Antietam National Battlefield

 

   On our third day we decided you can only take so many photos of cherry trees so we decided to do something different. We had left the binoculars at home and I left my big lens so birding wasn't going to be a good idea. We planned on going to Mount Vernon but we had done that a couple years ago. I came up with Antietam Battlefield. I went to Antietam when I went on a solo vacation by myself to Shenandoah National Park in 2010. I went to the battlefield on my way home and only spent a couple of hours. Since Laurie had never been there, it was a no-brainer to go back. The GPS said the time to get there from our campground was one hour and twenty three minutes. 

   Okay, background- September 17, 1862 has the sad distinction of being the bloodiest day in American history. It was bloodier than D-Day, the invasion of Iwo Jima or Okinawa (in a single day). There were over 23,000 casualties including 3600 deaths. For most of the morning and afternoon there was someone killed or wounded every second!

  Antietam (or Sharpsburg) was an extremely important battle during the Civil War. If the South would have won, European countries would have recognized the Confederacy as an independent nation. On the other hand, if the North won, Lincoln was prepared to issue his Emancipation Proclamation. The North had been whipped badly for the entire summer by Robert E. Lee. They were demoralized. The fighting men knew there wasn't any real leadership and the generals were subpar. Before the battle, Lincoln made George McClellan  commanding general for the second time. Despite being inadequate in combat, his troops loved him and his reinstatement did bring morale back to the Union Army.

   Lee invaded the north hoping to take pressure off of the southern farmers and civilians in Virginia that were bearing the brunt of the war. A southern victory on northern soil would do much to have England and France recognize the Confederate States of America. The Northern army got a copy of Lee's orders and knew exactly what Lee's strategy was and where he would be. Unfortunately, Little Mac was slow and took forever to muster his men and get them where they needed to be to fight. Because of this, Lee got to choose the ground the battle would take place. Despite this, the North had a two to one advantage in man power. 

   The nice thing about going to Antietam Battlefield is the entire battle happened in one day. To make things also simple, the battle moved in a line roughly north to south throughout the entire day.

   

Dunker Church

At dawn artillery opened fire at the north end near a little German Church known as Dunker (spelled multiple ways) Church. The goal was for the North to take this church. Fighting centered around a 24 acre cornfield . Men could not see one another from either side due to the corn and the smoke. The cornfield changed hands many times. Soldiers were shooting at whatever was in front of them despite not being able to see the enemy. It was a bloodbath. 

When I went to Antietam in Oct 2010
The Cornfield did have corn and you could
picture the hell the soldiers went through

   In the late morning, the area known as a Sunken Road in the middle of the battlefield saw the majority of the fighting. The South held this road with 2300 men being opposed by ten thousand boys in blue. They held the road for three hours before eventually being over run and falling back a few hundred yards. This road earned the nickname Bloody Lane. It was covered with dead Southerners laid out like cordwood in rows and men piled on each other. Most of the men died of head and neck wounds so you can imagine the carnage in this once quiet farm road.

The Sunken Road would later be renamed 
Bloody Lane

   In the early afternoon the fighting moved further south to a bridge spanning Antietam Creek that was renamed Burnside's Bridge. General Burnside's men were tasked with taking this bridge. On the other side were Georgians just as determined to hold the bridge. After hours of fighting the Union gained the upper hand. They sensed the fire of the Rebels slowing down so without orders from their commanders they charged the bridge. They took it and drove the Southerners into the town of Sharpsburg. The last part of the battle was known as "The final attack" which was basically the North using their superior numbers and finally taking the field. 

Burnside's Bridge. The huge Sycamore on the
 right of the photo was present for the battle

   While the battle was basically a draw the North took the field and therefore could consider the day a Union victory. On the day of the 18th, both sides declared a truce so the dead and wounded could be picked up. McClellan timid as he was, allowed Lee's army to cross the Potomac that night and get back to Virginia. If he pressed, he would have crushed Lee's army and who knows if the war would have lasted three more years.

