Hiking the ROW Part 1

Fairpoint Communications telephone pole ID

On our property there is a right of way (ROW) up to the ridegeline of Barton Mountain for electricity and cables to the cell towers up top. This past September, Fairpoint put in fiber optic cables on those poles. I wrote about this invasion in an earlier post. Because of our concern about the Fairpoint activity we saw from the house, we decided to climb up the ROW to see what damage had been done to the land. We saw plenty. Unfortunately, I didn't take photographs of the damage, but it is still visible and will be visible for years. I will return after mud season to document the damage better. The photos here in this multipart photographic essay are of our activity on the hike — of John, me and the cats Buddy and Oscar. Despite our anger at the invasion, we had a wonderful afternoon. I took only my 70-250mm lens, which was inadequate for most of the macro photos here. Next time I'll take the whole kit and caboodle.

Looking down the ROW.
Our home is through the woods to the left.

Looking up the ROW.
All trails end at the bottom of those cliffs, which is where bear and bobcat live.

Buddy wanted to rest here.
He actually wanted to turn back and go home, but continued on with us.

A couple of chickadees kept a close eye on us the entire hike.

We found even more apple trees from the orchard a century ago!

White Worm Coral Fungus (Clavaria fragilis)

Bear scat full of chokecherry pits.

To be continued . . . .

To view the other photos:
Introduction: Strangers on the mountain
Hiking the ROW: Part 1
Hiking the ROW: Part 2
Hiking the ROW: Part 3

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Chasing Porcupines at Night

When the quills lie up on the back, you know the porky is upset with you.

John saw this porcupine one night in September. He shined his large flashlight while I followed the porky in the dark, seeing the land only through the viewfinder. I literally could not see a thing and relied on John's directions of where to step. I was happy to get such clear results. I had set the camera on automatic to avoid as few shooting errors as possible under these circumstances.

We were invaded by porcupines this year. We thought they came because of the apples, but we have since found three porcupine dens that show evidence of them being here a long time. Perhaps they had a population explosion or something. But they are eating the apple and maple trees. And the barn. Buddy the Cat won’t even go outside when a porcupine is around (probably because of his last encounter with one, seen here).

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The Stupid Things One Does When Bored

You take a fern photo from last summer and then try to create some paintography (and you don't even know what that is and can't afford the software to create it and don't have the time or patience to do it anyway but want to become artsy and creative) and then apply all sorts of filters in all sorts of software that you already spent too much money on and can't decide which you like best so you make a movie and then post it on your blog because you have nothing better to do. Nothing better to do? Yeah.

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My Frustration with Birds

American Redstart (Setophaga ruticilla)

I spend a lot of time in the spring, summer and autumn stalking birds in the fields and woods. Some species, like sparrows, some finches and a few warblers are rather easy to see and capture on film. They stalk me while I stalk them (mostly because the cats are always with me and are a very good reason for the birds to stalk us). But there are other birds that defy capture. Two that obsessed me this past summer were the American Redstart (above) and the Black and White Warbler (below). They are both shy. The Redstart never seems to come out of the forest edge, so the lighting is awful. It also always kept its back to me. The Black and White Warbler was a bit shy, but the biggest problem was its speed. One second it is there, and the next it is gone. I can't predict where they will hop to from moment to moment, like I can with sparrows and other birds. I've been within five feet of a flock of Black and Whites and have never been able to raise, aim and fire quick enough. I'm pretty sure cats are OK for the Redstarts, but if I want to get a decent Black and White photo, I will have to lock the cats up. So until next season, these two photos are the only proof I have that these two warbler species live here.

Black and White Warbler (Mniotilta varia)

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I Want Some Elecampane

Inula helenium

I found a field of elecampane up on Telfer Hill Road this summer and I want some. John and I returned to to the field to chase butterflies that afternoon. I don't know why I didn't dig up some of these wildflowers then, but I will next summer. The field was alive with the buzzing of insects. We think the bug in the photo above is a bee mimic fly of some sort but aren't sure. It could be a type of hover fly. In the days to come, you'll see the photos of the other bugs we captured there.

