Photographs by Frank

23 June 2011

A Day Trip North

Filed under: the White Mountains — Frank @ 6:00 PM

My parents have been visiting for the past few days. They live in Annapolis, MD and rarely get up to NH. They were here to see Joan, the new house and me… in that order of importance… I am quite sure! Both Katrina and Nick (as well as Nick’s girlfriend Abbey) overlapped for part of the visit so it was one of those rare occasions when we were all in the same place.

The younger generation all headed back to work on Monday. But the old folks took advantage of the beautiful weather on Tuesday and went on a drive to the White Mountains.

We headed for the Basin in Franconia Notch State Park ( a nice easy walk for oldest of us) and had lunch at Wendele’s Deli in Franconia (great sandwiches and check out the Sit Free or Die poster in the rest room… my kind of place). After lunch we headed east on 302 with a stop at Crawford Notch and took the “short cut” (Bear Notch Road in Bartlett ) down to the Kancamagus Highway. We headed back west on the Kancamagus with a stop at Sabbaday Falls (another relatively easy walk for elders) before heading home.

Photography was not the main goal of the day but I did, of course, take the camera with me.  (I left the tripod in the truck at home though.. oh well!)

Anyway, here are a few photos from the drive:

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5 June 2011

Three Days in June

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

Late afternoon, say 4:30 or 5:00, is a good time to stalk dragonflies… the critters are active and the light is good (coming at fairly low angle). Thus, each of the the past two afternoons, I’ve headed out to photograph — Friday afternoon found me at the beaver swamp at the back of our property and Saturday afternoon found me at an old log yard about a quarter mile up the road from the house. On both days, I stayed out until the mosquitoes got too bad. This was also about the same time that the light began to deteriorate as the sun started to dip below the trees… roughly 6: 30.

The beaver swamp was teeming with common baskettails actively feeding; there were dozens out over the grassy areas of the swamp. They spend most of their time in flight but as the sun began to go down and things cooled off, they began to settle down some. There were also a few chalk-fronted corporals present.

At the log yard, I prowled the edge of the opening which is usually the most productive area of a clearing in the woods. The most common, by far, species present was the chalk-fronted corporal with numerous individuals of both sexes present. There were also a few clubtails as well as a small number of female common whitetails present.

This series of photos begins with a couple of shots of  a Rosy Maple Moth that was hanging around on a bush in the yard on Thursday… a very odd looking critter! The next image is moth which I noticed in the woods on my way down to the beaver swamp.

The photo (which is about half the original frame) of the chipmunk was taken as I was headed to the log yard. I had stopped to photograph a dragonfly on the stone wall along the road when I noticed this “fellow” watching me from the top of the wall a few yards away. I was able to get the extension tube off the camera and the lens back on in time to get two shots before he decided that he had seen enough!

Warning… photography talk! For those that are interested an extension tube is placed between the camera and the lens to allow one to focus at the closer distance than the “bare” lens does. The downside is that you lose the ability to focus on distant objects. Thus when I am set up to shoot dragonflies (see this post for the details) the camera is pretty much useless for anything else.

Anyway, here are the images:

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2 June 2011

Memorial Day Weekend Odonates – Part Two

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

Sunday morning found us doing chores around the house. But after I finished mowing the lawn and erecting posts for the pea fence in the garden, I spent some time hunting dragonflies around the yard. There were at least four different species present.

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In the afternoon, we put the canoe in the lake and headed down to camp. I lucked in to a swallowtail nectaring on some flowers right at our beach and it stayed put long enough for me to get the camera ready and take about half-dozen shots before it disappeared.

As for dragonflies, there were numerous individuals of the frustrating kind (a small clubtail of some sort, I think) cruising the lake… I call them frustrating since they never seem to land and thus are next to impossible to photograph.

A brief walk in the woods along the lake shore yielded another (as yet unidentified) dragonfly and a small green moth that was perfectly camouflaged sitting on the frond of a fern. I only noticed it because it flapped its wings exactly once.

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Monday afternoon we headed back to camp for another jaunt. The frustrating species was present in good numbers over the lake and I discovered a dragonfly carcass entangled in a spider web in the bushes at the edge of the lake.

Most of my photographic time was spent in a small clearing just off the the lake which has been very productive in years past. The productivity was also good this day. The number of individuals was small but there were three or four species present. I’m still working on the identifications… this is not my strong point!

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Memorial Day Weekend Odonates – Part One

Filed under: Odontates — Tags: — Frank @ 10:00 AM

After a cool and damp start to May here in southern NH, the first dragonflies of the season seem to have emerged all at once during the past week or so.

The two little girls who live next door wait for the bus down by the bridge across the inlet to the lake.  Last Thursday morning they noticed dragonflies emerging on fence while waiting for the bus. Alerted to their observation (by their dad), I headed down to the lake on Friday morning arriving about eight o’clock. This was almost too late! Most of the individuals were already fully emerged and in the process of drying.

There seemed to be numerous individuals of one species (I am unsure of its identity) and a very few individuals of a second species (chalk-fronted corporal, I think).

Here are the keepers from the morning:

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May Wildflowers

Filed under: wildflowers — Tags: , — Frank @ 7:53 AM

May is the beginning of wild flower season in southern NH.  Some of the earliest to bloom are the trillium (see this post for photos ). By mid-May Lady Slippers appear as well as the abundant violets and wild strawberry blossoms.

Here are some of the latter from my wanderings during the couple of  weeks before Memorial Day:

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