One the the large oak trees down by the road has a large dead branch that overlooks Joan’s vegetable garden. Semi-regularly we see birds of prey, usually hawks sitting in this branch.
This morning, while eating breakfast, Joan noticed a hawk perched in “the branch”. I made a few exposures from the driveway before it decided to head off.
In keeping with a tradition that I began back in 2011 (see this post), here is my “Adams Dozen” for 2017.
It was not an easy selection. (It never is!) I could have easily chosen a dozen just from either the trips* we made this year.
Instead, I tried to choose photos from throughout the year from both “exotic” locations as as well as from the “neighborhood”.
*Florida in March or Yellowstone and other points out west in September.
On our way home we spent time at the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo, Wisconsin; rather than repeat what is already written, you can read about the history of the ICF by clicking here.
In addition to their ‘signature’ whooping cranes, the ICF displays all of the fifteen species of cranes found world-wide. I did not photograph all fifteen, but did get a nice selection of photos of these captive animals without too much man-made stuff interfering.
On Labor Day (4 Sept) we headed out on the road. Our immediate destination was western Montana and a nephews wedding on the 9th.
After the wedding festivities were over, we began the meat of the trip. Our first destination was Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge (NWR), just to the west of Yellowstone National Park, our second destination. We spent five nights in Yellowstone and then wildlife refuge hopped back east.
We visited C.M Russell NWR, Bowdoin NWR, and Medicine Lake NWR all in Montana, Lostwood NWR, Des Lacs NWR and Upper Souris NWR in North Dakota and Agassiz NWR in Minnesota. We also visited the International Crane Foundation and the Aldo Leopold Foundation in Baraboo, Wisconsin before heading home.
We arrived home yesterday (Saturday, 30 Sept) having driven just over 7,400 miles in total.
Of course, I made one or two photographs along the way! Here is the first installment… wildlife photographs.
More to follow over the next few days.
Birds
Mammals
I’m back!*
Yesterday afternoon, just before four, I received a call from Diane (one of my vast network** of wildlife informants). She said that there were four small herons on the mill pond behind Town Hall.
Big Bertha and I arrived as quick as we could and we spent roughly two hours making photographs of a quartet of juvenile green herons. I was unable to get all four in the frame at once; three was the best I could manage.
* After an unplanned, health-related hiatus.
** OK, so there are only two: Joan and Diane!
I spent this past Friday and Saturday on Star Island, one of the Isles of Shoals off the coast of New Hampshire and Maine. The trip (which is organized by Eric Masterson) was timed to coincide with the spring migration of birds.
Joan and I went on this trip back in 2014 (see this post for birds and this one for landscapes); this year I went by myself as Joan was occupied with editing the June issue of the Antrim Limrik.
The birding was not as spectacular this year as it was in 2014 but I had a good time anyway. One can always find something to photograph if you spend time looking carefully.
Birds
Other Work – Color
Other Work – Black and White
If two years makes a tradition, we headed south after (a snow-delayed*) town meeting for our “traditional” trip south. Our destination this year was the Florida panhandle.
We spent a week camped at the Wright Lake campground in the Apalachicola National Forest. Each day we headed out to explore from this base. We ranged from the Saint Marks National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) in the east to the St. Joseph Peninsula State Park in the west. In addition, we hit a number of Florida Birding Trail sites within the National Forest, the Saint George Island State Park and the Apalachicola National Estuarine Research Reserve (their Unit 4 tract on St. George Island was particularly productive photographically).
Since we had such a good time last year at the Okefenokee NWR/ Foster State Park in SE Georgia, we stopped there for a day on the way back home. This time we were able to kayak some of the swamp on our own. It was quite an experience sitting low to the water with dozens of alligators all around.
Birds (many IDs needed but in the interest of a timely post, they will be added later)
Other Subjects
* Two feet of snow will do that… even in NH! We arrived back home on the evening of 3 April to find a knee high pile of snow at the end of the drive way (the result of another foot of snow dumped a few days previously). It took about 45 minutes of work with snow blower before we could get the car and camper into the driveway.
Around noon today Joan’s cousin Liz called to say that there was a barred owl sitting, clearly visible from the dining room window, in a tree at the back of her house.
I did what any self-respecting wildlife photographer would do. I headed out the door headed to Liz’s house as soon as I gathered up my gear! Joan came along too.
These two photos were taken from Liz’s bathroom window with my 300 mm lens. The first was made through the storm window and the second after I raised the storm window. The owl was completely unperturbed by my raising either the regular window or the storm window even though it was maybe twenty five feet away.
Yesterday, I finally made it up to the Pack Monadnock Hawk Watch… on day 22. And what a day it was, perfect weather and lots of hawks.
I arrived just before noon, the the show started shortly there after and continued until around three. I left about 4:30.
The total was about 2,800 birds, about 2,700 of which were broad-wings. Katrina’s official report can be found here.
The 10,000 birds for the season mark was reached and the traditional group photo around the tally board was made (with Katrina’s camera, but I am sure that it will appear at some point.)
While the bird watching was great, the conditions for photography were not ideal. The raptors were kettling pretty far away; only a few appeared close to the summit. The resident turkey vultures made fairly close approaches at times and I was able to make a few mediocre photos.
Today was a glorious day weather-wise. The temperature was in the high 70s F, the humidity was low and the skies mostly clear.
While we ate lunch on the deck, we were entertained by the birds at the feeder and by a couple of male autumn meadowhawks perching on the dead flowers nearby. After watching the odes for some time, I finally gave in and got the camera.
Later in the afternoon, Joan headed out for a kayak ride. She called from the beach parking lot to say that there were “brown headed ducks” down by the bridge but that she did not have her binoculars with her so that she did not get a good look at them. I stashed Big Bertha in the passenger seat, threw the tripod in the bed of the truck and headed down the road the mile to the bridge.
Those “brown-headed”ducks turned out to be a family of mallards. I watched and photographed them for about an hour.
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