Elecampane looks like a tall, frilly sunflower. It is actually an aster, though. In France they use elecampane to make absinthe. The scientific name helenium is because legend says that where Helen of Troy's tears fell, elecampane sprung up. It is also, I learned on that marvelous afternoon, a butterfly magnet.

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Thanksgiving Sunset

The snowy roof of the Duquette Barn is in the distance

I don't like shooting landscapes or sunsets, but I couldn't miss this sunset Friday night. I wanted more practice with the next two nights, but I read through the one on Saturday night and I napped through tonight's sunset. Hopefully, they were cloudy sunsets so I didn't miss much at all!

After I shot this photo, I downloaded The Photographer's Ephemeris software (available for PC, Mac, Linux and Apple and Android apps). It tells you the astronomical data you need to shoot sunrises and sunsets. TPE gives you elevations and all sorts of information you need to get your outdoor photography lighting done well. Try it — it's free.

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Misidentification or How We Spend Our Winter Evenings

Northern Evening Primrose (Oenothera parviflora)

I recently edited a batch of photographs that I took in July. When I edit the photos so long after I take them, it is often difficult to remember enough information about the day to identify the plant or animal in the shot. That's what happened with these photographs. My memory told me that a tall yellow flower was Common Mullein. But something about that rang wrong with me. I checked and confirmed that this was not Common Mullein. But what was it? John and I spent one whole evening this week trying to identify it. We searched yellow, 5 petal wildflowers in our books and on the New England wildflower sites and came up with nothing. I had already posted this collage on Google+ for my 365 Project and a couple of scientists offered their opinions, but still we had no definitive ID.

Finally after a few hours of failure, I sat in front of the photographs in dejection. We seldom fail to identify stuff, and I knew this was not a rare flower, so why hadn't we found it? And suddenly, I saw why. I had miscounted the petals! There are only four petals on this flower! Within five minutes, I found that this is a Northern Evening Primrose. I was pretty put out by myself because now I had to re-tag all of the photos in Lightroom on my computer and on Flickr. But I was also happy that this mystery was resolved.Go to the posts on Google+ by clicking here to see the time table of the online discussion.

During our search this week for this flower, we came upon a length discussion of a topic that has baffled me for a long time: the C value that you always see in the USDA and other scientific descriptions of flora. C stands for the coefficient of Conservatism and refers to a plant’s floristic quality:

The method assigns a Coefficient of Conservatism to each native plant species based on that species tolerance for disturbance and fidelity to a particular pre-settlement plant community type. The aggregate conservatism of all the plants inhabiting a site determine its floristic quality. Refer to Swink and Wilhelm (1994) for a thorough discussion of the method and how to calculate a Floristic Quality Index.

The concept of species conservatism is the foundation of floristic quality assessment. Each native species is assigned a coefficient of conservatism (C) following the methods described by Swink and Wilhelm (1994) and Wilhelm and Masters (1995). Coefficients of conservatism range from 0 to 10 and represent an estimated probability that a plant is likely to occur in a landscape relatively unaltered from what is believed to be a pre-settlement condition. For example, a C of 0, is given to plants such as Acer negundo, box elder, that have demonstrated little fidelity to any remnant natural community, i.e. may be found almost anywhere. Similarly, a C of 10 is applied to plants like Potentilla fructicosa (shrubby cinquefoil) that are almost always restricted to a pre-settlement remnant, i.e. a high quality natural area. Introduced plants were not part of the pre-settlement flora, so no C value is applied to these.

While C values are assigned based on collective extensive experience with the flora though out an area the assignments are still somewhat subjective. The conceptual difference between a value of 0 and a value of 1, or between 9 and 10, is slight, while the difference between a value of 0 and a value of 3 is more distinct.

Also certain species are known to exhibit varying degrees of conservatism over their range. For example Thuja occidentalis (northern white cedar) in southern Wisconsin is restricted to relatively few habitats and may justify a C of 8 or 9. In the north the same species is found over a broad range of natural communities and even disturbed sites, so it might justify a C of 1 or 2. For such cases an intermediate C value may be assigned. Concerns over any particular C value are usually compensated within the floristic quality assessment method since it requires the average C value of all the individual species that occur at a site.

