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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Sights in the Spring Woods

Hoof Fungus (Fomes Fomentarius)

Deer scat

Hundreds of trout lilies erupting from the forest floor.

An emerging trout lily leaf.

The bracket fungus Trametes suaveolens on maple.

Christmas Ferns (Polystichum acrostichoides)

Lichens

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Chokecherries

Prunus virginiana

We have dozens of chokecherry trees in the woods and fields; even by the road. They ripen at the end of July and during August. That is, I found, the best birding time. As I learned to photograph birds outdoors, I would loiter at the chokecherry trees as the birds ate breakfast.

Above and below: a song sparrow (Melospiza melodia) hidden in the chokecherry tree.

Abovce and below: a Nashville warbler (Vermivora ruficapilla) hidden in a tree.

Below is a photograph of the chokecherry blossoms from the spring.

When the cherries were ripe  enough to pick, Nate, the kids and I picked five gallons of them for jelly. It is easy to pick them — you just start at the top of the bunch and pull them down with your hand. The problem is the high branches. I used a metal garden rake to gently bring the branches down so that we could reach them. Another problem was bears.

Bears love chokecherries and there was evidence of them everywhere under the trees. They had broken branches and flattened the grasses. And pooped. Everywhere we went there was bear poop (see above)!

Above, you can see the granny smith apples from the apple orchard. They were almost ripe in August. We made plans to pick them, also, as soon as they were ready.

And the chokecherry jelly? John and I forgot to follow the directions for our altitude. The jelly jelled in the pot but did not jell in the jars. We are going to re-cook it as soon as we can. I found a great article on chokecherries that you should read if you want to harvest them (click here). There are lots of other things you can do with chokecherries besides jelly.

Flickr Tags: Nashville warbler,song sparrow,chokecherries,bears,scat,Prunus virginiana,Melospiza melodia,Vermivora ruficapilla

Technorati Tags: Nashville warbler,song sparrow,chokecherries,bears,scat,Prunus virginiana,Melospiza melodia,Vermivora ruficapilla

del.icio.us Tags: Nashville warbler,song sparrow,chokecherries,bears,scat,Prunus virginiana,Melospiza melodia,Vermivora ruficapilla

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The Pooping Grasshopper

This series was taken in July during my grasshopper phase when Buddy was bringing a few a day into the house and the hoppers were all over everywhere. Wingnut would also bring me some and John would call me over for shots of one that he thought particularly interesting.

Because I was so focused on lighting and focusing (and that didn’t really work out in these shots because of the backlight), I never realized what the hopper was doing until I downloaded the photos to the computer. But while I was photographing him, I did have this eerie feeling that he was looking straight at me through the lens . . .

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Turkey Traces

The flock of wild turkeys is on our property every day all day long yet I have only found one feather in the fields. One is better than none!

The turkeys take dust baths in two spots — out front at the edge of the drive where there are millions of ant nests. And out back, as seen here,  near the first pond (where the partridges bathe also). I hope to get photos of a turkey bath before the snow comes because they are hilarious things to watch.

Yes, there is plenty of turkey poo all over the place. But here is something interesting — the hens try to cover up their poo just like cats do. I suppose that is because of predators. But this defensive action just ain’t working! You can see the scratch marks as she tried to cover the scat up. Perhaps she lacks the ability to pay attention to details.

Technorati Tags: wild turkeys,feather,dust bowl,scat

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Morey's Pond: A Natural History Adventure

In the middle of July we hiked around Morey Pond in Andover (elevation 1329 ft (405 m)) and saw many things that taught Wingnut about natural history. I thought this post would be an opportunity for you to see how we three explore nature together. All links are either to wikipedia.org articles that you can use for more information, to other posts on my blogs, or to photos on Flickr. If you click on a photo, you will open a new page to the Morey's Pond Set I created on Flickr for this hike. From that new page you may choose to view a larger image. Our greatest source of information is John, the most learned naturalist I have ever met. When none of us know a thing, or when we want to learn more, we search the Internet. Often, we find details in my photographs that we need to investigate more, also. Each hike, bike ride or kayaking trip is full of wonder, beauty and learning.

Geography

The first three photographs are scenic views of Mount Kearsarge as seen from the pond trail. Kearsarge has a fascinating history and geology. Kearsarge is classified as a monadnock mountain and can therefore be seen from numerous places in this area.



