Eagles mating, wayward warbler, blood moon, plenty of snow, and numerous hikes: this was a wonderful winter to be outdoors.
Since it’s my blog, I got to define when winter starts and ends. This year I stretched it two days into spring in order to get some nice bird photos into this blog. But then my “Fall turns to Winter” blog ended January 3.
Birds
Raptors
It is hard not to start with Bald Eagles mating, an event I was fortunate to witness. I missed the very start, but the copulation sequence shown below lasted 4 seconds. The final photo of the pair sitting together taken 10 seconds later.
I have put links to five pages with five different avian species mating HERE.
March 6 was a five Bald Eagle day with them seen in Hanover, Lyme, and Norwich. The single eagle was far away and in fog, so the photo of it was poor. One pair is shown at the top of this blog post. The other pair, shown below, were near the Pompy Oxbow in Norwich, VT.
Here are four more eagle photos from early March.
I photographed three Barred Owls during January in Etna and Lyme, although two of them might have been the same bird on separate days. Here are six photos.
The first day of February, I found a Cooper’s Hawk in West Lebanon early in the morning.
Also in West Lebanon early morning exactly a month later, a Red-tailed Hawk sat high in the snag.
Audubon’s Warbler
It is very unusual to see a warbler in winter in the Upper Valley. It is extremely rare to see an Audubon’s Warbler any time of year on the east coast. The Audubon’s subspecies of the yellow-rumped warbler is a western bird. The yellow-rumped warblers seen around here are almost always a Myrtle.
An Audubon’s Warbler was spotted in Hanover on December 2. I photographed it again February 8 after it survived the many below 0°F nights. Amazing!!! Would it make it to spring? It did. I stood in the cold for 45 minutes the second day of spring, March 21, and took more photos of this hardy bird. It was snowing lightly as you can see in some of the photos.
Having survived one of the coldest and snowiest winters in recent years, the Audubon’s Warbler was quite feisty. He certainly took exception to a goldfinch, trying to hog its perch.
First-ever Yard Birds
We live up in the hills of Etna, so we almost never see some species that are very common at lower elevations in the Upper Valley. Strange as it seems, this winter we had two first ever in memory yard birds: a cardinal and a red-winged blackbird.
The cardinal was only present for a few minutes during a snowstorm. I got a quick photo to document this event.
It was also snowing on the first day of spring when a female Red-winged Blackbird made a brief appearance. Here is a sequence of her shaking off the snow.
Other birds in Etna
Since we live in Etna, I naturally take many photos there. Here are three photos of a Turkey from the village.
The Red-bellied Woodpecker is a rare visitor to our yard. But one was around perhaps a half dozen times this winter.
The Red-bellied Woodpecker’s tongue is a remarkable adaptation, featuring a long, sticky, and barbed tip, allowing the bird to efficiently extract insects and grubs from deep within tree crevices and holes. It can extend two inches beyond the end of its bill. In the photos below you can see this tongue extended.
Here are some photos from various spots in Etna. All were taken with snow on the ground — sometimes over two feet deep as in our yard, sometimes just a trace.
Robins in West Lebanon
I searched in vain this winter for waxwings eating berries. The closest I came were American Robins. Not very close, but many were present all winter.
Ducks
I photographed ducks in Plainfield and Lyme, NH and in Norwich, VT. All were in or near the Connecticut River.
Here is a Hooded Merganser from River Road in Plainfield.
From the same spot I also photographed Ring-necked Ducks.
At the mouth of Grant Brook in Lyme, I found Wood Ducks two different days at the very end of winter. Up until then it was frozen.
Across the river in the Pompy area of Norwich I photographed Wood Ducks from Kendall Station Road.
Finally, a pair of Hooded Merganser in Grant Brook.
The Sky
By far the most spectacular event in the sky this winter was the full lunar eclipse and accompanying blood moon. The very top never did seem to get fully red.
