00 PM

On Friday afternoon, I headed down to the lake and put the kayak in the water. I specifically left the “ode rig” at home and took only my little Nikon V1.

My intent was to force myself to look of things, other than odes, to photograph.

My thought was to cruise the shore line and to look for details that might make interesting photographs.

My inspiration  is the book “Intimate Landscapes” by Eliot Porter, in which the photographer concentrates on “details” in the landscape rather than broad, sweeping views. Porter was also a pioneer in using color film for landscape photography.

While on the lake, I had a close encounter with a loon, I had seen this loon on the surface a number of times, but was pretty much ignoring it since I had the 10-30 mm lens on the camera. However, at one point “he” popped up very close to me (and the shore). I was able to switch to the 30-100 mm lens and make a five or six  frames (in about 90 seconds) before he was gone.

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7 June 2013

Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge — Part 1, Birds & Landscapes

Filed under: Amphibians,Birds,National Wildlife Refuges,Summer,Wildlife — Tags: , , — Frank @ 5:00 PM

My parents recently moved to one of those “soup-to-nuts” retirement places in suburban Washington, DC and we spent last weekend visiting them at their new abode.

On Monday we headed for the Blackwater National Wildlife refuge in Cambridge, MD (on the Eastern Shore). We had made a short visit there last summer and put it on our list of spots to return to for some serious exploring and photography.

We arrived in the area mid-afternoon on Monday and dropped off the camper in the campground before hitting the wildlife drive though the refuge in time for the good late afternoon and evening light. On Tuesday we spent nine hours in the kayaks exploring the Blackwater River. On Wednesday morning we did the drive through the refuge again before pointing the car north. We arrived home just after midnight.

On our first visit to Blackwater, we were amazed at the concentration of herons, egrets, osprey and bald eagles. This was not a random event. The same was true this trip. There were spots in the water where six or eight egrets and herons would be lined up in a space of a few dozen feet. At times it seemed that no mater which direction you turned you could spot a bald eagle nest or an osprey nest. The density of the large charismatic birds is quite astounding.

It seems that this trip, we caught fledgling time for the bald eagles. We often saw two adults sitting in the same tree nearby a nest. On a couple of occasions we watched a juvenile land in the same tree.

Of course, there are also many smaller birds around as well as numerous dragonflies and damselflies. I tried to photograph them all!

The odes will have to wait until I get at least some of them identified. They are mostly different from the familiar (to me) ones in New England. But, here is the first installment of photos…birds and landscapes.

Blackwater Birds (all made in the refuge proper)…

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Landscapes (the two black and white photos were made in the refuge; the sunset photos were made from the campground we stayed at in Turners Island)…

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28 July 2012

Road Trip 2012

Filed under: Birds,Landscapes,Odontates,wildflowers — Frank @ 8:00 AM

Joan and I just returned from a summer road trip.

We towed the “Little Guy” with Joan’s Forrester for 5930 miles total and averaged 21.9 mpg for the trip.  On the trip west we hie-tailed it along I-90 (four eleven-hour days) and then spent a week visiting family in Hamilton, Montana.

The trip back east was a bit more leisurely (nine days).  Our first stop was Kintla Lake in Glacier National Park; from there we drove the Hi-Line (US 2) across Montana, North Dakota and Minnesota. At Duluth, we headed up the north shore of Lake Superior and entered Canada at Grand Portage; from there we drove the trans-Canadian Highway (Rt. 17) across Ontario. Near Ottawa, we headed south into New York and across the Adirondacks into Vermont near Middlebury, practically our back yard after all of those miles!

I did not open the camera bag once on the trip west, but once we got to Montana (and on the trip back east) I made photographs when I could. I have whittled down the results to two dozen in hope of not boring anyone!

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13 June 2012

Maryland Odes and a Couple of Other Photos

Filed under: Birds,Landscapes,Odontates — Tags: , , — Frank @ 8:00 AM

Joan and I spent last week visiting my parents in Annapolis, MD. While there, we took a day trip to Hooper’s Island and the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge on the Eastern Shore. We also visited the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center and Historic London Town and Gardens both of which are just south of Annapolis.

The weather was generally warm and sunny which really brought out the odes. Thus I was able to photograph a few species that we don’t have in New England. I hope that I have got them all identified properly.

While at Blackwater we saw dozens of great egrets; more of them than great blue herons. In addition, we saw a number of osprey and a couple of bald eagles. The weather bright and sunny and we were there mid-afternoon… difficult conditions to get photographs of bright white egrets. I guess that I will just have to go back there again sometime!

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30 September 2011

Early Autumn

Filed under: Autumn,Birds — Frank @ 8:00 AM

The first signs of autumn in New England are the red leaves of swamp maples which ring most wet lands. Last weekend, these were abundant and I headed out to photograph them despite the uncooperative weather — all of these photographs were taken in a drizzle and, on a couple of occasions, I had to retreat to the truck and sit out a shower.

Twice, while I was concentrating on the landscape, I was surprised by nearby birds. The heron was not difficult to get a shot of (except for the fading light) as he/she was intent on hunting. The pheasant on the other hand was only in view long enough for three or four frames before it ducked back into the undergrowth.

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