I spent a few hours hunting odes down at the beaver swamp at the back of our property this afternoon. The most common species present was the four-spotted skimmer, which I had not seen here before. There were a number of other species present including a few which I did not get photographs of. Interestingly I only saw two damselflies all afternoon. They will be “arriving” soon, I suppose!
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The lady slippers are in full bloom around here.
On Saturday, Joan’s cousin Suzy called and said that they had one blooming right at the side of their driveway. I, of course, headed down there the first chance I got and took a bunch of photographs, playing with the lighting, angles, background, etc.
This morning, I was out back by our shed and noticed a lady slipper right between the shed and the outhouse (now used as a tool shed). Upon further exploration we discovered close to a dozen under the pines and hemlocks right behind the house. Of course, I spent another interval photographing them.
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Warning… photo-geek talk below coming next!
Both these photos were taken in full “Strobist-mode”. Both the camera and the flash were set to full manual mode. I set the aperture to get a nice out of focus background and the shutter speed to get the exposure I wanted on the background (under exposing it dramatically). Finally, I set the flash power to get the desired exposure on the flower.
In the first photo the flash was bare and about 18 inches away. I used a collapsible diffuser to place the flower in essentially open shade.
In the second photo the flash was about a foot way and was equipped with a “softbox”. Again, I used the diffuser to place the flower in “open shade”.
I thought that I had left the softbox at home for the first photo and had to make a choice between using the diffuser in front of the flash or to provide shade. It turns out that the diffuser was in my backpack all of the time… I just hadn’t looked hard enough… heavy sigh!
Although there have been odes present in the yard for at least a couple of weeks, I had yet to find the time to “go hunting”.
Finally, yesterday (Sunday) afternoon, I spent a bit of time prowling the edges of the yard with my dragonfly rig. There were a number of species present with chalk-fronted corporals (Libellula julia) being the most common.
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Having decided that we were too old to sleep on the ground but too young to quit camping, we spent some time mulling the options and decided on a teardrop camper. A teardrop camper is basically a bed (queen-sized in our case) on wheels with a camp kitchen on the back. They are light enough to be pulled behind a small car.
After a bit of research (and some last minute mind-changing), we decided to buy a Silver Shadow model made by Little Guy Campers. We picked the trailer up at the “local” dealer (Dan Kearney’s in Rutland, VT) a couple of weeks ago.
On Monday, we took off on our maiden voyage in the camper. Our destination was Rangeley Lake State Park in western Maine. We spent two nights at Rangeley Lake, a third night in Errol, NH and made it back home for a late dinner on Thursday.
We meandered the back roads both going and coming and covered 679 miles total, including a “loop” to Grafton Notch without the trailer (see below). The “rig” (i.e Joan’s Forrester with two kayaks on top and the trailer) averaged 23.7 mpg for the trip. We averaged 21.9 mpg on the 218 mile return leg. The unburdened Forester gets about 32 mpg.
Here are a couple of photos of “the rig”:
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We arrived at Rangeley Lake around supper time and had our choice of campsites; there were only two other sites in use. Although, the ranger who registered us was anticipating with a bit of dread the crowds on the coming holiday weekend.
After setting up camp and cooking our first meal on the propane stove, we took a walk along the lake. Upon returning to our campsite (which was right on the lake) we were treated with a great sun set:
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Tuesday dawned gray with the forecast of scattered showers (the first of which occurred while we ate breakfast). We decided to take a drive to see (and photograph) the various waterfalls in the Grafton Notch (ME) State Park area. During the day we made five or six short hikes to various falls and encountered a few more light showers but we had fun anyway!
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We arrived back at the campsite at dinner time. After cooking dinner we launched the kayaks from the campsite and set off towards a small bay nearby. I had made an “executive decision” to leave the camera gear in the car as the light was drab and would quickly begin to fade.
The lake was quiet. We encountered a single boat close up shortly after we launched and only saw a couple of others in the distance as we paddled the lake.
