February, wonderful time to catch up on my blog. It has been some time, in fact a couple years worth of time since I have decided to get back sharing with you through my photos some of Maine's stunning beauty. Like the four photos below of "Coop" the Coopers Hawk.

We are always pleasantly surprised when he stops by for a visit. We know full well though that his purpose is to find something plump to eat. In fact the bottom two photos are of Coop being successful on his visit. The third photo is of a kill he made in my neighbors yard of a pigeon, that I realized later was actually banned. The bottom photo is coop on one of his winter visits finishing up a mourning dove on the garage roof, doves seem to be his favorite choice.

The two top photos are of Coop sitting in one of our spruce trees surveying the yard for something to eat. No luck that day for the birds were not around and he sort of got tired of me snapping photos of him and left. We really enjoy his visits very much to the neighborhood.

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Dave

Preview of the many rugged wood signs that I create for our little on line store. Be sure and check out all my many other signs in  The Rustic Woodshed  We offer custom made signs as well.

       

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 My wife, our sheltie, Taz, and I were taking a ride on our Yamaha side x side at camp last week. On a particular woods road we were on I had remembered a spot that had two or three mushrooms developing along the forest edge last year. This year as we passed that particular spot I looked over to see if maybe there were any new ones growing this year, knowing full well the old ones were long gone. Sure enough, the above little fairy umbrella caught my eye. Stopping the machine, and with camera in hand, I walked over to see what kind of photo I could capure. I took three or four different shots at different angles and returned to the four-wheeler and my partners. Of course Taz about now was barking up a storm because I had stopped and interrupted his four wheeler ride.

When we returned home and I brought the photos up on the computer I saw something that I had not noticed while taking the photo, that being an ant (Pismire) sitting upon the crown enjoying a snack of wild Maine mushroom, which I thought made the photo even more interesting. Once again one of those wonderful little surprises that was originally unnoticed shows up on the computer. It is those type of surprises that make photography so much fun for me.

Below are a few of the many photos I have taken of mushrooms over the years. Thought maybe you would enjoy looking at a few. Any questions or thoughts please comment.

Birds

 Adult wren with a snack for one of the chicks

Adult wren with big fat spider for one of the chicks

 One of the adults scoping out his new digs

Sorry that I have been away for those of you that enjoy my blog. Just one of those things with summer, our little on line shop, going to camp, etc.  I hope those excuses will exonerate me with you for being lax on this.

In all honesty, there has been a lot going on in my world. Have not gone to camp as much this year as we have in the past twenty or so years but have enjoyed it just as much. We have taken a couple side trips down along the Maine coast for something different and have spent a great deal of time right here in our own yard, which we enjoy very much.

Been doing a lot of my photography, I don't go anywhere unless I have my camera with me. Speaking of cameras, I just bought a new one that I will explain about in a later blog. I do have some really great photos (at least I think so) to share with you as well as some really neat wildlife videos from camp. I have deer, moose, bear and even another bob cat video that I took at camp. Those too I hope to be sharing with you all.

Summer is coming to an end soon, that is alright because I love September and October and of course deer hunting in November. This past summer we had three bird families raise their brood here in the yard. We had a tree swallow pair as well as two house wren broods raised. Not sure if the second pair of wrens was the original raising their second brood, which they often do. Wrens, like blue jays, are really hard to tell apart, seen one you seen them all.

They fledged yesterday morning and was able to get some neat photos of that as well. Very interesting to watch as one of the adult wrens almost took one by the wing to get him out of the house and on his first flight. All the while she was right next to him she kept making these very soft sounds, which I am sure were some type of instructions and that everything will be fine after the first crash landing. heheee!

This all happened in the AM, did not see them again until about dusk, they were all down in hedge of lilac I have at the end of our yard. I could see that the two adults where showing the young ones how to catch their own insects, parent welfare was over.

I could go on with other tales of this summer but do not want to bore you just yet. I will close with some wren photos to give you an idea of how they did.

We do have a lot of new products and signs in our on-line shop The Rustic Woodshed , we even carry a line of real moose poop and that is no bull.... I have also added more photos to The Photo Loft section in our shop. Check it out!

Well until the next blog enjoy what is left of the rapidly disappearing summer.

Educational Find

One advantage of having a blog is the ability to explain the subject matter of a particular photo in more detail. That being the case, I have a neat series of four photos along with a little explanation of a really cool insect that lives in streams and other bodies of water.

