New Hampshire 2020 Act 1. A Vacation Very Much Needed

 

View from Mt. Tremont

  Many of my bird friends spent the last three days on Block Island birding. I was supposed to go, but I have so badly wanted to go hiking that I went to New Hampshire instead. The temps in NH were going to be around seventy five degrees with no chance of rain. Around home, I have noticed the leaves quietly changing color earlier than normal. I had a feeling that there could be some pretty foliage up north. Warm weather and pretty colors were too good to pass up. The mountains were calling. I drove up Wednesday night and got a campsite at dark. In the middle of the night I got woken up by a Saw Whet Owl singing. I've been woken by Barred Owls many times, and a Screech at least once. Saw Whet was a new one for me,

   I woke up early on Thursday and headed to the Mt. Tremont Trail. My plan was to do Tremont in the morning and then take pics the rest of the day. Though only about 3300 feet, Tremont is pretty tough mountain. The trail is 2.8 miles each way with over 2500 feet of elevation gain. That is more elevation than some of the four thousand footers I have done. None the less, with a nice early start I hoped to be done around 1 pm and still spend a couple hours on top. The trail was tougher than expected and I got to the top over thirty minutes later than expected.

     The sky was hazy so there wasn't much point in taking photos of the view with the sky in the background. Still, it was beautiful. I could look right down on Sawyer and Little Sawyer Ponds. To the left was Church Pond where Laurie and I famously fell asleep on a picnic table sized rock  Most of the view was into the wilderness. The trees had turned color as I hoped. I dare say, they are peak right now. They were just gorgeous.

Green Cliff, Sawyer Pond, and Little Sawyer to the right

   With shaking knees and aching ankles I made it down at 2 pm instead of the 1 pm as I hoped. Still, there was plenty of daylight. I went up to Crawford Notch and got photos. Just as I am attracted to boobs, I am drawn to red leaves. Everywhere that I saw a bright red leaf, clump of leaves, or a red tree, I felt the need to photograph it. This could possibly have lead to my delay getting down the mountain, but my knees would tell you otherwise. I spent the rest of the day taking photos of leaves, ponds, and tree lines. Not so much of mountains because of the hazy sky behind them.  Near dark I went back to camp. Never was I so happy it was dark by 7:30. I was asleep by 8 pm.

  

 

  

   I got up while it was still dark for a thirty minute ride to Pondicherry. This place is a National Wildlife Refuge. It also happens to be the last place I  had seen a moose in NH. I got to the refuge just as it was light enough to walk without a headlamp. I bee lined it to Big Cherry Pond, hoping if a moose were feeding in the water during the night they would still be there. It ended up being foggy so I couldn't see the entire shoreline. However, it was pin-drop quiet and if a moose would have been feeding, I probably would have heard it.

Sunrise over Cherry Pond

Right before sunrise 

  I went to Little Cherry Pond hoping a moose might be there. I stopped for the sunrise as I was walking over the west shoreline of Big Cherry. When I got to Little Cherry, there was a guy there along with a swimming beaver. The guy was cool and he filled me in on what he had seen so far (no moose). After talking to him I went birding. I had already spooked two Ruffed Grouse on my hike toward the ponds. At this point the songbirds had woken up. They were everywhere in the woods. I saw tons of Ruby Crowned Kinglets and White Throated Sparrows. I also saw a Black Throated Green Warbler, Hairy Woodpecker, White Crowned Sparrows, Brown Creeper and a Winter Wren. There were so many birds, all moving very quickly, I'm sure I missed many more species.

A guy looking for animals at Little Cherry Pond

   As I was coming out of the woods and back onto the railroad track a small black movement caught my eye, it was a bear cub! It was crossing the tracks far in front of me but I had my binoculars. I only saw it for a few seconds as it was crossing the tracks. On the other side of it was a guy wheeling a canoe down to the lake. I asked him if he saw the cub. Not only did he say yes, but he said it swam across the lake and came out on this side. If I would have spent five minutes less birding, I could have watched this adorable little bear swim across the lake and get photos! Rats!

The guy that saw the cub out in his canoe.
My favorite photo of my trip. I like how the
out of focus leaves frame him.

   After seeing the bear, I walked back around the lake and ending up having a pretty cool wildlife encounter of my own. A Northern Harrier was circling the lake looking for songbirds in the bushes. It passed by me at least five times, but it was always in bad light. I was disappointed my photos were going to suck, but after downloading them, they are better than expected. 

