Water, Water, Everywhere!

This year has been one of seriously heavy rain here in New England.  Luckily where I live we escaped serious flooding, but still our rivers, brooks and streams are very high.  Good for one thing – waterfalls!!  Recently I took a good friend of mine to see some near me and got some decent shots.  I also went with another friend to see how the mighty Merrimack River is doing and we had a most amazing great blue heron encounter.  So without further ado, here’s what I’ve been up to –

 

I also went to Ponemah Bog in Amherst for a sunrise.  I forgot exactly which road to take to get there, so I was a bit late, but I did manage one or two with good light.  The color is amazing in there – all the blueberry bushes and other plants turn first in the area.  Plus there were like 300 geese in the pond making all kinds of noise.  I didn’t get any shots of them for 2 reasons – 1) I had no long lens and 2) the boardwalks were in process of being replaced and weren’t too solid.

It’s a tough time of year for bees.  I found a bunch of bumblebees on some asters the other day. They were chilled, sluggish and probably crabby.  Totally picture worthy even though I had to test my patience waiting for the breeze to die down!

I did a little exploring down by the Merrimack River and found a spot where a small brook feeds into it.  I spend some time photographing this little bridge which is about to be swept away in the torrent.  Usually this brook is a trickle this time of year; the amount of rain we’ve had is unusual.

So while I was photographing this and yelling over the roar of the rushing water to my friend, we had another friend come to join us –

Up this way, GBHes are wicked skittish.  They fly away whenever they hear me and the closest I’ve ever been to one was several dozen feet while hiding behind some trees.  This one though was unconcerned about me or my friend.  It stood and fished about 20 feet from us.  Right before they strike, they stand still as statues which was good since I didn’t have the best light or lens for this kind of thing.  When they do strike it’s so fast you can’t see it.  The next thing you know the bird has a fish.  This little one caught three while we watched.  It was amazing and totally made up for the dead one we saw about 1/2 hour earlier.  Given the currents and the storms we’ve had lately, I think these guys have had a tough time.

Anyway, I hope the weather clears up this week so I can get out and see about foliage and how it’s doing.