Kayaking at Sagamore Creek in Rye, NH on August 14, 2022

Back in July 2022 I took at kayak tour with Seven Rivers Paddling of Rye, NH. I took the Sagamore Creek tour. It was an excellent tour and I learned a lot about the area. I also found that I could launch my kayak at the marina for only $10. So I was finally able to get back to Sagamore Creek with my kayak.

Soon after launching at the marina I watched a Great Blue Heron fly into a pine tree on the other side of the creek. I paddled over to check it out.

I headed up the creek and encountered Lobster Boats, Cormorants and Canada Geese.

After passing the moored boats and docks along the shore I noticed a Heron flying by and heading around a small rocky point. This was good since I could stay hidden behind the rocks while paddling over for a photograph.

I could not believe my luck when another Heron flew over to join the first one that I was watching.

I continued on up the creek looking for more birds and wildlife. Sure enough, there were several Heron hanging out in the grass and fishing on the mud flats.

After a while I paddled back down Sagamore Creek and headed towards Newcastle and Portsmouth. I could see the Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth and Kittery on the Piscataqua River.

I could also see the Portsmouth Naval Prison. Wikipedia tells us that it’s a “former U.S. Navy and Marine Corps prison on the grounds of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard (PNS) in Kittery, Maine. The building has the appearance of a castle. The reinforced concrete naval prison was occupied from 1908 until 1974.”

Next I paddled over to Leaches Island where I knew (from a previous kayak tour with Seven Rivers Paddling) there was a Bald Eagle nest way up in one of the pine trees. My luck was good and I was able to find the nest and see an eagle in it.

A little way to the right of the nest was an adult Bald Eagle! As I was taking photos a tour group from Seven Rivers Paddling came by to look at the eagle. I ended up going back to the marina with the group so that I could join then when they crossed the boat channels.

I’m looking forward to going back next summer!

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.

Colorado River Kayak Trip May 11, 2022

On Wednesday May 11th I went on a kayak tour on the Colorado River in the section below Hoover Dam. I booked at tour with Blazin Paddles Kayak Tours. They picked me up from my hotel on the strip, so I did not not have to worry about driving. We started at Willow Beach on the Arizona side of the river. It had been windy in the Vegas area at time during the week. Wednesday was no exception. The wind was supposed to pick up during the afternoon and hopefully we would be off of the water by then.

It turns out that Willow Beach has a rich history and had been visited by people for thousands of years.

I brought my GoPro Hero 9 to record some video footage of the trip. It turned out that Emerald Cave was a lot smaller than I imagined. But it was still a great trip. It was a treat to kayak in a totally different landscape than I am used to in New England.

On the way back we stopped at an historical site called the River Gauge House Site. We pulled up on the landing area and some mallard ducks swam over for a visit.

The house site was part of the Willow Beach Gauging Station. The house site was just down river from the Gauging Station, which was used to measure the flow and level of the river below Hoover Dam.

This is the view down river from the house site.

This is the view upriver from the house looking towards Emerald Cave.

When we returned to Willow Beach a Mallard duck followed us in and swam real close to us. They don’t fear humans like the ducks that I usually encounter in New England.

Next we headed over to the Willow Beach Marina to wait for the shuttle bus and visit the store. I was able to take a few photos of the marina.

Inside of the store their were stuffed & mounted stripped bass had had been caught in the Colorado River around Willow Beach in the past.

Since I enjoy fishing I just had to check out the fishing info poster at the marina. The big shock was that marshmallows and cheese are the recommended bait for Rainbow Trout.

The recent news stories about the low water levels in Lake Mead make me nervous. What will be the impact for this part of the Colorado River if the water in Lake Mead gets so low that they reduce the amount of water they let through Hoover Dam.

Kayaking the Connecticut River: Wilson Landing to Grant Brook

On Sunday, September 6th I went on the longest kayak trip I had been on in years. I paddled a little over five and a half miles up river and back for a total of a little over eleven miles. I started at Wilson Landing in Hanover, NH and want to the mouth of Grant Brook in Lyme, NH.

I left about mid-day, which is not the best time to see wildlife on the river, but I brought my camera anyway. As I approached the large island north of the Ompompanoosuc River I spotted a huge flock of Canada Geese. A large group of them swam over to the mouth of a small brook on the New Hampshire side.

I paddled over next to the shore and slowly approached the mouth of the brook so the geese would not see me so quickly.

Eventually I slowly drifted out into the mouth of the brook so I could photograph more of the birds.

I continued up river to the mouth of Hewes Brook and was able to find the river landing from the river. The landing is an extreamly primitive kayak and canoe boat landing off of River Road in Lyme.

Beyond Hewes Brook is the Wilder Management Area, which is a tract of conservation land in Lyme, NH. The river part of the “land” is made up of river back-ins, coves and grass island. I did see three Mallard ducks while paddling around.

On the way back to Wilson Landing I went in and around the grass islands across from the Ompompanoosuc River. I was lucky enough to catch a bunch of Mallard ducks sunning on one of the logs in the river.

I was able to get a couple photos before a boat went by and scared them all off.

Connecticut River Duck Tour # 2: Wilson Landing to the Ompompanoosuc River

Another favorite Upper Valley kayak trip is from Wilson Landing in Hanover, NH to the Ompompanoosuc River on the Vermont side.

It’s up river of Hanover and is close to the mouth of the Ompompanoosuc River in Thetford, VT, which is a great place for wildlife encounters.

Before going into the Ompompanoosuc it always good to paddle around the grass islands that are across from the mouth of the river on the New Hampshire side. It’s a great habitat for ducks and birds.

