Each year a fox has had her kits near, in or around the dunes, not far from the parking area. Years ago, I saw them one morning and had no luck with shots so I vowed to myself to look each Spring, in hopes of better luck… Well, this week I scored! I had gone several times and saw where they were but never had the right light. But I so enjoyed watching them playing, jumping, pouncing and rolling around - all while Mom looked on from a little higher up in the dunes. I asked Lorraine if she would like to go see them just before sunset because I knew the light would be perfect and if they were out we would be in for a treat - she said yes and there they were!

This post will take you through one glorious morning at the Sandhill Crane nest in Ashfield! Our schedule limited me to only one morning during the current nesting season… and what a morning it was! Last Friday I set the alarm for 4:20 in order to get to Ashfield to be in position before sunrise. Conditions were forecasted to be perfect and they were - 26 degrees, zero wind and no bugs! As I walked through the woods to get to my position I felt the cold air emanating from the ground and all around me was absolute silence.

I went out two mornings in a row last week and had the most extraordinary early morning displays of Cape light - truly left me breathless!! I kept thinking that things seemed to me to be lining up for a chance of very special light as a huge Nor’easter was brewing… these two mornings were more than I could have hoped for! Let’s start with the first morning at Herring Cove. Just as I set up my camera and tripod in the parking lot a spectacular shooting star appeared right above me and fizzled out over the water -

You are in for a treat if you would like to look at a very rare and pre-historic bird! Let me introduce you to the incredible Takahe! This bird was thought to be extinct by the late 1800’s…. but was miraculously found by an intrepid explorer/birder sometime in the mid-1950’s. He had searched and searched and found a very small group of them on the South Island in one of its many undiscovered valleys. One very small group of these birds was re-located to the Hawke’s Bay Area on the North Island.

This post is a long one because what you are going to see is truly remarkable and precious. Please enjoy when you have time to sit back and relax - I have tried my best to make this worth the extra time looking through this post.

Before we left for NZ I had read about the tiny New Zealand Dotterels. They are in the plover family and approximately the same size as our Piping Plovers.

Today’s post is a break from New Zealand - still working on those for you! Yesterday afternoon I was at Wellfleet Harbor and I had a blast watching 3 red breasted mergansers diving! This type of merganser is about 20 inches in length and has a slim long body for diving and they have a serrated bill.

I am picking up right where we left off from the last post… right after I took that last shot of the young chick flapping his or her wings! I looked to my left and could see just beyond some bushes that the sun was just kissing the top of a huge rock and that some gannets were in that spotlight!

A little bit about gannets… first of all these are Australian gannets - very similar in appearance to the ones I have seen through binoculars way out in the sea diving for fish from the shores of Cape Cod. Gannets spend about 80% of their lives out on the open sea living solitary lives. Just thinking about that totally amazes me…

On this particular morning I heard this very clear, strong call - I kept thinking … am I hearing a pheasant?? Lorraine and I have seen and heard some pheasants in Ashfield but I am no expert on pheasant calls… but I kept thinking it sounded like something in that family of birds. The lighting was just so spectacular and that call was so constant and loud that I picked up all of my gear and slowly made my way towards the sound of the call…

We’re back!!! It feels like forever since I have shared with all of you! My Get up and Go is still in New Zealand but I am finally starting to adjust to our time zone - jet lag is real! :). We had an experience of a lifetime in New Zealand - we absolutely loved our time there…

WOW!!! What a way to greet 2024 - incredible morning!! I parked at the Conway Grammar School and walked up Roaring Brook Road. My first goal was to get a landscape of the Boyden Farm at dawn…. As soon as I set up I heard a Great Horned Owl hooting! And then another, and then another!! Three distinct owls kept hooting to each other for the next 25 minutes! I never saw any of them…

It was very quiet but as always it was beautiful. I quit early so that I could drive home to see if Lorraine wanted to take a ride and explore - she was game!. We drove through Old Deerfield and then on through East Deerfield. When we were on River Road all of a sudden we saw three absolutely adorable alpacas at a farm!!

The last couple of mornings the silence has been deafening for long stretches of time…. No wind, not a peep, not a hoot - just amazing stillness. I did have an amazing barred owl fly right in front of me yesterday morning on the hunt! It all happened so quickly from left to right that I never had a chance to get a shot off - incredible bird!

And then I heard a twig snap close to me to my slight front and left…. and this dazzling coyote was waking up from a little nap right there!

I kept thinking about where to go today after our torrential rains yesterday - lots of flooding everywhere so I knew most of my spots would not be possible today. I decided to park on the north end of Main St. in Old Deerfield and walked towards the North Meadows ponds to wait and see who might come floating down the flooded waters. Wow was it ever flooded!

Spoleto is a medieval hilltop town - we stayed up at the top in one of the oldest parts of the town. I started each morning by walking the ring road in order to see the village and valley below light up - absolutely stunning! I think the ring road is the one flat road in all of Spoleto when you are in the area we stayed in - lol. When not on that road you are either walking up or down - it is very much a hilltop town! This first shot is from the winding road I would take each morning as I would head out.

I woke up extra early and left the High Head parking area at 4:30am - I barely needed my head lamp. It was a beautiful mid-40 degree morning with just about no wind. I came up over the dune that leads to the beach and it was just stunning… the moon was behind me over my left shoulder and the sky was absolutely filled with brilliant sparkling stars!

Once again it was worth the wind and cold to head out! This morning I went out again on the Hatches Harbor Fire Road - low tide was just about at sunrise. Once the sun came up over the horizon it was cold, glorious, strong low light everywhere that I looked!

Wow! Late Saturday afternoon I bundled up - what is with this very cold weather so early in the season?? Anyway - I bundled up to head over to try and capture the full Beaver Moon rising by the Harbor Life Saving Station at Race Point Beach. I figured that everything was lining up for it to rise right near where I have dreamed of getting a shot as the sun sets behind me…

Recently we were in Spoleto, Italy for a much delayed planned trip - we had re-scheduled 3 times due to Covid. We had an absolutely wonderful time and at a later date I will share more photos once I have had time to organize them all. This photo is from an amazing day we had exploring the Castelluccio area of Umbria - absolutely stunning!