A Day Off

After three straight days of cutting and stacking logs, picking up and carrying piles of brush, and racking my back and the rest of my body protested this cruel and unusual punishment. So I took advantage of Saturday's last opportunity to sleep until almost seven AM and still catch the sunrise at visit Great Meadows.

I've been dreading photographing Great Meadows in November. It doesn't have the variety of life that exists in the spring and summer. It lacks the beautiful stark landscape of winter snow. It is often gray. Today, the sun was shining early which cast a pleasing light on the animals that remain.

It's almost tradition to warm up with some shots of the Canada Geese.






I mentioned the invasion of Mute Swans in my last post. There were a couple of family units in the Upper Impoundment. The juveniles are still grayish. One of the juveniles demonstrated his independence by flying to forage in a different area of the impoundment far from the others. It is amazing when the fly overhead. They are so large. Their wings make loud whooshing noises as they pass overhead.














We've all grown bored of the coots. They often don't warrant more that the casual glance, but today one of the birders spotted a smaller bird in their midst. This Ruddy Duck is a new bird for my photographic "life list". It was quite cute to watch as it repeatedly dove every few seconds. I tried repeatedly to actually catch the diving motion, but finally realized that they don't really jump up before they dive under the water. I did find it curious the way it fanned its tail feathers as it dove.












Elsewhere in the refuge things were relatively quiet. The Chickadees are out in force. I expect that I will be sharing some photos of them in the near future. This Downy Woodpecker was intensely feeding in the cattails nearby as I watched the Chickadees.




I often like unusual patterns or lights and shadows.


This bit of exposed tree trunk, looks like a medeval torture devise, not the former remnants of branches.


I was drawn to the zigzag pattern caused by the shadows of the bench back cast upon the seat

Smoke Gets In My Eyes

For regular followers of this blog; my apologies for the delay in your next post. The power was restored to our house Tuesday evening, so the remainder of the week was spent with my electric chain saw and the large number of tree parts littering our and neighbor's yard. Each evening, I would crash on the couch to watch television, until I could drag my sore, tired body down the hall.

However, before then, on Tuesday morning, without power, and a cool house, I thought walking around Great Meadows would be a good activity to warm me up and get the circulation flowing. The air quality reminded me of my winter time business trips to Delhi, India. The large number of people burning wood in their stoves and fireplaces has cast a haze over everything.

For some reason a large number of Mute Swans has decided to invade the refuge. I counted 8 and later was told the number had increased to 11. While these birds are pretty, they are pretty aggressive towards all other animals and are considered invasive. This group includes mature adults and the grayer juveniles.










The big flocks of Canada Geese had departed before I arrived. However, there are always a few stragglers.






The sparrows are still hanging around the dike trails. I was glad to finally find a Swamp Sparrow in a setting more typical of a swamp. The classic pose justified including the one in the tree.






Here are some miscellaneous shots from around the refuge. I'm not sure I've taken a fall foliage shot of the tower. Will being on top with his scope was bonus. (Note to self - don't park car at base of tower when taking its picture!)










On the backside of the lower impoundment I encountered a couple of Goldfinches in winter plumage feasting on the Evening Primrose seeds. I included the first photograph because most bird photographs are from the side. It's rare to see a bird straight on. I'm glad this pair was so interested in eating. They allowed me to get to within 20 feet.

Trick or Treat Storm

The "Halloween Storm" dumped 3-4 inches of wet heavy snow on the area, breaking tree limbs and downing wires in the process. Thankfully, though we have several big branches down, there was no damage to our house or cars. With no power, no heat, no television, and no internet we decided that sitting in the house all day would not be fun, so we headed towards Great Meadows to see the extent of the storm damage there.

There were lots of trees down in Burlington and Bedford. Concord has spots that with fallen trees, but we felt it was slightly better off. Maybe that's because we found that Great Meadows still had heat and power in the rest rooms; which was something we were just starting to envy. The refuge was deserted, allowing us to take those first photos of a virgin landscape, leaving our foot prints behind for whoever followed.








It's too bad the refuge was deserted. Amy spied a mature Bald Eagle across the upper impoundment sitting in a tree. We tried to sneak up on it, but the curve in the path prevented us getting a good shot. As soon as it heard us it flew.



Shortly after the eagle departed a harrier arrived cruising the upper impoundment looking for a meal. He stopped to rest momentarily on the top of the duck box near the poison ivy bench. Several other raptors were seen circling near the waste water treatment plant.








Between the raptors and the cold many of the smaller avian animals were either hunkered down, or hiding in the reeds. We did encounter a couple that were photographic.






Downy Woodpecker


Downy Woodpecker


Several details caught my eye including the seeds on Speckled Alder and Milkweed.






As we finished circumnavigating the lower impoundment my mind was just starting to come to grips with the incongruity of the foliage on the trees combined with snow on the ground. I've been dreading the onset of winter, with more challenging conditions and photographic opportunities. However, if there are going to be eagles and harriers every day, maybe it won't be so bad.