Photographs by Frank

28 April 2015

Suppertime Visitor

Filed under: Early Spring,Mammals,Monadnock Region — Frank @ 11:00 AM

I arose from the dinner table last evening, took a look out the front door and noticed that we had a suppertime visitor.

This “fellow” was rooting around for supper in the leaves on the inside of the stone wall down by the road; I am unsure as to what it is eating.

Of course, I took the camera and headed out the door. Porcupines are pretty easy to photograph. Their sight is not particularly keen so if one moves slowly on can get pretty close. I stopped and set up the camera/tripod about twenty or thirty feet away.

I made eleven exposures before I was noticed. At this point the critter ambled down across the road and into the woods.

I do not believe that concept of “hurry” exists in the porcupine universe!

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27 April 2015

Ode Exhibit at the Harris Center

Filed under: Odontates — Frank @ 12:00 PM

The good folks at the Harris Center for Conservation Education are hosting a showing of my exhibit “The Life Cycle of Dragonflies and Damselflies” in their Babbitt Room. I also have other wildlife photos (a combination of odes and birds) hanging in their lobby. One can view both sets of photos whenever the Center is open.

In conjunction with the exhibit, I will be giving a presentation on the natural history of dragonflies and damselflies from 2-4 PM on Saturday, 30 May 2015. We will start inside with a slide presentation and then head outside to hunt odes on the Harris Center grounds.

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April Skies

Filed under: Landscapes,Monadnock Region,Spring — Frank @ 11:00 AM

I was glad that I took my camera with me on Saturday when I headed out to do some errands. The skies were interesting for the first time in a long while.

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15 April 2015

Searching for Spring

Filed under: Birds,Mammals,Spring,Wildlife — Tags: — Frank @ 6:00 PM

A week ago on Tuesday, Joan and I headed south in search of Spring.

When we arrived at Assateague Island National Seashore on Wednesday the temperature was 45 degrees, the wind was blowing at about 45 mph and the sky was spitting (a combination of salt spray and intermittent rain)… not exactly the weather we were hoping for!

None-the-less, we dropped the camper off at a campsite, donned a few layers of fleece with a topping of Gore-tex and headed out in search of horses and birds. We had a wonderful time despite the weather.

On Thursday, we awoke to horses in our campsite, egrets in the marsh beside the campsite and no change in the weather. After breakfast, we headed south to the Virginia side of Assateague Island and Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge. We had another wonderful day.

The weather broke on Friday and we headed north and west to Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge. We arrived just before lunch and spent roughly six hours exploring this wonderful place.

As the light began to fade, we turned the car towards suburban Washington, DC.

Here are my photos of the horses:

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Here are the birds, the egrets are from Assateague and the remainder from Blackwater:

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The weekend in suburban Washington, DC finally brought the lovely spring weather we had been hoping for.

We spent the weekend visiting with my parents, my sister and brother-in-law (who live nearby) and our daughter (who lives in Baltimore).

My parents live in a “soup-to-nuts” retirement “village” with lots of open space. There are many birds around and I was duly entertained on our daily walks around the grounds!

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We arrived home late Monday evening to find that spring had returned to New Hampshire in our absence. There is still ice on the lake and scattered pockets of snow in the woods, but we have great hope!


 


 

4 April 2015

The End of March

Filed under: Early Spring,Landscapes,Monadnock Region — Tags: , — Frank @ 12:00 PM

Spring is trying mightily to arrive.

The weather has been “changeable”. Some days are warm; some are distinctly chilly. The skies are brilliant blue one day and slate gray the next. The snow and ice are hanging on but also rapidly diminishing.

Spring will be here any day week.

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