As you can see, the ducks can easily hide their family in the grass “islands” if there is a threat yet still come out to swim, feed and hang out on one of several logs poking above the water near the islands.

After a couple circles around the islands to see what else was around, I headed over to the Ompompanoosuc River. As I got to the large part of the river mouth near the Interstate 91 bridge I could see an enormous flock of Canada Geese. It’s not unusual to see geese raising their families here, but this seemed like a larger flock than I usually see.

I was amazed that they let me drift among them and take photos as they swam about and ate.

I have a 300mm lens and make efforts to drift slowing and quietly while taking photos.

Some of the birds came really close to the kayak.

This is one of my favorite Upper Valley kayaking trips!

 

 

Connecticut River Duck Tour #1: Wilder, VT to Hanover, NH

A fantastic kayak trip in the Upper Valley region of Vermont and New Hampshire is on the Connecticut River between the boat landing in Wilder, VT and Mink Brook in Hanover.

I paddled around the islands just below Mink Brook since it is usually a good place to see ducks. Sure enough I spotted a large group of more than a dozen ducks. They were a bit skittish at first and hid in the brush when I first paddled by. I decided to paddle around the island once more while paddling and drifting at an extreamly slow rate. Well, it paid off and I spotted the whole group in a small cove.

Due to the green coloring on the head, I’m pretty sure theses are Mallard Ducks. I visited the Website All About Birds to confirm my identification. The Mallard ID page says, “Male Mallards have a dark, iridescent-green head and bright yellow bill.” and that “Females and juveniles are mottled brown with orange-and-brown bills.”

It looks like many of these birds are juveniles since I can see the green head feathers growing in on some of them.

The All About Bids Website also describes adult mails as having a gray body “sandwiched between a brown breast and black rear.” I can see the middle bird in the photo above is part way through the color change with most of the green head feathers grown in and the body feathers changing from mottled brown to gray.

I paddled into Mink Brook to look for more ducks. Sure enough, there were a few families in there but most were skittish and kept there distance from me. There were a few that stayed calm as a drifted around in the coves.

I was able to get a pretty good water reflection shot of the duck in the photo above.

 

Kayaking at Grafton Pond June 13, 2020

On June 13th our meetup.com group went on a sunrise kayak trip to Grafton Pond in Grafton, NH. The plan was to be on the water about 4:45am.

It wasn’t too long after we left the boat landing before we saw the first loon. It put on quite a show for us with some wing flapping and diving.

It was a little chilly out so it felt really good once the sun came up and warmed us up a bit.

As usual, most of the the loons on the pond formed up in a small group for some fishing.
Towards the end of the trip I was waiting for the rest of the group near a small island. I was able to drift my kayak pretty close to what I think is an Eastern Phoebe.

I’m definitely planning to go back for another early morning kayak trip this summer.

 

Kayak Trip to McDaniels Marsh

In late May I went on my first kayak trip to McDaniels Marsh in Enfield, NH. I heard it is a wonderful place to see birds and other wildlife so I made sure to bring my camera.

It was one of those mornings with abundant sunshine, no wind and calm waters.

At one point I broke off from the group to get photos of a Canada Goose. I soon found myself unable to paddle a direct course back to the group due to shallow spots and thick vegetation. I had to raise the rudder and find the deeper channels to work my way back to the group.

At the far end of the marsh I noticed one in the thick grass and the other “patrolling” close by. They both kept an eye on me as I drifted by snapping photos.

The marsh is also home to numerous Red Winged Blackbirds. It was easy to hear their distinctive song, “conk-la-ree” above the other bird songs and sounds of the marsh.

We weren’t the only ones enjoying the sunshine. It was easy to find Painted Turtles sprawled out on a stump while soaking up the sun.

This one took the big jump from the stump.

McDaniels Marsh is now on my list of places to kayak, although I hear the vegetation gets thick later in the season. It’s probably better to kayak there during the spring and early summer.

Full Moon Paddle on Grafton Pond

On Tuesday, October 7th I went to a meetup.com full moon paddle on Grafton Pond. The weather forecast looked pretty bad before the event and I expected it to the rained out. We got lucky and it cleared up just in time.

I arrived a little before 6 p.m.  The water was like a mirror giving us a nice foliage and sky reflection.

It did not take us long to get ready.

We could hear some loons calling as we headed out across the pond.

We eventually did see the loons swimming in the distance but it was getting dark pretty fast.

The foliage on these couple trees were looking real good.

It soon got too dark for good photos. A couple more people arrived late so we circled back to the boat landing before going out to one of the islands. The clouds in the east were clearing so we could see full moon peaking out as we paddled around the islands. By the time we gt back to the boat landing it had risen above the clouds giving us a nice view. This trip was a great way to end the kayaking season in New Hampshire.

Kayaking on Mascoma Lake

Sunday, September 28th was another great Autumn day for a kayak trip. Mascoma Lake is a short drive from my place in Lebanon, which made it a good choice for an afternoon paddle.

Although the foliage was near the peak of color, it felt like summer again. Needless to say, there was lots of boat traffic on the lake. To avoid the traffic I headed to the mouth of the Mascoma River.

It seems the ducks had the same ideas as I did about finding a quiet corner of the lake to relax in the sun.

Several were feeding nearby as I drifted around on my kayak.

After a while I paddled under Shaker Bridge to the “small” section of the lake. I got to watch a young couple playing with their dog on the shore.

That dog was a great jumper and swimmer!

I paddled back over to the boat landing and sailboats hoping some people were going for an afternoon sail.

I was in luck and was able to watch one boat leaving the landing area.

A sailboats gliding across the water is really nice to watch with the foliage in the background.It was another great afternoon of paddling on the water.