I have often heard the name caddis fly cast among fly fishermen and other reel spinners. Fly fisherman often refer to different flies they like to use in different situations to entice the trout as caddis fly number this, caddis fly number that? Not being a fly fisherman, I was never sure what any of those mentioned flies looked like.

One day my wife and I were sitting in our brook at camp trying to keep cool on one of those hot, muggy July days. While sitting in the cooling brook water my wife noticed a small piece of debris, maybe an inch or so long, moving along the brook’s gravel bed. As she watched it she started to see another and then another. It was at this time she mentioned that these little pieces of bark or whatever, where actually moving under their own propulsion.

Being the inquisitive one of the two of us she reached down into the water and picked one up. She began gently prying the pieces of bark and twigs apart with her fingers. To our amazement when she opened it up there was the larvae of some type of insect.

We both started searching the brook bottom even closer at this point and realized there were many of these small wooden cocoons everywhere, attached to roots and rocks, each one containing a single larvae. Fascinated by our new discovery, we went back up to the camp and got out some reading material we had. We discovered that we had the larvae of the caddis fly we had so often heard about.

I have put together a series of four photos showing what the larval stage of the caddis fly looks like, including one with the larvae poking his head out of the cocoon being held by my wife.

There are many kinds and sizes of caddis flies which explains the different numbers that fly fishermen refer too. After hatching, the larvae begin gathering small pieces of debris passing by in the brook and constructing a strong, wood-like case around themselves. They then attach themselves to boulders and whatever while waiting to develop into an adult fly to begin their life cycle all over again.

Next time you are at your favorite brook, take your time and begin to study the world that is beneath the water.

Wild Beauties

Blood Root

I assume everything went alright yesterday regarding everyone receiving my new blog. I only heard from one person and I think she was able to get connected alright. It will take a little time I guess, especially on my end to get this correct. Thank you for your patience.

Today we have two wild flowers, one that should be greeting you right about now. The photo here was taken in my yard a year or two back. Blood Root is native to the Northeast and Nova Scotia. It begins flowering even as the remaining snows blanket the ground. Blood root is one of many plants that their seeds are spread by ants, a very interesting plant to study and enjoy. The preference for growth is moist, damp woods and thickets.

The other little white beauty is the wild strawberry that I am sure everyone is familiar with. Strawberries are not a true berry; I know you could not live with out that important tidbit of information. Enjoy and please let me know if you are having any problem receiving this blog.

Click on photo to enlarge

Wild Strawberry

A MOUNTAIN WITH MOXIE

Click on image to enlarge

Two photos of Moxie Mt. The close-up was taken when my wife and I were hiking up towards the top heading for Mountain Dimick pond. Absolutely beautiful, wild, spring fed mountain pond.The distant photo was taken from very near our camp in Concord. Moxie Mt. is ranked number fifty of New England's 50 finest mountains, standing at 1,820 feet. 

Spring Time On a Maine Farm

Everything comes alive in the early spring, green grass and warm sunshine will make even these farm structures come alive with activity. Oh Spring, where are you?

Magnificent Seven

                             

Here is a chickadee nest containing seven eggs. This was taken last year and only five of the seven survived. One was sufficated and actually pecked to death by the other birds, the other died from unknown causes. Nest material contained moss, dried grass clippings, milkweed silk and hair from "Taz" our sheltie.

Snowstorm fir

Couple of blue jays enjoying a winter storm in the protection of a balsam fir.

Speckled Alder Flower

The long hanging flowers are the male catkins of the Speckled Alder or Gray alder, Alnus incana. The short green ones are the female flower. A few subtle difference between the two are that the grey alder has a shallower root system as well as large amount of suckering that takes place from the stump as well as from the root system. The bark is of course much more speckled versus the more grayish bark on the gray alder

Wonderful wildlife plant in our northern forest, alder runs are a great area when hunting the woodcock or the ruffed grouse. They grow mostly in wet, damp growth areas and are certainly one of the pioneer small trees in the forest.

Forest Mystery

While walking in our woodlot, my wife and I came upon this cluster of hatched eggs at the base of a very old, dead, white cedar tree. Naturally, seeing all of the cracked open eggs certainly caught our attention. After we studied the area for some time and took into account some of the existing clues, like a remaining feather or two, we concluded that all the eggs appeared to have been opened in such a manner that one could see they were not opened by any type of predator. We came to the conclusion that this was the remains of a ruffed grouse (partridge) nest. One could see that the mother hen really did her work and investigation to make for a pretty secluded spot to have her chicks.

Black Bear

 

Here are three photos of a sow bear and her two cubs I was able to capture on our game camera.