Marching into Spring with the Super Moon!

Hey everyone!  I am so thrilled to be able to say that I have a new camera!  It feels so good to have a decent camera glued to my neck again! 

I went to the city forest for the first time with my camera (and dog) today to see what I could find to photograph.  On the walk in I saw LOTS of woodpeckers in one tree!  On the walk out (these walks are on the road walking to the city forest) I saw and heard lots of Redwing Black Birds and Lots of Robins were out and about worming.  According to my photos, there were a few Starlings out as well. I saw a woodpecker, but again no one really wanted to cooperate with a photo op today.  I got photos of a sparrow in a tree at Walmart.  As usual, my dog got photographed a lot.  Can't help it!  She's so pretty right now with her fluffy coat!

Even though none of my bird pictures were really worth posting, I am posting some only because these are my first few pictures with my new camera.

The best photographs taken today were of the Super Moon!  I got a late start of it, but I did get to it (having to walk all the way down to the waterfront- it was a long day so it felt like a long journey) I got in a clear area and was able to get some amazing moon photos!

With out further fuss, here is what I have from today's venture:

Here are some photos of one of the woodpeckers.  As you can see, I couldn't really get a good angle and the bird didn't want to cooperate with the photo shoot at meal time.

We were excited that the snow had melted enough for us to walk through the field and down the hill to the city forest instead of walking all the way down to the parking lot.

This is Rosie's swimming hole (when it is warm enough).  There is still about 90% ice on the pond so swimming isn't even possible yet even if she were a polar bear.  I was shocked (and kind of pleased) to see that the pond washed out the road in that spot.  The pond has been overflowing there for quite a while and everyone was blaming it on those "damn" beavers (ruining our road through their home!)  Well, the cause was nature, but it "weren't no beaver"! 

I took Rosie's picture by this sign because we love this trail.  Last summer this was the trail we usually started on.  It is on the right just after you enter the woods by the stone wall onto the West trail.  The trail is off the beaten (or groomed) path, but there are no leash restrictions in place for any of the natural trails.

Rosie really thought she was going to play with this tree... I mean stick.




I took a picture of her clean fluffy coat expecting it to be all muddy and dirty by day's end.  It actually didn't get too bad at all.



"Go find the bench!"  West Trail, this stone bench was made last year.  It is the only one I've seen out here that has a carved out seat. Very nice!.

The Red-wing Blackbird didn't want to cooperate for a photo either.  He was too busy singing to pose for me.

The Robins didn't mind a few photos while they digged for worms and other tasty tidbits in the wet soil.

There was a tree full of Starlings

...and finally, the SUPER MOON!  The moon was at its closest point to the earth this evening.  At sunset we were to look at the horizon to the east for the oversized moon to rise.  It was pretty dark when I finally got to a place to take a photo of it, but these pictures really turned out super.

Great day, I just wish we had more time to walk in the woods, but I have been so exhausted lately I just couldn't leave early like we did last summer.  Bumped into a friend at the Walmart bus stop so this evening I was treated to Authentic Indian food!  He cooked it!  He gave me a bag to go with beans, peas and rice and pita bread (more like American flour tortillas but a tad thicker).  I don't know if he was being nice, but it really wasn't as spicey as I expected it might.

And this little swallow was in one of the small pines that were planted next to Walmart.  Looks like the same one that screamed at us from the Lupine around the corner where we cut across to get to Kitteridge road.

Spring 2010

 Rowena and I enjoyed many day long walks in the City Forest. New leash ordinances kept us on the rougher trails, but that wasn't a bad thing. We very rarely saw another dog (maybe 2 on the rough trails all summer) and rarely any people either. There was the occasional mountain biker. What we found was plentiful star flowers, blue bead lilies, bunch berries, lady's slippers and trillium to fill the whole forest. There were some flowers that were fairly new to my brain this year too. The raven family has grown into a shiney flock. My season ended with two ravens playing in the sky.


Bittersweet was the ending of our summer of forest walks. In July Rowena and I went to Saxl park for some photos and fun and Rosie was attacked quite viciously by another dog. This did scar her (emotionally) as it was just added to a couple of other dog charges and attacks from the year. It scarred me as well and made me a tad agoraphobic. We increase our activity and we get out there, we make ourselves vulnerable to things like that. After July our trips to the forest got less frequent and I feel like we were robbed of more photos of all the changes going on in the woods. By the time we returned, many things were going by and the woods was going silent of birds. The two ravens playing was the last I saw or heard of the ravens that year.