Morey Pond (or Morey's Pond) is listed in extremely brief mentions on the web as a reservoir for Andover, NH. There is a dam at the opposite end of the remote parking area. When we were at the dam, I turned around and photographed this outlet of the pond that runs to the dam (below). Beavers are re-engineering the human dam to better serve their own needs.

PLANTS: The plant life is typical for this area.

Above: Blue fruit of Lily of the Valley (Convallaria majalis).

These blueberries are the reason we went to Morey Pond: to see how the crop was this summer. In Vermont the blueberry farm was smaller than the acreage of wild blueberry bushes here! There are both low and high bush berries on the pond. They had just begun to ripen and we planned to return for picking. But because of construction in the house, two heat waves, grief from the cats, and other things, we never did.

Above: Blue Flag (Iris versicolor) is one of my favorite wildflowers.

Above: I haven't yet identified this mushroom (I could simply holler across the room and ask John but I haven't!).

Above: Cinnamon Fern (Osmunda cinnamomea)

Animal Life

Above: John and I saw this bird scat on a shoulder high branch with dead branches above it. Some carnivorous bird (but not an owl), such as a hawk or eagle, left this here while perched above waiting for prey.

Above and below: evidence of beaver (Castor canadensis). Above you see John standing while waiting for Wingnut to tie his shoe. We are near a tree that was not quite felled by beaver last winter. How do we know that they chewed it in the winter? The cut is high above the ground at just the height that the snow pack would be. A beaver can not climb a tree to cut it down and are not big enough to chew it at this height. The weathering of the cuts on the wood also tell us it was a few months ago that it was chewed. Below you see a closer shot of the tooth marks on the tree.

Above: the human dam as the beavers re-design it. I choose this shot because of the water effects that I got (after two years of trying) in the camera.

Above: halfway between the parking area and the dam is this underground beaver lodge on an outlet (or beaver canal) of the pond. I don't see too many lodges built under the bank of a stream, so this was a treat. I wanted to poke around inside it but was too nervous to try. Who knows who lived there still?

Above: a woodpecker tree. Used for food and nesting but I don't know by what species. Nobody was in residence this season. This was probably made by a pileated woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus).

Above: a Red-spotted Newt (Notophthalmus viridescens viridescens) that I almost stepped on.

Above: A Green Frog (Rana clamitans melanota)

Morey's Pond Set

Finally, below you will find links to the blogs, photos and links of other people on Delicious, Technorati, Furl (now Diigo) and Flickr. These are excellent resources for any person interested in natural history. Often an amateur naturalist will have a clearer description or a better photo than a professionally created guide book.. Compulsive bloggers, like myself, will take the time to research what we post and to correctly tag every single post and photograph with the scientific and common names of plants and animals. I have organized my Flickr sets into collections of wildflowers, birds, insects, and more to make it easier for people to browse and perhaps identify a creature or plant from outdoors. Click here to see my collections.

Take advantage of our efforts for you and use us as a resource. We've learned a phenomenal amount about genus, species, origins of names and common misidentifications. On your next outing, take a close look around to see what you can find!

Technorati Tags: Green Frog Rana clamitans melanota Pileated Woodpecker Dryocopus pileatus Red-spotted Newt Notophthalmus viridescens viridescens beaver Castor canadensis Cinnamon Fern Osmunda cinnamomea Blue Flag Iris versicolor blueberries Lily of the Valley Convallaria majalis Mount Kearsarge Morey Pond Andover New Hampshire

Del.icio.us Tags: Green Frog Rana clamitans melanota Pileated Woodpecker Dryocopus pileatus Red-spotted Newt Notophthalmus viridescens viridescens beaver Castor canadensis Cinnamon Fern Osmunda cinnamomea Blue Flag Iris versicolor blueberries Lily of the Valley Convallaria majalis Mount Kearsarge Morey Pond Andover New Hampshire

Flickr Tags: Green Frog Rana clamitans melanota Pileated Woodpecker Dryocopus pileatus Red-spotted Newt Notophthalmus viridescens viridescens beaver Castor canadensis Cinnamon Fern Osmunda cinnamomea Blue Flag Iris versicolor blueberries Lily of the Valley Convallaria majalis Mount Kearsarge Morey Pond Andover New Hampshire

Furl Tags: Green Frog Rana clamitans melanota Pileated Woodpecker Dryocopus pileatus Red-spotted Newt Notophthalmus viridescens viridescens beaver Castor canadensis Cinnamon Fern Osmunda cinnamomea Blue Flag Iris versicolor blueberries Lily of the Valley Convallaria majalis Mount Kearsarge Morey Pond Andover New Hampshire
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