Clara  Barton was at the battle. She brought
bandages to soldiers on both sides and later
founded The Red Cross

   The Union victory was what Lincoln needed to free the slaves. Three months later he announced the Emancipation Proclamation freeing the slaves in all of the states in rebellion (not the border states). 

  Laurie and I spent time at Dunker Church, the Cornfield, Bloody Lane, and Burnside's Bridge. We stopped at all of the stops on the auto route. As we finished out last stop it started to rain. Because of this we did not go to the Antietam National Cemetery. We went back to our campsite and made supper. 

Eclipse

 

   I now understand why pre-science humans thought it was the end of the world when there was a solar eclipse. I drove up to St Johnsbury, VT to experience the totality of the eclipse. Quite honestly, it was a nightmare. 

   Traffic was bad on the way up. I had planned on going to northern NH but traffic was so bad I took I-89 into Vermont and then went north on I-91. I found a  grocery store that allowed people to park for free. They had food and restrooms. I bought some cooked wings and ribs which were delicious. 

   I watched the eclipse with my glasses that I had saved on my burrow since 2017. When totality came I got to watch it for two minutes. It was mostly dark and I saw two stars. I took about ten photos. It was over as quickly as it started. I must admit that the song "Total Eclipse of the Heart" is accurate. It took all of my power not to make any puns or title this post Bonnie Tyler's song. My heart was racing and I was overcome with true awe. It took a few minutes for it to slow to normal.

   Then the misery began. If you read that traffic was a nightmare or saw it on the news, it was worse than you could ever image. Within fifteen minutes of totality I-91 was backed up with stopped traffic. I thought it would be smart to let it clear out for an hour which became two, which became three hours. Finally at 7 pm I tried to leave. I was immediately stuck in traffic so I drove through St Johnsbury only to find traffic as I passed the NH border. I drove another two hours moving maybe ten miles. The last straw was when my GPS told me there was an hour and forty seven minute back up going through Franconia Notch. So I did a U-turn on the interstate ( no one was going north ) and found a trailhead to lie down at.

   

Heavily cropped so you can see the red around
the sun

  From 10:30 until 3 am I tried to sleep. This would have been easier if I brought a blanket. I covered up with the three sweatshirts I had and dozed off a couple times. Finally at 3 am I left for home. I was again caught in traffic within ten minutes as I was funneled through Franconia Notch. Once south of Lincoln I finally got up to speed and made it home at 7 am. 

  The question I asked myself while I was stuck in traffic praying for the  end of the world to stop my misery is this...was it worth it? The simple answer is no. Two minutes of one of the coolest things I have ever seen was not worth the 22 hours of being on the road. I would not do it again...but I know this, I would have regretted not going up to see totality for the rest of my life if I didn't go. I could never have imagined traffic would take a full day to disperse. So while I am not glad I went, I am glad I have no regrets so I guess that's a win?

Cherry Blossoms

 

Cherry Blossom in Japanese

   Two years ago, Laurie and I took a trip to see the famous Cherry Blossoms in Washington DC. We spent almost a week around DC going to the cherry trees in the morning and museums in the afternoon. For the last two years, I have wanted to go back. Since Laurie basically worked her ass off for the past year, when she suggested we go again so she could get away, who was I to say no?

   This trip was much shorter than the last. We left when she got out of work on Wednesday night and we came home Sunday. This only gave us Thursday through Saturday. To shorten our time even more, the weather forecast for Thursday was cloudy with possible showers and Saturday was going to be windy. Friday was the winner of our three days. 

  We stayed at the Greenbelt Campground twenty miles outside of DC in Maryland. The cost is only $20/night. To put that into perspective, The Hotel Harrington, the motel we used to stay at when we first went to DC cost $185/night.  We have probably been to DC many more times just because we found this campground. 