Here is a collection of some of the photos we took with the Canon this past season. I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed taking these pictures.

May Flowers in bloom



Star Flowers  in bloom






Blue Bead Lily in bloom

Sheep's Laurel or Lamb Kill in bloom (one of my favorites)

Unknown flowers on a bush.

Indian Pipes- are actually not a fungus or mushroom like I always thought.  It is a flower! (The Heath  Family)

Fringed Polygala

Wild Columbine

Low Bush blueberries



High Bush blueberries





Painted Trillium

Touch-me-Nots

Pink Lady's slippers

Pearly Everlasting



Pink Strawberry blossom



Lady's Slipper with Bunch Berry blossoms

Leatherleaf?

Thistle with Bee



Pink Wild Lupine

Raven

Grieving the Theft of My Camera



This photo was taken with my Canon at Saxl Park.  The camera really brought the colors out in an already brilliant sunset.

It has been a year of ups and downs and I have done a horrible job at journaling that for you here.  Enjoy these photos and I will organize some from this  past year to show you what my Canon Powershot SX20IS allows me to do.  This camera has been close to my heart both literally and figuratively and to have it gone has really just left me broken hearted.  I am totally distraught and don't  know what to do.  If my friends could donate just a dollar or even five-dollars I might be able to collect enough to replace my camera.  The memory card inside the stolen camera will be a loss I will have to live with and hope I had emptied most of the photos already.

This past summer we went on a number of walks in the City Forest.  We enjoyed a spring full of rebirth.



This is the hill we climb to leave the City forest.  This was the prime of the summer with the grass aglow with buttercups and other flowers, with a touch of blue colored grass mixed  in.

Mama squirrel comes out after a storm to see what she can find to eat.  She must have a full nest by the look of her teats.

 

I had fun with assorted photo ops... this one with Rosie in her Ruff Wear pack and sneakers down by the riverfront early fall.

"Sneeze Weed" down by the riverfront.

A recent snowstorm.  I put my pocket camera to work during a blizzard to keep the lens on my Canon condensation free. This was quite the Blizzard with (as you can see) White out conditions.

Vandalism at the Orono Bog Boardwalk in the City Forest- Bangor Daily News Article

Photographs NOT by me:   

See below for credits...  Click on the title above to be forwarded to The Bangor Daily News site and article.

BANGOR DAILY NEWS PHOTO BY JOHN CLARKE RUSS Orono Bog Boardwalk director Jim Bird, right, conferred with volunteer Jerry Ledwith, center, of Bangor and boardwalk maintenance supervisor Phil Locke, left, of Bangor as they retrieved a broken bench that was removed and thrown from its footing near the north end of the boardwalk. They learned Monday morning that various sections the boardwalk were vandalized sometime after it closed for the evening Sunday. Buy Photo:

http://www.bangordailynews.com/story/Greater-Bangor/Vandalism-closes-Orono-Bog-Boardwalk,153084

9/6/10 11:23 am Updated: 9/7/10 01:36 pm

By Nok-Noi Ricker, BDN Staff

ORONO, Maine — A group of criminals raised havoc at the Orono Bog Boardwalk on Sunday night, causing so much damage that the mile-long boardwalk was forced to close. director Jim Bird said Monday morning.   “It’s a real mess,” he said. “We have to close today and maybe tomorrow.”  The damage was discovered just after 7 a.m. by Wendall Trembley, who was opening the boardwalk for the day. Bird estimated it will cost “hundreds, maybe thousands” to repair.  “They basically ripped off 20-25 benches,” which are placed every 200 feet along the boardwalk", he said. “They smashed about 20 deck boards with their boots.” They also broke into the cabin, ripping the door off its hinges and stealing at least one item from inside, damaged railings and destroyed nearly half of the interpretive signs.  “They ripped off six and threw them into the bog,” Bird said.  To get to the boardwalk, the group also broke the lock on the gate. 