Northern Narrier

   I walked out of the ponds and back to my car birding along the way. I saw a Red Squirrel and a Pileated Woodpecker. Despite hearing Nuthatches for hours all morning, I never actually saw one. After I got in my car, I drove back to my tent site where I broke camp. I stopped at the Mountain Wanderer book store where I talked to owner/author Steve Smith. I bought a shirt and headed home. I am far too sore to do any afternoon hiking. 

Wood Duck. 
Cropped a ton.

Out of focus Pileated Woodpecker

   All in all, I needed this trip. It had been far too long since I've done a hike. My legs are burning, both my quads and hamstrings. I'm walking bowlegged and using the hand rail to walk up and (especially) down my four steps at home. And you know what? I'm okay with that. I needed to climb a mountain and look down into a valley. I needed to sweat my ass off and wonder "how much further?" I was happy to sit on top of a peak with no place I'd rather be. 

Red Squirrel

Because of my new-found enjoyment for learning more of my cameras features, here are some more photos of things I saw from my trip below.

Toad

Moose Poop

Pine Cones

Some orange leaves for a change

Washington was in the clouds and the sky was 
hazy anyway, so I shot the motel with the 
mountain as the background but below the skyline

Yellow Rumped Warbler

This is a new fishing platform on Profile Lake at 
Franconia Notch. It is very nice. The problem is 
Profile is a fly fishing only lake. I don't know if it is a good idea for 
three or four guys fly fishing side by side. Also, a non-fisherman can walk up to 
it. They could easily take a hook to the head by a fly fisherman's backcast. 

On the Wrong Side of the light for a State bird

 

   About 2:45 today, my friend Sue Palmer found a  Lark Sparrow at Snake Den in Johnston. For me, this was very convenient. I was ten minutes from being done with work and fifteen minutes away.  Like a lot of birders, after Sue reported it, I went after work. A bunch of people were in the field looking for it. Within a couple minutes of me getting there, Jan saw it on a bush. We all got on the bird. I got some photos of the bird right out in the open. Unfortunately, it was in the sunlight. I took my photos knowing they wouldn't be good. If I would have been on the other side of the sparrow, where half of the people were, I would have gotten some good shots. Still I got to see a state bird, and it was my 280th RI bird so far this year.

Green Heron

I took this photo last week when we were waiting for our tuna to be steaked. The sun was setting and the light was perfect. 

Some photos from a crappy weekend

    I didn't really enjoy my days off this week. I fished hard and birded hard but came up short everywhere. Thursday I got rained out birding and rained on fishing. I didn't catch any albies. Friday I looked for shorebirds that have been eluding me for weeks. Still haven't seen them. Then I went fishing and got skunked again.

   However, I did get a photo upgrade on Spotted Sandpiper. I also saw one of my favorite birds at Napatree, Red Knots. They aren't red this time of year because they are winter plumage. They let me get pretty close while they were feeding and I got some of my best shots ever of them.

The first five photos below are of Red Knots

Ruddy Turnstone

Ruddy Turnstone

Spotted Sandpiper
Photo upgrade

Black Bellied Plovers

Block Canyon Trip

 

Yesterday I went on what was supposed to be a dedicated birding pelagic. Every year, my friend Carlos goes out on an all day pelagic trip to canyons out in the Gulf Stream. They charter a tuna boat to take them to see birds that you can not see from shore. Last year when I was doing a RI Big Year, I told him if anyone backs out I'd like to be the "first alternate". No one backed out and I was fine saving the money.

   Because of myself and interest from others, Carlos booked two trips this year. One for August 25 and the other for September 8th, The people going on the August trip are the same six (the boat only holds 6 people, hence it is called a six pack) that go every year. Unfortunately for them, they got blown out thanks to big waves. This really sucks because you do not sign up, spend all that money, wake up at 1:30 am, unless you really, really want to go.

   The marine forecast called for 3-5 foot waves and we thought we wouldn't be able to go also. A last minute decision was made that if we couldn't go out to the Gulf Stream we would do a more manageable trip to Cox Ledge. So I got up before people were getting home from bars to be at Snug Harbor at 2:30 am. We headed out and for three plus hours we cruised at 30 knots. We made it to Block Canyon one hundred miles from shore!