   

The sky was epic on Thursday evening

  It turned out the weather wasn't so bad. While it was rainy on Thursday morning it cleared up during the day. We went to Arlington National Cemetery when we got to Washington around noon time. While it was cloudy most of the day when it got near sunset the light was beautiful and the sun put a glow on the trees and monuments. Friday was a great day but it did get chilly in the evening when we wanted to spend time at the monuments at night. Saturday we went to Antietam National Battlefield. It did rain in the afternoon mostly on our drive back to the campground but the campground was dry and we made supper before bed. 

   The objective of the trip was to see the cherry blossoms in bloom. Starting in February you can follow along with a website that predicts when the cherry blossoms will be in full bloom. Because of the really warm winter and the warm spring in the nation's capitol the blossoms were in full bloom on March 17. This is one of the earliest years on record. Laurie follows the cherry blossom bloom report. I can not because it would give me an ulcer. It is a helpless feeling knowing your reservations are a full ten days after the cherry blossoms have reached a peak. So, I tried not to think about it. It would have driven me mad.

   Luckily, after the blossoms reached full bloom, it got pretty chilly in DC. The cooler weather kept the blossoms from leafing out quickly. While, I could tell many of the trees were past peak there were enough flowers still in full bloom to be beautiful. Someday I would very much like to hit it right and get down to DC when the blossoms just reach full bloom but considering what I could have seen had they had a couple eighty degree days, I got pretty lucky. 

   

I  wanted to photograph the trees and get awesome photos of the cherry blossoms and the monuments. I hoped to use what I had learned last time and get some great photos. This I accomplished. Because of the intense light on Thursday evening, I got some really dramatic shots. I used both my camera and my phone camera. It amazes me how different the photos can be. 

  To make matters interesting I broke my camera last year so I have been using my old camera. I didn't throw it away when I got my new one (luckily). However, it is two models older than the one I had broke. The buttons aren't the same. Also, I learned how to use all the functions on a camera on the one I broke. With this camera, I still haven't figured out how to choose some of the settings. So it was a challenge to take photos that I wanted. However, it also made it part of the fun. I worked a vantage point taking multiple photos. While it would have taken me seconds to change my settings on the camera that broke, with this camera, I had to work at it to figure out what I wanted. 

   Below is basically a photo dump of photos that I liked. While I manipulated the settings on my camera for more/less light, different aperture, flash, and white balance, I didn't do anything to the finished product unless otherwise noted. I didn't add filters in  post editing or change the saturation, brightness, etc... 

The blossoms looked like a carpet of snow in places

Using flash highlighted the cluster closest to the
camera. Also did the same below

Lincoln Memorial as it was getting dark last Friday

Monk Parakeets

 Laurie and I went back to DC for the cheery blossoms over the last few days. I still have a lot of photos to go through. It's late and I drove eight hours to get home today so a long post with lots of photos is just not part of the gameplan tonight. However, it has been a month since I wrote anything so I thought a quick post about an unusual resident bird was in order.

   On our way home we stopped in Bridgeport, CT to see Monk Parakeets. Yes you heard that right, parakeets. And even more surprisingly, they are not escaped pets AND they are year round residents. While these parakeets ancestors undoubtably were escapees or purposely released, that was generations ago. These hardy parakeets can and do survive the tough New England winter. There is a very reliable park in Bridgeport where we can see them. 

   We pulled into the parking lot at 1 pm and within a minute we heard them calling. It must be close to mating season because many of the parakeets were "singing" and we saw some nest building going on. Monk Parakeets build huge nests and it looks as though they add to them year after year. Some of their nests easily rival an Osprey nest. 

   There used to be a colony of Monk Parakeets in Barrington, RI but the locals did not like them because of the noise, feces, and the huge nests on telephone poles. So the parakeets were forced to abandon their colony. I never saw them in RI but did get into birding while there were still vacant nests in the area. 

   

   Today, Laurie and I saw a total of seven Monk Parakeets all in one tree. We could hear others in different trees. We watched them for fifteen minutes but after driving five hours with another two and a half to go, we didn't stay as long as we would have liked. Still, it was a joy to see these tropical birds in New England again.