 The bog walk allows visitors to walk or use wheelchairs to make their way through a northern peat bog. It is located in the Bangor City Forest and on adjacent University of Maine property and last year had more than 30,000 visitors. Visitors on Labor Day were stopped at the broken gate. “We’ve had to turn away about 25 people so far since 8 a.m.,” Bird said around 10 a.m. Monday.  Two of those turned away on Monday were Bangor resident Amanda Turcotte who brought along Matthew Parks of Milford, who had never seen the boardwalk. “There is no other ecological system like a bog,” she said. “It’s beautiful here.”  The two were saddened to hear about the vandalism. “I’ve heard quite a bit about the place,” Parks said.“There are few places like this that are relatively untouched.  It’s frustrating  that someone would damage it," he said.

Bangor police were called to the scene and are investigating the crime, he said.

Those with information about the investigation may call the Bangor Police Department at 947-7385. The department’s anonymous tip line may be reached by pressing extension 6.

2010 Update

Brewer, Maine from the Bangor Waterfront

Well, last week my external disk drive died.  I am really  hoping that it is something that can be fixed.  My husband heard that it might be very expensive, but I think getting back over half a computer's worth of photos from the past year it is worth it.  Fortunately I still had some photos on some of my memory cards.  I need to reprocess them and burn them to disk before something happens to the memory cards.  There are so many photos that may be lost forever it really saddens me.

This deer was a real thrill... He looks like an awkward teenager who hasn't quite grown into his body.

In April, Rosie and I began taking the bus way out on Stillwater where we would walk the mile and a half to the beginning of the City Forest in Bangor.  Then we'd walk out and take the bus back into town.  When we go, we leave late in the morning or very early in the afternoon and hike around (and I take photos along the way)  for a few hours or so.  Many times we would get out in time to take one of the last three busses back to town, the latest one at 6:15 pm I believe?  We did this on a regular basis.  It did seem like the more we walked around town, even that far out, the more dogs would charge us.  Rosie and I started to startle quite easily and I began to bring my pepper spray along in a quicker to access area on my body.  After one attack at Saxl Park (the dog actually had contact) we stopped going to the woods on a regular basis.  My dog who is also my service dog was so traumatized that she will no longer alert in an appropriate way.  I realized that I really can't protect either one of us. 

Bobolink in Saxl Park

Anyway, we would head into the forest and begin on the West trail.  Upon entering the woods I could hear one Robin who had his own way of arranging his music, and it was getting easy to recognise from the Robins downtown. 

My little trail runner giving me a speedy recall

This past spring and summer brought about some beautiful flowers, but the rain was sparse and rare so that everything (including grass) dried out and died early in the season.  Actually I have never seen it this dry before.  There are regular vernal pools that have at least a little water left where as right now there is not even mud in the water holes.  My dog will go to where the water is supposed to be and I can see she is frustrated.  She likes to lay down to cool off in the water (or muck depending on the water hole), and also enjoys a small game of fetch as well.  Some people started off really well, got to start haying early, some twice.  I am unsure how the lack of rain affected the haying season later on.  I would guess not much happened as summer progressed in a hot and dry manner.

Very large and handsome Grackle.

Along with hiking solo with my dog I have been trying to prepare to move cross country to live in Oregon.  When I do relocate I suppose I will have to change some of the information on the page of my blog.  My husband has been living in Oakridge since November.  Don't even get me started with that one.

Rosie and I spent one hot day walking up Kenduskeag Stream.  She enjoys "cliff" diving for her water Wubba.

This year brought about some nice photographs, both of my dog and of nature or whatever tickled my fancy.  All though I hate to leave Maine because it is my birthplace and my family is here, I look forward to finally joining my husband again.  I am also looking forward to checking out the wildlife on the other coastline.

Sunset in the City Forest

Sparrow on Lupine seed pods.  Not ready to harvest yet!

Update:  In Winter (January) of 2012, my husband finally came back to the East coast, and home to Bangor, Maine.  Things in Oregon didn't pan out.  Though I am extremely happy he is home with me again, I know that his 2 years there was extremely difficult on him.  I hope he can find some peace here again and that we can get back into the swing of things again with out the anxiety of a major move on our minds all the time.  I am so happy I am able to stay here in Maine where I truly belong... with my family near, things familiar, and everything I love around me.  I would cry when I was out watching a sunset or something as it was going to be one of a few more I would experience from that spot.  I never wanted to go.  I was only going to go for my husband.