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From my kayak 8/24-9/19

It has been a while since I posted; we had internet problems. We have continued to go kayaking 3-4 times a week mostly at our usual haunts: the Connecticut River north of Wilder, the Ompompanoosuc River, North Hartland Lake before it closed for the season, as well as Grafton Pond and Reservoir Pond in New Hampshire. We have seen eagles,

Eagle with fish. North Hartland Lake 8/25/21
Immature eagle. North Hartland Lake. 8/25/21

herons, both great blue and green,

Great blue heron. North Hartland Lake 8/25/21
Great blue heron. Connecticut River 8/24/21
Great blue heron. North Hartland Lake 9/4/21
Great blue heron. Connecticut River 9/5/21
Green heron. Connecticut River 9/17/21
Green heron. Connecticut River 9/1/21
Green heron eating a fish. Mink Brook 8/24/21

loons,

Loon and chick. Grafton Pond 8/31/21
Loon stretch. Connecticut River 9/17/21

other birds,

Turkey vultures. Ompompanoosuc River 9/19/21
Cormorant. North Hartland Lake 9/4/21
Spotted sandpiper. Connecticut River 9/5/21
Waterthrush. Reservoir Pond,Lyme, NH, 9/14/21

some turtles,

Wood turtle. Ompompanoosuc River. 9/19/21
Painted turtles. North Hartland Lake 9/4/21

and some other interesting things.

Duck feather. Connecticut River 9/18/21
Waterfall with purple asters. Connecticut River 9/11/21
Jane’s sister Susy and her granddaughter, Emily. Ompompanoosuc River 8/27/21
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From my kayak 8/10-24

We’ve been out several times in the last couple of weeks. After my old camera went for an unfortunate swim, I’ve been getting used to my new Z50. We have seen the usual suspects: eagles, great blue herons, green herons, loons, cormorants, sandpipers, turtles and dragonflies.

Immature bald eagle. North Hartland Lake 8/15/21
Immature eagle flying. North Hartland Lake. 8/15/21
Young great blue heron. Post Pond 8/20/21
Great blue heron. Connecticut River. 8/24/21
Green heron. Connecticut River. 8/24/21
Young green heron with fish. Connecticut River. 8/24/21
Loon. Post Pond 8/20/21
Loon baby waits for its parent (and a snack). Post Pond 8/20/21
Common mergansers in a line. Squam Lake 8/11/21
Mallards. Mink Brook 8/24/21
Cormorant. Squam Lake 8/11/21
Sparrow eating berries. Connecticut River 8/16/21
Solitary sandpiper. Ompompanoosuc River 8/21/21
Painted turtle. Mink Brook 8/16/21
A red dragonfly. Squam Lake 8/11/21
The pompy. Ompompanoosuc River 8/21/21
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From my kayak 8/3-7

I’ve been kayaking several time this week, with a few different people. Jane was there most of the times, but also Anne, Barb and Robin and Adam.

Jane on the Ompompanoosuc. 8/5/21
Anne with turtles. North Hartland Lake 8/3/21
Adam. Connecticut River, 8/7/21
Barb and Robin. Squam Lake 8/6/21

We saw eagles in several places as well as other birds, butterflies and berries.

Bald eagle. Squam Lake 8/6/21
Smaller bird attacking an eagle. North Hartland Lake. 8/3/21
Young eagle. Connecticut River 8/7/21
Kingbird. Connecticut River 8/7/21
Solitary sandpiper. Ompompanoosuc River 8/5/21
Phoebe on pickerel weed. North Hartland Lake 8/3/21
Young great blue heron. North Hartland Lake 8/3/21
Mallard ducks. Connecticut River 8/7/21
Monarch on Joe Pye weed. Ompompanoosuc River 8/5/21
Red berries. Ompompanoosuc River 8/5/21

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Squam 7/24-8/1

I spent the week at Squam Lake with my family. My sons, Uriah and Nabil, along with Uri’s girlfriend, Anne, flew in from Portland, OR.

Monday morning I woke up to a scarlet sun shining in my window. I ran down to the dock, not even stopping to put my glasses on, to take some pictures.

Smoky sunrise. Squam Lake 7/26/21

That whole day, was smoky from wild fires in the West. Nabil and I went kayaking around Great Island and could hardly see the mountains.

Nabil kayaking through the haze. Squam Lake 7/26/21
Anne and her friend, Ingrid, in a canoe.

We sat on the dock, swam and kayaked,

Uri
Nabil on the dock.
Uri and Anne

and slept.

Sleeping beauties. Anne and Uri.

On Tuesday evening, my sisters started to arrive: Jain and Renny from Colorado, Ruthe from Arizona and Barb and Gene from Newfoundland.

Sisters. Ruthe, Barb, Jain, Nancy. 7/31/21

We had a good time catching up (we hadn’t seen Barb and Gene for two years because of COVID).

After dinner.

Barb, Anne and I went kayaking and saw stuff including blueberries.

  • Button bush 7/26/21
  • Great blue heron overhead. Squam Lake 7/26/21
  • Barb picking blueberries. 7/26/21
  • Anne and Barb kayaking. 7/26/21
  • Dragonfly. Squam Lake 7/26/21
  • Ring-billed gull. Squam Lake 7/26/21
  • Spotted sandpiper. Squam Lake, 7/26/21
  • Common loon. Squam Lake, 7/31/21

We also climbed Mt. Rattlesnake, which has the best views for the amount of effort.

Anne, Nabil, Nancy and Barb on Mt. Rattlesnake. 7/30/21

Anne had wanted to go sailing and waterskiing sometime over the week. She and Renny tried to get the Sunfishes ready to go, but Renny forgot he was over 70 and overestimated his strength and pulled a muscle, so Anne had to wait until Barb showed up to help teach her. By the time the Sunfishes were ready, the wind had picked up to the point that only the most experienced sailers would be able to handle it, so they didn’t go.

Rigging the Sunfish

Jennifer Bellows arrived Friday night during an all point picnic with our cousins the Ingrams and the Smiths. The next morning, Anne got her chance at waterskiing before the wind came up.

… and she’s up. Anne waterskiing.
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From my kayak 7/18-23

The last several trips have been to the Connecticut River.

On 7/18 we planned on going to the Pompy, but the water was so low at the boat launch, we decided to try going up the Connecticut instead. We hadn’t been there for a couple of years because the banks are fairly densely populated and the Pompy is so nice, but we were pleasantly surprised on the amount of wildlife we saw.

Great blue heron. Connecticut River 7/22/21
Great blue heron landing. Connecticut River 7/22/21
Muskrat with camouflage. Ompompanoosuc River 7/22/21
Muskrat. Connecticut River 7/22/21

We have seen raptors: osprey and eagle.

Osprey on the top of a tree. Connecticut River 7/18/21
Eagle. Connecticut River 7/18/21

Herons, both great blue and green.

Green heron. Connecticut River 7/23/21
Great blue heron flying. Connecticut River 7/23/21

and ducks, crows and sandpipers.

Ducks preening. Connecticut River 7/18/21
Mallard with ducklings. Connecticut River 7/23/21
Crows. Connecticut River 7/18/21
Spotted sandpiper. Connecticut River 7/23/21

and damsel flies.

Damsel flies. Connecticut River 7/18/21