Tag: Grafton Pond

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From my kayak 8/19-28

We’ve paddled the usual places the past 10 days.  The mornings are getting colder and more foggy. We’ve seen great blue herons, green herons, cormorants, loons, ducks and other creatures.  Loons do fly, they just take a long runway to take off.

Jane paddles in the fog. North Hartland Lake, VT 8/25/18
Great blue heron Grafton Pond, NH 8/28/18
Great blue heron taking off. Connecticut River 8/24/18
Green heron. Connecticut River, Wilder, VT 8/27/18
Cormorant drying his wings. Connecticut River, Lebanon, NH 8/27/18
Loon launching. Grafton Pond, NH 8/28/18
Loons flying Grafton Pond, NH 8/28/18
Wood duck. Connecticut River 8/20/18
Mallards on a log Connecticut River 8/20/18
Troll. North Hartland Lake, VT 8/25/18
Birch bark reflection. Connecticut River 8/20/18

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Grafton Pond 7/10/18

Jane and I went to Grafton Pond on Tuesday. The loon chicks have hatched and are being tended by their parents. We saw two families of loons, one with a very young chick,

Loon parent feeding chick.
Grafton Pond, NH 7/10/18

A young chick riding on the parent’s back. Grafton Pond, NH 7/10/18

A parent loon stretching after preening while the baby looks on.
Grafton Pond, NH 7/10/18

and another with a larger and older chick.

Loon showing its leg bands, older chick nearby.
Grafton Pond, NH 7/10/18

We also found a great blue heron hiding in the bushes.

Great blue heron hiding.
Grafton Pond, NH 7/10/18

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Grafton Pond 5/29

We spent the morning on Grafton Pond. We saw our usual complement of loons and geese.

Both species are thinking about nesting, as well as a hairy woodpecker.

Female hairy woodpecker.
Grafton Pond, NH 5/29/18

We also saw some turtles.
Painted turtle. Grafton Pond, NH 5/29/18

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Some October pictures

We have kept paddling through most of October seeing:
loons,

Common loon –Grafton Pond, 10/3/17

a cormorant,

Double crested cormorant — Grafton Pond 10/3/17

a green heron,

Green heron –Connecticut River, 10/5/17

a chipmunk,

Chipmunk — Connecticut River 10/10/17

a wood turtle,

Wood turtle — 10/12/17

a red-winged blackbird,

Red-winged black bird — Mink brook 10/22/17

a painted lady,

Painted lady — Wilder, 10/19/17

another loon,

Loon testing his wings — Grafton Pond 10/21/17

and reflected foliage.

Foliage reflected — Connecticut River 10/22/17

I also took part in a black & white challenge.

Munchkin — Wilder, 10/15/17
Violets in October! — Wilder, 10/15/17
Mallard on Mink Brook — Mink Brook, 10/18/17
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The Pompy and Grafton Pond

It was a day for green herons on the Pompy on Tuesday: we saw several and they posed nicely.

Green heron –Ompompanoosuc River, VT 7/31/17

Irritated young green heron — –Ompompanoosuc River, VT 7/31/17

Green heron reflected –Ompompanoosuc River, VT 7/31/17

We also saw great blue herons on the Pompy as well as at Grafton Pond on Wednesday.

Great blue heron –Ompompanoosuc River, VT 7/31/17

Great blue heron –Grafton Pond, NH 8/1/17

The views of Mt Cardigan is always nice.

Jane and Mt Cardigan –Grafton Pond, NH 8/1/17

Of course we saw loons at the pond: a couple that surfaced close to the kayaks and a parent with 2 chicks,
Loon –Grafton Pond, NH 8/1/17

Loon –Grafton Pond, NH 8/1/17

Loon with chicks –Grafton Pond, NH 8/1/17

and saw geese and a dog on a SUP.

Canada goose –Grafton Pond, NH 8/1/17

A dog who was not sure he wanted to be on a SUP–Grafton Pond, NH 8/1/17