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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