On the night of September 27-28, 2015 a lunar eclipse coincided with a “super moon”. As I was watching the moon being eclipsed I noticed the Milky Way becoming visible. So I started taking photos with a second camera with a much shorter lens. The background image below with the Milky Way is a 3-shot panorama. The bright “star” on the left is actually the moon at full eclipse. It is overexposed because the exposure was for the Milky Way. The superimposed “blood moon” photo was taken almost simultaneously. The lights on the horizon are from downtown Lebanon.
The first day of February, I photographed a crescent moon with a bright “star”. What is that star, and how can you see the dark side of the moon?
The star is the planet Venus. And the dark side of the moon is lit by light reflecting off the earth.
Sometimes when conditions are right, iridescent clouds appear around the sun or moon. Here are some faint ones around the moon mid-February.
In late January I photographed these crepuscular rays from Piermont, NH.
If you are interested, you can see many other strange and wonderful events that happen in the sky if you CLICK HERE.
Hiking
Signal Hill
Signal Hill in Lebanon is an easy, short hike with a bit of a view of Mount Ascutney. I did it with a friend late one afternoon in early January.
Upper Slade Brook
Upper Slade Brook in Hanover has a large network of trails. We headed up from the trailhead off Old Lyme Road in early January.
In the early days of the Hanover, Slate Brook was the site of a slate quarry for tombstones. In the early 1800s, a family named Slade settled near Slate Brook on the Hanover Center Road. Some think that mapmakers got confused and changed the name from Slate Brook to Slade Brook sometime thereafter.
There is a deep gorge along the brook that was filled with ice. It is hard to visualize the steepness of the sides from photos.
Mountain View Farm
The Orford Conservation Commission and the Upper Valley Land Trust lead a full moon hike in the Mountain View Farm Conservation Area in Orford.
There are nice close-up views of Mount Cube from this beautiful area as seen below.
Here are ten more photos from the Mountain View Farm hike.
French’s Ledges
A friend and I hiked French’s Ledges in Meriden in mid-January and again in mid-February. This area has a huge network of trails for hiking, xc-skiing, and mountain biking. Many of the trails are groomed for skiing. The actually ledges can be seen covered with snow at the top center of this photo.
On the January hike we found some Prince’s Pine.
We also found a large area of needle ice. The mound here is perhaps 2 by 4 feet.
Here are more photos from these two micro-spike hikes.
Colette Trail
The Colette Trail along Bicknell Brook in Enfield is a great hike in any season. Over the years I have taken many photos of the brook with its dramatic falls and picturesque rapids.
Here are a dozen photos from a late January hike.
Pine Park
Pine Park is the oldest conservation area in Hanover. Pine Park Association and Hanover Conservancy sponsored a hike through this small but beautiful area in late January. Here are ten photos.
Cole Pond
A hike to Cole Pond at the end of January with Bruce and his dog, Caro, was a very nice outing. About a mile each way. We crossed the pond to an old fireplace at a great summer swimming spot.
On the way up I saw evidence of the hole pattern of a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker on a piece of long-dead birch.
As we approached the pond …
… we saw a huge layered slab …
… and a well-place log for relaxing.
We crossed the pond.
I took photos of two shorelines.
As we headed down, I looked back at the pond.
Caro found a friend.
It was aa easy walk down to the trailhead on Bog Road in Enfield.
Lower Shaker WMA
Another hike in Enfield followed in early February, this one to the Lower Shaker WMA. The early light was interesting as it played on the buildings and snow mounds. I took photos before we reached the actual trailhead.
We crossed a small bridge and looked down at a canal the Shakers built to bring water from Smith Pond.
On a hillside well up the trail, we got a nice view of Mount Cardigan.
We looped around and took a different trail most of the way down.
Rosenblum Conservation Area
I joined the ASLPT for a short snowshoe hike on the Rosenblum Conservation Area in Danbury. It was a beautiful morning. The snow was deep and soft. Before we left I took a few photos of Mount Cardigan. This is an interesting viewpoint because from here Firescrew Mountain on the right.
There was cookies and hot apple cider at the conclusion of the hike.
Various Wanderings
Here are some random photos taken while I wandered around the Upper Valley.
Around Occom Pond
Enfield
Lebanon
Plainfield
Canaan
Lyme
Norwich
It is spring and two weeks of Costa Rica awaits.