The weather during the second half of spring was mostly cool, but that did not deter me from getting out and wandering around the Upper Valley, and a bit beyond. I came upon three turtles, all different species. Above is a snapping turtle.
I was not as close to this snapper as it looks. I was actually out photographing birds, so I had a very long lens that I put to good use.
I walked past the turtle and took a few photos from the other side.
If you look closely at the above photo you can see mosquitos bothering the turtle. Here is a cropped version where you can see three of them — one caught midair. And that might be a tick in the lower left corner of the photo, but I decided to not check it out.
The second turtle was a common Painted Turtle. But because it was out of water, it was somewhat unusual.
Nearby was Horseshoe Pond. In the pond was another painted turtle. Notice how a contrasty object draws the eye right to it, even if it is small. Actually, I think it is just the right size for this photo.
Forty-five minutes later, another turtle. This was my first ever sighting of a Wood Turtle.
The last two turtles were in Andover. While there I took these scenic photos.
Mammals were represented by an Eastern Cottontail in Sunapee,
a pair of horses pulling a cart in Canaan,
and a white-tail deer, also in Canaan.
In Newport, I found a butterfly I had never photographed before, a beautiful Red-spotted Admiral. Here are two photos of the same butterfly.
I photographed some man-made objects and structures. Here are photos from Sunapee, New London, Newbury, Washington, and Andover (the Cilleyville Bridge).
Along Trask Brook Road just west of Rt. 103 in Sunapee, I photographed some nice birds including some beautiful Cedar Waxwings, as seen in my previous blog post. Here are two photos from that spot. The second shows Mount Sunapee in the distance.
I visited the little-known gem that is Pillsbury State Park in Washington. The second of these three photos shows the wind turbines in Lempster across Butterfield Pond.
Spring is a time for wildflowers. Here are some I photographed. Included are purple trillium, painted trillium, jack-in-the-pulpit, lupine, pitcher plant, bunchberry, greater celandine, and others.
There is a huge oak in Danbury that I have photographed before. But I could not resist taking another photo of it.
Clouds were fantastic the second half of spring. Here is a view of the Connecticut River from Norwich. We were visiting Christine to get a checkup and pedicure for our cat. She put our slightly chubby cat on a diet.
Two cloud photos from Etna. The second shows the Hanover Town Library, aka the Etna Library, in the center.
I hiked to Half-mile Pond in Enfield with a Nepal trekking companion and trip organizer. Here are some of the photos of this lovely spot up Smith Pond Road. The two distant photos show Mount Cardigan above Smith Pond.
Staying with the clouds theme, here are some cloud photos from Sunapee. All but the last two with the crepuscular rays were taken early in the morning.
Mount Kearsarge appears below clouds with a bit of iridescence near the sun in this photo from New London.
Here are five photos of great clouds from Sutton.
Here are a pair from Bradford.
Mirror Lake in Canaan reflects Mount Cardigan, although in the second photo it is barely visible just to the right of center.
In Wilmot, Eagle Pond had some interesting clouds above it.
Below are some random photos from my wanderings. The first is a bigtooth aspen leaf in Sunapee, and the last is a group of royal ferns in New London. The others were taken in New London, Sunapee, and Newbury.
Finally, right at the end of spring, I heard the wonderful fluty song of a Hermit Thrust, or rather Jann did. So we looked and found it. It is a bird that I did not get to photograph for my eight blog posts of spring 2022 birds.
Here comes summer!