Being Flexible

Wednesday morning I found myself at the refuge at the crack of dawn with my friend Bill who wanted to photograph the lotus in bloom. The impoundments were mist shrouded, while the skies overhead were cloudless as we ventured out onto the dike. We were greeted by Great Blue Herons arriving to fish and hunt among the lotus plants.







Last night's rains had beat the petals off of most of the lotus that were fully in bloom, while many more lotus were budded up tightly. The goldfinches that have been active along the Dike Trail were also sleeping in. With our plans disrupted we decided to wandered the refuge to see what else we could photograph.



Bullfrog soaking greets the dawn


A rare photo of the Virginia Rail in appropriate habitat not surrounded by reeds at the base of the observation deck


Mist on the Concord River


Monarch Butterfly on Milkweed




Swamp Rose Mallow with Dew


Along the Upper Dike Trail we encountered one area that was busy with birds. While a birder's paradise, they weren't very good photographic subjects as they chose to hid in the shadows and tangled branches.


The first Cedar Waxwing I've seen during this project




Blue-gray Gnatcatcher


Completing our lap of the impoundments we once again visited the cross dike trail. The goldfinches had since woken up and were feasting on the primrose and the lotus plants were greeting the warming sun by opening their flowers.








One side note - In the past week this blog broke the 5,000 pageview barrier. Since the blog really was an after thought of my photography project, I just wanted to thanks to all of you who read along and follow my adventures. The nice comments and emails I've received have made the extra work worthwhile. They also helps keep me motivated on those days where I would rather be sipping a cold drink and watching the telly.

Between The Storms

After reviewing my project I realized that I don't have many photos of Great Meadows under stormy conditions. So Tuesday evening when the storms came passing through I went back to Great Meadows to get some photos after the first shower had passed by.

Though the skies were still threatening, there was hope that conditions would actually be improving. Patches of sunlight would break the clouds spotlighting the ground below in their "God beams". In the distance you could still hear thunder and see the occasional flash of lightning. However, from my hiking experience, I felt safe since they were routing planes over the top of the refuge. The planes were taking some interesting routes to avoid the lighting for their approach to Hanscom and Logan.












Most of the animals were hunkered down. Even the Marsh Wrens were quiet. The Great Egrets must have been cleared for flight about the same time the planes were. Water covered all the plants. I liked how the water droplets decorated this lotus like a rhinestone covered costume.






This round of the fight between light and dark, dry or wet, went to the dark side. The ceiling dropped, the rains returned, and the little bit of remaining light was pushed out to sea.

Sometimes It Pays to Break the Rules

Photographers generally like the warm light of the rising sun for their morning photography. I hadn't planned on going to Great Meadows this morning, so I slept in, read the news, and then on a lark decided to visit Great Meadows. It was almost 8AM by the time I wandered out onto the Cross Dike trail.

Some days you have to search hard to find a photographic subject. But every so often there is a rare day where while you are photographing one interesting subject, another interesting subject tries to distract you. Today was one of those rare days.

The day started with a little warm up photography with the American Lotus.





>


Moving down the Dike Trail it was on to Monarch butterflies, which were feeding on the Milkweed plants. Milkweed is key to the Monarch's life cycle. They lay their eggs in the milkweed, they live on the milkweed during their caterpillar and chrysalis stages.






Moving along the path dragonflies, moths and other insects were abundantly represented.










At the far corner of the lower impoundment hummingbirds were feasting on the primrose. By this time it was almost noon. Most photographers would have been home, uploading their photos. Thankfully, the sun was at the correct angle to brightly light the birds while providing fast shutter speeds to help freeze the wings.








On many days, I would be trying to weave together the following collection of photos to form a story. Today, they wouldn't make the editorial cut. Since later this week I will be taking a week off from this project, I decided to include them to help tide you through that dry spell.


Along the road to the maintenance barn


Turkey with young along the old railroad bed


Goldfinches fighting over primrose


Juvenile Red-winged Blackbird


Crow with food scared from the drainage canal


Downy Woodpecker


Chipmunk stretching for food


Young snapping turtle