Fall Foliage
The best place to start an autumn blog has to be with foliage. Although this was not that great a foliage year, it was very colorful in many spots. Location and timing were everything. Luck also helped. But spending time outdoors was a necessary ingredient.
Canaan, NH
Hanover’s neighbor to the east often has great foliage. This year some of my favorite spots were “past due” when I arrived. Here a piece of Little Goose Pond on October 8.
That same morning, the beach at Canaan Street Lake sported some colorful trees.
Enfield, NH
Crossing Hanover’s SE corner we find Enfield, a town close to our home with many beautiful spots. Just off Route 4A is George Pond.
Heading south along Bog Road, I found the trailhead to Cole Pond flooded. This is a pleasant one-mile hike up to a secluded pond. But this day waders would have been needed for the first hundred yards of the trail through the woods across the bridge.
Between those two spots is a wonderful area for early fall foliage. It was not nearly as colorful this year as past years, but it was still very nice. Here are seven photos from Bog Road taken September 24 and October 3.
I stopped along Route 4A to take a photo of George Pond on October 5.
I then noticed a nice spider web seen below in the tree that is on the right edge of the photo above. One needs to stop and get out of the car to really see things.
Below are a half dozen foliage photos from Enfield.
Hanover, NH
All of my Hanover photos here are from Etna or Hanover Center.
A spot that can be very colorful and filled with avian migrants is Mill Pond on Moose Mountain. This year the birds I found there were sparrows — Song, White-breasted, and Junco — except for a quick glimpse of fast-moving Kinglets and a Yellow-rumped Warbler. I’ll show those birds in a later section.
Overlooking Mill Pond is Kay’s bench. Kay and her husband, Peter, ran a ski lodge on Moose Mountain for decades. They have conserved vast acreage on the west slope of Moose Mountain — the Mill Pond Forest and the Shumway Forest. Kay currently lives in Maine.
Heading home one day I stopped to photograph this small pond. I live somewhere over the hill in the background.
Below are a baker’s dozen photos from Etna and Hanover Center.
Harrisville, NH
I travelled south one day hoping to find good foliage. The first few hours of the trip were great — nice sunrise, good foliage, and a wood duck. The remainder of the day was less exciting. The general store in Harrisville was crowded and out of coffee — I did not wait — and the foliage was so-so the day I was there. Here are a pair of photos.
Keene, NH
I just passed through Keene quicky but did stop to walk over the impressive Cheshire Railroad Stone Arch Bridge. Built in 1847, it is one of the best-preserved pre-1850 stone arch bridges in the nation. It is 48 feet above the river. With no guard rail, walking across it was interesting. Fortunately it is very wide — over 9 yards edge to edge.
Lebanon, NH
Except for a hike that I will cover below, I spent little time taking scenic photos in Lebanon this fall. Here is a view of Mount Ascutney with minimal foliage but nice fog. I’ll show more photos from Lebanon in the sections on Fog and Birds.
Lempster, NH
The first part of my trip south through Lempster was very nice. Here are a half dozen foliage photos. Four are from the Dodge Brook Wetlands.
Lyme, NH
Lyme is a favorite spot for photography, but I spent little time there this autumn. Here are a pair of photos.
Marlow, NH
Marlow is a classic fall foliage location with its white buildings, Village Pond, and the Ashuelot River. The view of the buildings is getting a bit overgrown, but there are a few spots with decent views across the water. Here are nine photos.
Norwich, VT
We finally cross the river to Vermont where Jann and I like to walk a favorite loop.
Along the way I took a photo to illustrate a point I made in the last blog. Crepuscular rays — “God Beams” — appear to radiate out from clouds but are actually parallel beams of light. It is an issue of perspective. So, are these yellow lines along Hopson Road parallel or not?
Also along Hopson is a nice view of Blood Brook.
Here is Blood Brook a bit downstream where it flows under Elm Street and the AT.
Finally, from just off Route 5 to the north, there is a view of Smarts Mountain.
