Kayaking the Connecticut River and Mink Brook June 5 2022

The Connecticut River above the Wilder Dam is a great place to see wildlife while kayaking. I was a beautiful June morning as I put in at the Wilder boat landing with a plan to head up river to Mink Brook.

It turned out that I did not have to go far for my first wildlife encounter. It turned out there was a family of Mallard ducks right near the boat landing.

I eventually move on and headed up river towards Mink Brook. I encountered a few other Mallard ducks sunning on a log.

I finally made it into Mink Brook. I usually see lots of Mallards in the area, I was surprised to see a female Wood Duck. She did have some chicks with her, but they stayed hidden in all of the branches and brush near the shore.

On my way back to the boat landing I encountered the same family of ducks that I photographed when starting the trip.

Valley of Fire Photography Tour: The White Domes Trail Hike

For our hiking part of the tour we went to White Domes Trail. The americansouthwest.com site tells us it’s a 1.1 mile hike and is, “probably the most popular hike in Valley of Fire State Park since it is easy, a loop rather than one-way, and passes a good variety of scenery including many colorful rock formations of Aztec sandstone, and a short though pretty section of slot canyon”

The Alltrails website has a great page about the trail and hike. They say it’s, “Generally considered an easy route, it takes an average of 30 min to complete.”

The trailhead was not far from the parking lot.

We were all excited about the hike.

I was looking forward to seeing some amazing rock formations and colors.

The trail took us through a narrow canyon.

I even saw some wildlife. 🙂

I was excited to see an arch formation.

Of course, I had to climb up for a closer look and photograph.

I made a point to take some photo series that I could combine into a larger panorama using Adobe Lightroom.

I really liked this last colorful rock formation just before we got back to the parking lot.

It was an easy hike and well worth the time.

Valley of Fire Photography Tour: Hummingbirds at the Visitor’s Center

I did not expect to take many photos at the visitors center, but grabbed my camera anyway. The landscaping around the visitor’s center was fantastic. The garden area in front had numerous flowering cactus. Before long I noticed some hummingbirds flying around the cactus.

I discovered this is a male Black-chinned Hummingbird. The Cornell Lab’s All About Birds website has some fantastic info about these bird. For example:

“A small green-backed hummingbird of the West, with no brilliant colors on its throat except a thin strip of iridescent purple bordering the black chin, only visible when light hits it just right. Black-chinned Hummingbirds are exceptionally widespread, found from deserts to mountain forests”

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Black-chinned_Hummingbird/overview

The site also tells us:

• This is one of the most adaptable of all hummingbirds, often found in urban areas and recently disturbed habitat as well as pristine natural areas.
• A Black-chinned Hummingbird’s eggs are about the size of a coffee bean. The nest, made of plant down and spider and insect silk, expands as the babies grow.
• The Black-chinned Hummingbird’s tongue has two grooves; nectar moves through these via capillary action, and then the bird retracts the tongue and squeezes the nectar into the mouth. It extends the tongue through the nearly closed bill at a rate of about 13–17 licks per second, and consumes an average of 0.61 milliliters (about one-fiftieth of a fluid ounce) in a single meal. In cold weather, may eat three times its body weight in nectar in one day. They can survive without nectar when insects are plentiful.

Hummingbirds are a challenge to photograph so I really got into the task. I also enjoyed watching a bird that I don’t see on the east coast of the US.