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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27 March 2015

Spring Thaw — Signs of the Times

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

Spring is trying its damnedest to sprung.

These days, the daytime highs are mostly above freezing and we are even getting a few nights with temperatures just above freezing… other nights the low temperatures are in the teens. This means that the sap is running and there are signs of activity around the local sugar shacks.

There is still much snow on the ground. However, it is rapidly receding, especially on the south facing surfaces. The lakes and ponds are still well iced over but puddles of water (or hard, clear ice depending on the temperature) have appeared on top of the old crusty snow.

Along the roads, there are also (literally) signs of spring.

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13 March 2015

Town Meeting Day

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

Mid-March… A time of great change in southern NH.

The local birds, as they begin the mating season, are much more vocal than they were only a week or two ago. A few early robins have appeared.

And, the landscape is beginning to thaw… very slowly!

With the thaw, glacial erratics and stone walls begin to throw off their winter blankets of snow*. The thaw also brings with it maple and mud seasons as well as town meeting.

Yesterday was Town Meeting day in Antrim. I took a walk along Brimstone Corner Road yesterday afternoon. I went a little earlier than I might of if I had not needed to get to town meeting. Thus, the light was not perfect.

Signs of the early spring were every where… especially under foot!

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* There is no sign of ground yet… except where Joan shoveled the snow off the patch of the garden where the peas will be planted in a week or two. The peas don’t get started inside. However, there has been much recent activity (and mud) in our mudroom as many other seeds have been sown in small plastic chambers. Another sure sign of early spring around here!!!

 

1 March 2015

Snowshoe Treks

Filed under: Landscapes,Monadnock Region,Winter — Tags: , — Frank @ 10:00 PM

Joan and I try to get out on our snow shoes as often as possible. We don’t make it out every day, but I would guess we make it out three of every five days. Sometimes we go together, other times we head out independently.

Last Thursday, we headed out independently but more-or-less in the same direction… down to the lake. The skies were heavily overcast and thus the lighting was pretty flat.

It had been three or four days since the last significant snow. Thus, the tracks of the local fauna were beginning to accumulate again. It is always fascinating to see evidence of passing of various animals.

One knows that animals are traveling through the landscape all year long but the snow cover allows one to see this in great detail.

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On Sunday, we headed out together. We drove the mile down to the bridge, buckled on the snow shoes and headed up Hattie Brown Road.

The show shoeing was easy as a snowmobile had packed down a nice trail the entire way; there was also ski tracks in the trail. However, we did not encounter anyone else in the three hours we were out.

The sky was a cloudless azure and thus, as the afternoon progressed, conditions were perfect for adding to my “Shadow Play” series.

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24 February 2015

Two More Photos From Sunday

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

As usual, I also photographed the “landscape” while we were out on the lake on Sunday. I was hoping for some nice wind sculpted snow on the lake but there was not much to see in that regard.

However, I did make two “non-porcupine” photos that I thought blog-worthy.

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23 February 2015

Porcupine!

Filed under: "Camp",Mammals,Monadnock Region,Wildlife,Winter — Tags: — Frank @ 9:30 PM

Yesterday was the first day with above freezing temperatures since early January… the high was 33 degrees! The warm spell did not last long. It was 11 when I got up this morning and it is -1  (-15 with the wind chill) as I write this at about 8:30 PM. The low tonight will be around -10 without the wind chill.

We are down to about a cord and a third of wood… I suspect that we’ll be switching to oil in a couple of weeks!!!

Joan and I took advantage of yesterday’s warm spell by heading across the lake on snow shoes. Our main goal was to rake the three feet of accumulated snow from the roof of our camp. Eventually it will warm up and rain on the snow and that sort of weight is not kind to old structures. Thus the need for snow removal.

While I started the raking, Joan explored the various animal tracks in the snow on the lake. A coyote had walked along the shore of the cove and stopped to dig out and explore an animal carcass buried in the snow.

Another set of tracks ended at a small hemlock a few feet off the lake. Sitting about eight feet up in said tree was a porcupine doing what porcupines usually do while sitting in hemlocks… eating!

It is very common this time of year to find the snow under hemlocks littered with small bits of hemlock branches; a sure sign of a porcupine had a meal aloft. Hemlock seems to be their preferred winter food and they are messy eaters!

I was easily persuaded to exchange the roof rake for my camera and was able to move to within a dozen feet of the porcupine without any evidence of concern upon its part… it just kept on munching hemlock boughs.

Eventually, it descended the tree and headed towards me along the edge of the lake. It shuffled around for a short while and then climbed another, small hemlock a few feet from the first. It settled in to eat again about eight or ten feet off the ground. After some time it headed further up the tree and I decided that it was time to get back to the roof rake.

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