Mammals « Photographs by Frank

1 October 2011

A Stroll Up The Road

Filed under: Autumn,Mammals,Odontates,The "New" Yard & Environs — Tags: autumn leaves, dragonflies, wild flowers — Frank @ 12:00 PM

Yesterday afternoon, I took a stroll up Brimstone Corner Rd. and Knight’s Road just to see what was out. I planned to stop at some of the logged out areas since I expected to find some darners out and about taking advantage of the sunny afternoon.

The clouds began to gather shortly after I headed out and I only saw a handful of odes (a couple of darners and a couple of Autumn Meadowhawks in the first clearing I investigated; after that, nothing.

There were plenty of other things to keep me occupied… chipmunks abounded in the stone walls on both sides of the road. Turning leaves and other vegetation also made for interesting subjects as did the old skidder near the fork in Knight’s Road.

At said fork in road, I encountered a hawk of some kind. It came around the bend in the road only ten or twelve feet off the ground. When it saw me it made a very sharp turn into the woods and was gone; way too fast to get a photo. I could not decide if it was just cruising the road or if I had scared it up off the ground. A quick search of the area revealed no remnants of prey on the ground.

On the way back down Knight’s Road, I stopped to inspect the a tent platform in the woods. I sat down on the edge of the platform, laid the camera down and doffed my backpack. I had been sitting in quiet contemplation for no more than five minutes when I sensed a presence nearby.

Looking up, I saw a black bear with its front paws atop a stone wall maybe a hundred feet away. I am not sure who was more surprised! We sat looking at each other for some seconds, each of us contemplating our next move! As I reached for my camera, she/he turned around and headed off into the woods making a huffing sound as she/he went. At one point she/he turned around to see what I was doing but she/he kept going.

At this point I realized that there would be no more quiet contemplation given my level of serum adrenaline, so I packed up and headed on my way!

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14 August 2011

One More Turn in the Swamp / Close Encounters of the Ursine Kind

Filed under: Mammals,Odontates,Other Insects,The "New" Yard & Environs,Wildlife — Tags: bears, damselflies, dragonflies, insects — Frank @ 3:00 PM

Yesterday afternoon, I headed back down to the beaver swamp at the back of our property just to see what was around.

Meadowhawks, including one mating pair, were present but in lower numbers than previously seen. The darners were ever present patrolling their territories and there were many spreadwings (all the same species) present.

At one point, while I was stalking a spreadwing, I heard the loud flapping of wings (the sign of a nearby darner) and was quite surprised when a female landed nearby intent on laying eggs (see the third photo). She was only present a short time (about a minute) as another darner (male maybe?) appeared and harassed the first. Much to my surprise they both fell into the water but then both we gone in a matter of a few seconds.

The male whitetail was the only one (of either sex) that I saw, twice while I had it in my viewfinder it flew off only to land on my shirt!

The highlight of the afternoon was a “writing spider” (Argiope aurantia) eating a damselfly. I did not see the initial capture of the damselfly but I did spend twenty minutes (according to the exif data) watching and photographing the meal.

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On my way back up the hill to the house I heard the noise of a large animal off to my right, I stopped and turned to locate the source and was quite surprised to see a good sized (four or five feet long) black bear coming toward me less than a hundred feet away! She/he stopped maybe 75 feet away when they spotted me.

My first thought was to get the extension tube off the lens so I could get a photograph! Instead, I acted on my second thought… I headed off at an angle away from the bear and towards the house leaving the bear standing its ground.

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20 April 2011

Mid-April Backyard Wildlife

Filed under: Birds,Mammals,Spring,The "New" Yard & Environs,Wildlife — Tags: Birds, Chipmunks, Squirrels — Frank @ 4:58 AM

Well, spring has finally really arrived in our neck of the NH woods. There is no snow left in the yard, although there are still small patches here-and-there in the woods.

On Saturday morning, I filled a bird-feeder with black sunflower seed and hung it by the deck in the back of the house just to see what we could attract. I was amazed at how quickly the “word” spread. Within a couple of hours there were chickadees and nuthatches present as well as the perennial feeder nemesis, the gray squirrel! Within a day, the juncos and sparrows had found the feeder as well as the red squirrels and the chipmunks.

I, as you might have expected, spent some quality time with the camera set up near the feeder!

Here are the resulting “keepers”:

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On Sunday, we watched a female turkey amble though the yard as she picked over the remnants of last year’s acorn crop which were newly emerged from under the snow. In the afternoon on Sunday, Joan and I took a spontaneous break from the yard work and walked down to the beaver swamp at the back of our property. Eagle-eyed Joan spotted a porcupine sitting way up in a tree right at the edge of the woods. No photos though, too high and too well hidden… maybe next time!

As I knew from the beginning, the environs of the new house were going to be great for wildlife (and photography). Our short time here has certainly proved that true and odonate season has not yet begun… although Joan did attract a few early blackflies as she worked turning over the vegetable garden on Monday!

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