Summer started two weeks late because I spent them in the Pantanal of Brazil. It was a fantastic experience with much wildlife. I’ll be reliving this adventure on pages and blogs over the fall and winter months.
Summer ended with two spectacular weeks of near perfect weather. In between I took many photos, and I will share some of them here. Most are of birds, but after that first large section I will cover other subjects from the summer.
Birds
I am presenting the bird photos in roughly chronological order to show how they progress from early summer color and plumage to the duller colors of molting birds and juveniles looking ragged. During the weeks when foliage becomes spectacularly colorful, birds often become less so.
Warblers in Newport
My first of several visits to a very interesting spot at Oak and Greenwood in Newport produced photos of three warbler species.
An American Redstart carried a mouthful to a nest. I am always amazed when I see puffins and many other species fill there beaks with multiple victims.
A Common Yellowthroat skulked around in the low shrubs.
But the stars of the morning were beautiful Chestnut-sided Warblers. Here is a show of them. In the last three photos you see one with a caterpillar.
In Sutton just west of Kezar Lake, a Common Yellowthroat …
… and an Empidonax Flycatcher.
In New London at a great bog, a juvenile Common Yellowthroat.
In Sunapee, a Harris Hawk.
At Knight’s Meadow Marsh in Webster, a half dozen species:
Gray Catbird
Gray Catbird
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Yellow Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Red-eyed Vireo
Eastern Phoebe
Red-eyed Vireo nest
Learning of a Red-eyed Vireo nest near the house of acquaintances in Washington, New Hampshire, I traveled with Jann to a meeting of a small quilting group that has been together for many years. It was a wonderful set up with the nest located fairly close to a kitchen window that was wide open.
Apparently the three chicks had hatched 10 days earlier, and they normally fledge around Day 10-12. When I arrived, one was out of the nest but still close by. Over the hour I was there, the parent dutifully fed the pair in the nest and the one that climbed somewhat above it.
Below are eight more photos of the vireos.
Knight’s Nature Park
Six days later after a short hike through Knight’s Nature Park in New London, Jann and I saw a Red-eyed Vireo that I believe was a juvenile. It is doubtful it is from the same nest.
There was a Black-and-White Warbler at the same spot.
Also in New London, I visited Esther Currier WMA in mid-August and early September. It was fairly quiet both visits, but I did get some photos, most from a considerable distance.
Wood Duck
Green Heron
Green Heron
Green Heron
American Bittern
Red-shouldered Hawk
Green Heron
Green Heron
Brown Thrasher
Trask Brook Road
I visited Trask Brook Road in Sunapee three times. In past years this area has been quite productive, but it was less so this year.
Common Yellowthroat
Common Yellowthroat
Gray Catbird
Red-tailed Hawk
Canada Goose
Eastern Phoebe
Eastern Phoebe
Lincoln’s Sparrow
Brown Creepers
In a one-week period I had three surprising opportunities to photograph four different Brown Creepers, one of my favorite birds, perhaps because they move so fast and are a challenge to photograph. The first and third happened while I was sitting on a porch reading a book. I noticed birds around and amazingly one was a Brown Creeper. The first time the creeper was on a tall pine with some large dead branches.
From the same porch I had a brief look at a Brown Creeper on an old white birch.
The other Brown Creeper siting was at a favorite birding spot in Newport where a pair worked and reworked a single skinny tree. Brown Creepers work up a tree (never down) and then normally fly down to the base of a different tree and work up again eating small bugs as they go. This pair worked up the tree but then would fly down to a lower portion of the same tree and work their way up again. So I’ve got multiple opportunities to photograph them at a reasonable level and distance.
Other species at the Brown Creeper spots
Those Brown Creepers were never alone the three times I was able to photograph them. They were with a mixed flock of warblers and other species:
Black-and-White Warbler
Black-and-White Warbler
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Eastern Phoebe
Hairy Woodpecker
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Ovenbird
Ovenbird
Black-throated Green Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Northern Parula
Pine Warbler
Pine Warbler
Mini-fallout on a Sunapee hillside
Searching for different places to hike in Sunapee, Jann and I visited a mostly-open hillside surrounded by mixed forest. We noticed many birds in the area, but unfortunately I did not have a long lens with me. I returned the next day, and it was a bird bonanza. I managed to photograph nine species of warblers, many sparrows, and 26 species of overall. Surprisingly many “common” warblers were absent. There were no Chestnut-sided, Yellow-rumped, Yellow, or Ovenbirds.