Numerical values assigned to a particular species are based on the observed behavior of populations within a defined geographic area. As one travels away from this region these locally assigned values may be less valid. The further away one goes the more likely these values do not reflect local conditions. In addition to the Chicago Region Coefficients of Conservatism have been assigned for Northern Ohio, Missouri and Michigan.
Source: http://wiplants.org/This_Week_s_Plant/Co . .

In the winter, after a busy summer photography season, John and I usually spend our evenings identifying plants and fungi. We learn a lot and make a lot of connections about our natural world as we rifle through guidebooks and Internet posts. One year, it took four months of work to identify all of the mushrooms that I had photographed that summer! But good company and warm fires while the snow blows outside make the work enjoyable. Now we have a new topic to research on stormy winter nights: What is the mean coefficient of conservatism for Vermont? for the Kingdom? for us on our land?

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Photography on Google+

Possum sharpening her claws

I’m spending most of my time on Google+ lately. Photographs are shown in much higher quality than on Facebook. But more importantly, the range of photographers is huge. From serious professionals to hobbyists, we are all there sharing photos.

There are photography groups on G+. You can post every day to a special interest group: whether it be four-wheelers or sky shots, grass, spiders, or your town. Click here to view an updated list of the groups and instructions for how to participate. I have participated several times and am a regular participant of the Google+ Project 365. My project album is here.

I hope you come join Google+. Be sure to include me in a circle — you can reach me from the badge on the sidebar of this blog. Next on my tasks is haiku folks on G+.

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Holiday Traffic

It was a long wait, but I got traffic on Route 16 past the house on the Fourth of July.

Manual setting using bulb for shutter speed
10 sec exposure, 250mm, ISO 200, f/10
Looking west down towards the Village of Barton.
This was the night I began using my remote shutter control.

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Moss Glen Falls

Gustav, in white hat, helps a workshop participant.
Photo by David Hatoff.

On June 18, John and I left home at 6 AM to attend a photography workshop given by Gustav Verderber of Troy, Vermont. Gustav is a naturalist, author, professional nature photographer, and adjunct professor of environmental science. At his web site, Sojourns in Nature, you can view his magnificent photographs. Gustav also has a blog here. He was giving this free workshop in conjunction with Stowe Mountain Resort. It was raining when we left here but I was prepared with camera covers. But the clouds held their rain in Stowe and it was a perfect day for photography.

We met at a facility at the Mount Mansfield Auto Toll Road and then drove to Moss Glen Falls in another part of town to learn more about landscape photography (not my forte). Moss Glen Falls, "compared to most other waterfalls in Vermont, . . . is a heavyweight. Moss Glen Brook flows through a sunny open area of mixed forest and meadow. The stream takes a sudden turn into a narrow confined gorge. The stream goes over several small falls and cascades then makes a 20 foot drop into a pool at the head of the last drop. The total drop is around 125 feet making this one of the largest drops in the state. Most of the cascades in the gorge are inaccessible, unless you have rappelling gear. The gorge here is between 40 and 80' in depth. Some years there are Peregrine Falcons nesting in the cliff adjacent to the falls." (source: Waterfalls of the Northeastern United States.) I didn't know what to expect to learn. We studied photos of the falls, which are many, before we left.

The falls as seen from the trail.

After a very short, easy hike up Moss Glen Brook, you suddenly come across the beautiful waterfalls. We set up our tripods at a bluff on the trail and began photographing the water. Gustav gave personal attention to each of us and helped us learn our camera settings better and gave us tips on how to improve our technique.

My favorite photo (my photo) from the workshop.

Eastern Newt, red eft stage (Notophthalmus viridescens)

While all of this was going on, John was exploring the area and found this red newt. The other participants immediately began photographing it and seemed thrilled that he found it. One couple, from Atlanta, were especially happy to see the little thing. This couple were ballroom dancers who had come to Stowe to attend a tango workshop. The lady originally came from Thailand.

Moss Glen Brook below the falls.

Gustav urged me to use manual settings, and I tried. I began to understand better the relationships between ISO, aperture and shutter speed. But I've never been crazy about landscape and John and I seemed to find ourselves in the woods and stream below the falls finding insects, flowers and geological formations. One by one the others followed to photograph the falls from below.

