July 4th Weekend

 

I was in NH over the holiday weekend. It was one of my last weekends in NH before I leave for grad school in a few weeks. Above are a few shots of the fireworks display at Sunapee Harbor. The fireworks were launched from the water, with dozens of boaters nearby in the water. It was impressive.

I had the chance to go kayaking twice, to Little Lake Sunapee and also to Coniston Lake on Sunday evening.

Ripples and bubbles from a loon diving below while hunting

 It was after 8:30pm when I took most of these photos on Lake Coniston. It was a calm and beautiful evening, and I was the only person on the water. Although campers could be heard from the only development on the lake, a YMCA camp which has a  beach and several lodges along part of the shore, it was a quiet and peaceful paddle.

Two loons were hunting on the lake. I stopped paddling at one point so I wouldn't disturb them and they swam within 40 feet of my kayak. It was already getting dark, so I took these photos with a very high ISO, causing them to be quite noisy.

I paddled into a small cove because there was a small amount of fog beginning to form and it struck my eye. I also enjoy explore vegetated areas along lakes, plenty of plants and animal life to see. Once I was in the cove I noticed a great blue heron perched on a fallen log, hunting for frogs and fish I assume. I let my kayak drift so I could take a few photos but it got spooked and fly off (see photo below). A few minutes later I spotted it again along the shore, below some over-hanging hemlock branches. At this point it was around 9pm and very dark, difficult to get any decent photos. There is a blue heron rookery in a wetland a mile down the road from my house, and about two miles from this lake, I wonder if this heron lives there and this is part of its hunting territory.

I tried to get a panning shot of the heron flying off.

 

 One of my favorite parts of getting home- the dogs!

Northern Water Snake

On a recent visit to the Fern Glen I spotted a medium-sized northern water snake basking in the sun on a log near the shore of the pond.

 According to the UMass natural resource website, "Water snakes can almost always be counted on to bite, defecate and spray a particularly foul-smelling musk when handled."
It was really tough to get close enough to get a decent photo without spooking the snake away,  so I had to make do with the 60mm I was using at the time. I startled it several times, causing it to shoot into the water, I had to crouch and wait for a while before he was comfortable enough to get back on the log where I could take a photo.

 They have a very dark pattern of red-brown and black cross-bands and "blotches" down the body, making for a subtle beauty, but excellent camouflage for living along the edges of water bodies.

On a much different note...... Two months ago I had the interesting chance to taste northern water snake. A friend was told of a water snake that was just hit on a nearby road, and instead of letting it rot on the road, he  picked it up, skinned it and cooked it (see photo below before it was prepared).

 As you might be able to tell, it was much larger than the individual I photographed in the Fern Glen. If you are wondering, it had a chewy texture with a very mellow taste, difficult to describe or compare with any other meat I've had. They are a protected species in NY, and are illegal to hunt. I hope you get the chance to see a living northern water snake, they are beautiful!

A Summer Walk

blue damselfly

View of the Catskills from the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies

green frog

Stars and fireflies on a hazy night

I tried to photograph the fireflies in the field by the house. The combination of light pollution and haze (during the hot and very humid stretch we just had) made it a bit tough.

coins

During one of the many recent rainy nights, I had some fun inside with my macro lens.

I tried to get some close ups of Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial on the penny. I think it is pretty tough to see normally, without the aid of a macro lens or a magnifying glass. I almost forgot he was visible on the penny.

Jefferson's home

one of the new pennies

Rondout Creek

my hiking boots green and dusty with pollen

I was recently back at Rondout Creek conducting fieldwork with a coworker. It was a beautiful day, so we ate lunch by the creek and snapped a few photos.
John Burroughs wrote this about the Rondout:

My eyes had never before beheld such beauty in a mountain stream. The water was almost as transparent as the air — was, indeed, like liquid air; and as it lay in these wells and pits enveloped in shadow, or lit up by a chance ray of the vertical sun, it was a perpetual feast to the eye — so cool, so deep, so pure; every reach and pool like a vast spring. You lay down and drank or dipped the water up in your cup, and found it just the right degree of refreshing coldness. One is never prepared for the clearness of the water in these streams. It is always a surprise. See them every year for a dozen years, and yet, when you first come upon one, you will utter an exclamation. I saw nothing like it in the Adirondacks, nor in Canada. Absolutely without stain or hint of impurity, it seems to magnify like a lens, so that the bed of the stream and the fish in it appear deceptively near. It is rare to find even a trout stream that is not a little "off color," as they say of diamonds, but the waters in the section of which I am writing have the genuine ray; it is the undimmed and untarnished diamond. If I were a trout, I should ascend every stream till I found the Rondout. It is the ideal brook.[