As we headed back towards the campsite, we were treated to the sight of a bald eagle passing overhead. Joan watched through her binoculars as the bird cruised across the lake and made two attempts at fish. (I, of course, had forgot my binoculars!) The bird alit in a tree on a small island and after a short interval took flight again carrying a large stick. Again, she (or he) flew directly overhead at an altitude of maybe twenty or thirty feet. The bird was so close (and it was so quiet) that we could hear its wing beats! A short time later the (presumably) same bird made a return tip back across the lake to the same small island. At this point we headed back towards the campsite in the rapidly gathering dark. It was quite the experience and sometimes the experience is all that matters says he who left the camera back in the car!
Wednesday dawned cloudy but the forecast was for clearing weather. We decided to head for the Magalloway River near the headquarters of the Lake Umbagog National Wildlife Refuge in Errol, NH. We had camped nearby and explored the lake twice before, but had never headed upriver from the NWR headquarters. We figured that we could have a nice relaxed paddle and then decide whether to head home or camp a third night.
The paddle was nice, although not as isolated as the down river (towards the lake) stretch; we did about 4.5 miles before turning around. We got back to the landing at the NWR building around 4 PM.
As we were carrying Joan’s boat back across the road to the car we both did a double take… there was a three-legged bear standing on the lawn near the NWR building! Upon seeing us, the critter unhurriedly headed down the bank and swam across the river. Our last sight was of its rear end disappearing into the woods on the far bank!
I do not think that the woman in the NWR office really believed our story, but I can’t say that I blame her! I’m not sure that I would believe such a story but having seen it with my own eyes I guess that it is true!!!!!
We decided to camp one more night and headed to the Clear Stream Campground in Errol. This is a nice quiet, but mosquito-filled private campground; nothing had changed from our previous stay here in July a couple of years ago! We set up camp and, instead fighting the vampires, we headed to the Bull Moose Restaurant for an early dinner.
After dinner, our plan was to head out on route 16 to “hunt” for moose. On our way back towards town after dinner we encountered a small cow moose eating the salt-laden mud at the side of the road. There was already a car stopped when we arrived and by the time a couple of more vehicles went roaring by the moose hightailed back into the woods. A good start to the evening!
We headed south of town along the Androscoggin River without seeing another moose but I made a couple of nice landscapes by a wide part of the river where we turned around and headed back north.
It was still light when we got back to the center of Errol so we decided to try Route 16 north of town. We drove as far as Wentworth Location and found another nice sunset scene to photograph but no moose. As we headed back to town in the near dark, we encountered another moose crossing the road as we drove.
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After breakfast at the campsite (the mosquitoes were not nearly as bad as they had been the previous evening) we packed up with the intention of meandering home through the White Mountains… and meander we did! We stopped at the pull off in Kinsman Notch to photograph but mostly I drove while Joan, with map in hand, “told me where to go”! We both enjoyed the scenery and arrived home about 4 PM.
All-in-all we had a successful maiden voyage.
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Last Friday evening looked promising for a nice sunset so I headed over to “Sky Farm” (a Forest Society parcel) in Deering. The walk to the top is short (about a quarter mile) and the views (mainly to the north) are spectacular. The sunset itself turned out to be a dud, only some low clouds on the horizon. However, the sun provided for some warm low angle light for a brief time; this allowed me to make the first image.
On Sunday, I headed for the Contoocook Falls in Hillsborough… at least it said “falls” on the map… it is more of a set of small rapids. The light was too harsh (even with broken clouds) and there were not many good angles for shooting the river. However, I did discover some very small (fingernail-sized) wildflowers (Anemone quinquefolia, according to Joan) that made for interesting subjects. As I was setting up, one of the flowers had a visitor.
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This afternoon, I took a stroll down back to the beaver pond to look for odes. It was cool and mostly cloudy and I was not expecting to see much in the way of odes so I took only my binoculars.
The black flies were not too bad! There were painted turtles sunning on a log in the beaver pond. There were swifts or swallows (one of these days I’ll figure out which!) foraging from the tops of the snags and there were other birds about.
But, as I expected, there were no odes in flight. However, I did scare a single Hudsonian Whiteface (either a female or an immature male) up out of the vegetation as I walked through the wet meadow.
On my way back up the hill I found a painted trillium, so I headed back out with the camera gear to photograph it. There were also some very small ferns beginning to emerge in the woods. The trillium blossom is less than the size of a quarter and the fern is maybe the size of a nickel.
It was good the get out and photograph. I am looking forward to the next few months.
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