Orford, NH
Back across the river using the Samuel Morey Memorial Bridge, not the closed East Thetford Bridge, we find some color along Jacobs Brook…
… and near Indian Pond …
… and also at the Clough Brook Wetlands.
Reading, VT
Some color in Reading with fog in the Connecticut River valley in the far distance.
Stoddard, NH
From Marlow I had to decide to head east or west. I’m glad I chose east because I found some nice scenes in Stoddard.
It was foggy at Cold Spring Pond.
I found some nice color at Highland Lake.
Along Route 9 is a twin stone arch bridge over the North Branch River (of the Contoocook River).
Below are two photos from just upstream of the bridge. Downstream of the bridge can be quite nice, but not this day.
At the southern edge of Stoddard along Route 9 is a small wetland.
Thetford, VT
I did not linger in Thetford returning through Vermont from Orford. Here are a pair of scenes. Late in April I photographed a pair of Kestrels mating on the power lines in the second photo.
West Windsor, VT
Fernando and I spent a wonderful morning together in Woodstock and West Windsor. In West Windsor we found some very nice fog. Those photos will be shown in the Fog section that follows. Here is one. The peak just left of center is Pierson Peak in Weathersfield.
We saw a coyote far away in a field.
This photo of a colorful farmhouse and barn illustrates the mostly-brown foliage we found in this part of Vermont October 4.
Woodstock, VT
The first photo in this blog was taken in Woodstock. Here are two more from nearby.
Birds
Except for a trip to Monhegan Island, I did little bird photography the first month of Autumn. What I did was mostly incidental to looking for foliage scenes to capture.
Before leaving for Monhegan I visited Bog Road in Enfield. I was surprised to find a small flock of birds that stayed visible for a few minutes. In addition to a common Eastern Phoebe and a Cedar Waxwing …
… I found a Blue-headed Vireo…
… and a fairly rare Tennessee Warbler.
On Monhegan I saw a species I did not expect, a Ring-necked Pheasant. This photo shows a nictitating membrane crossings its eye. A nictitating membrane is a transparent or translucent third eyelid present in some animals that can be drawn across the eye to protect and moisten it while maintaining vision.
I’ll report my trip to Monhegan in a later blog, when I can make time. So far I have only processed about a dozen photos. Here is a beautiful Cape May Warbler with a tiny insect.
I found Yellow-rumped Warblers along the Rail Trail in Enfield on October 1.
At a small pond near Johnston Park, a Great Blue Heron lingered for quite a while. It is rare that they stay around for photographers who stand out in the open.
Hidden in a corner of the pond were several families of ducks. I did not see them until they were in the air. Here are Common Mergansers flying.
In Lempster I noticed something in Dodge Brook far below and grabbed a camera with a long lens. I got one photo before the Wood Duck flushed. I did not realize there were a pair until I looked at my photos.
Not to be outdone by the families of pheasants that peacefully coexisted in Monhegan town with tourists, lobstermen, cats, and dogs, I found a pair of males in Canaan.
A flock of Canada Geese flew over the foliage to the south of Lake Mascoma before 7 AM. Actually “flock” is not technically correct. In the air, groups of geese are known as a skein, team, or wedge, while on the ground, they are known as a gaggle.
Near Mill Pond on Moose Mountain I found a fast-moving Ruby-crowned Kinglet …
… Yellow-rumped Warblers …
… White-throat Sparrows …
… Dark-eyed Juncos …
… and many Song Sparrows.
In Norwich at Campbell Flat, I found some White-throated Sparrows …
… and a nice Common Yellowthroat.
Meanwhile a juvenile Bald Eagle soared high overhead.
Song Sparrows seemed to be everywhere. Here is one from Kilowatt Park South in Wilder.
A surprising find along the Rail Trail in Lebanon was a small group of Pine Siskins, a winter finch.
In a small pond in Etna I found a female Hooded Merganser.
