We haven’t be out much this month what with appointments, bad weather and being down with a respiratory infection, but when we did go out, we enjoyed what we saw. We went to North Hartland Lake several times, seeing eagles, herons, turtles as well as some other birds, animals and plants. Unfortunately, the recreation area is now closed for the season.
We also paddled out of Wilder a few times and the Pompy.
We have been out several times in the last few weeks. North Hartland Lake is now open for boating, after being closed for more than year after last year’s flooding.
The Connecticut River to Mink Brook is a favorite. It is easy to get to, and almost always has things to see (and there are places to pee).
The Ompompanoosuc River is another favorite.
We joined Jane’s brother and sister-in-law on Lake Fairlee and saw loons and pink water lilies.
I went to our family compound on Squam Lake for a week with my sisters and their families.
On Saturday, the Dave Himot family and Jen Bellows, Wyatt and Aysha arrived.
The next day our cousin, Kate Bowden and family, and Jared Lenz and family came. The Lenz family hadn’t been to Squam for more than 10 years.
When Uri flew east on Wednesday , he sat next to a person who coughed the entire flight. By Saturday evening he wasn’t feeling well, tested positive on a Covid test and went to bed. The boys who were supposed to sleep in his room, ended up sleeping on blow-up mattresses in the dining room. Bil took Uri back to White River Junction on Sunday
Each morning Kate lead a yoga session.
We climbed Mt Rattlesnake one morning.
Another fun activity was a “treasure hunt”. Teams competed against each other, solving clues that lead to the next clue.
Renny celebrated his 80th birthday.
We made tie dye shirts and wore them for a group picture the next day.
Jane and I have been out a few times together. On Sunday 6/30 we went to the Pompy.
After some family obligations, we returned to the Pompy on 7/5. Apparently the merganser family got separated. We saw the mama upriver from the youngsters. Like the wood ducks, merganser mama will often leave the young to hide while she tries to lead the predator away from them. The merganser duckling was keeping fairly close to a female mallard. We also found a doe and fawn in a setback.
Yesterday, we returned to the Connecticut River. When we got to the launch, we saw an eagle flying toward the dam and then heard many loon calls. We followed the eagle and found 4 loon adults. We went south by Kilowatt South, then followed the New Hampshire shore, paralleling the loons, seeing other things as we went along. The highlight was when we saw a loon swallow a fish about 10 inches long.
We have been out in our kayaks several times this week. Saturday we started out in a heavy mist, paddling out of Wilder.
On Tuesday we headed to Grafton pond. There were plenty of dragonflies and damsel flies. The goose family was near the boat launch. We only saw three loons: a single adult in the middle of the lake and a pair near the boat launch as we were taking out. We also found a turtle and some laurel and sundew.
This morning we headed back to the Connecticut and Mink Brook. We saw at least 5 families of ducks, mostly around Kilowatt park.