A Big Night

 

  For years, I've planned on going out during the first rainy night in March to look for salamanders and frogs. Every year when the time comes, I get lazy and don't go. The first warm, rainy night after the ground thaws (this happens in March, but March 2 is very early!) amphibians make their way to vernal pools to mate. For some, like Wood Frogs, they will stay in the pools for a couple of weeks. For others like Spotted Salamanders all the action happens in that one night. By morning, the salamanders are back in the woods hiding.

   I was always lead to believe that "Big Night" was just that, one night and not plural. So, I have always assumed that if I missed it, I'd have to wait another year. I just learned last month that not all amphibians will mate during that first warm, rainy night. The season could last almost until May. Because of this new fact, I plan on going out on multiple nights this spring.

   Knowing the weather forecast for Saturday was going to be rainy, I have been planning to go out for a few days. Despite knowing I'd be out Saturday night, I did a piss poor job of planning. To start with, when I went looking for my rain pants I realized they were not in my car. Also, when I went to get my small camera the battery was dead. So I had neither my rain pants or my camera. I did have my phone to take photos with but my camera does take better photos. 

 

    I had Laurie drop me off at a conservation area in Norton. I did not want to leave my car at a parking area since technically the conservation areas are open "sunrise to sunset". So she dropped me off about 6:45. The area I chose has a vernal pool a two hundred yard walk from the parking area. It only took a couple minutes to get to it but I was immediately glad I had waterproof boots on. The trail was basically a muddy canal. 

   It didn't take me long to find my quarry. My biggest hope was to see Spotted Salamanders. I'd only ever seen two in my life. That changed tonight. About fifteen minutes after looking in the water I saw one come up for air. Since I was so surprised I saw one I actually doubted myself. Luckily, a few minutes later I saw another and I knew I wasn't crazy. I watched the second one go back down to the leaf litter not too far from shore. I tried to get out on a log and pick it up but it was just out of reach.

  Not long after, I found a third that I could reach. I put my hand in the water and to my surprise it didn't try to swim away. I picked it up, brought it to the shore and took some photos before releasing it again.

   Soon after, I found a whole bunch of Spotted Salamanders. At one point I could see five very close to each other. Since I may have seen a couple of them more than once, I conservatively estimate that I saw eight  different ones tonight. I didn't see any other frogs or salamanders other than Spotted. However, that was the one I really wanted to see. Some of the big ones were eight inches including the one I caught. I did see some weird shrimp and insect larvae swimming around but I forgot to bring my net so I didn't get any photos of them. It was a great night and I can't wait to do it again!

Rare Sparrows

Vesper Sparrow

    Last Saturday, Laurie and I went to Richmond, RI and saw a rare (for New England) Vesper Sparrow. I'd only seen four in my life. On this day we saw three more bringing my total to seven! They were in a small flock with Song and Savannah Sparrows. They were not afraid of people or passing cars feeding right along the edge of the road. 

   Today I hung out with my friend Charles in Newport. We saw an even rarer sparrow. It was a Lark Sparrow that has been hanging around Fort Adams for over a month. Lark Sparrows are a sparrow of open fields and meadows in the Midwest. Why this bird decided to take up roots in Rhode Island I do not know. It has been seen by dozens of birders over the last few weeks. Today was my second time seeing it. It was the first bird we saw when we pulled into Fort Adams. I was still driving! I wish Lady Luck was always that generous

Lark Sparrow

*Note- I finally got a job. I'm working at Bass Pro Shops in the fishing dept. This explains why my blog has been quiet as of late. Hopefully, as I get back into the groove, I'll spend more of my days off on adventures. For the past few weeks, most of my days off have been hosting bird club events.

*Note #2- I messed with the white balance on my camera completely ruining most of my sparrow photos. I didn't notice until I got home tonight. While I did delete some washed out photos of the Lark Sparrow that would have been calendar worthy if I didn't f them up, I'm lucky to have salvaged a couple decent photos of both birds.

Below are a couple of other birds I saw in the last couple of weeks.

Ring Necked Pheasant

Short Eared Owl