Participants and their gear on the brook below the falls.

Debris from a washed out bridge we found on the shore of the brook.

Land snail, one of thousands on the hobblebushes.

Maiden Pink (Dianthus deltoides)

After a couple of ours in the field, we all returned to the conference center and Gustav gave us more information with a slide show of his photographs. This is where I learned a lot about equipment and technique and learned that I really, really need a macro lens.

There is another free workshop with Gustav on August 27 at the top of Mount Mansfield to photograph mountain berries and alpine plants. I would love to go but that is the weekend before the start of school. The workshops do not concern themselves with the natural history of an area, but are simply for photography. John and I will go to Mansfield ourselves and photograph and research the flora up there.

We left Stowe through Smuggler's Notch, had lunch in Jeffersonville, and were home by the middle of the afternoon. It was a great day that gave me lasting memories and knowledge. I urge all of you to attend any photography workshops and have a lot of fun!

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Fourth of July Fireworks in Barton

The fireworks were shot from a different location on Crystal Lake, Barton, Vermont this year and their altitude was low. These photos were shot from my bedroom window, which used to be the perfect spot to shoot them. But this year, you can see the trees, and even power lines, in many shots. It was a disappointment for me. I used a tripod and a remote shutter, f11, ISO 200, manual focus, bulb. I hope you enjoy viewing them as much as I enjoyed taking them.

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The Mink

American Mink (Neovison vison)

These photos were taken on April 10, but my story begins on March 27. It had been a warmer winter day than usual, so I went outside after church to photograph birds at the feeder (not through the window as I usually do). I was getting some good shots. I began to adjust the settings on the camera when suddenly something long and brown with a long bushy tail ran past me. It had come from the bog and ran past me, under the feeders and up the hill. The snow was so hard with a crust of ice that he left no tracks. And me? Even though I had the camera in my hand, all I could do was breath, "Oh wow, oh wow!" softly and quietly over and over again. Another missed shot! The birds, by the way, never paid attention to this animal at all.

I knew the creature was either a small fisher cat or a mink. But my eyes simply are not good enough for details and all I knew was that it had a bushy tail and was not dark enough for a fisher cat. John suggested a mink and I agreed — it only made sense. The subject was dropped until April 10, two weeks later.

It was after church again, but I was inside editing photos. John called out from the back of the house that my mink had returned. I grabbed the camera and went to take some pictures. I was pleased that I had the 250mm lens mounted on the camera. I'd get the shots this time! The mink was in the back dooryard on the knoll. This would be an easy shot if I could get a clear view! I opened the backdoor slowly and it creaked. The mink heard me and swung his head around and watched me as I photographed him. For about five seconds I got off quite a few shots before the mink ran up the hill to the rock pile across our back road. I remember now that for the last shot I zoomed in. That was a clue something was wrong with my photographs.

The last shot, unfocused.

I ran to the computer and downloaded the photos. I had not shot at 250mm! They were all 50mm! I was devastated. But I viciously cropped and edited and these were the best shots I have.

In the days following this encounter, the cats began going out more and more as the weather improved. They were constantly drawn to that rock pile that the mink lived in. They began spraying it, also, which was a significant territory statement. But the days went on and we slowly forgot about it.

We have not seen the mink since April 10.

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“Image Not Currently Available”

That is the message that has been showing on the last two posts (Gotcha! and October’s First Snow). I apologize. I thought this was a Flickr problem, but it was me. I have been test driving Lightroom 3, which republishes updated photos to Flickr. When I do that manually, I know that the URL of the photo changes. I thought Lightroom had magically overcome that problem and that each photo would keep its URL. Wrong. But I have re-coded the photos on those posts and now all should be well! I am sorry for the inconvenience of clicking the photo to see it on Flickr (and several of you did that). Thank you!

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Quite the Week

Barton Village seen from the Welcome O. Brown Cemetery in September 2010.

