A New Painting!

Over the past few weeks I have been working on this painting every free chance I get. Its the largest painting I have ever done on canvas, 3feet by 4 feet.

Although it has been a long time since I have consistently painted week to week, I really feel like I am in the groove on this one.

I changed my mind 3 times until I finally committed to this farm layout. The original idea was to paint a street in downtown Portsmouth, NH. After taking many photos I was just not in love with the images, mainly because the original idea had inclement weather, they day I shot was clear.

The 2nd idea was based on a photo I took a few months ago of a barn on a hill, I really liked the image but felt like it was not very well suited for painting and would not allow me to enjoy the process enough.

 The second painting concept.

I finally found this farm right along side a secondary highway in Strafford , NH. I totally changed the landscape, and added snow and removed trees to get the feel that I was looking for. Have a look at the process so far.

Short-Eared Owls and Wet Feet

 Yesterday afternoon I found myself in the southern end of the NH coastline.  With rates as low as this it seemed to be a good choice to refinance my house, so this would be the second closing inside of a year. Booooring.

All said and done at 3:50 I decided to head to a secluded spot not far away in Rowley, Mass. This area looks out over Plum Island Sound and is a known hunting spot for the Short-Eared Owl. This would be my 4th visit to this wet and windy area hoping to catch a glimpse of this bird that would be considered a lifer for me.

As luck would have it, the road leading from the car to a good observation point was flooded with brackish, sulfur smelling water. There I stood, with my only nice shoes, button down shirt,  camera in hand, perfect setting sun, staring across the water to where I needed to be.

 It seemed clear I had but one choice. Immediately I rolled up my pants and took off my shoes and socks and began wading across the freezing water to the other side, about 40 yards. Once on the other side, I dried my feet quickly in the dried sea grass, slipped my shoes back on and trudged onward.

Within 30 feet of getting my shoes back on an owl rose out of the grass 50 yards in front of me in perfect light. Then another, for about 10 minutes I watched as 2 owls seemed to taunt each other and hunt over the marsh. Just seeing these amazing birds for the first time was like a dream. The moment made me forget about my freezing, wet feet and the fact that the wind had picked up and I realized I should have probably put a jacket on some time ago. Looking back at my truck a half a mile away I stuck it out til sun set.

 

 The water gauntlet with no way around.

Like clockwork, as soon as the sun set, the moon rose in the east 180 degrees to the east.

Huge Coyote!... Wolf Hybrid?

I was confused earlier this week by some HUGE 'dog' foot prints in the snow around my house. None of my neighbors have a dog that big, just a medium size black lab across the street but that's it. I know this was not a black lab, these tracks are HUGE.

 Seriously?

Then I kind of forgot about it until i went to check the trail camera in the side of my property today. I knew some thing good would be on the camera when I saw how far the deer carcass had been dragged, also the head was missing. Sure enough, the first documented coyote on the property. Now I feel like I see a lot of coyotes compared to the casual observer and I am very aware of the size of an adult, but this one just looks huge. I cant help but believe that this one has some wolf genes in it.

Call me crazy but look at these 2 shots taken one day apart, a red fox is standing in the exact same location as the coyote. Never have I see such a huge difference in the size of these two animals.

I'm sure its probably just a normal adult coyote but it sure is fun to imagine wolves living among us.

This guy looks like an Alaskan Malmute

Snowy Owl Success, part 2!

Check out Many more photos of this owl here. Vote on your favorite!

I took a trip along the Massachusetts/New Hampshire coast yesterday sporting a rental 500mm f4 with a 1.4 teleconverter from borrowlenses.com giving an effective focal length of 700mm. With all my owl sightings recently off the beaten path I needed to prepare differently this time. All the bulk and weight of a camera setup like this makes it more difficult to access these far reaching areas. Especially the fact that I needed to carry a heavy tripod as well. With a few special coat hanger and duct tape modifications I was able to carry the whole camera and lens vertically in my back country snowboarding bag making it very easy to hike the miles that I planned.

Fortunate for me I didn't have to hike nearly as far as I thought I would. Within 20 minutes of leaving my truck at lot 7 on Plum Island I located a single, beautiful peppered Snowy Owl. This owl was very patient seemingly sleepy as the wind gusted up to 30 mph. To get a sense of how strong the wind was check out this video capture.

On my way back up the coast I swung by Rye Harbor and watched some Buffleheads, Horned Grebes, and Long-tailed ducks feed in the shallows.

More owl photos here.
-Bill

If at first you don't succeed.... ( Snowy Owl)

For more images visit my updated Snowy Owl gallery.

 As they say,  if at first you don't succeed, try, and try again. Over the past 3 years I have spent hundreds of hours and driven hundreds of miles in search of the elusive Snowy Owl.

With an extreme fluctuation in the population of migrating birds from the Arctic, some years us New Englanders may never see a Snowy at all like in the winter of 2010. Hunger and changing abundance of prey can drive these typically far northern birds deep into the lower 48. The winter of 2011-2012 seems to be a banner year with birds reported almost every day along the coast from Connecticut-Maine.

