Photographs by Frank

16 May 2016

Mid-May Bird Report

Filed under: Birds,Monadnock Region,Spring — Tags: — Frank @ 4:00 PM

Spring birds continue to arrive.

Along with the year-round residents (chickadees, nuthatches, woodpeckers, etc.) and the early arrivals (goldfinches and purple finches), we have had rose-breasted grosbeaks at the feeders for roughly ten days. The males seemed to appear about four or five days before the females.

On Saturday (14 May) we observed our first hummingbird of the season (a male; we’ve seen no females yet).

We also saw a single Baltimore oriole on each day of the weekend. We’ve not had orioles around the house before. Hopefully the feeder I bought and hung out this morning will entice them to stay.

Other folks in the “neighborhood” (the closest about a mile and a half away) have said that they have had indigo buntings at their feeders. Alas, we have not seen any in our yard.

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15 May 2016

Black Fly Season

Filed under: Monadnock Region,wildflowers — Tags: — Frank @ 1:00 PM

And the black flies, the little black flies
Always the black fly no matter where you go
I’ll die with the black fly a-pickin’ my bones

— The Black Fly Song, by Wade Hemsworth

Those of us who live in the northern woods are “blessed” with black fly season. In this neck of the woods, black fly season is mercifully short, lasting roughly from Mother’s Day to Father’s Day. The farther north one goes, the longer the season lasts.

Black flies hang out in the duff on the ground in the woods. From there, they ascend to attack any warm-blooded creature who dares enter their domain. This behavior makes the wild flower photographer who must lay on the ground in said woods a prime target for these blood-thirsty creatures.

However, properly equipped with a full blown bug jacket, photographs can be made*.

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* Even though looking into the viewfinder through the no-see-um mesh of a bug jacket is less than desirable.

 

1 May 2016

Hillsborough Center and Washington

Filed under: Pinhole Photography — Frank @ 10:30 PM

Continuing with my Saturday afternoon procrastination*, I pointed the truck towards Hillsborough Center. This is another place that I have driven through many times but never stopped to photograph.

The church there was in nice light and there were nice clouds. I will have to go back at some point to photograph the schoolhouse. It is on the opposite side of the road from the church and in shadow during the late afternoon.

Next I, headed to Washington and its very picturesque trio of buildings** on the town common. I have photographed there many times but, on this occasion, I was thinking “pinhole” as I made the drive from Hillsborough Center.

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*I was headed, eventually, to the grocery store!

** From left to right in these views, are the church, schoolhouse (which is now the police station) and meeting house.

 

Pine Haven

Filed under: Monadnock Region — Frank @ 10:00 PM

Pine Haven is a disused group of tourist cabins sitting at the junction of routes 9 and 31 in the north part of Antrim.

I know nothing about the history of Pine Haven. I can only surmise that the story of Pine Haven is much the same as tourist cabins throughout the country.

I do know that Pine Haven has been slowly decaying for longer than the almost forty years that I have been driving by these cabins.

Yesterday, I stopped to photograph them for the first time.

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Hawthorne College Grounds

Filed under: Monadnock Region — Frank @ 10:00 PM

Roughly a mile from Pine Haven sits another disused institution… Hawthorne College.

My father-in-law owned this property in the years around 1960 and ran the Monadnock Research Institute (MRI) in the barns of this old farm. Joan and her family lived on the grounds.

In the early 60’s, the MRI closed and the property was sold to the folks who founded the now defunct Nathaniel Hawthorne College.

Since the College’s closing in 1988, the campus has been owned by at least two groups that intended to open private secondary schools. Neither group has brought their plans to fruition and the campus facilities remain unused.

After I left Pine Haven yesterday, I spent a short time photographing (from the road) the North Branch Chapel and the barns.

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25 April 2016

WPPD at the VCP

Filed under: Pinhole Photography — Tags: — Frank @ 11:30 PM

Yesterday was Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day (WPPD).

The Vermont Center for Photography held its annual celebration of WPPD with a small (about a dozen) but enthusiastic group of participants.

Here are a few of the photos I made in and around the VCP yesterday afternoon.

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20 April 2016

Spring Birds

Filed under: Birds,Spring,The Yard,Wildlife — Tags: — Frank @ 12:00 PM

Monday (18 Apr) afternoon was warm and sunny. I spent a few hours watching (and photographing) the backyard birds.