I have seen 50 of more American Crows fly over our Etna home numerous times in the last few weeks. Here are two in our driveway.
Fog
At times the fog was better than the foliage. Here is a collection of photos of fog from the Upper Valley the first week of Autumn 2023. The photos are from Enfield, Etna, Lebanon, West Windsor, Norwich, and Lempster.
Mushrooms
Walking our favorite loop in Norwich, Jann and I got very lucky and found mushrooms in several life stages within a small area. I knew they were Inky Caps even before I saw the older ones that give this mushroom its name.
At the Coop Gardens in Norwich, I found some very small mushrooms. I didn’t measure, but I believe they were about one inch in diameter. I think they are Sprucecone Cap, but I am not sure. If anyone can ID them, I would appreciate it.
We parked to hike around Occom Pond and Jann noticed some fungi on a fence. Here is a photo taken with my iPhone and a crop to the tiny red insects. Sorry no ID of either yet.
Sky
A few photos of the sky from Monhegan, Lempster, Enfield, and Etna follow.
On Monaghan we stayed at the Monhegan House — fantastic food in a somewhat noisy dining room. Here is a sunset from there.
Monhegan is fairly dark so it is a good spot to try to photograph the Milky Way. This photo was taken at 3:37 AM September 26.
On Monaghan we had some times where smoke from wildfires in Canada blew past. This made for interesting atmospherics. Here are two photos of the setting Full Harvest Moon shortly after 5 AM September 29. The building in both is the Monhegan Community Church.
The smoke partly obscured the sun and made sunspots visible through scopes and long lenses. Sunspots are areas where the magnetic field is much higher than anywhere else on the Sun. Because of the strong magnetic field, the magnetic pressure increases while the surrounding atmospheric pressure decreases. This in turn lowers the temperature relative to its surroundings because the concentrated magnetic field inhibits the flow of hot, new gas from the Sun’s interior to the surface. Hence they appear dark. The photos below were taken September 29 at 7:35 and 7:46 AM from Monhegan Island.
Before dawn on October 6, I headed south on Route 10 from Grantham not knowing where I would wind up. I pulled over in Lempster to photograph a very colorful sky with nice fog and view of a few of the wind turbines on Lempster Mountain.
A short distance down the road I took this view of the sky and wind turbines.
There was one sailboat left at Lakeside Park in Enfield on October 9. Here it is before 7 AM.
There was a great double rainbow on October 12. Unfortunately I just caught the tail end of it. Notice how the sky is darker outside the inner ring,
Plants
Two of my favorite fall plants are Devil’s Darning Needle (Clematis virginiana) …
… and Bur Cucumber (Sicyos angulatus).
Along the Rail Trail in Enfield we found some Yellow Toadflax (Linaria vulgaris).
At the Pompy Oxbow in Norwich there was a field of sunflowers.
Hike, Bike, and Paddle
Three mid-October outings were primarily not for photography, though I did take a modest camera along on each of them.
A hike in Boston Lot in Lebanon, an area much favored by mountain bikers.
Before we took our bikes southeast on the Northern Rail Trail though the Great Cut, I photographed a large flock of European Starlings. The lighting makes it look like they have white heads.
We rode past Mirror Lake with a great view of Cardigan with Firescrew to its left.
Below are a few more photos from this ride to Tewksbury Lake and back to Potato Road.
On a cool morning we set off to paddle Grafton Pond before 7 AM. We got our first look at the sun at 7:47 AM. The foliage was very nice and the immature loon was not concerned about us.
Catch All
Sailboats on Lake Mascoma.
Light on the wall of my dental hygienist’s office taken with an iPhone.
North Wilmot Church.
Three distant views of Mount Kearsarge from Wilmot. Standing like a tall warrior guardian over our area, the 2,936 foot Mount Kearsarge is visible from many locations. You can see many photos of Kearsarge from various spots if you CLICK HERE.
Here are a dozen random photos from a great first month of autumn in the Upper Valley.
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