Even though he wrote those words many decades ago, the Rondout has seemed to retain its beauty.
The photos provide only a slight glimpse into the beauty of this special creek.

a pool in the beautiful Rondout Creek

another view of the Rondout

a patch of wood anemone

Signs of Spring in the Fern Glen

green frog

painted turtle

I have seen this beautiful painted turtle basking in the sun on this log on several occasions in the last several days.

green frog

pickerel frog

trout lily

Burger Hill Park

I have driven past this park dozens of times on my way to the Catskills to conduct fieldwork, and I have wanted to stop and explore it since I first saw it about a year ago. I finally managed to get over to it this past Saturday on my way back from Red Hook. The top of Burger Hill Park (owned by Winnakee Land Trust) provides a great nearly 360-degree panoramic view of this end of the Hudson Valley, with the Catskills visible in the distance. I snapped the panoramic image above while I was up there, it was a perfect spring day, leaf out is beginning on most of the trees, and the grass is already a vibrant green. Everything is coming alive seemingly overnight, as summer approaches.  It's a short and easy walk to the top, it's definitely worth a visit, and I am sure it would have been an amazing hill for sledding two months ago!

International Space Station (ISS)

For about two weeks the ISS will be very visible in the night sky, but only for about two minutes at a time depending upon your location (it streaks across the sky going about 17,000 mph). To figure out the time each night to see the station from your location go to the NASA website. 

(click on the image to get the full size and see the station streaking across the night sky)

After I missed it Wednesday night, I was more mindful of it the following night. Thursday night it was visible over Millbrook at 9:00 PM for two minutes, so I went to the weather station at the Cary Institute and setup my camera to try and capture the station streaking across the sky. It is visible in the image above, although it's not the best shot, there is just too much light pollution from NYC, and it didn't help that there was a big cloud in the sky (pink from the light pollution). I was hoping to try photographing it again this weekend from the clearer night sky in NH, but the weather may not cooperate.

I heard on NPR that you can see the shape of the station with a good pair of binoculars, which is something I will try when we get another clear night. The forecast looks wet and cloudy for the next few nights.

Winter isn't done yet!

The forecast for the next few days! A possible April Fools' Day nor'easter is heading this way!
From NOAA:

"Thursday Night: Rain before midnight, then rain and snow, possibly mixed with sleet between midnight and 3am, then snow, possibly mixed with sleet after 3am. The snow could be heavy at times. Low around 29. Northeast wind between 6 and 8 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New snow and sleet accumulation of 3 to 7 inches possible."

I was out in the Catskills today for work and it was beautiful--sunny and warm, it hit 54 F. This could be the last little storm we see before spring takes hold.

The AT in 5 minutes!

This is great, definitely worth watching!

"Kevin spent six months hiking the Appalachian Trail and has produced the following video, which is aptly named Green Tunnel. The stop motion film was created from photos taken along the route and strung together to give us a sense of what it is like to hike the AT. The result is that we can cover the whole trail in just under five minutes."

Check it out- Hiking the length of the Appalachian Trail in five minutes

Butterfly garden

Below are a few photos from my trip to the Boston Museum of Science this past weekend, I passed through the butterfly garden and took a few quick photos with my 60mm macro lens. 

An early spring stroll

One doesn't have to go far out the door in the Hudson Valley to find deer tracks

We've had quite a warm spell lately, it feels like spring has arrived, although I wouldn't rule out the possibility of a cold-snap and more snow, especially back in NH.

Fowler Pond still partially covered in ice

A very gray landscape. The snow has melted revealing an array of grays and browns

What I think is some dead goldenrod

Skunk cabbage-I guess it's true, spring is approaching!

The spathe of the thermogenic skunk cabbage. A harbinger of spring!

 

Like most plants with spathes, skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) is poisonous. 

Sunday was gray and dreary, but it was also relatively warm, close to 50 F. Since I was itching to get out and move around, I went out exploring on the Cary Property down some of the cross country ski trails behind the cold storage/rearing facility area.

Sadly, most of the snow has melted here in the Hudson Valley

The creeks and streams are swollen from the recent rain and snow melt.