The poppies are popping in full bloom in our back garden.
Panasonic GX8, Lumix 24-140mm lens @ 140mm, ISO 400, f/5.6, 1/1000″ exposure
It’s looking like another good year for wild apples this time around. Many of the wild trees on our property have had a great bloom. More cider in our futures!
Panasonic GX8, Lumix 100-300mm lens @ 150mm, ISO 800, f/5, 1/2000″ exposure
Simple, elegant, beautiful. An cinnamon fern slowly unfurls in the woods across Fargo Brook.
Panasonic GX8, Lumix 30mm macro lens, ISO 640, f/4, 1/640″ exposure
Spring beauties
Hepatica
Blue cohosh
Spring beauties
Yellow violet
Trout lily
Trout lilies
Purple trillium
Dutchman’s breeches
We went for a short hike up Mt. Hunger in Waterbury today (dutifully turning around at the “Trail Closed” sign above the waterfall…) I’d thought that, after being away from the Vermont woods for a month, that we’d missed the spring ephemerals. Not so! The trail up the mountain was alive with all the “usual suspects”! In places, the spring beauties covered the forest floor, and their fragrance sweetened the air! What a fine welcome back to the hills of Vermont!
Panasonic GM5, 12-32mm lens @ various lengths, various ISOs, apertures, and shutter speeds.
I finally managed to get a good shot of an American Kestrel! This guy was hunting in the fields along Shaker Mountain Road yesterday at midday as the snow fell. Usaully these small raptors will fly away before I’ve even gotten my camera out, but this one was more patient with me, allowing me to snap off several shots before flying off.
Panasonic GX8, Lumix 100-300mm lens @ 300mm, ISO 400, f/7.1, 1/1000″ exposure.
We went on a little stroll along the trails of the Warren & Grace Beeken Riverside Preserve in Richmond the other day. Cold morning temperatures had allowed thin ice to form in a vernal pool in the flood plain. As the water receded during the day, the ice was suspended in the air, still clinging to the objects that had help form it. Lovely!
Panasonic GX8, Lumix 14-140mm lens @ 26mm, ISO 400, f/13, 1/125″ exposure.
Bald eagles have made a dramatic recovery in Vermont over the past two decades. Here’s a discussion from the Audubon Vermont website:
“…15 Standard Survey Routes (SSR) were covered for the 2015 winter survey. A record fifty-one Bald Eagles (30 adult 20 immature, and 1 unknown age) were observed by designated observers on Vermont’s SSRs in 2015. This number is well above the record of 30 eagles reported in 2010. Bald Eagles were located on of the 14 SSRs surveyed including three routes along Lake Champlain, two along the Connecticut River, on the upper Winooski River, and on Lake Bomoseen. 2015 was the first year that an eagle was seen on the upper Winooski River route. The area between the Champlain Bridge and Shelburne Point on Lake Champlain supported the largest concentration of Bald Eagles (16 adults, 11 immatures) in the state. The overall numbers are well above totals of full surveys in recent years.”
Panasonic GX8, Lumix 100-300mm lens @ 300mm, ISO 400, f/11, 1/320″ exposure.
The ice along the edges of our pond is slowly receding. This maple leaf from last fall emerges…
Panasonic GX8, Lumix 14-140mm lens @ 73mm, ISO 400, f/10, 1/200″ exposure
It was a fine morning to climb the Hump today. Although there was very little snow in the woods even up at the ridge meadow, traction aids were a must as the trail is still pretty much ice covered above 2500′.
John Hadden Photography 