The forecast was not great last Sunday so I planned to stay home and get needed work done. But reports of grebes in Wilder tempted me to have a look. As I drove down the hill from my Etna home I noticed a bit of fog in the valley. The green hills in the foreground are in NH; the blue hills in the background are in the Green Mountain State.
There were three red-necked grebes at Wilder. I took some photos, left to check some other sites without success, and returned for a few more photos. I left shortly after they took a nap — with their eyes open and occasionally paddling to keep from drifting too far downstream. Here are a few photos of the grebes.
I headed back home to get some work done, but since it was a very dull day — perfect for photographing moving water — I stopped along Mink Brook for a few photos.
At home I made the mistake of reading my email. A snowy owl had been spotted in Newbury. It would be stupid to drive all that way I thought, so naturally I hopped into my car and off I went. I didn’t get there in time to see the snowy sitting on the post right on the side of the road. By the time I arrived it was sleeping quite far off in the field behind a branch. And it was raining lightly. I sat in my car, read the newspaper, and didn’t take a single photo.
I decided to kill some time at Baileys Eddy hoping the owl would move closer to the road by the time I returned. At Baileys Eddy I photographed a pair of female common merganser and a huge group of green-winged teal taking flight (seen in the slide show at the bottom of this page). When I returned the owl had moved — farther away but without a branch hiding the view. It even opened its eyes a bit for a peek.
A short time later the snowy moved again and settled down facing away from me. I was about to leave when a crow began to harass the owl with a half dozen passes. The snowy hunkered down but held its ground. There are two photos of this action in the slide show below.
A red-tailed hawk circled the fields. I again headed home stopping at several spots along the way grabbing some shots of wood ducks, a kingfisher, and a pair of eagles — and, of course, more moving water. Below is a slide show of some of the photos I took on the second outing last Sunday.