This past weekend I headed to plum island in search of this elusive owl. I headed out before sunrise to arrive just as the sun was coming up at Plum Island, just east of Newburyport , MA. I had a plan and I was sticking to it. I won't get int to many details as I would like to try this again, next weekend, but it worked. This large adult owl was very patient and relaxed. I was able to sit on the sand and watch the owl several times as it ate a seagull, hunted the dunes, and roosted along the sea. I drove home buzzing with the excitement of finally getting photos I could " see the pupil of the eye". That is how I often measure my photos, by the crispness of the pupil of the eye. This may seem excessive, but I have learned when the pupil is clear and sharp at 100% the rest of the image with be epic!
-Bill

For more Snowy Owl Images please visit my website.

Barnacle Goose, a rare treat in New Hampshire.

After a few attempts to locate this reported Barnacle goose, I found it this morning in a hay field among 300-400 Canada Geese. The pictures are not great but they leave not doubt that this rare visitor who has never been on record breeding in North America has called New Hampshire home, at least for the time being. I will attempt to capture some better photos of this guy in the next few days.

 Barnacle geese spend the majority of their breeding life in places like Greenland, Norway, Svalbard, Novaya Zemlya and even an island off Russia. During migration they can be found in Scotland, Netherlands, and Germany. When they do show up in North America they are seen only in the East, from Labrador to Michigan.

They seemed a bit on the fence...

We took a nice random drive tonight looking for a reported Barnacle Goose with no luck, but based on reports we sure were close! We ended up seeing 5 turkeys, male and female, roosting 2 feet off the ground on a picket fence. You just never know what your going to see, off to Plum Island tomorrow! Happy New Year!
Bill

New Hampshire Seacoast Birds 3 new ones for me!

 Horned Grebe

I had a chance to do a little birding on my way home from my companies monthly beach cleanup at Jenness Beach. I am happy to say I picked up 3 lifers in less than a half hour!

 Surf Scoter

Last but not certainly not least! The three Images are male ( with the long tail ) and female Long-Tailed Ducks. These ducks used to be called Oldsquaw back in the day, too bad they changed it that is more fun to say...OllllddddSQuwaaaawww. The ducks are beyond beautiful and they are not even in breeding plumage.

I really enjoy seeing a species of bird for the first time, at this rate it is going to start getting a lot harder. I will have to update my New Hampshire bird list to see where I am at.

-Bill

Limited 2012 Calendars Available!!

Get them while they are hot!

Sandhill Cranes pay a visit to Massachusetts!

I spent nearly the entire day Sunday exploring the Massachusetts seacoast looking for birds and other wildlife. The trip didn't let me down! Based on some reports from the Mass Bird List  I decided to head to Rowely first to see if I could locate the Sandhill Cranes that have been reported several times last week.

Just to note, Sandhill Cranes are very rare for this area but very abundant our in our Western states.  Sunday marked the first time I have ever seen this species in person. In the birding world there is a term for this. The very first time you identify a species, this is called a "lifer". I like to make it even more certain that for me a "lifer" includes a photos to document the sighing. Many times I will think I saw one type of bird but it was actually another, as in this past Sunday I was certain that I was photographing a Northern Harrier, only to find out it was a Rough-Legged Hawk, another Lifer for me!

There were 2 Cranes in the farm field when I arrived. They were close to the road so it was pretty easy to get some nice shots without disturbing the birds. From what I can tell, they will stick around a few more days and then continue to migrate.

When birds as rare as these show up it can cause quite a stir in the nature photography world. Want to see what nearly $100,000 in camera gear looks like? You would think Paris Hilton was out there in that muddy field somewhere.

This is what the crane thought of all the attention. I'm pretty sure he felt this was his best side. Notice how he is checking to see if people are watching!

Structure Fire, Dover, NH

While at work today we noticed a stream of black smoke coming out of the roof of a neighboring building, within 10 minutes it was fully engulfed in flames. Apparently the building was used to store huge rolls of rubber used when dredging the Cocheco River . This would explain the huge plume of black smoke. Our office is located on the 4th floor offering a birds eye view of the fire. Sounds like it may have been arson and they have " two juveniles in custody"

The start of the fire

Another Artistic Medium, concrete!

I recently purchased a wood pellet stove to help cut fuel cost and attempt to use a more renewable resource for home heating. Part of the puzzle of installing a stove is the heat proof pad that the stove sits on. You could easily buy one at the store that sells the stoves, they are made of tile and look ok, nothing special, but they cost $400 or more.

With the recent renovations and building we have been doing at the office I was able to watch my buddy John build 2 concrete countertops and thought this would be a perfect construction method for the pellet stove. Here are a few shots I took along the way.

This first image jumps ahead many steps but I constructed the mold out of melamine, using black silicon I drew a branch pattern freehand. All the seams are filled with silicon as well then smoothed with your finger, this gives nice rounded corners when the mold is removed. The leaves are cut out of copper flashing and glued upside down to the bottom of the mold.

4 inch steel mesh is hung by wire halfway down in the mold.

Mix up some Quikrete 5000, keep it on the dry side, I used 2 80lb bags

Shovel it into the mold and smooth it out. This next step is VERY important. Rap the sides and bottom with a hammer for at least 20 minutes to get the air bubbles out, I suggest a nice Pale Ale for this part. Then let it cure for 3 days and unscrew the mold and pray.

Then I covered the bottom with some white felt to protect the floor.  Finally, find a friend with big muscles ( Ryan) and drop into place.

Enjoy!
Bill