Chipping Sparrow
Chipping Sparrows
Chipping Sparrow
Chipping Sparrow
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Dark-eyed Junco
Dark-eyed Junco
Dark-eyed Junco
Indigo Bunting
Blue-headed Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Black-capped-Chickadee
Eastern Phoebe
Lincoln’s Sparrow
Lincoln’s Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Eastern Bluebird
American Goldfinches
American Goldfinches
White-breasted Nuthatch
American Redstart
Northern Parula
Black-throated Green Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Nashville Warbler
Black-and-White Warbler
Black-and-White Warbler
Black-and-White Warbler
Cape May Warbler
Cape May Warbler
Palm Warbler
Palm Warbler
Pine Warbler
Pine Warbler
Pine Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
I returned the next day with high expectations. But I learned birds can fly — and fly away. Overnight, the birds had vanished. Almost nothing was around, except for a Red-shouldered Hawk.
Micro-fallout along Sugar River Trail
A week later, I had a similar experience in Newport where the Sugar River Rail Trail passes under Route 11 a few miles west of the town center. Jann and I walked the rail trail. Then after she sat in a car reading a book, I walked a short distance back up the trail to a wooden bridge over a small stream where I had noticed quite a few birds. I only stayed 30 minutes not wanting to leave Jann too long, but in that time, I was almost continuously photographing birds from the bridge and from within a few yards to either side of it. Although they were often in a tangle of brush, the situation was excellent as the sun was mostly behind me, and I could brace my lens on the railing of the bridge.
Eastern Phoebe
Common Yellowthroat
Common Yellowthroat
Common Yellowthroat
Common Yellowthroat
American Goldfinch
Lincoln’s Sparrow
Gray Catbird
Gray Catbird
Downy Woodpecker
Palm Warbler
Palm Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
The next day I went back with high expectations and just as had happened the previous time in Sunapee, there were almost no small birds. However, amazingly, just like in Sunapee, a hawk posed for a few photos before departing. This one was a Broad-winged Hawk that hadn’t yet begun its migration.
Cormorant in Burkehaven Harbor
A Double-crested Cormorant had a habit of resting in Burkehaven Harbor in Sunapee. First on a mooring buoy, then on a Sea-Doo watercraft covering it with white poop, and eventually back on the empty buoy after the Sea-Doo departed — apparently for a good cleaning. At one point, the cormorant brought a friend. Here are 15 photos.
At quick stop at the tiny George Pond Boat Launch along Bog Road in Enfield, I found a Swamp Sparrow and a Solitary Sandpiper that caught a fish.
Campbell Flat
I visited Campbell Flat in Norwich on two successive days in late summer. The big surprise was two Prairie Warblers, but a Tennessee Warbler and many Palm Warblers feasting on Goldenrod were also very welcome.
Along Goose Pond Road in Canaan I found a Carolina Wren, likely a juvenile.
Muster Field Farm
Muster Field Farm is a favorite place in summer for just-picked vegetables and interesting scenes, flowers, and birds. Steve does a great job tending it. Early in the summer, Bobolinks are plentiful. Later in the season, the flowers are quite nice, although they pale by comparison to those that were raised by Mel during her decade or so working and living at the farm. We certainly miss Mel, her flowers, and the wonderful butterflies and hummingbird moths they attracted. Here are 15 photos from visits in July, August, and September.
Regatta on Lake Mascoma
On September 2 there was a fairly low key “Griesbach Regatta” on Lake Mascoma. Here is an overview of the lake from Mascoma Lakeside Park.
But the race occurred far across the lake, almost to the sand beach in the far background in the photo below. You can see sailors heading across the lake to the course.
Several windsurfers joined the fun, but not the race.
Here are three photos of the race. You can see the boats rounding the marker buoy in the first two.
Lunar eclipse
The moon’s publicity agent went all out. He claimed that on September 17, we would have a super moon, a harvest moon, and a partial lunar eclipse, all happening sometime before midnight. But the moon is only marginally closer to the earth, so it isn’t really that super but just slightly bigger and not noticeably so. The harvest moon is what this moon has been called for many years. And frankly, the lunar eclipse was less than stunning. A small top part of the moon was darker than the rest, but that was about it. But the advanced publicity generated a lot of press on the web, so many people noticed and stayed up to watch the partial lunar eclipse.
Here is the moon on September 16, the night before the big event.
It looks pretty full to me, and one can even see some craters as seen better in the cropped version below.
Here is the moon reflected in Lake Sunapee on September 16. Even a half moon will look full if overexposed.
Finally, we have the real partial lunar eclipse. The photo below was taken at the peak time. Peak was relatively squishy visually. Nothing happened very quickly.
The next morning at 5:24 AM, the full moon was yellow before it set.