It has been a week of disorganization: huge software failures, bad weather, meetings, construction . . . I have been disorganized and frustrated. There was a huge snowstorm here and the awful earthquake in Japan. But now it is Saturday and I can reorganize and move forward. It is snowing quite heavily here (of course), so it will be a quiet, contemplative day. We haven't suffered as millions of other people have suffered this week. For that I am thankful and prayerful.

The fall foliage photographs that I am posting here are from September. After my solo Pageant Park hike, I continued the day at the Welcome O. Brown Cemetery in Barton Village. There are good views of the surrounding hills and mountains, and of the village there.

We are blessed to live in a quiet, beautiful corner of the world.

I was torn whether to photoshop the wires out of the photograph above. I decided not to.

The steeple of St. Paul's Roman Catholic Church in Barton Village.

When I look at these photographs, and think back of all that has happened this week, I realize how fortunate I am. My problems and frustrations have been put into perspective again, and I pray for the safety and recovery of the millions around the world who are suffering this week.

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The Server Problem

White-tailed spike horn buck and a doe

You have to forgive me for blog posts that jump back and forth in time. We had a huge problem with my new four terabyte server when we moved it from the sun porch to the living room because of the kitchen renovations. John carefully took each component apart. My job was to move each component to the new location with all cables attached. Did I do that? Nope. I detached a couple of cables and the server never worked after that. I was e-mailing Arthur, who designed and built the server for us He couldn’t figure out what the problem was. He couldn’t come here from New Hampshire to fix it because of the weather. Arthur and John did a lot of trouble shooting on the phone. Arthur tried to recreate the problem at home and couldn’t. John tried to mount the drives directly onto my computer without the server and that didn’t work.

Finally about a month ago, we called PC+Med in Newport. A young technician came the next morning. The first question he asked me was if the AC adaptor on the external drive dock was the correct adaptor for the dock. Well, I had no idea! So we all dug through my boxes of cables and equipment and found the proper adaptor. I had attached the wrong AC adaptor! The dock wasn't getting enough power, so the drives couldn't load, and therefore nothing worked. I was very embarrassed and told John and the technician that we would none of us ever tell anybody what I had done. They agreed. But my guilt forced me to do the right thing. Arthur had spent a lot of time and thought trying to solve my server problem and he deserved to know that it was my fault that it wouldn’t work. So I confessed. I only asked Arthur not to laugh at me for what I had done. It really hurt my pride to confess to him. After all, Arthur and I have played with computers together for twenty years and he knows that I know what I’m doing!

Arthur said he couldn’t possibly laugh at me because he has done the same thing himself in the past! This is why I love him. He’s the best!

Anyhow, because the server was down, I couldn't access thousands of photos and had only the most recent photos available for blogging. But now I can go back in time and continue our adventures.

In September, John and I drove to Burlington because I needed new glasses. My glasses were so bad that the lenses kept falling out here and there and anywhere. It got so bad that I only had one eye that worked. So we went to the optometrist and I kicked and screamed the whole way. But nothing awful happened. We actually had a nice day in Burlington. We had lunch out, went window shopping and had a lot of time together.

I finally got bifocals. John talked me into it (and I'm glad he did!). Photography and grocery shopping are much easier now. I can focus the camera and read the labels in the store. I don't come home with the wrong groceries anymore!

As we drove home from Burlington, John spotted these two young deer on Lowell Mountain. We turned around and drove back to take the photos. They were far off at the tree line but my lens caught them. Not caught well, but caught.This was the first spike horn I have ever seen. I guess it is now legal to hunt spike horns and it has always been legal for youth weekend.

By the way, click here for the 2011 hunting calendar for Vermont. It’s a pdf file for printing. And click here for Vermont hunting regulations.

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More E-cards for You on Valentine’s Day

I want to share more of my e-cards that are available at Yankee Magazine (use this link for e-cards by other contributors and click on my photos below for my cards). Click on the e-card that you wish to send and you will be redirected to the Yankee Magazine e-card page for that image. These cards are always available on my sidebar on the right. Thank you for using my e-cards!