In addition to the year-rounders (nuthatches, chickadees, titmice and woodpeckers) a number of returning migrants have appeared. There were good numbers of American goldfinches, sometimes as many as a dozen or so at one time. I am always amazed at the brilliance of the yellow coloring of the males at this time of year. Smaller numbers of purple finches were also present.

Small flocks of juncos (eight or ten) came and went all afternoon. I am unable to get a sense of what stimulates the entire flock to make an exodus. When they leave en mass they seem to startle everyone else (including me!) and often cause all of the finches to flee as well.

Lastly, I saw two singletons… a red-breasted nuthatch (which I did not photograph) and a chipping sparrow.

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30 March 2016

Spring Break Road Trip, Part 3

Filed under: Birds,National Wildlife Refuges,Odontates,Spring,Wildlife — Frank @ 4:00 PM

On the 2oth, we pointed the car north and headed for Georgia, specifically the Stephen Foster State Park within the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge.

Arriving in the late afternoon, we were treated to hordes of dragonflies in and around the campground. We had seen small numbers of odes here-and-there in Florida, but they were out in full force in Georgia.

The next morning, we took the boat tour out into the swamp offered by the park. They have kayaks for rent, which we would have done except that Joan’s shoulder was bothering her enough that she was taking regular doses of ibuprofen. Thus, we decided on the boat tour.

We spent the rest of the day out on the boardwalk entertained by all of the widllife.

Okefenokee NWR —

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Okefenokee Odes —

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We continued north on the 22nd, headed to Assateague National Seashore in Maryland, and camping enroute for a night in North Carolina. We spent the afternoon of the 23rd at the Virginia section of the National Seashore before heading to the campground in the Maryland section.

We spent the late afternoon/early evening of the 23rd as well as most of the day on the 24th exploring the various parts of Assateague before heading toward Lewes, Delaware where we were expected for dinner at our friend Sally’s house.

Assateague National Seashore —

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Sally and her boyfriend David showed us around the Lewes area, including stops at Cape Henlopen State Park and Prime Hook NWR.

Lewes, DE area —

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Sunday (the 27th) morning we headed home, arriving about 8 PM; just as it was getting dark.

We were glad to have made the trip and glad to be home!

Photo note: I made roughly 2500 photographs during the trip. I processed about ten percent of them and have presented 111 photos (approximately five percent) in the three blog posts. The large majority of the photographs were made with “Big Bertha” (i.e. my 600 mm lens); my 300 mm lens was used for a small minority. I think that I broke out a shorter lens only once… I guess that I was not “thinking” landscapes this trip!

 

Spring Break Road Trip, Part 2

Filed under: Birds,Spring,Wildlife — Frank @ 2:00 PM

On the 18th, we moved to a campsite on Pine Island. It is amazing how different two adjacent islands can be.

We spent both afternoons we were spent on Pine Island at Galt Nature Preserve (a tract preserved by Lee County). This small and out of the way preserve was very productive and definitely worth the visit.

Galt Nature Preserve —

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On the 19th, we spent most of the day at Audubon’s Corkscrew Sanctuary on the western edge of the Everglades in the Naples area.

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More to come…

 

Spring Break Road Trip, Part 1

Filed under: Birds,Odontates,Spring,Wildlife — Frank @ 1:30 PM

Joan and I just returned from a “spring break” road trip. We left the day after town meeting (i.e. Friday, 11 March) and arrived home on Sunday evening having driven 2840 miles all told.

After spending a couple of days in the Washington, DC area (visiting Katrina, my sister Cyndi and my parents) we hie-tailed it south and arrived on Sanibel Island (in southwest Florida) in time for an evening swim on 15 March.

On the morning of the 16th we headed into Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge and spent the day driving the wildlife loop. Late afternoon found us driving to the north end of Captiva Island. While Joan went for a swim, I photographed the peeps foraging on the beach and one half of a nesting pair of osprey that was perched in a palm tree near the nest.

Ding Darling, Day 1 —

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Captiva Beach —

(Peeps to be identified, but in the interest of timely posting, I’ve put this off.)

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On the 17th, we drove the wildlife loop in the refuge a second time and then walked a section of the Indigo Trail.

Ding Darling, Day 2 —

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More to come…

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