The three mid-winter weeks from February 12 to March 5 were filled with birds, snow, hikes, and a short time at part of the Dartmouth Winter Carnival.
Winter Carnival
It was a beautiful Saturday in Hanover. Perfect for ice carving and sled races. Here is some of the ice sculpture action.
Here are a few photos from the action-filled sled races. We actually only stayed for a few of them since we were really in Hanover to hike around Occom Pond.
Mount Sunapee
On another perfect winter day, three humans and a dog hiked up and down the Summit Trail to the summit of Mount Sunapee and a bit beyond. It was 1 degree F when we headed up at around 8 am.
An unhurried two hours later, we were near the summit and had a nice relatively clear view of Mount Monadnock thirty miles to the south.
We hiked over beautiful white snow toward the top of the lifts.
We were surprised to find some pristine snow at the summit.
Here are the three humans and a dog. Notice how blue the shadows are. They “see” the blue sky, not the sun.
I took a few photos with my iPhone, because, why not?
Below is a cropped portion of a five-photo panorama made with the phone camera. If you click this photo, an image with a few of the mountains labeled will open in a separate tab. You can then zoom in and pan around if you wish.
I then switched to my “real” camera and made a seven-photo panorama. Below are three crops of that panorama from left to right. Can you identify the mountains?
If you click on any of these three photos, the full panorama will open in a separate tab. It has many of the of the mountains labeled, even Mount Jim about 1/3 from the right edge of the first photo. You can zoom in and pan around if you wish.
We watched the skiers blast past us.
Caro, a five-year-old chocolate lab, got very excited. He had never seen downhill skiers before. Only one skier stopped to pet him.
I took a photo of Mounts Kearsarge and Black to the east.
We headed back to the summit after watching skiers for quite a while.
We stopped briefly for a snack on the deck of the summit lodge. I made a few large panoramas looking west. Below is a cropped portion of an eight-photo image.
From the deck, I zoomed into the Okemo ski area on Mount Ludlow in Vermont.
Below are six of the photos I took as we headed back down the Summit Trail.
Near the base, I set my camera to use slow shutter speeds to blur the action of a snowboarder as he came down toward me. I think action photos are sometimes better when there is blur.
The best way to get to a slow shutter speed is to use Aperture Priority (NOT Shutter Priority). Then set the aperture to a very small size (high f/number) and the ISO as low as it goes. Adding a polarizer, which I was using, also helps. The photos here were shot between 1/8 and 1/15 second even though it was a sunny day.
The snowboarder obliged by crashing right in front of me. Here is a five-photo sequence.
Heading home, I noticed Lake Sunapee’s new tour boat was not in its temporary parking place . So I detoured to the harbor and found it in the parking lot. It will get the top deck installed there, since even without it some of the power lines along the route had to be lifted manually.
Birds
It was a good three weeks for birds. Cedar Waxwings were out in force at multiple locations in Hanover and Lebanon. Here are five of the photos I took of these beautiful birds. Sadly, it seems Bohemian Waxwings did not make it to the Upper Valley this winter.
Below are five fairly common species.
And then it snowed. It was a wonderful, all-day snowfall, perfect for photographing birds in soft light.
Here are two American Goldfinch.
Three male and two female Purple Finch seemed to enjoy the snow. Here are ten photos.
I found a third finch species, the Pine Siskin.
When it was snowing heavily, I managed to get a photo of a Tufted Titmouse seemingly not caring too much about the snow. Like the chickadee and the nuthatches, these are year-round residents.
The most exciting find during the snow storm was a Red-bellied Woodpecker. I posted a poor photo of one in my last blog, but this time I managed to get a few nice clean images without clutter of branches and an awkward angle. I started this blog with one photo. Below are two more.
Around the Upper Valley
While walking with Jann around Occom Pond, I noticed iridescent clouds reflected in a puddle. Sometimes interesting photos are right at our feet.
Below is a slide show of 28 images I made in Hanover, Lebanon, Norwich, and Thetford, most of them while walking with Jann. The last two in the set are a huge burl and a birch polypore. I played with several of the images simplifying detail.
You can pause any of these slide shows and advance the photos at your own pace.
Mink Brook Community Forest
The weather gods again smiled last Saturday for an information-filled walk with the Hanover Conservancy at the wonderful new Mink Brook Community Forest. The event was led by Jim Kennedy and Adair Mulligan.
Soon into our walk we found a group of animal tracks. We believe the more vertical tracks are (L to R) weasel, fisher, and squirrel and the more horizontal tracks are deer.
Here are eight more photos I took at the Mink Brook Community Forest. I definitely plan to go back often to explore this 250 acre area.