♥ Happy Valentine’s Day! ♥

Angry Hairy Woodpecker

Mount Pisgah Ice Cliffs, Lake Willoughby

Redpoll in a Snowstorm

Red Squirrel

Eastern White Pine Seed Cone

Forest Still Life

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My First Clipping Mask

A bumble bee on New England Aster

I made my first clipping mask to create the BEE text above and fill it with the photo below. I ran across this technique in my e-mail subscription to Kent Weakley's Photography Blog. Unfortunately, his video on how to create this effect was not sufficient and I had to find another video with more complete, and clearer, instructions. Peachpit has a sufficiently good video here, but I still had to improvise at the end of the video to end up with the text the way I wanted. I will continue to look for clearer instructions. It was a fun and easy project for a snow day, so try it! There are great possibilities here for banners. I should resize the photograph in the text to make the bee clearer, but I enjoy the ray effect of the aster petals. I also want to change the amount of transparency that surrounds the text. That is an editing thing though, and has nothing to do with clipping masks.

The original photo.

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My E-Cards at Yankee Magazine

The Angry Hairy Woodpecker
Click the photo to go to the e-card.

The Yankee Magazine web site has free e-cards that you can send to anybody you know as a birthday card, get well card, or simply a post card. You can type your own message on it. All you need is your recipient's e-mail address.

I have begun submitting photographs to this e-card gallery. I have two up now and will be regularly submitting more. There are hundreds to choose from in all sorts of categories. I urge you to use this free and beautiful resource for your e-cards (and e-mails!). Please choose my photos for your cards. I get no money at all if you use mine, but I get recognition. Sort of. And it will make me proud!

With so many e-cards to choose from on the site, I have linked the woodpecker photo above directly to the e-card. Simply click the photo and the e-card will open in a new window.

The male hairy woodpecker in the photo is angry. He is trying to keep another male hairy woodpecker off of all of the suet feeders on our bird tree. The two males were aggressively strutting up and down the tree with their necks extended and their heads pointed to the sky. You can see more photos of these two at my post Quarreling Hairy Woodpeckers.

I will have my e-card links on the sidebar as soon as I have enough to justify coding a widget for that purpose.

And thank you for using my e-cards!

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Yikes! Another Blog Break!

Red squirrel (Tamiascurus hudsonicus)

Here I sit in the living room with a mask on my face, my new nebulizer drying in a clean towel, coughing and not looking forward to my next antibiotic. John is demolishing the kitchen. The former sun porch is now part of the new huge kitchen. The 110 year old plaster ceiling is coming down. The dust the past two weeks has been horrendous and has made me sick. I am feeling sort of lost here. Can't go outside, don't feel like blogging. I haven't even been taking photographs often! But I have been photographing the birds and squirrels at the feeders. Above is a cute, fat red squirrel that was at the feeder last week.

Ice cliffs of Mount Pisgah on the south shore of Lake Willoughby.

But more about the house later: I have been documenting the progress on the renovations. The photographs show how poorly people built additions on this old house. And how the little forest creatures love this house as much as I do. Enough about renovations and illness. I've had enough of that.

The big news is that the kids found a great place to live in Brownington. It is quiet here without them. There are no dogs to gobble up my spills in the kitchen or the cat yak all over the house. I miss the two little ones, Ironman and Catgirl, a whole bunch. But John has fixed my stereo and now I listen to VPR and VPR Classical. We seem to have stopped watching TV except at bed time. Occasionally we watch movies on the computers (they are still side by side in the living room as they were on the porch). Even though I miss the kids, it is best they are gone. The construction debris and activity is very dangerous and I don't want them around it. They are right up the road, though, so I'll be seeing them as soon as I am healthy again!

Clouded sulphur butterfly

I have been selling photographs, though. Matted and/or framed. I am doing fairly well. I want to get involved in stock photography and craft shows. I have been to two craft shows — the church's Christmas Bazaar and Moonlight Madness. Finally people know what I do! The reactions have been very positive. The photographs that are not of the red squirrel are the photographs that I have sold. I have much work to do with the Barton Library photos and website and blog. I can't work on my summer photographs because my four terabyte server is down! But I do have, and have been slowly editing, photos that are recent.

Nashville warbler

Just thought I should check in! I hardly ever get so personal in the blogs. But there has been lots going on. I hope your holidays are peaceful and I will once again work at getting up to date!

Fractal sunflower

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