Random Walk, Random Shots

Yesterday's visit to Great Meadows was more photo journalism about the hurricane and the bird walk activities.  Today, I wanted to spend some time focused on my photographic techniques and observation of nature, so I was back at Great Meadows early Wednesday morning.

With no particular agenda besides making carrying my long lens worthwhile, I wandered around the refuge.  Here are a few of my favorite images from the day

After Irene

Tuesday morning, I was anxious to get over to Great Meadows to see how the refuge weathered the hurricane. As a special treat Alan Bragg was also going to be conducting the first of his fall bird watching walks.

While the refuge escaped without any severe damage, Irene's fingerprints could be seen across the refuge in significant and subtle ways. Significant damage included several downed trees. Most were not in critical areas, except for the one that took down the power lines to the maintenance shed. Most of the paths were already cleared of leaves and small branches. More subtle impacts included the numbers of plants bent over along the impoundments, the broken branches suspended high in the tree canopy, the beat down cat tails on the cross dike trail. The most subtle, but welcome impact was the number of Tick Trefoil seeds that were blown away...of course, we worry about where they were blown and whether next year will be a bumper crop.

The other significant impact was the Concord River. It had swollen, the banks flooding the woods to levels we had not seen since late spring.


An example of plants bent over by the wind


Part of the trail waiting for the power company to cut down the tree leaning on the line


Replacing the pole and transformer to the maintenance shed


The fall bird walk was fun. Like us humans the birds were quite active making up for their forced downtime during the storm.


There was a wide range of ages and skill levels. Don't let the small size fool you. That little girl was a very observant birder.


Catbird preening


If look closely you see subtle clues that autumn is approaching


Tom Eagle, Deputy Wildlife Refuge Manager stopped by to say hello to the bird walk. He was there for a meeting, but kindly explained the challenges of managing conflicting priorities at the refuge. He bravely took some questions too!

Another casualty of the hurricane were the lotus plants. There are now a lot fewer blooming lotus plants left.


One of the last blooms


Love the way young seed pods look like eyes looking at you


Mature seed pod - All that's left is some more drying out and then falling during the late autumn / winter to finish the cycle


I wondered how the dragonflies weathered the storm. There appeared to be a lot fewer active, but there were still quite a few active.



Like mid-spring the flood waters forced many of the animals to areas we don't normally see them. I don't know if this fox was forced from his normal territory, or whether he was just hunting the the mice and voles that had been flooded out to dry land. I saw two foxes, in different places. I have assumed there were some around, but these are the first ones I've seen this year.






Here are a few more random photos for your viewing pleasure.

Hurricanes and Earthquakes

Last week in the midst of New England's major natural events, I wandered over to Great Meadows one morning to enjoy the fresh air, walk a bit, and see what I could see. While birding was interesting, the bird count that day saw 77 different species; the photography, was ordinary.

Unmotivated to quickly post, I took a vacation and let these images enjoy several days riding the carousel known as my hard disk. During the hurricane induced power outage on Sunday, I encountered the following passage, written 160 years ago to the day. It seemed so appropriate, I thought I should share it with you along with the "ordinary" photos from that day.

Without further ado, here's today's guest commentary courtesy of Concord's own Henry David Thoreau.

"I omit the unusual — the hurricanes and earthquakes — and describe the common. This has the greatest charm and is the true theme of poetry. You may have the extraordinary for your province, if you will let me have the ordinary. Give me the obscure life, the courage of the poor and humble, the workdays of the world, the barren fields, the smallest share of all things but poetic perception. Give me but the eyes to see the things which you possess." — August 28, 1851