Sunday and Monday of this week produced few birds, but some interesting ones. On Sunday I got my best bird photos in the first 10 minutes and less than 1.5 miles from my home. The first was a Ruffed Grouse.
Then there was a pair of Lessor Scaups, in Etna no less. I originally misidentified these as Tufted Ducks, but readers of this blog corrected me.
But a Canada Goose had to butt in.
Heading north on Route 10 from Hanover, I saw some great early fog.
No birds were in sight at Wilson’s Landing, but the fog was magic on the scene. Here are a some of the photos I took there.
Heading up River Road in Lyme, I stopped at several places to photograph the interesting early spring light.
On April 11, there were many hundreds of ducks at the mouth of Grant Brook, including over one hundred Wood Ducks. Sunday it was empty save for a mallard or two. The early blue light and fog made for a peaceful scene.
I found nothing on either Little Post Pond or Clay Brook, but I did find a pair of Wood Ducks in a small farm pond along North Thetford Road.
There were a trio of turkeys along River Road.
The eagle’s nest in Orford appeared empty. Sadly, it seems like this pair again failed.
The Pompy area and Campbell Flats had no species close enough to photograph, except for Canada Geese. But I did get a photo of some iridescent clouds. You can see more photos of cloud iridescence and read about this phenomenon if you CLICK HERE.
On Monday I headed south to Paradise Park and Lake Runnemede in Windsor, VT.
I had heard that a Blue Grosbeak had been photographed there and was hoping to find it. But mostly I just wanted to pay my first visit of the season to this pleasant spot. A year earlier there had been an amazing phoebe fallout there and I had a great time photographing phoebes flying.
I struggled to get acceptable photos of a pair of Rudy-crowned Kinglets and many Yellow-rumped Warblers as they quickly moved through the tangle of branches along the lake shore. I also got some very poor shots of a Palm Warbler that I will not show.
The second interesting duck of the two days was at the far end of Lake Runnemede near the dike. It was a Long-tailed Duck in somewhat unusual plumage.
I crossed the dike hoping for some warblers at the edge of the woods. A year earlier I had photographed some Palm Warblers and Golden-crowned Kinglets there. But this time no luck. It seems migration might be a bit late this year.
Heading home I stopped at the King Bird Sanctuary in Etna. It was too early in the season to find much. There were a lot of Chickadees, and I got some photos of a noisy House Wren.
At home I was greeted by a bright Purple Finch — the first I had seen in over a year. Last March I got some photos of somewhat strange looking purple finches in my yard.
The snow and ice seems to be gone, finally, so here comes spring, a great time of the year.