   Before I go on, I need to say, my big 600 mm camera lens was still in the shop. I had to take my small lens that goes to 300 mm. I mentally prepared myself to be a birder not a photographer. This was hard because I may never see these species again. But, I told myself seeing them was the important thing. I got lucky with a couple of species that came close to the boat and got some good photos. Cory's Shearwater was a bird that is fairly common that I didn't have a photo of. Luckily for all of us, Tim Metcalf has a good camera and he took some awesome photos. Every time a good bird was too far from the boat, we all looked at Tim's photos for the ID. But I digress...

Cory's Shearwater
Life photo

 To all of our surprise the Captain put some rods out telling us the lures on the water would "lure in birds". About an hour into cruising around looking for birds, a rod bends over. None of my five birding friends fish, so I got to catch a tuna.  It ended up being a decent size Albacore going 50-60 pounds. I also caught another Albacore that went over thirty. I can tell you for sure, I never need to catch a tuna over 60 pounds. I was sweating, all of my muscles from my legs to my lower arms tightened up. Tuna are strong! I also caught a mahi-mahi that went about 35 inches.

   As for the birds, we also had a great day. We saw all three species of Jaegers before noon. Pomarine Jaeger was a lifer for me. We got good looks at Manx, Great, and Cory's Shearwater. Cory's was a life photo. On our way in we saw a South Polar Skua which was the best bird of the day. It was my second lifer. We had dozens of Red-Necked Pharalopes on the water as we reached Block Island Sound.

 

Pilot Whales

Besides the birds we saw multiple marine mammals.On our way out we saw Bottled Nosed Dolphins and Pilot Whales. A Humpbacked Whale breached while we were birding but I was on the wrong side of the boat. Lastly, on the ride home we saw a huge pod of Atlantic White Sided Dolphins.

 

   When we got in, the Captain and mate steaked the tuna. We all went home with a couple Ziplock bags full of tuna. I have enough to make six meals after giving some away. I/we each could have taken more since there was over a hundred pounds onboard (live weight). We left enough for the Captain and mate to have a couple of meals.

   I can not stress enough how great of a day this was.  Each of us saw six species we had not seen yet this year. I got two lifers  (Pomarine Jaeger and South Polar Skua). We saw four species of marine mammals (Pilot Whale was a lifer). Plus I caught two new species, one of them (mahi-mahi) was on my bucket list. The other, the Albacore, is the largest fish I've ever caught. Not to mention we all went home with fish. So basically I got to go on

a tuna charter and a birding charter for the price of one.

South Polar Skua

Other species seen that were not year birds or lifers- Great Shearwater, Common Tern, Lesser Black-Backed Gull, Wilson's Storm Petrels (everywhere)

Multiple photos below

Tim Metcalf got this photo of  a Manx Shearwater

Pomarine Jaeger

The top bird in the photo is a Parasitic Jaeger.
Its not much, but it is a life photo

These two photos (above and below) are of a Long-Tailed Jaeger.
Clearly the best bird photos I got today.

Tuna Steaks

Tinkering with my settings for sunset

  Tonight I went for a walk at Stony Brook Audubon Sanctuary in Norfork, MA. I just didn't want to waste my night and it is close to home. My big lens is still in the shop and I wanted to practice taking photos anyway. I stayed through most of sunset. I didn't stay until total darkness which was my plan. It turns out the mosquitoes were hungry and I was on the menu. So I got back to my car with quite a bit of light left.

   I took a bunch of photos of the sunset all from the same spot. The view was over the pond. I put a Purple Loostrife in the foreground. Purple Loostrife is the pretty yet very invasive purple flower you see in marshes. I tried a bunch of different things with my camera. I played with shutter speed and flash mostly. Many of the photos did not come out well, while others did. I am including some of the bad photos below.

  None of these photos have been enhanced in anyway when I got home. I didn't play with light, color, or saturation. It is amazing what a camera can do. I will not bore you with the file info on each of the photos. If I were sitting on your side of the computer, that would bore me to tears also. Besides, it is fun to experiment on your own. As you scroll past, keep in mind these photos were all taken in a five minute period. There was still plenty of light left as you can tell by the last two photos. Some are clearly darker than others, but it isn't because it was getting darker outside.

   Lastly, I have a pretty nice camera, but the truth is most cameras have the same settings I played with tonight. Hell, most cell phones allow you to adjust your photos and settings. My hundred dollar point and shoot that I keep in my pocket on vacations can do what I did tonight.

   Don't worry, not every post is going to be about camera settings and different things I am learning, but for some of you, it must be nice to see something on this blog other than bird photos, right?